The Pharmacy Union Address
Take a step back for a second and look at retail life.
We went to school to learn about drugs, the human body, a little bit about diagnosing stuff, interactions, CYP450, Kreb's Cycle, Chemistry, Biology, Kinetics, blah blah blah. Most of us spend 3 to 4 years in classes, then went out on rotations for 9 to 18 months working for free, etc.
However what do we do for 9 hours a day? Do we actively use this knowledge to further better our patient's lives? Do we use all of the crap that they force-fed us in pharmacy school to do the things that they promised us we'd do? Do we get to spend an hour talking with little old white ladies while wearing our pristine white coat (gotten at the UOP White Coat Ceremony, die UOP) while we laugh and talk and go over her disease states and medications with smiles on our faces like the chains portray pharmacists in their ads?
No.
We are the babysitters, the nannys, the ass-wipers and the caregivers of the general public. When there is a problem, we have to deal with it (even if it had nothing to do with us). Patient loses their medication or takes it wrong? We have to deal with it. Patient flushes her Percodan down the toilet its OUR job to put the call in. We are the common sense of the public and the bearer/invoker of their personal responsibility. Doing this makes us a doormat, not doing it makes us no better than fucking McDonalds or Burger King. Fuck, some stores are already no better than fast food chains with drive-through windows.
We went to school to end up using our deep pharmacological knowledge so we can apply it via AARP covers Zocor and not Lipitor or that nicotine patches are a DAW-1. Lyrica is only covered if Neurontin is failed and nobody covers fucking Adipex-P or Xenical. We wait on hold to speak with some dillhole in India who speaks like a robot because the ID card has the wrong information or PCN printed on it. See that AWP -%30 + 1.50? Take it and like it; you don't have a fucking choice anymore.
We try to decipher handwriting that looks like shit-covered toilet paper as office staff who cant speak a fucking clear word of English try to sound words like atenolol while using phrases like "Well this *looks* like....". We are a slave to the machine known as a "Fax" and the 2 doctors in town who still think that its a HIPAA violation to use one. Our jobs revolve around the public whining at us because they waited until they were out (typical idiots) to have us send the fax over to the doctor for the refill request. Did I mention that its also Friday night and the doctor turns his fax machine OFF when he's not there? Doctors think that we are nothing but fucking pill counters and treat us like some ignorant plebe who knows nothing about medications (or anything for that matter).
We are the vicodin police to a completely inept and retarded DEA (Fuck you DEA, more on you later) who collects data from us yet does absolutely nothing with it. We live in fear of inspections from the only professional licensing agency that is AGAINST us. You fuck up, the state board wants your head. They aren't there to protect you, they are there to protect the public FROM you. Tell me how that works and why I send them money every 2 years for a green piece of paper with my name on it.
We go through this day in and day out so we can live a good life. We put in our 30 years to hopefully have some sort of retirement (since Medicare will be long broke when I retire), and after those long days, 2 heart attacks, refills upon refills of the Buspar and Wellbutrin you take to keep your sanity, and the dumpsters full of alcohol bottles to make the pain go away, you can look back at your career and really ask yourself was it really worth it.
You'll think.. You'll think some more.. You'll drink.. You'll drink some more... Days will run into weeks will run into paydays will run into months into years.
You'll remember this post, and say to yourself "yeah, it was worth it". For all the shit that we deal with, for all the frustrations, the hold times, the yelling, the swearing, the hugs your techs give you when you're about to have a breakdown, the throwing of pens and dumping of Alpharma's (now Activis) insanely sticky Prometh with Codeine on the counter (as you scream "SHIT!" and hope your patients didnt hear you) you'll have those handful of patients who's life you really did make a difference. You'll have the metaphorical little white ladies in the chain commercials who you *did* help out and *did* make life just a bit better. You will be someones hero and a person that people look to for nothing more than a smile, hello and acknowledgment that they exist. You'll walk through the parking-lot wearing that beat-up white coat that you got in school 20+ years ago like a badge of fucking honor and respect as your patients know you by name and will drive across town to come into *your* pharmacy to say nothing more that what you suggested to them OTC worked like a charm.
