29

Jun

Yeah, whatever…….

Posted by LilLaura as Lil Laura, Work Sucks

Pharmacy should come with a warning for future students. I think something along the lines of this would be good:

“WARNING: Pharmacy is NOT as lucrative as it appears. The ones who have the money are vindictive bastards, governments, or cold high-street or supermarket chains who will flog your acquired knowledge, skills and will test your patience. Pharmacy is not a career option-it is a lifestyle. If you embrace it, you are embracing a 24/7 job, with limited opportunities (unless your dad owns a pharmaceutical company) and shite pay. Your health will always be at risk from the infected, the mentally ill, the addicted and vindictive old women.*”

*Pharmacy will turn you from a person with ideals and values, into a person with IBS and dissatisfaction. Ulcers have been reported…….

I wish someone had told me about the health risks involved when I took on the notion of being a “respected” pharmacist (hahahahahaha) 10 years ago as I was making my career choices in school. I was….enamoured by the thought that I could be in control and still have a life-working 9-5, having holidays, getting paid well and all for giving advice and handing out drugs…..

10 years later. I’m 27 and already varicose veins are showing from years of standing, running and jumping to attention <Heil Mein Patient!!!>., Everywhere I look, GPs are immortal, nurses are queens (I don’t envy them, sometimes they get it just as bad as we do) and I am the patients’ (NOT customers!) worst enemy. But enough about my dissatisfaction with pharmacy in general-I have found a shining light, and hopefully this time next year I will be an expert in the field of diabetes-and a supplementary prescriber, prescribing set drugs within a budget for certain patients.

Anyway, to the title of my blog. A patient, in her 70s, is quite able to move around (this pisses me off as she gets deliveries of drugs free to her home EVERY week). So much so, that she was able to manoevure her way down to the pharmacy to have a go at me yesterday. (Brief history-she’s a right royal pain in the hole that my predecessor nannied, which I have no intention of doing-I prefer “tough love”).

So, she says “why isn’t the senna in a box?” . Me ” It only comes in tubs now Mrs S.”

Mrs S “Why?” Me “You’ll have to ask our wholesaler that Mrs S. I can’t dictate what they send in.”

Mrs S “Well, what about this then? I always get paracetamol (acetaminophen) capsules”

So, I went, dug out the prescription, and showed her that the GP had prescribed TABLETS, and that 1) I can only dispense what the GP tells me to, and 2) that her problem was with the practice, not with me. I think it’s one of the few times I have actually been pushed to the point of actually wanting to physically throw a patient out. She is the most horrible old doll in the universe-and as she left I said to my assistant “I wish she’d get flattened by a bus or drop dead”. Her attack on me led me to forget the more important stuff-luckily I sorted out scripts for my three patients on palliative care (i.e. death row), but forgot to get the methadone/physeptone ordered in for this week. I can do it tommorrow-it’ll just be tough dealing with grumpy addicts until after 4.30pm….<sigh>

I am anticipating something will happen to her-I’ll probably walk into work tommorrow and hear the news that she DID drop dead….but then I’m not that lucky……

It’s only my duty to help her to extend her life-though why should I when there are so many others who are in real need? She needs a dose of reality. I may have been baptised a Catholic, I don’t go to mass, and I may not believe in God….but I know right from wrong-and yet….I can do nothing..but dish up that cantankerous c**ts cocktail of drugs until the day she leaves.

At the end of the day, when MY life span is up and the reaper comes, I want to be able to look back and say “Yeah, I was good at my job. I had a life and made a difference in others too. I wasn’t a bad person, but I was tough because I had to be. And at least I made a difference in a good way-not sniping or being rude-for in the end I am only human.”

“yeah lil’ laura….whatever…..”

Rant over…..now.


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like it how u describe the life of a pharmacist! hilarious!

Wow! And you did not even mention insurance companies.

They don’t have them there…do they La?

StressedouPharmacist says June 29th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

Your description of “the life” is so true that it sort of makes me sad. THIS is what my life has become?? =-(

I hear you, brother. I face the same issues day after day. My feeling is that management will do anything to appease the customers…which leads to more appeasement and now you’ve “TRAINED” your customer to act like a jerk. My philosophy is “You can’t be all things to all people”—and if you can’t be reasonable satisfied you need to go aggravate someone else…bye, bye.

nope, we do not angriest one. instead we have a government going into recession and an nhs prescribing budget tighter than a gnats bum!!!

I think you need a career change. Obviously you dont like the human race!!!

Just cause we hate dickheads doesn’t mean we hate our jobs and dislike everyone. You’re taking my hatred of some and extrapolating to all. Just because I speak in generalities, doesn’t mean I really want everyone to eat shit and have my foot in their ass. BTW, piss off.

I hate getting this random messages from people that straggle in, “You suck as a pharmacist. You need to quit. You’re a horrible druggist. Blah blah blah.” I wish these people would eat shit and die.

I stuck it for two years, then quit and moved halfway across the world. Hospital pharmacy, while the pay is shit, is generally a lot less stressful and a bit more rewarding. I’m still regretting not trying for a PhD though. Or running a second hand book store.

angriest………i’m no psychiatrist….well actually i am ………you were obviously abused to no end as a child………was it your father who molested you or your other father…..sneaky uncle??

Pay attention. This piece was written by my female counterpart, Lil’ Laura.

ray i was NEVER molested. I am from a respected Irish Catholic family, who to this day, still love each other AS A FAMILY. You psychiatrists read one or two fucking books and you think you know it all.
do you want to know why im so bitter now? because pharmacy is a job that requires attention, not sitting on your bum daydreaming while people come to you with real issues-and it ends up consuming your every thought, and fucks your social life no end.
take your drug-store psychology elsewhere-i’m sure the National Enquirer is looking for a shit-stirrer.

Regina, did you read an earlier blog of mine containing the phrase “one of my favourite patients”….?
go back to watching dr phil, oprah, and making your children obese, and leave us professionals to vent so we don’t take it out on sad individuals like….you!

Also note, Dr Psycho, that you cannot make a diagnosis as rude or as cruel as that without knowing your patient? I’m sure that your governing body would frown upon such remarks…..
I have epilepsy, have suffered fom it since I was 8 years old. If battling that alongside puberty wasn’t difficult enough, I still face discrimination in my private and professional life. BOG OFF YOU TART. For you may be a muthafuckin’ psychiatrist NO MORE…..

Im not surprised you reply with personal remarks when you cannot think of anything else intelligent to say. I hope you dont let what seems to be a very bitter streak in your personality spill over into your professional life. I can only be relieved that my local pharmacist has a lot more empathy than you.

I’m sure all of your governing bodies would frown on the remarks you make here, far from being professionals, you all sound like a bunch of twats.

hahahaha , lil laura I was referring to angriest pharmacist not you, I konw you werent molested

Oh Regina, you’re breaking my heart…..

I think I hit a nerve there, What do you think guys?

Jules, this is a BLOG page.
What we say here doesn’t break confidentiality-it’s funny, abject humour. Everyone has a dark side Jules-even the Monty Pythons did! We’re not breaking any laws. If you’re not a pharmacist WHY THE FUCK DO YOU COME HERE??

Thanks for the warning. I was about to switch from pharmacology into pharmacy, but working in a pharmacy for a few months and reading your little warning has sent me skittering back to lab work…

Remember that this is not a post from an American Pharmacist. Same headaches, different continent.

“hopefully this time next year I will be an expert in the field of diabetes-and a supplementary prescriber, prescribing set drugs within a budget for certain patients.”

can you tell me more about that?

Add to your daily battles to death with customers the constant struggling with the useless staff and have a happy working week!

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