Trust Me...I'm a Pharmacist.
After 1 month of school, I received my Intern Pharmacist license in the mail.
During my first 3 weeks of class, I learned:
to screen for dyslipidemia, hypertension, osteoporosis, and diabetes
to administer shots intramuscularly and subcutaneously
to give CPR
what it means to be a professional and composed my first CV, ever
the generic, brand, dosage, and indication of the top 100 drugs
that I can handle squeezing and collecting blood from a person's finger
that the world of pharmacy is extremely small
what a graduate school midterm is like
It wasn't until this past week though that the weight of being in pharmacy school really hit me. I signed up to administer vaccinations at the campus pharmacy in order to fulfill one of my class requirements. My classmate and I arrived early and the pharmacist explained to us what paperwork was needed to give a patient a shot. Then that was it. We donned our white coats and went out into pharmacy. I had heard that it was hard to find people to give shots to at this particular pharmacy, so we had to be proactive. This meant going up to every single person that came into the pharmacy and asking in the most tactful, non-awkward way possible
"have you gotten your flu shot yet? Would you like to get one today?"
It was definitely awkward and uncomfortable at first, but the more I asked, the easier it got. The amazing thing was the fact that even though I felt so nervous, unprepared, and young on the inside, to the outside world, as far as they knew, I was a pharmacist.
Several of the people I offered shots to politely declined responding somewhere along the lines of
"I never get the flu shot, doesn't it just make you sick?"
Amazingly, I found a boldness to explain that while some vaccines can cause side effects that are similar to the real infection, it is impossible for them to actually make you sick.
Others responded with gratitude because I came up to them to offer the vaccine and inform them of its availability. Some would also continue and ask me about the OTC product they were thinking of buying.
The conversation that really struck me was with an elderly man. After declining my offer of the flu vaccine, he proceeded to ask me about the zoster vaccine. He wanted to know if we offered it and if there were any side effects. I basically regurgitated everything I learned by studying for the midterm I had just taken, and to my surprise he was satisfied with my response. He thanked me and said he would be back with his zoster vaccine prescription. That's when I realized the weight of my words. Just because I wore a white coat and looked like a pharmacist, the people I talked to believed what I said concerning vaccines and medications.
I will have the opportunity to counsel more people in the future and the advice I give can seriously help or injure a person. It's definitely not something I can take lightly or for granted. I'm unworthy of this position, I've done absolutely nothing to earn this responsibility and privilege, and yet it has been given to me. There's a gospel message in that ;)
