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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One of last year’s batch of GSK swine flu vaccines stopped being used because of some reactions that were noticed. Fair enough, the odd part is the comment made by the spokesman for Canada’s health minister who said “We’re not seeing any thing wild or spooky or crazy about our vaccine at all.”

I’m not sure that’s the best possible wording as an official statement from a government health representative. But mildly entertaining nonetheless. Much like when you refer to drugs as “this stuff” to an elderly customer and they look at you like you just swore at them by using casual language. I get it, people are very touchy about their drugs. We have a way of getting complacent about our attitude towards drugs because to us they’re just meds, to others, it is “their” medication for “their” bodies. Which is something we need to consider when we talk to people. While with a younger person we can be more causal in our approach, but with our more senior customers, we need to take a more serious, still friendly, but respectful attitude when we refer to the medications. I have seen flippant attitudes given, sometimes accidentally when a staff member is in a hurry to get to the next customer, but it will leave your customer with a bad impression..

University was the good life. Even if you were working in a pharmacy at the time your technical knowledge didn’t really have to be up to scratch. We probably don’t like to admit it, but as a pharmacy student and intern, you mostly expected to not know things. As soon as that day clicks over and you are what it says on your degree, you suddenly need to know everything. While I say that with a sense of absurdness, no one can know everything, there is definitely that expectation particularly from the non-pharmacists you deal with. Not only are you expected to know about drugs, but pretty much anything medically related.

Copyright 20th Century Fox, and Apple...I guess?

It’s great that our inner geek enjoys learning about the strange ways in which some of the medications on our shelf have come about, but customers might not necessarily get the same kick out of it as we do.

Some of the more chattier of us when counseling might go into a little too much detail about the medication we are talking about. We might be encouraged by the patient’s curiosity and questions that we might find ourselves letting them know some unnecessary information into the production process of their cute lil pink tablet. Warfarin is one where I’ve heard someone mention to the customer that it came from rat poison, or basically is rat poison. While that’s kinda interesting for us, it isn’t very reassuring to the patient. If they already haven’t heard that about warfarin, and many people have, their next question is how does it work as a rat poison, to which you say “well the rats basically bled out etc….now please have this tablet with your lunch. Right-o then, off you go, enjoy.” (more…)

It seems customers have lost the plot when it comes to owings. I am not sure if this is the same general term used overseas, but in Australia, when we give a few tablets to get someone by if deemed urgent enough if they don’t have a script (but we have evidence of their medication history), we give them an ‘owing’ (usually between one and three days supply).

I get that this image isn't totally relevant to the post, but I like it, so there.

Do you think we are given an “allowance” for how many mistakes, or how serious a mistake, we can make before we need to be deregistered? A Detroit website has posted an article regarding a family suing Rite Aid over a dispensing error (http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/22035731/detail.html). The family are also chasing up the oncologist for writing an incorrect script.

The article  is an interesting read, a very sad read, but one that makes you think about what is an appropriate punishment for these and other dispensing errors. At what point does a license get taken away and you are deemed not competent to work? Even if it’s the first mistake in your career, if it’s a significant one that a reasonable person, or a peer, would think that one of the safeguards or processes in your dispensing should have alerted you to it – should you be deregistered? (more…)

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 not as simple as saying there are good interns and bad interns. There are a variety of traits and behaviors which can affect the level of excellence or suckiness that you, as a new Pharmacist Intern, will possess. For those starting the new year as an intern, you might get some ideas from this article that will make you get a little more from your year.

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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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How many times have you wanted to call the doctor and say “Seriously dude, really? Is that what you wrote?” While I have avoid saying “dude” in my professional conversations, that about captures what goes through my mind. Doctor’s handwriting – this is an old and much discussed topic of frustration, but still worth a mention. Just because it’s frustrating, yes that’s one reason, and I like to complain, but also because the chance of an incorrect drug being selected also increases.

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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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One of the major barriers to people being comfortable in coming up to the pharmacist to ask a question is the fact that in most pharmacies, this is far from a private setting.

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Pharmacy News has posted an article which you should definitely check out. While I am not an avid civil libertarian, I think the innocent until proven guilty clause should apply, even to the Pharmacy Board of Australia’s guidelines.

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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…)

A Masseratti, now that would be nice…

Just some buddies from pharmacy around their ride…oh no, wait, that’s the cast of Entourage. My bad. (more…)