Volunteering In A Pharmacy. What Should I Expect?

[Confused 20]

I will be volunteering in the Pharmacy of my local hospital tommorrow. What types of tasks will I be expected to do? If you have ever volunteered in a hospital Pharmacy, please respond and tell me the types of things that you were asked to do. Any input will be appreciated. Thank you.

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[i.<3.pharmacy]

I will be volunteering in the Pharmacy of my local hospital tommorrow. What types of tasks will I be expected to do? If you have ever volunteered in a hospital Pharmacy, please respond and tell me the types of things that you were asked to do. Any input will be appreciated. Thank you.

I count pills and file things... but mostly the pharmacist wants me to follow him around and basically shadow him and ask questions. Since he knows that I am an aspiring pharm student, he's just trying to get me familiar with the inner workings of the pharmacy instead of having me do random stuff.

 

[dgroulx]

The hospital I'm at right now uses volunteers to put away unit dose drugs that have been returned to the floor. None of them are control drugs, not even C-V. They also run the filled orders up to the nurses station & load the medication machine. They are not allowed to fill orders, or make IVs.

 

[Asnchic]

Hey!

I've volunteered in a Pharmacy since my jr year...of high school.

They will always ask you to put up drugs, check expiration dates, shadow them, ask questions etc. When I was in high school, they'd actually let us run the drugs down to ER etc. and you'll probably get to follow the pharmacy techs fill in the unit dose machines on the nursing floors. Sometimes this is good because some of them might be students wanting to actually be pharmacists and usually they'll impart some good information if you ask the right questions. I also get to label and mark off narcotics but that's later on.

I love being in a pharmacy probably more or less because of the people at the one that I'm with currently with but it's really what you make of it. I like it for other reasons too but it's all about your attitude. I think anyone who wants to really be a pharmacist will only know if it's right if they volunteer. A lot of people get discouraged and will immediately start complaining about how "boring" it is or how they can't wait to get off of work. If it gets to that point then I hope they start questioning whether or not this is right for them.