Techs who think they're pharmacists

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crossurfingers

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I've been floating around and have encountered one or two and I pretty much hate working with them. They are very experienced techs, don't get me wrong- compared to them I know very little in regards to insurance issues. What is really irritating to me is that they will object to or second guess some of my OTC recommendations (even in front of patients), the consultation notes that I put on certain prescriptions and also the prescriptions that I route back to them to fix. I've also been warned by one of the other pharmacists there to watch out in particular for one of them because she "thinks she's a pharmacist and likes to counsel patients." I thought this might be because they know that I'm a new grad and because they've been working longer than I have, but I've worked with other older and more experienced people who I've had no problem with whatsoever.

And another thing, they are so high strung there! Of course we deal with issues regarding insurances and prior authorizations daily, but this is the only store that I've been at where the techs regularly swear up a storm just because of it. I can also recall a time where we were given advance notice about a parade going on the next day and streets being closed. The police were supposedly instructed to let employees through, but turns out that wasn't consistent. So of course I left my place earlier in order to assure I would get parking and not be late. The tech I was working with comes in 15 minutes late and bitches out one of our store managers for telling her she was supposed to be able to get in but instead could only find parking 2 blocks away and had to walk up a huge hill just to get here. That store manager she was yelling at wasn't even the one who told her that!

I guess this is mostly a venting post. :laugh: Has anyone else ever dealt with something similar to this?
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We've had a tech (who worked for all of 2 weeks) who thought he was a pharmacist and told pts that the pharmacist was recommending the wrong OTC creams and that there was only 1 type of fungal infections because he read it in a book. He didn't last too long.
 
I've worked with several techs who had been techs for 7+ years and they had gotten so use to what the pharmacist recommended for OTC products- it almost seemed like they were pharmacists!
 
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What about pharmacists who think they're technicians?

:eek: (dodges tomatoes)
 
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What about pharmacists who want to play doctor?

Now you know what it feels like.
 
MacGyver said:
What about pharmacists who want to play doctor?

Now you know what it feels like.
Click to expand...



Correction: Pharmacists are doctors, as they do have the Doctor of Pharmacy just as PHYSICIANS have the Doctor of Medicine degree. You would be more correct in asking "What about pharmacists who want to play PHYSICIANS?" Any Pharm.D. graduate is a doctor, but none of them are physicians.
 
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DoctorRx1986 said:
Any Pharm.D. graduate is a doctor, but none of them are physicians.
Click to expand...
What if they have a PharmD and an MD? ;)

I've been reading about medical examiners lately. In some rural areas, medical examiners have to be lawyers too. If that ever happened to me, I'd be PharmD/MD/JD. It sounds so weird!
 
Also, what about doctors who want to play pharmacist?

Now you know what it feels like MacGyver. Clinic dispensing is dangerous, in my opinion.
 
PharmDstudent said:
What if they have a PharmD and an MD? ;)

I've been reading about medical examiners lately. In some rural areas, medical examiners have to be lawyers too. If that ever happened to me, I'd be PharmD/MD/JD. It sounds so weird!
Click to expand...


A Pharm.D. and MD= a double doctor! :laugh:
 
DoctorRx1986 said:
A Pharm.D. and MD= a double doctor! :laugh:
Click to expand...
:D

Back O/T: techs who second guess or undermine pharmacists in front of customers are nothing new. They get easier to deal with when you get more experience. In one of my jobs, I work with two extremely uppity techs who argue with me about everything, and I'm always having to push back. For instance, they insist that if a narcotic doesn't come in the strength the dr ordered, the dr has to re-write the script instead of me just doing the math. I don't know what American laws are, but where I practice, I'm allowed to do this; e.g., dr orders codeine syrup 5mg/5mL give two tsp q4-6h prn. We have codeine syrup 5mg/mL, so I divide everything by five in the directions and in the amount dispensed and explain it to the pt's father, giving him an oral syringe to measure with.

So every time we get a script like this, the techs whine and whine, saying it's not allowed, and I have to be a bit of a bully, insisting that I sign for it so it's my call.

Sometimes I've had to be a bit of a b*tch, but we're the ones who are responsible if something goes wrong. And at the end of the day, I'd rather be respected than liked.
 
Pharmavixen said:
:D
Sometimes I've had to be a bit of a b*tch, but we're the ones who are responsible if something goes wrong. And at the end of the day, I'd rather be respected than liked.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's your license, not theirs. I think maybe I've run into one tech in my entire career who tried to run the show. She got an ugly dose of reality PDQ.

