Pharmacists Save Lives Too

Last night was an incredibly busy day at the CVS where I work. It was only a 5-hour shift, but Mondays are always busy. From 8 to 10 PM, it was just myself and my pharmacist, but we were able to manage decently. It was a few hours before I was able to take a bite of dinner, or even go to the bathroom. But that's the life of community retail.

Around 8:30PM, a mother and her daughter approached the counter asking where the Benadryl was. Before pharmacy school, when it was busy and a patient asked me where something was, I would point them to the aisle and get back to my work. However, it seems that my way of thinking has changed completely from getting tasks accomplished, to maximizing health outcomes. 

We are taught in school systematic approaches to asking patients questions in order to extract the most appropriate information.

Me: Are you looking for tablet or liquid?

Mother: Probably liquid because my daughter says she is having trouble swallowing.

I turn to the daughter, and say: Do you feel like your throat is closing up?

Daughter: Yes

Me: Have you eaten anything recently? Or come into contact with anything foreign?

Daughter: I had something with peanuts.

Me: When did you eat it?

Daughter: About 5 minutes ago

It was at that point I immediately got the pharmacist to assess her. She was unaware she had any food allergy, but it was clear she was going through anaphylactic shock. We offered to call 911 for her, but she was refusing (some sort of psychological trauma from her past, when her grandmother died in an ambulance). Instead, we had her sit in the waiting room for about 20 minutes after she drank 4 tablespoons of Benadryl to monitor her status. 

We debated taking an EpiPen off the shelf to use for her, but my pharmacist wasn't quite sure because she wasn't aware she had any allergy at all. So instead, we called Urgent Care centers to see if they were still open. We found a couple and gave her the phone number/address, and they drove off. 

This may not sound as exciting to you all, but when I think about how I could have just told her where the Benadryl was and let her go off, she could have been in a very bad situation. 

Hey, pharmacists save lives too :) 

Make the Most of Your Internship

One of the student forums on the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists had a post that said this:

"I was so grateful when I was chosen to be a retail Intern for a large retail store in my area.  I have a limited pharmacy background and thought this would enhance my Pharmacy education.  I spent two summers primarily counting pills and cashing out customers.  When I arrived in the morning, all the techs scattered and the Pharmacist told me to count for a while.  Eight hours later, I was still counting.  On my last day, a temporary pharmacist arrived.  She was amazed I had not done some basic pharmacist's duties.  It is very obvious how frustrated I became during this time.

I agree an Internship should have specific goals for both the Intern and the Pharmacist.  Both should be accountable for what the Intern is learning or not learning."


Having been a pharmacy technician for just over 2 years before being promoted to intern, I felt I had to respond with my 2 cents. I think it's a very important lesson as a professional to make the most of your situation.

When you're in community pharmacy, it's [mostly] all about pushing scripts, making budget, meeting metrics. And while most people feel that in a retail setting, pharmacists are just verification robots that don't use any of their clinical knowledge, that couldn't be more false. In fact, community pharmacists must utilize a much broader range of their knowledge than those in a clinical specialty.

But I digress...

When I was promoted to intern, there were only a couple more additional duties I was allowed to do: prescription transfers, taking phone-in prescriptions, and taking voicemail prescriptions.

However, it's not just additional duties, but the status of Intern and PharmD Candidate that indicates you are a professional. Pharmacists expect you to have the initiative and drive to work at a higher level. You are lucky to be in the presence of your own personal tutor for 6-8 hours at a time. In many instances, your pharmacist is easier to talk to than your professors.

Here is a list of ways to get out of the "technician rutt":
-Come to work with a couple of questions in mind from class.
-Ask about your pharmacist's personal experiences
-When filling scripts, quiz yourself on brand/generic/classes/indications
-When the pharmacist is counseling/answering a question, stop what you're doing and listen
-If a patient asks you a question, practice your communication skills
-When typing multiple scripts for a patient, try to think about their disease states (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hormone replacement, HIV, etc.)
-Look past "corporate policy" attitude and figure out the health care advantages to them.

As you can see, there are a number of things you can do to make the most of what may seem like a monotonous, repetitive job.

Remember that when you become a pharmacist, in order to effectively lead, you need to know every position.

Might as well start at the bottom :)

First Internship Duties!

It's been relatively boring since the last post. I worked last Friday, and then didn't work again until this Friday. And the free time in between consisted a whole lot of nothing. Well, I shouldn't say nothing... I watched TV, perused Facebook, cooked from time to time, took a lot of naps, and I think I went grocery shopping =] I figured I should take advantage of my freedom while I still can. Next week I'm at CVS for 40 hours, the week after that will be half free, half Orientation. Then the week after that... school starts!

Like I mentioned, last Friday was my very first day working at my new store. It's not actually in Chapel Hill, but in Durham. Luckily, towns here have about a 5-minute diameter so working in another town really isn't bad. It's just a hop, skip, and a leap off I-40.

The store is amazing. The co-workers are great and more importantly, the customers are great! I went from a store where cars were stolen from the parking lot in the mid-afternoon and not being able to walk to my car at night without the manager watching, to a middle class area where everyone has a credit card and there are barely any HIV medications dispensed. Unfortunately, it leaves less opportunities for "Pharm Phrustrations and Phunnies", but I think I can manage the terrible loss.

Life is good.

But not only was it my first day at a new store, it was my first day with my brand new name tag that said "Pharmacy Intern". Yippee!! Granted, being an "intern" means I'm basically a glorified technician who gets a couple more responsibilities and a little higher pay grade, it's still quite exciting! I love new responsibilities.

These responsibilities include: taking doctor scripts of the phone and voicemail, transferring scripts in and out of CVS to any other chain (between CVS's can be done through the computer), mix reconstitutes (antibiotics mainly), and normally I would be able to count narcotics but this store doesn't let the interns do it. I was really looking forward to learning the safe password and counting my first Percocet and Adderall. Oh well...

One thing I've learned from taking my first voicemails and phone calls is that nurses talk extremely quickly! I had to pause, rewind, and repeat multiple times for just one script! It was still fun :) And now I know why you can't multi-task or bother a pharmacist while they're checking voicemails.

11 days until Orientation!