From this post you must get the idea that retail pharmacy sucks, that I hate it, that I wish that lightning would strike me down and put me out of my misery. Certain days there is nothing more in life I would wish for, however everyone is like that with their job. When its a really shitty day and nothing is going right, yeah, I hate it. However those days are few and far between. Thats why its called work, not fun ("How was fun today dear? Oh, tiring").
I wrote this because retail pharmacy is changing and I really don't feel like pharmacy students are getting the proper picture that retail paints. This isn't designed to scare people away, but to let them know exactly what they are getting themselves into. After spending tens of thousands of dollars and all that time in school, wouldn't it be a waste if you learned you couldn't take getting yelled at for an early soma refill your very first day as a pharmacist? That on the first day working alone you realized that retail life was in fact nothing like what your school had prepared you for?
I really wish that Drug Topics or somewhere else would publish some of what I write, but I think that I use too many bad words are too "real" for most magazines out there. I wish they would grow up and realize that people swear, and that medicine/life isn't one big hugfest.
We went to school to learn about drugs, the human body, a little bit about diagnosing stuff, interactions, CYP450, Kreb's Cycle, Chemistry, Biology, Kinetics, blah blah blah. Most of us spend 3 to 4 years in classes, then went out on rotations for 9 to 18 months working for free, etc.
However what do we do for 9 hours a day? Do we actively use this knowledge to further better our patient's lives? Do we use all of the crap that they force-fed us in pharmacy school to do the things that they promised us we'd do? Do we get to spend an hour talking with little old white ladies while wearing our pristine white coat (gotten at the UOP White Coat Ceremony, die UOP) while we laugh and talk and go over her disease states and medications with smiles on our faces like the chains portray pharmacists in their ads?
No.
We are the babysitters, the nannys, the ass-wipers and the caregivers of the general public. When there is a problem, we have to deal with it (even if it had nothing to do with us). Patient loses their medication or takes it wrong? We have to deal with it. Patient flushes her Percodan down the toilet its OUR job to put the call in. We are the common sense of the public and the bearer/invoker of their personal responsibility. Doing this makes us a doormat, not doing it makes us no better than fucking McDonalds or Burger King. Fuck, some stores are already no better than fast food chains with drive-through windows.
We went to school to end up using our deep pharmacological knowledge so we can apply it via AARP covers Zocor and not Lipitor or that nicotine patches are a DAW-1. Lyrica is only covered if Neurontin is failed and nobody covers fucking Adipex-P or Xenical. We wait on hold to speak with some dillhole in India who speaks like a robot because the ID card has the wrong information or PCN printed on it. See that AWP -%30 + 1.50? Take it and like it; you don't have a fucking choice anymore.
We try to decipher handwriting that looks like shit-covered toilet paper as office staff who cant speak a fucking clear word of English try to sound words like atenolol while using phrases like "Well this *looks* like....". We are a slave to the machine known as a "Fax" and the 2 doctors in town who still think that its a HIPAA violation to use one. Our jobs revolve around the public whining at us because they waited until they were out (typical idiots) to have us send the fax over to the doctor for the refill request. Did I mention that its also Friday night and the doctor turns his fax machine OFF when he's not there? Doctors think that we are nothing but fucking pill counters and treat us like some ignorant plebe who knows nothing about medications (or anything for that matter).
We are the vicodin police to a completely inept and retarded DEA (Fuck you DEA, more on you later) who collects data from us yet does absolutely nothing with it. We live in fear of inspections from the only professional licensing agency that is AGAINST us. You fuck up, the state board wants your head. They aren't there to protect you, they are there to protect the public FROM you. Tell me how that works and why I send them money every 2 years for a green piece of paper with my name on it.
We go through this day in and day out so we can live a good life. We put in our 30 years to hopefully have some sort of retirement (since Medicare will be long broke when I retire), and after those long days, 2 heart attacks, refills upon refills of the Buspar and Wellbutrin you take to keep your sanity, and the dumpsters full of alcohol bottles to make the pain go away, you can look back at your career and really ask yourself was it really worth it.
You'll think.. You'll think some more.. You'll drink.. You'll drink some more... Days will run into weeks will run into paydays will run into months into years.
