Jump over to Engadget to check out the whole story, but just my two cents on the article here. If the title didn’t tip you off, you may now find yourself selling various electronic items at your humble, or expansive, pharmacy…

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Well, there you go, this site is now about a year old. Yes, I’m not going to look up exactly when it went ‘live’ but knowing the month is good enough. In celebration Bayer have decorated their building as per the picture. Nah, not really…

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Shameless plug indeed (Pharmageeky But Maybe Sorta Cool Shirts). I kinda had some ideas for pub crawl shirts back in the day (I sound old saying that right?) but the ones that were eventually made mostly seemed to suck. So as a delayed creative outlet and way to make a couple of bucks (literally, it ain’t much) I’ve designed my own pharmacy themed shirts available to anyone.

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Dispensaries are meant to be the professional hub of the pharmacy, sure you might have an inflated polar bear attached to a shelf to advertise the latest cooling arthritis gels, or a big Brittany Spears cut out because you’re stocking her fragrance (and sure, she’s the closet to a friend you get while working the late lonely hours) but the dispensary is where that stops.

Yes ma'am, we're the 'Before' pic model for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

We’ve had a change of direction here at ‘Ask a Pharmacist’. Initially this site began as a place anyone can ask any question on pharmacy, drugs and so on. That was all this site was about, but it has evolved since then. Almost eight or so months on, we have decided to change our function.

Due to the demand for drug questions, we cannot give the adequate amount of time to answer the questions coming through from the public. Since the launch of the site around May 08, it has since turned into a blog about the industry, with particular commentary on the industry in Australia for locals and as a source of information for our overseas pharmacists who are curious how the industry here operates – and the pros and cons of the system. While Australian based, it is aimed at pharmacists worldwide. (more…)

It’s that time of the year. To reflect upon the past twelve months. I will focus on the professional aspect of that question. In our work lives, could we have done things better, both for our customers and for ourselves? Has your drug dealing been all it could have been?

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This was what I wrote in regard to a specific post on an Australian health blog Croaky. That’s if the comment is approved, it still may be under moderation. I post it because it’s an argument we’ve all heard before, and it really applies to all short sighted views of pharmacy, particularly from our fellow professionals in the healthcare industry who should know better. It always seems to come back to “why do I have to wait so long for my prescription” and “you sell dodgy supplements and bad diet products” etc. I don’t know why I bothered to write such a lengthy response, but I did it on the spur of the moment and thought I’d share it with you.

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Some of the names, faces, and appliances have been changed to protect identities

It’s great to be helpful but you need to wonder if things have gone way too far in respect to the ‘above and beyond’ attitude pharmacies take to please their customers…and no, it’s not all about the money/keeping the customers. Some customers are more trouble than they’re (financially) worth to the store, but we keeping chugging along, doing our bit for the people that comes in and out of our store and eventually instill in us an obligation that must help them at all costs. (more…)

Yes, everyone and everything needs to be on Facebook. I remember like yesterday, and it was only a little over two years ago that over the table at a pharmacy social event a colleague was asking me if I was on Facebook.

“What?” I replied (more…)

It’s time to dress for the occasion, get the perfect gift, or better yet, just weird out your friends who already think you’re strange for wanting to work 12 hour shifts without a seat.

What could this be useful for: showing off your profession, gift for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy assistants, your buddies and academic peoples. What can you get: for the moment shirts, hoodies, tanktops and more accessories to come. (more…)

For those fellow Aussies who are unaware in certain states in the US you can pick up a carton of your favourite smokes (that’s what you say right? Sorry, I don’t know smokers slang…if that exists) right next to nicotine replacement patches, so you can decide which you might pursue when you get home.

This is old news to the Americans, but take a look at this article which talks about Boston changing their mind and enforcing their pharmacies to remove all tobacco products. (more…)

All you US pharmacists are probably well aware of Jim Plagakis and his insightful website. If not you should be. I won’t say more because you are better off going straight there and finding out for yourself.

Jim was the inspiration for starting this blog section of this site to provide an Australian perspective on the profession, when he posted a reply of mine which can be found here. Essentially it is a brief run down on the Australian pharmacy system, so if you’re from Australia skip that and go straight to Jim’s blog. For those who want to know a little more about how (in general) the Australian system may compare to their own, have a quick read, and then be sure to take a look at Jim’s blog, definitely worth going back and looking at the older posts as well.

As above. This site is primarily to act as a contact point for those medication questions you may want to ask and we can hopefully provide answers to, but this posts/blog page will fundamentally be home to me, AustralianPharma. While this site started out as a frame for questions to be submitted to be answered by a Registered Pharmacist, I was inspired by my pharmacist colleagues in the US whose tales of the daily dispensary grind to expand the posts page into a blog. In my comments on these blogs I was asked questions about the system here in Australia, so though this blog could be a good reference for those wanting to know how this system works here, as well as those in Australia who can relate to what the blog contains.

I am not sure how regular this will be, and the priority is always to answer the medication questions we receive from our readers. Ultimately, I hope this will provide an interesting and irreverent account of my and my colleagues pharmacy travels. Please, do not take this blog section too seriously, it is one pharmacist’s account of what is going around them, and should be taken lightly. (more…)

We’re online! …okay, to those persons who use this site to ask questions, yes, we have been online since May this year, but the blog section was not used and we have re-jigged (that’s definitely a word) a few things and we will be having a regular blog from the perspective of an Australian pharmacist. We give full credit to the US blogs who have inspired us to actually make use of this blog function of the site which has been dormant for the past few months. The site was setup simply as a portal for the public to ask as medication questions, but no reason it can’t be for both!