what kind of work do you do if you volunteer at a pharmacy

[jungjh9001]

I'm looking for volunteer opportunity at a pharmacy..

What kind of work do you do if you volunteer at a pharmacy?

I don't have any pharmacy or hospital related license..

I wonder what would I be able to do at a pharmacy..

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[TTUMike]

Clean beds and ask patients if they need anything or you could get lucky and work the popcorn machine.

 

[TTUMike]

oh sorry, i thought you meant hospital volunteer. Disregard my last post.

 

[YiYaoYue]

It would be hard to find a volunteer position at a retail pharmacy.

If you get a bad volunteer position at hospital pharmacy you will end up doing a lot of chores (i think someone posted about having to clean shelves and stuff... i never did that). If you get a good position you can shadow pharmacist and ask them to explain what they are doing while they are working on the computer or checking on meds. Your main job however will be doing a few things like delivering meds, organizing files, and putting stickers on stuff. Once in awhile they may ask you to check expiration dates. I like to stay busy so if I don't have anything to do, I'll shadow a pharmacist to get a better understanding of what pharmacist work is all about or listen on a conversation they are having with an out patient.

 

[Illinigirl09]

A volunteered at an in-patient hospital pharmacy in Chicago, and it was a really diverse experience. Most of the time I was in their office complex, working on some financial reporting which was really interesting, scheduling appointments with pharm-reps, sitting in on meetings. I also got to go on rounds in different areas of the hospital, and worked in the pharmacy as well as a pharm-tech whenever someone didn't show up for work. The director of the pharmacy was really involved in what I was doing and really dedicated to giving me a well-rounded experience. I loved it.

 

[glowinglimabean]

Where I volunteered I had to discard expired med's and IV solutions. I returned stock and delivered med's to different departments. I did very little compounding because I was terrified of messing up. I also removed patient information stickers from returned stock. Occasionally, I stuffed cotton in medicine bottles.

 

[kattster]

I volunteered in the outpatient pharmacy at a hospital in Seattle. It was simliar to a retail pharmacy but where most of our customers/clients were recent discharges from the hospital or hospital employees. I manned the window and was able to retrieve/hand out prescribed meds, serve as a cashier, and restock OTCs. After dealing with all payment issues and finding out if there were any other issues ie. insurance, I would then call the pharmacist over to counsel the patient. For insurance, I would ask the patient for their card or whatnot but for inputting that information, I would have to bother a pharm tech or pharmacist. A few times I got to make phone calls to customers whose prescriptions had been sitting in the pharmacy a while to remind them and find out if they still wanted their meds or not.

The hospital I was at didn't have volunteer positions in the inpatient pharmacy, however it sounds like from this thread, some hospitals do allow that. I would suggest researching hospitals in your area. They usually have volunteer coordinators who can tell you if they have positions in the pharmacy available. None of the hospitals I've come across required any type of licensing or asked about it. Despite the fact that I was mostly a cashier where I was volunteering, I was able to witness firsthand what exactly pharmacists do and that experience was invaluable to me. You might be assigned menial tasks as a volunteer but you're also working alongside pharmacists and other medical professionals and should still be able to gain valuable insight talking to them, observing them. I would highly recommend it even if you have to clean shelves as part of your duties.

 

[lychee719]

I volunteer at both outpatient and inpatient pharmacies.
At the outpatient pharmacy I return meds to stock, organize prescriptions, remove expired meds, deliver medication, make phone calls, and generally help out the workers there by stocking supplies that are low and running errands here and there. Mainly what I have gotten out of it is being able to observe the pharmacist to be sure its what I want to do, and also in being exposed to all the drug names, I am much more familiar with many drugs now.
At the inpatient pharmacy, I mainly deliver medications for patients in the hospital. When there are no runs, I remove expired meds and also work in the purchasing department. I do paperwork, billing, inventory, etc. You don't get to do anything extremely exciting but its nice to be in a pharmacy environment and get comfortable with procedure and drugs. 🙂

 

[OleMiss2012]

You do shift work. Big ole piles of shift work. 7 to 3, 3 to 11, 11 to 7....

On a serious note, it's probably gonna be grunt work

 

[OKgirl]

I heard that some of them only let you deliever meds to patients, but I'm sure it differs for different places.

 

[clee18]

I fill and label oral syringes, package pills, package liquids, check expiration dates when there is not much to do

 

[jyw003]

my friend got stuck with a crappy job at hospital, all she did was file papers...the pharmacist wouldn't allow her to do anything else unless she got a tech license...on the other hand, my other friend got to transport and write labels for drugs...

