& an entire hour for you, asshole

THAT long?

[about15minutes]

when someone calls in sick on Monday and we’re desperately trying to find someone to cover the shift

[about15minutes]

long gone are the days where i was patient enough to express my anger in a constructive manner

#1 way to piss off anyone in a retail pharmacy is to ask them why it takes “45 minutes to put 16 tablets of percocet into the bottle”

like this especially pisses me off if it comes from not a customer but from a friend or relative that knows you work in the pharmacy

like honestly fuck you if you think that’s all we do

and like way to cut down and completely ignore all the bullshit that people who work in pharmacy deal with into one condescending and dismissive statement. like fuck you for not considering how fucking understaffed and overworked and overwhelming pharmacies are, and fuck you for thinking your fucking prescription is the only thing we have to goddamn fill or the only fucking thing we do. honestly it’s INFURIATING

so fuck you very very much

[about15minutes]

when my boss asks me to do him a favor

can you call this condescending doctor’s office and tell them they are morons

can you call these 5 patients and tell them oops, we actually don’t have percocet in stock

can you call medicare DME and ask them what overrides we need

can you call the manufacturer and ask them if this medication is gluten free

can you call every store in a 10 mile radius to see if they have this in stock

can you tell this belligerent patient that their meds are back-ordered and will be for 3 months

can you tell this mom her kid’s spacer is $86

[about15minutes]

when patients start to lift up their shirts/roll up their pant leg/peel off their socks so they can show you the rash they want a recommendation for

[about15minutes]

tired of my non-pharmacy friends asking me why pharmacists are necessary when we have doctors.

[about15minutes]

#whyyourpharmacyhatesyou

"Hi, I need to speak to the pharmacist. NO, I need the pharmacist.......... Yeah, hi. Can I get a refill on my sim... simvastins???"

My pharmacy's unspoken protocol is if a patient calls demanding for a pharmacist but refuses to speak to or explain the problem to anyone else, they get put on the Eternal Hold. Oops.

[about15minutes]

nurses

the other day someone came in to ask for a shot and when we told them the wait would not be long because an intern was there, she made a face and said: "well, no offense, but i'm a nurse, and i would rather have it done by a PROFESSIONAL."

REALLY? you're a nurse? when was the last time you worked in a hospital or clinic? or like, have you eveR? because i'm pretty sure a nurse would know of all things that they do, giving a simple intramuscular/subcutaneous shot is literally something you could train a chimpanzee to do. i mean honestly, patients themselves do it with insulin and enoxaparin. how fucking stupid are you?

i have friends who are nurses or who are in nursing school and they are smart, capable people. why is it, then, that so many nurses act like assholes at the pharmacy? there are two main reasons that people "don't need to talk to the pharmacist," the first one being that they've had the medication before, and the second one being that they are a nurse. (the third one being that their sister/wife/brother/uncle/cousin/son is a nurse). 

BTW i don't know why, but doctors rarely say this. they do occasionally, but usually they will at least nod their way through counseling. literally just yesterday the wife of a local doctor came to pick up a script her MD husband wrote for their daughter and she still asked to speak to the pharmacist about it. what is it about nurses that make them think they know everything? i certainly don't go to the doctor's office and say, "I DON'T NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHAT DRUGS I NEED PRESCRIBED. I WORK IN A PHARMACY."

[about15minutes]

how to freak out your pharmacy friends

carry all of the medications you take mixed together in one unlabeled amber vial.

better yet, put them all in an empty ibuprofen bottle. laugh @ the horrified expressions you get when you shake out 10 different tablets just so you can take a cetirizine.

guaranteed response:

[about15minutes]

This article is about how if your oral contraceptive isn't free, you need to "double check your insurer, pharmacist, and even doctor’s assumptions."

http://time.com/money/3672529/free-birth-control-aca-obamacare-insurers-must-cover/?xid=timefb

Great. Continue to perpetuate the ignorance and misconception that the pharmacist or anyone who works in the pharmacy has anything to do with your fucking copay.

[about15minutes]

Patient: Hi I'm here to pick up a prescription. *hands me a hard copy prescription*

Me: Okay, so you're dropping off to pick up later?

Patient: No, I'm picking up a prescription for *medicine she just handed me a hard copy for*. Is it ready yet?

Me: ...

Me: No, because you just handed me the prescription.

Patient: Just go check for it.

