Life Off-Label

I was reading a thread in a pharmacy forum where the original poster complained about being disrespected by some non-pharmacy coworkers. The first thing that comes to my mind is, “Do they act in a way the warrants respecting?” Pharmacists have a very respectable title on their own (don’t get me wrong), but a title only goes so far. All that title says is, “I know a lot about drugs.” 90% of how people respect you comes from how you respect others. It has to be earned through the humility of recognizing that other people are worth respecting for the role they play in your workplace (or other environment). That said, where I worked, the pharmacists had that respect for others, yet sometimes it still wasn’t reciprocated. Nurses and doctors would call and yell at them because this drug is missing or this drug isn’t on the formulary, all while failing to recognize that the pharmacist is working hard trying to get those problems solved.

So then I thought about what else could contribute to this, and I noticed a trend in the way people behaved toward pharmacists. The hospital I worked at had a pretty big decentralized part of the pharmacy department, so a lot of times the pharmacists leave the satellites to go round or at least spend time with the doctors and nurses that work in the units that the pharmacist is in charge of. In our surgical ICU, the top half of the door to the satellite is always open when the pharmacist is there, so doctors and nurses can walk right up with their questions instead of calling. In these situations, I rarely see a nurse or doctor speak in such a rude tone as what I overhear from phone conversations in the other satellites.

With that in mind, I also know that many hospitals (especially smaller ones) are still highly centralized. Pharmacists rarely have that face-to-face interaction with other members of the healthcare team, and I think that’s a big reason why there is some disconnect between pharmacy and everyone else. It isn’t just that we have less patient interaction than doctors and nurses, we have less interaction period.

It’s kind of like how it’s easy to get road rage and flip someone off when we get cut off on the road, but when most of us bump into someone on the sidewalk we’re more polite and understanding. It’s a lot easier for other people to get along when they have to see each other more often in person than it is when our only line of communication is a telephone. And that’s one reason why I think hospitals should continue to evolve in the direction of decentralization. It removes that communication barrier and fosters a better relationship between the pharmacist and the rest of the healthcare team. We become better at respecting each other, and in turn it’ll lead to better care for our patients.

This article reminded me of a video I just watched in class about pharmacy robberies.

In that video, we were instructed to just give the robber what he or she demanded. I have no problem with that. I understand that it’s just a bunch of pills that can be replaced. However, most robbers aren’t going to stroll in and go, “Excuse me, could you kindly put some of those narcotics into this bag?” Sometimes, when a robber involves a weapon in their threat, it’s because they plan on using it. In addition to some drugs with street value, one of those things a robber might want is “no witnesses”, and I’m not as keen on the idea of obliging to that one.

In the case of this article, two men came into a Walgreens with the intent to rob the pharmacy. One of the men leaped over the counter and fired shots at the pharmacist. The pharmacist wasn’t injured, and at that point he takes out his concealed gun and fires back, scaring the men out of the store. The next day, Walgreens fires him for violating the company’s weapons policy.

I don’t blame Walgreens for taking the stance they have. They can’t condone pharmacists carrying concealed weapons because the legal ramifications if an innocent bystander were accidentally shot would be a PR nightmare. It should be noted, however, that the pharmacist mentions buying the gun after the store was robbed a few years ago. When that happened, did Walgreens take additional steps to provide a secure environment for its employees? No. And with that in mind, you can’t blame the pharmacist for taking matters into his own hands either.

One of the things I got involved with at school is the Student Ambassador program. Throughout the year, I have opportunities to go with fellow pharmacy students to various schools and speak to some prospective students about pharmacy, my school, the application process, etc. A main reason I’m doing it is because I don’t really like public speaking, and this is a good way to force myself to get over it. I also credit the awesome ambassadors at my interview with being a major reason for wanting to come here instead of a different school I was accepted to, and I’d like to pass that on to the future students.

Today I had my first “gig” at a nearby college. Seven of us stood in front of a classroom of about 30-40 people to answer questions. Though usually these things happen at pre-pharmacy club meetings, I’m pretty sure this was just a group of people interested in healthcare in general. Judging by the amount of people buried in mid-afternoon naps or their cell phones, I take it most were looking into things other than pharmacy. The real gem came after our recruiting director spoke a bit about the application process, and she asked them, “What do you think pharmacists do?”

After a few moments of awkward silence, someone finally peeped, “Count pills.”

*sigh*

Working in a pharmacy and being here at school has made me forget how much most people don’t know about this profession at all. So, one-by-one we shared our stories of why we decided to choose pharmacy. We explained that pharmacist’s do much more than count pills (I mean really, we have techs for that now), and have become an accessible healthcare professional where people can seek advice about their medicine without having to see a doctor. We also talked about the hospital end of things where you have specialists that round with doctors and actually have a say in the patient’s therapy. I could tell some people were surprised, and after that the questions didn’t stop coming.

I don’t know if we inspired someone to apply to pharmacy school today, but if nothing else, at least many people are coming away with a better perception of pharmacy than they had before. And that’s when I realized my biggest incentive for not only being an ambassador, but for getting involved in general. I don’t want to be the pharmacist that makes people think we just count pills. I want to be the pharmacist that makes someone go, “Wow, my dream someday is to do that!”

Plus… if I really liked counting that much, I’d be The Count when I grow up.

For those who haven’t stalked me on Facebook lately because we aren’t friends or you have a life, I just started my first year of pharmacy school. I really like it here and have already made some awesome friends. It’s a great program that will give me a lot of opportunities, but I wish the cost of being an out-of-state student didn’t force me to take out enough loans to fund a NASA mission.

My decision to pursue pharmacy was not some sob-story about how my grandmother told me on her deathbed that she always wanted me to be a pharmacist or that it’s something I was passionate about since before I had pubic hair. Actually, if you asked me two years ago, I would have said, “Pharmacy? Hell no, I’m applying to PA school!” Life is weird like that. I started out pre-pharmacy, but like most people in college I changed my mind. At that point, my exposure to pharmacy was seeing the crazy over-worked pharmacist at Walgreens… not exactly an image to inspire the youth of tomorrow. However, when I started working as a pharmacy tech, working in a hospital showed me something much different. I saw the pharmacists utilize a lot more of their clinical knowledge, making them a vital asset to the healthcare team. I could not only see myself enjoying this as a career, but finding a lot of fulfillment from it. I decided to apply to pharmacy school that year. I took the PCAT, applied to a few schools, and got my acceptance!

During orientation, it was pounded into our heads that we’re about to make a dramatic change from a regular student to a professional. Before we started class, we had a ceremony where we formally put on our white lab coats, and that was supposed to signify this transition. I feel that it’s just the beginning, and my experiences over the next four years will slowly mold me into a true professional. I’m definitely a small fish in a big pond, where the expectations are higher than ever before, and there will undoubtedly be moments where I don’t feel like I can’t live up to them. Writing allows us to take a powerful snapshot of our emotions at a particular moment, and what better way to document such a journey than with my own blog?

Plus, let’s be honest, blogging is one of my favorite ways to put off studying.