I am afraid; terrified at the possibility of one day I might turn out to be a less-than-competent pharmacist. Prior to this, I have not worked along with a pharmacist who I considered to be a sub-par pharmacist. Legally speaking, they are fit to be a pharmacist, but do not expect them to know much about anything. Working with a pharmacist who dislikes being one all of a sudden does not seem that bad at all.
A pharmacist is an expert on drugs and a pharmacist do know more on a lot of medications as noted by Pharmacy Mike – We don’t realize how much we know. Being a student, I hate it whenever a customer knows more about a medication or a product more than me. I am the one working in a pharmacy and not them, I am supposed to be the drug expert one day, being involved in retails do imply that I have to know about a lot of other products not covered in my four years undergraduate course.
I am not giving them a chance to yell at me, “Why the hel* are you working in a pharmacy then?” I am not letting them think I am stupid, that I am not doing my job well.
A pharmacist I worked with ranted about customers expect a lot from a pharmacist, more than you would anticipate as a pharmacist, and no, the university did not prepare you for all of that, you could only hope that the customers are not going to ask you about the plumber problem or how to troubleshoot their car.
As a pharmacist, you have no escape, you can’t say the six magical words, let me get you the pharmacist and save your own ass. All men for their own but no one is going to save you. You are the pharmacist, right? Oh wait, I forget you are only a pharmacist because the law and regulation says you are fit to be one. How do you sleep well each night without worrying that someday you might just hand someone their death sentence because you are incompetence?
I regard highly a pharmacist who is willing to teach, someone I can learn from, a mentor. Unfortunately, I have seen many pharmacists, one that I would not want to be in future. I do not want to regard being pharmacist as a job, pharmacist should be a career and not having to deal with having an aversion towards being a pharmacist, I do not want to lose the respect of the pharmacy assistant I work with.
I will have to be a role model. Every mistake I make as a pharmacist could be fatal and they will have to be at minimal level at all time, no one would watch my back, double checking all my work because I am the pharmacist. Dispensing a medication with the wrong direction for use is not acceptable, especially when you are not overworked.
You are the pharmacist, not god but errors are still not allowable in your field of choice, and being lacking in ability is a choice, a poor selection.
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