Me: *checks for it* *it's not there* *duh* Ma'am, I don't have anything ready for you. But I can get this one ready in about 10-15 minutes.

Patient: No, just give it back. I am going somewhere else. I don't want to wait. *snatches back prescription and storms off*

Me: ... Wha-? ...

[about15minutes]

best "i have a question for the pharmacist" question of the day

"Where can I find Claritin without the antihistamine in it?"

....

"What do you mean that's not a thing? My doctor told me to take it."

[about15minutes]

alarms

Patient: Hi. I made the mistake of filling my prescriptions at [large chain pharmacy] and would like to transfer all my medications here. Me: Okay. Sure. All you need to do is-- Patient: UGH! You won't believe how horribly [large chain pharmacy] treated me. FIRST they told me they didn't have my medication in stock and would have to order it. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? Me: ....... Oh, well, that can happ-- Patient: Another time I dropped off a prescription that was dated for the next day, and they told me they wouldn't be able to fill it until the date that was written on the prescription!!!  Me: ....... Yeah, that's what they have to do. Patient: Oh. Well. STILL!! When I showed up the next morning they told me it STILL wasn't ready! How is that possible when they had the ENTIRE DAY BEFORE to fill it? Me: Well... legally, they wouldn't have been able to fill it until the date written on the prescription. Patient: Oh. Well. Still. They made me wait like 30 minutes.

I'm really gonna enjoy your business, aren't I, sir?

[about15minutes]

me on the way to the time clock to take my lunch

[about15minutes]

"why are you in such a bad mood after work"

[about15minutes]

Studying in the library

Friend 1: [takes a Tylenol]

Friend 2 (jokingly): Did you just take an adderall?

Friend 1: You know adderall doesn't look like that.

[greatgodmars-deactivated2016120]

Customers at work have this really bad habit of handing me a $10 and then going “oh I have the 7 cents!!” after I’ve entered it on the computer and have their change. My computer tells me how much to give them back.

When you’re working at Starbucks, you’re in constant fight or flight mode. There is no such thing as long term memory or higher thinking skills. What exists is what’s in front of you. I had some shit head pull that shit today, and I literally could not switch my brain to math mode to know how much to give him back. I told him I had already entered the amount he originally gave me in and straight up did not know what to give him back. He goes, “just give me two dollars and learn to work on your math skills”

Dude fuck you!! Don’t give me money and then wait until I have your change ready to give my something else! Sorry I’m not a fucking computer dude! Do you really think I couldn’t figure out what change is due if I wasn’t behind this god damn counter running around writing cups and throwing things into the oven? Fucking asshole

[about15minutes]

Yes yes yes! This happens to me ALWAYS, and I consider myself pretty mathematically competent. Even teachers will tell you that "chalkboard math" (i.e. doing simple math in front of a crowd under pressure) is impossible to do, yet sanctimonious asshole still feel the need to make degrading comments. I once had one guy tell me, "You're Asian, shouldn't you be good at math?" Customers just aren't fucking considerate enough to know that on OUR end, we have a million things flying around in our heads and we were barely paying attention to the total/what they paid us/what change owe them anyway. Meanwhile, that's ALL the customers were thinking about, so of course it's easier for them to calculate their own change.

The simplest way to deal with these situations was described to me as follows: if someone gives you extra money (e.g. 50 cents) after you've already put it in the register, just add that quantity to the change (so the change + 50 cents) you were about to give them, which will usually round to the dollar. Sometimes I can do this on my feet, sometimes I can't. 

[about15minutes]

thanks for the answer. It's just so weird, we never have to count out pills unless they are odd numbers (which hospital doctors always seem to prescribe) but we also have to enter each script manually as each patient is responsible for their own scripts so the wait times for each script probably end up quite similar. Do you guys give advice on non-prescription meds as well (like antihistamines, pain meds, cough and cold stuff), or is that someone else's job?

That's so interesting! What about controls like narcotics and amphetamines? And if the doctor writes for a weird number, do you just cut that many out from the blister pack? I'm not sure what you mean by having to manually entering each script, but we also have to type and verify every prescription. The 15-20 second thing refers only to counting pills, but the whole process from start to finish (typing the prescription, counting the drug, verifying the filled rx) for a single script probably would take a couple minutes or so (excluding insurance problems, rude customers, long lines etc :P).

In retail pharmacy, if a patient asks for a recommendation or a question about an OTC drug, technically only the pharmacist (or intern) can answer. Is it the same in Australia?