Techs who think they're pharmacists get that way because some p*ssy RPh let them to begin with.

Most techs are awesome and in retail, you really can't function well without them. To be fair, most techs know (and respect) that the RPh has the final word on everything.
 
I worked with a tech (15+ experience)..she acted like she owned the pharmacy. She was good at dealing with insurance and handling some customer.. . still I think she is hurting the store more than helping, since she creates negative tension in the work place by transpassing her borders.
I think technicians and pharmacists has to know there roles and respect their boundaries...otherwise work atmosphere becomes poisonous.

By the way, one day I gave her a piece of my mind and quit the place.
 
heavy typo errors....I am sleepy :oops:
 
We actually had at tech that tried to counsel a patient rather than calling the pharmacist. The tech proceeded to get bitchy when the pharmacist stepped in to stop what was going on. The tech got fired on the spot, primarily because the pharmacist that day was the pharmacy manager. :laugh:

I figure techs are extremely helpful when they know their role, but if they over step, I'd be more than happy to send one home even if I have to bust my ass for the rest of the night.
 
do you all experience or feel the same if the interns work responsibly!
I used to work as a grad intern and counsel patients when the pharmacist was busy or when i was at the register as per the company rules (COUNSEL FOR ALL NEW SCRIPTS)! The pharmacist whom i worked with thought the same as the thread was complaining about techs!! :rolleyes:
 
Where I practice, by law the pharmacist has to counsel all new prescriptions, though an intern can if supervised.

I think (actually I'm sure) I've sold aspirin to folks picking up a warfarin script because I figured the script was for somebody else.

What they need to do is an expose of the other side of the counter: all the diabetics buying candy at the front shop after picking up their Avandia in the back, the asthmatics buying smokes, etc.
 
crossurfingers said:
I've been floating around and have encountered one or two and I pretty much hate working with them. They are very experienced techs, don't get me wrong- compared to them I know very little in regards to insurance issues. What is really irritating to me is that they will object to or second guess some of my OTC recommendations (even in front of patients), the consultation notes that I put on certain prescriptions and also the prescriptions that I route back to them to fix. I've also been warned by one of the other pharmacists there to watch out in particular for one of them because she "thinks she's a pharmacist and likes to counsel patients." I thought this might be because they know that I'm a new grad and because they've been working longer than I have, but I've worked with other older and more experienced people who I've had no problem with whatsoever.

And another thing, they are so high strung there! Of course we deal with issues regarding insurances and prior authorizations daily, but this is the only store that I've been at where the techs regularly swear up a storm just because of it. I can also recall a time where we were given advance notice about a parade going on the next day and streets being closed. The police were supposedly instructed to let employees through, but turns out that wasn't consistent. So of course I left my place earlier in order to assure I would get parking and not be late. The tech I was working with comes in 15 minutes late and bitches out one of our store managers for telling her she was supposed to be able to get in but instead could only find parking 2 blocks away and had to walk up a huge hill just to get here. That store manager she was yelling at wasn't even the one who told her that!

I guess this is mostly a venting post. :laugh: Has anyone else ever dealt with something similar to this?
Click to expand...

best way to solve that problem is to turn and point to your license on the wall. that's enough to stop all issues.
 
You think tech acting like pharmacist is bad? I've had an assistant manger trying to interfere with my clinical decision. It was a case in which I decided that OTC wouldn't do this patient any good and referred her to her PCP, but the A-hole ass. manager still insisted in showing her the OTC.
 
doctorpharm2010 said:
You think tech acting like pharmacist is bad? I've had an assistant manger trying to interfere with my clinical decision. It was a case in which I decided that OTC wouldn't do this patient any good and referred her to her PCP, but the A-hole ass. manager still insisted in showing her the OTC.
Click to expand...

I've been lucky enough to avoid having a bad front-end manager. All the ones I've had so far have kept their hands out of the pharmacy stuff as much as possible.
 
I work with a Senior Tech (her emphasis, not mine) who believes she has the right and authority to always work the in-window. Since I'm just a student (and all other pharmacy students for that matter), I should only work the drive-thru or out counter.

