The Pharmacy Chick

Boy oh boy, dont the flu shots bring in all kinds of fodder to write about.

1. Pharmacy chick remembers writing about this guy last year and when he came in again THIS year I had to chuckle.  I wrote about how this guy had so many layers to peel off to finally reach his arm, that I wondered if there was really a man underneath all his clothing.    He and his wife came in for their flu shots.  I recognized him immediately, and though to myself  Ok, Chick, lets count the layers..”    So here we go…from outside in:  1.  Winter Coat ( it was 70 degrees outside).  2. heavy sweatshirt with a college logo.  3.  1 wool sweater.  4. one wool vest.    5.  Long sleeve collared shirt. 6. short sleeve tee shirt.

You know, I’d really hate to have to do his laundry. 

2.  This Asian couple came in for their flu shots.  She was in her early twenties and he was a bit older.  Clearly nervous, SHE wanted him to go first, which he happily obliged.  I gave him the shot and went to deposit the needle in the sharps container.  Her eyes widened and she said “WHERE IS THE NEEDLE?  Did you leave it in him?  Being the smart aleck that I am, I would usually take an opportunity like that to smart off and say something like “yes, its a dissolvable needle. it will go  away in a few days.”  But she was about 2 degrees from freaking out.   We use Vanishpoint syringes.  Spring loaded, the needle retracts into the barrel after activation.  She saw the needle go in, but when I discarded the syringe, there was no needle attached.    I showed her the needle in the barrel…and she calmed down..some.

3. We ran out of vaccine for a while last week, waiting for the next shipment to arrive was painful to say the least.  Everybody and their mother wanted a shot. This guy came in and asked for a shot.  We told him, we had no shots available.  (we knew some was on the way)  We offered to make him an appoinment for later in the week.  “BUT I’M HIGH RISK. I NEED IT NOW”.   Ok, lets review…we.dont.have.any.vaccine..so unless you want me to inject you with some B-12 or some testosterone I have on the shelf,  you need to come back later.  God should have had this 11th commandment: Thou shalt engage brain before engaging mouth.

4.  I called one of my clinic sites: an assisted living center, to get a head count for a clinic was doing at their site.  When they told me “23″  I was astonished because we usually do 120- 130.  “Oh, one of our corporate nurses came in and gave everybody a shot a couple of weeks ago”   OK, THANKS FOR THAT….I don’t think I’ll make these people a priority next year.

and now thankfully I am down to my last 20 shots in the fridge..Flu shot season is over for the Chick.  We’ll have more next year …for sure..

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When Pharmacy Chick first started with the company she works for, it was a nice gig. We were closed on Sundays. This was cool. We could regularily go to church, watch football, play golf, whatever. It was one predictable day that Mr and Mrs Chick had together. We were also closed the major holidays such as New Years day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence day, Labor day, THanksgiving and Christmas. Somewhere down the line however the company decided to both open us up on Sundays and open us on all holidays but Christmas. I guess they figured if some of our competition was paying a pharmacist $100/hr to surf the internet, eat snacks, and fill 10 prescriptions on a holiday, they too needed some of that fiscally unwise action too.

Needless to say Pharmacy Chick wasn’t too thrilled. Fast forward several years later and not much has changed. We are closed on Thanksgiving now but we are open 363 days a year. If the employees regular day off is the holday and that employee works all 40 hours that week, they get 40+8 hours, which makes for a tidy paycheck that Uncle Sam takes an even tidier cut out of! If the Pharmacy is open and you work the holiday, you essentially make double time but if the pharmacy is closed and its your day to work, you earn 8 hours of wages, regardless.

Mr Chicks company works it a little differently. They do not want to ever pay over 40 hours, so on holiday weeks, they work to give you an extra day OFF if the holday falls on your day off already. At one point in my life I liked the extra cash in my paycheck.. Yea, 48 hours looked pretty nice in the deposit book, but not any more… Time…yes, time is way more valuable to me. I’d really enjoy an extra day off and be paid for it.

I have a pharmacist friend who is working herself into burn out, but doesn’t know it yet. She works her days off, travels all over the state doing one day here, one day there…sandwiched in between her full time schedule at her home store. She doesn’t seem to mind..but she has been a pharmacist for only a year.

I miss the days when a holiday was a holiday. A day of rest, to spend with friends, family or cocooned up with just the spouse. The store is going to be nuts these nest 3 days as frenzied people go berzerk getting “ready” for Thanksgiving dinner..which for all intents and purposes will be prepared over a 6 hour period..consumed in 20 minutes..then cleaned up over another hour. The cook will collapse on the couch afterwards and wonder..”man was it worth it?”

I vote for thanksgiving pizza….or Christmas Pizza for that matter.

Take a rest..

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If you are old enough to have watched the Twilight Zone, you can totally relate to this day:  Nothing bad happened.  All of my employees showed up to work. None had any issues to report from over the weekend.  Nobody’s babysitter bagged, no one’s car quit. Nobody had any fights with their spouse/boyfriend/domestic partner. The phone didn’t ring off the hook. People came in and picked up prescriptions that were filled (not those not ready, waiting for inventory, etc)  Nobody handed me “problems” to fix.  I didn’t find any new and crazy policy in the company email box.  My order arrived on time and everything I wanted was in it. (except ciprofloxacin..WTF is up with that anyway?).  Everybody was polite and no one gave me any crap.  I didn’t have to OVER-multitask to keep up.  My IVR worked (it has been real iffy lately) and all the networks were paying claims.. no outages. I got off at 4 pm and walked out with NObody stopping me to drag me into a long winded discussion about some prescription issue.

AND to make it even better?  I dont have to come back until Thursday.

Please God, do not let the other shoe drop!

Tags: pharmacy life, rare days | |

Pharmacy Chick hasn’t been the prolific poster like she usually is, but its been a crazy couple of months. I am lucky to even keep up with accepting comments. Hopefully things will become a bit more sane once we get thru our flu shots! I haven’t gone away. (but I may be spending too much time playing Farmville on Facebook!

I’m fleshing out a couple of posts so they will be out soon!

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Often Pharmacy Chick is called to counsel on subjects of utmost importance to a customer…the process of pooping.   Of all the ailments I offer advice on, (colds, flu, cough, athletes foot, vitamins, allergy eyes, dandruff…well you get it), Constipation and diarrhea seem to top the list for IMPORTANCE and adherence to my advice.  Rarely does anybody question my wisdom…why I don’t know.  Maybe I look like defecation expert. 

Today I received a call from a lady whose daughter had surgery and was given narcotics.  True to form they caused some constipation and she wanted some help for the daughter.  I felt it was important to narrow down exactly what she needed so I asked the question.  “does she feel like she HAS to poop and just can’t get it out or does she just want to poop in the future?”    The answer to that led me to suggest Bisacodyl suppositories for her to provide the immediate relief she was desiring.  I hung up the phone and the relief tech next to me was standing there gaped mouth  “DID you just say POOP to her?”.  I told her that her ears functioned perfectly, Yes I did say “poop”.   She was aghast. 

Look, I talk in regular English.  Why use a Dollar word when a 10 cent word works just as well?  

Poop is poop.  Aren’t we supposed to be understood? 

Thats what I thought.  Thank. you.

Tags: customers, pharmacy life | |