Posted by mei | Posted in Life as a pharmacist | Posted on 19-10-2011
Last friday was a very busy day. But it would’ve been alright, if it wasn’t for the addict who shouted at me for not giving her her meds, when she was the one at fault (for not coming in for 3 consecutive days, so she was banned). Recently Iv come to realised that being a pharmacist is not all that fun, stress and multitasking is part of the package. Maybe I should start looking around for Webmaster Jobs?
But anyway, back to the addict, she actually came back to apologize the following week! Surprise surprise. So I was pleased. Thats it, everyone has their off moments, and as long as they realised they were at fault, it is fine with me. But it is still a very tiring, and stressful job, stand all day, and expected to multitask, and deliver legendary customer care, and at the same time meet all the insane targets!
Posted by mei | Posted in Life as a pharmacist | Posted on 06-08-2011
Saturdays are normally very peaceful and relaxing, I thought I would have some spare time to look at mobile home for sale on my new iphone! Ha-ha. But today was exceptional case. First, I had 2 staff with me, then one of them had to leave early. The other is a trainee. I dont blame them.
Everything was running smoothly until I started checking the CD(control drug) Register! 2 CD discrepancies made me got stuck for almost 2 hours! Not mentioning all the addicts and customers with a long list of prescriptions really enjoy coming in during the last 30 minutes of the store closing time.
It was a very stressful day indeed. Oh well, at least now im sitting on my bed, enjoying a cuppa whilst updating my blog! And tomorrow is Sunday! Yay.
I have been pretty lucky this month. As my ex pre-reg tutor has gone for a long holiday to the east, I was given the opportunity to cover her store, just 5minutes walk away from where I live. That means I can have another extra hour in bed! An hour in the morning makes a huge difference!!
Plus, this store doesn’t do a lot of items a day, so it is pretty relax in here, I even had the chance to learn how to use the cordless barcode scanner!
I have also met a new summer placement student from hong kong, which is great, someone from asia, finally! Ha-ha. I can also get home early to have dinner with my sister who is still in England. I am so lucky this month! Wish more months like this!
It is that time of the year again. It’s Bonus time!! I received a surprise email from my line manager today regarding our bonuses. Apparently my company has achieved their targets for the year 2010/2011, in fact, the profits were well over their targets.
So finally, all my hard work gets paid off eh! With this bonus, I can afford to look at undermount kitchen sinks now. It will also come in handy to pay for my air ticket to go home , and for my new work permit, I will still have some left just for savings! How exciting. My first real bonus! *proud*
So this week has been a nice and quiet week for me at work. Being a relief pharmacist, you do have good weeks and bad weeks, some weeks are better than others. So far, this week has been a very calm and quiet week most days. I hope I won’t jinx it, because tomorrow is Friday, and normally Fridays are the busiest day in a week.
I have been really lucky as well, 3 days out of 5 days, I get to wake up at 8.15am, because I only work 5 minutes away. The other 2 days I still get to wake up at 8.15am, but I have to spend some money to get a cab to town (5 minutes away). Lucky eh?
On bad weeks, I will have to wake up at 7am, and then take 2 busses, travel about an hour to my work place. So I will enjoy while I can.
How was your week then?
I hope these busy days will end soon. For the past 2 weeks, I have been going to stores on high street, and you know about the crowd in high street don’t you. It is very convenient for people to walk in and get their prescriptions, on top of that, all those never ending queries from the holiday makers. Not forgetting the addicts that comes in and wants their medication immediately, due to their cravings. Some of them really do drive me up the wall. Then you have got some issues left for you to settle from the day before!! *screams* No wonder I slept at 7.30pm last night, and never got up till 8am this morning!
Customers who have no patience at all really makes my life so hard. Everyone wants their medicines there and then. I can’t help it but to tell some customers off. It is so not me, but you just can’t let them crawl all over you. The amazing thing is, on top of all these pressures, the boss wants more MURs(extra services pharmacy provides for customers). 1 is never good enough! I cannot imagine how stressful it is for the store based pharmacist (on holiday far far away at the moment) to be put in this state every single day!
Like my friend and I say, the money is so hard to earn. Any mistakes or errors that come back to the pharmacy, all fingers will be point at the pharmacist. No one will be at fault other than the pharmacist obviously, because everything is signed and sorted by the pharmacist. Oh what a life.
I am so glad after tomorrow I will have my day off! I need it. I hope tomorrow will be a better day.
I’ve had a good few days break, off for 3 days, then today only worked for 6 hours from 10-4pm because it is a bank holiday for labour day on sunday, it was surprisingly very quiet, I guess because the surgeries are shut, so I had customers who came in mainly for queries only.
Tomorrow will be back to normal working hours, 9-6pm, and am having this bad feeling it is going to be horribly busy, just like last thursday. You know what customers are like, being last minute, coming in for their meds just before the bank holidays, and come rushing in on the day we start our business at normal hours again.
Eventhough tomorrow is tuesday, i am now going through monday blues! Urgh. Glad to be off on wednesday, to catch up with some online work!
I can’t believe how busy it was today,due to the royal wedding day tomorrow, and following monday is a bank holiday, all the surgeries will be closed, and only larger pharmacies will be open, so you bet, all the customers were coming in to grab their last minute shopping and get their meds stocked up, as if we will be shut for the next 3 months.
Oh and did I tell you we are open on royal wedding day, saturday, sunday and bank holiday monday? So I don’t understand why everyone was so panicky. I had to multitask all the way non-stop! care homes interims were coming from downstaires regularly, all to be delivered the same day, and long ques for walk-in prescriptions, so many queries from the healthcare counter, methadone not made up, collections pick up not checked….. I am glad im done with today!
Time for some chillex moment now 
Lately, my PDA has been putting me down to work in half day stores on Saturdays. It is really a nuisance, because I am trying to work extra hours to cover my holidays, but getting half days means I get less hours a week, and so I asked for a full day shift whenever possible, but I am still getting half day shifts, and the rest of the day I have to travel 30-40minutes to another store far away for 3 hours of work, then travel back home.
I don’t really mind, but I think it is a waste of the company’s money, as Saturdays are quiet, and most of the time I am the 2nd pharmacist, they have to pay for my transport and of course for my 3 hours service as a pharmacist, but I checked less than 5 prescriptions when I am there. It is a quiet store, and it is a Saturday. So I think there are better options around this.
Well I guess, I shouldn’t complain much, since the work is easy, if it is a nice day, travelling on the train, enjoying the scenic view is quite good!
Today, I had a breastfeeding mom coming in to pick my brains on how to product more breast milk. I was stunned for a moment, as I have not encountered such a question in the past, and obviously I am not a mother yet, I have no clue. So, I could only be honest telling her I don’t know much about it, but I could look it up and give her a ring back. So here I am, spending some time to do some reading on this.
Basically low production of breast milk can be caused by various reasons, which include previous breast surgery, combined contraceptive pills, stress, being ill, or only allowing your baby to nurse for short time can also cause reduction in breast milk.
In order to increase breast milk production, breast feeding mom has to make sure all breast milk are used up during each feeding, if not then you will need to use a pump to get rid of the remaining milk, this will help to trigger the body to produce more milk. Mother getting enough nutrition is also vital. Mother should also allow feeding whenever baby wants to feed, this will help let the body know that it needs to make more milk. Some other measures to help with the production of milk include herbal and prescription medications, which I will spend more time on next time. Have you got any other tips to add?? Feel free to suggest.