Well, I could be senior beeotch too, if I decided to work full-time instead of attending pharmacy school. But we are not allowed to be both a pharmacy student/intern and senior tech. So why does she think senior tech outranks pharmacy student?
 
monsterbrain said:
I work with a Senior

Well, I could be senior beeotch too, if I decided to work full-time instead of attending pharmacy school. But we are not allowed to be both a pharmacy student/intern and senior tech. So why does she think senior tech outranks pharmacy student?
Click to expand...
At one of my jobs as a student, I was bullied so severely by two nasty techs that I ended up in tears in the head pharmacist's office (it was a hospital job).

Turns out these women, one who was about twenty years older than me, and the other close to retirement, who knew how to make all sorts of things like Golytely and TPNs from scratch (including the calculations), were getting paid the same as me, a twenty year old kid who didn't know Asacol from a hole in the ground.

So I'd say keep in mind that as a pharmacy student, you're moving up in the world, and the techs are not.
 
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why do you, a pharmacy student think you out rank a senior tech? i dont like how a lot of interns think that just becasue they are in school they are so much better then techs and deserve to get the best of everything handed to them.


monsterbrain said:
I So why does she think senior tech outranks pharmacy student?
Click to expand...
 
UTPharm said:
i dont like how a lot of interns think that just becasue they are in school they are so much better then techs and deserve to get the best of everything handed to them.
Click to expand...
No one is better than anyone else. We are all different. Hopefully you can learn that philosophy and use it accordingly. It can do wonders for personal growth, development, and self-esteem.

UTPharm said:
why do you, a pharmacy student think you out rank a senior tech?
Click to expand...
Let me clear this up for you- $9,000/semester x 8 semesters of professional school + $17,500 for 4 years of undergraduate classes = $90,000 that says I, along with any other pharmacy school student that is willing to cough up the time and money to go to pharmacy school, outrank a senior tech.

If you have any other questions or need further explanation, just let me know.
 
Let me clear this up for you- $9,000/semester x 8 semesters of professional school + $17,500 for 4 years of undergraduate classes = $90,000 that says I, along with any other pharmacy school student that is willing to cough up the time and money to go to pharmacy school, outrank a senior tech.
Click to expand...
*cough* *cough* gah! I won't tell you what my tuition was in the 1980s.

Anyhow, it's not a matter of rank but of job experience, and some techs are going to have that in spades on a student or new grad.

And some of these techs might have wanted to go to college themselves, but were unable to afford it. Not that I think anybody's personal problems are an excuse to be a bully or a jerk, but as pharmacists, we can use some of our expensive education to acknowledge we are in a position of privilege, making more money than most people. I don't know what the American situation is, but in my country (Canada), techs are drastically underpaid, like around $10/hour for retail (hospital is better for techs; those with experience and union membership might get around $20/hour).

Don't get me wrong: we totally deserve what we get. But when dealing with problem personalities in the workplace, as highly educated people, we're better off taking the high road, solving things diplomatically and recognizing that our underlings might have bigger problems than dealing with the likes of them.
 
I am almost 100% positive she can do you job BETTER than you. maybe you're too slow and that's the real reason she always takes the position you want?

PharmDstudent said:
No one is better than anyone else. We are all different. Hopefully you can learn that philosophy and use it accordingly. It can do wonders for personal growth, development, and self-esteem.


Let me clear this up for you- $9,000/semester x 8 semesters of professional school + $17,500 for 4 years of undergraduate classes = $90,000 that says I, along with any other pharmacy school student that is willing to cough up the time and money to go to pharmacy school, outrank a senior tech.

If you have any other questions or need further explanation, just let me know.
Click to expand...
 
UTPharm said:
I am almost 100% positive she can do you job BETTER than you. maybe you're too slow and that's the real reason she always takes the position you want?
Click to expand...

Actually, know why a tech can't do an interns job better than an intern? Because it's illegal for them. They're bound by laws which means they cannot counsel, recommend, speak with physicians, loan meds, etc.

Who cares if they find a drug faster or type "take one tablet three times daily as needed" quicker into the computer system. That's not our role.

Why are you so defensive?
 
Gosh, this got quite nasty in a short amount of time.... It's interesting hearing all the things techs cannot do in other states because here in Iowa, we're allowed to pretty much do everything but counsel. BUT, back to the original topic...it's best just to be an intern observing and not trying to step on anyone's toes. It's just not worth the headache. Let the tech have her god complex and take comfort that you will be her boss someday... =]
 
Majic said:
Gosh, this got quite nasty in a short amount of time.... It's interesting hearing all the things techs cannot do in other states because here in Iowa, we're allowed to pretty much do everything but counsel. BUT, back to the original topic...it's best just to be an intern observing and not trying to step on anyone's toes. It's just not worth the headache. Let the tech have her god complex and take comfort that you will be her boss someday... =]
Click to expand...