You'll remember this post, and say to yourself "yeah, it was worth it". For all the shit that we deal with, for all the frustrations, the hold times, the yelling, the swearing, the hugs your techs give you when you're about to have a breakdown, the throwing of pens and dumping of Alpharma's (now Activis) insanely sticky Prometh with Codeine on the counter (as you scream "SHIT!" and hope your patients didnt hear you) you'll have those handful of patients who's life you really did make a difference. You'll have the metaphorical little white ladies in the chain commercials who you *did* help out and *did* make life just a bit better. You will be someones hero and a person that people look to for nothing more than a smile, hello and acknowledgment that they exist. You'll walk through the parking-lot wearing that beat-up white coat that you got in school 20+ years ago like a badge of fucking honor and respect as your patients know you by name and will drive across town to come into *your* pharmacy to say nothing more that what you suggested to them OTC worked like a charm.
From this post you must get the idea that retail pharmacy sucks, that I hate it, that I wish that lightning would strike me down and put me out of my misery. Certain days there is nothing more in life I would wish for, however everyone is like that with their job. When its a really shitty day and nothing is going right, yeah, I hate it. However those days are few and far between. Thats why its called work, not fun ("How was fun today dear? Oh, tiring").
I wrote this because retail pharmacy is changing and I really don't feel like pharmacy students are getting the proper picture that retail paints. This isn't designed to scare people away, but to let them know exactly what they are getting themselves into. After spending tens of thousands of dollars and all that time in school, wouldn't it be a waste if you learned you couldn't take getting yelled at for an early soma refill your very first day as a pharmacist? That on the first day working alone you realized that retail life was in fact nothing like what your school had prepared you for?
I really wish that Drug Topics or somewhere else would publish some of what I write, but I think that I use too many bad words are too "real" for most magazines out there. I wish they would grow up and realize that people swear, and that medicine/life isn't one big hugfest.
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Vote for me!
Damn, this post got me a lil misty eyed.
Amen.
Seriously hits the nail on the head and why I'm not in retail. I love the retail job. The counseling patients, making recommendations, just being a listening ear to a long time customer. But dammit, I didn't go to school to be a doormat (a doormat without a lunch break) and I'm never going to be satisfied with being one.
If that makes me a bastard, then I'm a bastard, but until pharmacists are allowed to choose not to serve "unwanted" (ie, thorn-in-your-side) patients like physicians practices are allowed, I'm out. I did my time and I loved it some days, but I just became too bitter. Props to the good ones that stay and retail, you've got more tolerance than I.
We need to decide what the hell we are going to be. Are we the dispensers or are we the counselors, or are we both? APhA, please get your head out of your ass. Your convention sucked this year even if you did have a life size Eneman.
I'm a 2nd year PharmD student and a 7 year tech. I sit in class every day cursing my school and our "teachers". All of our "teachers" are just researchers who teach a class or 2 as part of their funding agreements. They do not teach us in a way that we can apply to pharmacy practice, they teach us so that we can work in their lab when we graduate (or become a clinical pharmacist for the 2 spots per hospital). I sit in class beyond frustrated because I know what community pharmacy can be. YES, I need to know that bromocriptine and pergolide should not be administered concomittantly, but do I really need to know that bromocriptine is an ergot derivative originally used for hyperprolactinemia? it makes me crazy and very disappointed in my institution.
I really think alumni and students need to come together and approach the schools, explaining how ill-prepared we are. While the administrations think we are just "shop keepers looking to make money", maybe we really enjoy helping our patients on a personal level. And maybe they should try facilitating that.
They may not publish you directly, but they are aware of you. Page 35 of the April issue of "Pharmacy Today" has an article on certifying techs which talks about the USA Today article "Rx for Errors." The author references "an enraged blog entry by 'The Angry Pharmacist' arguing that USA Today sensationalized the topic of medication errors for commercial gain and that the profession is doing a good job of containing error rates."
hey angry pharmacist, i love your blogs and they inspired me to make my own blog because technicians can be angry too!!! hahaha If the pharmacist is angry, then chances are the tech is probably angry, its only common sense :) Anyways, keep up the good blogs, i cant wait to read more!!