 

[UFpharmD]

I volunteered at a retail pharmacy. Basically, I called up the store and asked to speak to the manager and told him I wanted pharmacy experience and wished to volunteer. He told me "Alright, come by tomorrow." I went the next day and started counting, filling, and putting back the drugs in the right places, etc. Stuff that the techs did. Easy as that.

Oh, by the way, this won't work at those big chain pharmacies (CVS/walgreens). Try something smaller like Tru-valu drugs or an independent retail pharmacy.

 

[jemini99]

I have been volunteering in a in-patient hospital pharmacy for 1 year. Mostly what I do is stock, put on labels, deliver medication. Nothing really great. I sometimes talk to the pharmacists most of the time I talk to the techs.

 

[laimyours]

Mostly, deliver meds to the nurses stations. They usually have volunteers do this because it frees up the techs to do tech work. I have my tech license so they let me pull meds, I talk to the pharmacists, talk to the interns, help refill the pixis machine, return meds, pull expired meds....
It's illegal for a non tech to pull meds and fill prescriptions. Although, some pharmacists might bend the law for you, as long as you keep it hush hush so they don't get in trouble.

 

[Markovnikov]

I volunteered at a large university in-patient hospital pharmacy for 3 hours each week for one quarter.

I mostly followed around the technicians and delivered medications to the various nursing stations on each floor and wing of the hospital. I would also sit and chat with the technicians while they prepared IV solutions.

I also helped with putting away new supplies that they received in their deliveries (such as saline solutions).

My favorite part of the volunteering was operating the packaging machine. I would open up a bottle of 100 carvedilol and use the machine to create 100 individually wrapped/labeled packages of 100 carvedilol tablets. I did this also for several other medications. The work is then all later doubled check by a pharmacist of course.

The pharmacists there always seemed too busy to chat with you, so you often get stuck helping out the pharmacy technicians, so I didn't even bother getting a recommendation letter from it. They also complain and whine a lot about nurses, etc. There is a bit of prestige at hospital pharmacies compared to retail pharmacies, so they did seem a bit more snobby than the retail pharmacists I work with.

It was nice experience overall though, and they gave me free lunch tickets each time I volunteered, that could be redeemed at one of the hospital cafeterias for $4.50 worth of food/drink.

 

[SS1]

so i just started working at a pharmacy. the pharmacist said that i would be able to help him out with inventory. i was wondering what the process of inventory is.

 

[inquirer89]

I started volunteering in high school at a hospital pharmacy. I had little responsibilies at first; returning/stocking medicines, cleaning up, etc. Later on I was able to fill orders, help with the morning switch (exchange yesterday's medicine to today's) and more. 3 years later I work at that pharmacy as a part time tech.

 

[optimistic828]

I also volunteered at an inpatient hospital pharmacy for about 2 years and loved it. I shadowed all of the different pharmacists, some were recent grads, while others specialized in pre/post surgery. I worked with the technicians every once in a while so I did a lot of the same work as them too which included billing/purchasing, stock orders, filling/organizing prescriptions, and delivery.

It was definitely a great experience and good luck landing a good position!

 

[Kirbypuff]

I'm looking for volunteer opportunity at a pharmacy..

What kind of work do you do if you volunteer at a pharmacy?

I don't have any pharmacy or hospital related license..

I wonder what would I be able to do at a pharmacy..

Ew, don't volunteer, they pay people to do these things! Get a job! (I mean this in the most helpful way) Why be a slave when you can get paid to learn? Just my opinion...

 

[PharmD321]

Ew, don't volunteer, they pay people to do these things! Get a job! (I mean this in the most helpful way) Why be a slave when you can get paid to learn? Just my opinion...

Pharmacy schools like to see that you do some community service. I was cleaning today and found a paper from CU pre pharm program that says this:

Community Service: Pharmacy schools also expect that you can contribute to the community in which you live and work. They want to know that you can work with people who are different than you ethincally, socially, or financially. Can you do something for the community without necessarily recieving any recognition for it? Can you push yourself beyond your "comfort zone" and work with people quite different from yourself? Again, pharmacy schools are looking for evidence that you can handle stress, multitask, compromise with others, and show leadership.

 

[ImDaStyle]

I'm currently a volunteer in the hospital near my house, the job is kinda boring, I think it's too easy. They're looking for pharmacy technician, I was interested in though, but they're only looking for full time tech... T___T