So if you (as a tech I'm assuming) receive a prescription via telephone from a physician and it is transcribed incorrectly or a mistake is made, who's liable? e.g you or the pharmacist?
 
PharmDstudent said:
Let me clear this up for you- $9,000/semester x 8 semesters of professional school + $17,500 for 4 years of undergraduate classes = $90,000 that says I, along with any other pharmacy school student that is willing to cough up the time and money to go to pharmacy school, outrank a senior tech.

If you have any other questions or need further explanation, just let me know.
Click to expand...

In a slightly different field...

Would you like to see what happens to a freshly minted MD when they try to pull an attitude like this with an experienced nursing staff? It usually ends very poorly for the doctor. Yes they have the credentials to override the nurse but I've seen first hand cases where the MD was pulling something out of his ass because they were going by the book and the nurse had to show them that what they were ordering would kill the patient.

The intern/pharmacist may always outrank, but that doesn't always mean they automatically outknow.
 
imperial frog said:
In a slightly different field...

Would you like to see what happens to a freshly minted MD when they try to pull an attitude like this with an experienced nursing staff? It usually ends very poorly for the doctor. Yes they have the credentials to override the nurse but I've seen first hand cases where the MD was pulling something out of his ass because they were going by the book and the nurse had to show them that what they were ordering would kill the patient.

The intern/pharmacist may always outrank, but that doesn't always mean they automatically outknow.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

So if you (as a tech I'm assuming) receive a prescription via telephone from a physician and it is transcribed incorrectly or a mistake is made, who's liable? e.g you or the pharmacist?
Click to expand...
The Pharmacist. I really had no idea this was abnormal until I started reading these boards...
 
UTPharm said:
I am almost 100% positive she can do you job BETTER than you. maybe you're too slow and that's the real reason she always takes the position you want?
Click to expand...
Excuse me? Your assumptions are wrong. I've been working in a pharmacy since 2004, by the way.
 
Well, I probably know less about the pharmacy environment than any of you. I'm just a lowly new student, but I don't it makes much sense to piss all over your coworkers just because they get paid less and that they've had less education than you.
 
Pharmavixen said:
Turns out these women, one who was about twenty years older than me, and the other close to retirement, who knew how to make all sorts of things like Golytely and TPNs from scratch (including the calculations), were getting paid the same as me, a twenty year old kid who didn't know Asacol from a hole in the ground.

So I'd say keep in mind that as a pharmacy student, you're moving up in the world, and the techs are not.
Click to expand...

I can see the techs' POV in that situation for sure. In my situation, however, I am 15 years older than the tech and have just as much experience in the pharmacy as she does. I just can't have the SR title because I can't/don't work full time. And I like your last sentence about moving up; it does help me to remember that when I feel like crying.
 
UTPharm said:
why do you, a pharmacy student think you out rank a senior tech? i dont like how a lot of interns think that just becasue they are in school they are so much better then techs and deserve to get the best of everything handed to them.
Click to expand...

Whoa! I never said anyone outranked anyone else. I just don't understand why SHE believes she's more important than the students when her experience is no greater than the students'. I've got a Sr. Tech I work with who has almost 30 years experience, and she gets a tremendous amount of respect from me. No way would I ever put myself above her because there is soooo much I can learn from her.
 
Requiem said:
Actually, know why a tech can't do an interns job better than an intern? Because it's illegal for them. They're bound by laws which means they cannot counsel, recommend, speak with physicians, loan meds, etc.

Who cares if they find a drug faster or type "take one tablet three times daily as needed" quicker into the computer system. That's not our role.

Why are you so defensive?
Click to expand...

+1

Techs can only perform non-professional duties while interns can perform professional duties.
 
When I started my first pharmacy intern job I had just finished my first year of pharmacy school and had zero pharmacy experience. My biggest fear was techs being jerks to me. Could this attitude be due to interns who see themselves above techs? I don't know.

If you were a tech for a couple years beforehand, great. Maybe you do know more than the tech. But as a fresh, wet behind the years, post 1st year - I didn't know crap. At that point we were barely discussing drugs! (one semester of pharmacology/med chem) So I think some experienced techs are on the defensive when they encounter an intern for the first time.

Believe it or not, (and as kumbaya as it sounds) almost everyone has something they can teach us. Keep your eyes and ears open and your bull-poo detector turned on.
 
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