I have been an outpatient pharmacist for 28 years and continue to love it, despite TAP’s accurate rants about the retail world of being a “door mat”. A few missed topics that were not taught at UOP in the PharmD program: accounting, hiring and firing, being IT department (did not have computers back then), fixing small office equipments (cash register, printers, fax machines) advertising skills, marketing & public relations, dealing with irate patients yelling in your face, insurance phone trees. The list goes on, but I do not want to sound like I am whining.
This is so true. Everytime I think of how much I busted ass in pharmacy school only to work as a overglorified convenience store owner I get a sick feeling in my stomach. Especially since in Malaysia where I practice, pharmacists have yet to gain dispensing rights.
There are days when I regret ever signing up for Pharmacy school but like you, some days and some patients make it all worth while.
May more little old ladies save our sanity and our souls.
Dear TAP,
I'm not a pharmacist. I see my pharmacists at least once a week, at the lovely Walgreen's near my home. They know me by name, and wave to me and smile when I come in, or pass them in the parking lot. They've been with me through three long years of kidney stones, surgery and damage that has left me in agonizing pain almost constantly.
Because I have read your blog, I go out of my way to make sure that I treat them with the respect they deserve. I always thank them for the great job they've done, the help they've given me and ask if they've read your latest blog entry (they have).
And when a jackass broke into my home, went through my purse and stole my just-filled bottle of 90 percocet, I knew what to do to get that bottle replaced, because I read your blog.
You're not my pharmacist, but I am so glad that I've read your blog, because you've helped me to foster and grow a relationship with my pharmacists, and see them as a part of my medical team.
Thanks TAP, I appreciate you.
the angry pharm tech said:
Well said!!...well MOSTLY well said. I work in a discount retail pharmacy, and you're right...many times we are the 'free doctors'
Their meds are making them dizzy...and instead of making an appt...they have us call the doctor. I have had women open their shirts to show me a growth, and thwarted the effort of an elderly man to take down his pants as he was saying, "you need to see this"
We currently have an intern in training right now, and a question??? do they NOT teach you how to speak in ADULT at Doctor of Pharmacy School??
sorry...but 'retarded' being used as an adjective is SO 7TH GRADE! It is becoming increasingly difficult to try and respect a young man that uses it CONSISTENTLY! (as he does)
Do you not know, that the R word to those of us that deal with family members with special needs (1 in 4 of the general public)is as gut wrenching as the N word is to blacks?
When you use THAT word frequently to describe something irritating, uncomfortable, or distasteful.. IT IS OFFENSIVE!
For the people that don't say something about it to your face, they will walk away thinking they have just dealt with a non-professional.
I love your rantings, but wish you could change that ONE adjective...it would make you just that more credible....and respected. Maybe that is the cause of some of the problems you are having.
If you want...I'd be happy to mail you a thesaurus.
I just wanted to personally thank you for your blog.
There are days at work where I feel all of the dummies got together and decided to come in on the same day and ask all of their stupid questions fueled by ignorance. I leave work feeling extremely irked...wondering if anyone would catch me if I did a drive by and dropped a few eggs on some of my "favorite" customer's houses. But no, I come home, read your blog and feel so much better.
Thank you for writing and keep up the good work!
Should you have chosen physics and the isolated ivory tower instead? To have awareness or be of the mindless mush? Are you sub-existing merely as a miserable reaction or just temporarily venting?
I like what I do as a professional--but maybe I'm one of the few who have luckily avoided that bullshit mantra, "all jobs suck."
Right on! I'm a veterinarian and I can totally identify with the lack of respect and frustration you feel. I also didn't go to undergrad plus 3 years of classes and 1 year of clinics to argue with a client about why we charge $12 more for an emergency exam vs a regular exam (after I've dropped everything I'm doing to see their pet) or try to convince a client I can't just send home cephalexin on an animal I've never seen (sorry, can't see your dog through the phone line!). This is why I will soon be leaving private practice and going to back public health.
You totally got credit for my Misfill NUMBERS post!
http://www.theangriestpharmacist.com/2008/02/26/the-real-numbers/
Chris said:
They may not publish you directly, but they are aware of you. Page 35 of the April issue of "Pharmacy Today" has an article on certifying techs which talks about the USA Today article "Rx for Errors." The author references "an enraged blog entry by 'The Angry Pharmacist' arguing that USA Today sensationalized the topic of medication errors for commercial gain and that the profession is doing a good job of containing error rates."