Aug

I came to a bad realization today…

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as True Story

I realized something today. I’m not a good pharmacist. Sure, I know drugs. I know interactions. I know therapies, drugs of choice, OTC Select/Recommend, and how to care for a patient, but I am not a good pharmacist. I’ll never be a good pharmacist.

I hate people.

I hate dealing with people. I am not a people person. I cannot allow myself to stand there, smile, and kiss ass while someone treats me like shit on the bottom of their shoe.

I cannot be nice to someone that is not nice to me. I cannot be compassionate for someone that refuses to trust and believe me. I cannot respect someone that perceives me as someone that is obligated to do something for them rather than someone that they have entrusted their medicinal care to.

I cannot trust those that lie to me. I cannot believe those that have lied to me in the past. I can certainly forgive, but it is not in my best interests to ever forget.

I cannot overlook the law that governs my profession. I cannot believe people would ever consider asking me to do so.

I cannot work in sub-par conditions where I’m considered more of a plug-and-chug conveyor belt rather than a trained professional expected to deliver the right drug, to the right person, in the right dose, et al in a timely fashion.

I can love my profession. I can love typing away scouring profiles for potential problems and warning physicians and patients of interactions. I can love educating a new mother on medicines for her recently born son and receiving a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

I can love my techs and how they trust my judgement even when it outweighs their understanding. I can love teaching my interns something practical or even anecdotal. I can love explaining something to someone (tech, intern, patient) and seeing that ah-ha moment when they fully understand it. I can love my patients that treat me they want to be treated. I can love my patients that see me as the first line for advice on a Friday night when their doctor is having a weekend away in Aspen.

I can love going to work and coming home happy with the job I’ve done.

I can love pharmacy with all that I have, but I will never be good at it…

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tai says August 2nd, 2007 at 4:32 am

READ THIS
I got it from my friend’s forward mail today.

LET IT REALLY SINK IN - THEN CHOOSE .

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, “I don’t get it!

You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

He replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or … you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good mood.”

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.”

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins…Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,” he replied. “Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked

He continued, “..the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’. I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said John. “She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.! ‘ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity’.”

Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude… I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34.
!
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

knitalot3 says August 2nd, 2007 at 12:40 pm

I think you must be pretty good at it if you know your strengths and weaknesses. I don’t know anybody that enjoys working with stupid people who treat you badly, in any profession.

Keep up the good work. I wouldn’t mind having you as my pharmacist.

Pharmacy Mike says August 2nd, 2007 at 8:25 pm

See… I actually think this makes you a good pharmacist. You don’t take anyone’s bullshit. You stand up for yourself in an assertive way. You know what’s right for the patient (and for your license!!!), and you won’t let some pompous piece of shit tell you how to do your job.

Just because you work for a money-hungry corporation doesn’t mean you have to kiss everyone’s ass who walks up to the counter. Afterall, as long as you’re acting in the best interest of the patient and your license (while respecting the law), your employer can’t say shit to you.

Pepperpourri says August 3rd, 2007 at 2:18 pm

That doesn’t make you a bad pharmacist. Some people just want to evoke anger in you. That makes you an angry pharmacist, and not a bad one.

Kelly says August 10th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

You can be a good pharmacist and still hate people. I’m a good pharmacy tech, and I hate the hell out of people. But once in a while, like a shooting star, there is that one patient that makes the rest of them cease to exist for a few moments. The one that appreciates you, that trusts you, and that listens! Or, the abvoius good person who shocks and astounds you because you just decided with the last patient that good people don’t exist any more. For example…
The lady that came in a few weeks ago to pick up her ex-husband’s medication. Which led to the question..”why pick up for your ex?”. In short, the answer goes like this…he has alzheimer’s but doesn’t know it and has no one else to take him in. She moved him in with her, and does everything for him, while keeping it from him that he is sick. And although he makes her crazy sometimes, she won’t put him in a home because he wouldn’t want to live like that. He knows he forgets things, and has even brought it up a few times, she just tells him everyone forgets.
How can you not be re-assured of human kindness after that? Even me, with my stone-cold heart let a ramdom tear fall. It’s people like her that keep me continuing to do what I do. Hang in there buddy.

alberta says August 11th, 2007 at 1:05 am

I think if alot of pharmacists came to this realization earlier rather than later, it would save many of us from heartache and stress. I go to work and do what I can for the patients I can, and for the rest of them….screw them!! I can’t be bothered to help someone who doesn’t want or appreciate my professional help and judgement. It just kills me when someone asks me an OTC question, then stands there and argues with me or doesn’t even take my advice….Why ask me in the first place and WASTE my time!!! I don’t care what f**king decongestant you take you asswipe~!!