Ever since I began working at Walgreens more than three years ago as a pharmacy technician I told myself that I would never work in community pharmacy as an actual pharmacist. The reasons may not be well known to the general public, but pharmacy bloggers in the know have published accounts of their personal experiences. The truth is that most pharmacists work in community pharmacies. Unfortunately, the majority of these individuals are not properly engaged with (read: in control of) their professional work spaces let alone the decision-making that you would expect is part of a pharmacist’s job description.
Ideals and Reality in Community Pharmacy
Posted in pharmacy Tagged APhA, assertiveness, drugstore, introduction, job description, perception, values, walgreens Leave a comment
Is Your Pharmacist Lazy?
Lately, there has been some controversy regarding brand name prescription medications and their generic equivalents. Anecdotal reports followed up by scientific inquiry suggests that for certain classes of medications (frankly heavy-duty stuff for blood pressure and seizures,) generics significantly under-perform compared to their brand name kin. This is interesting enough from a pharmacological standpoint but the following statement from the linked article also caught my eye:
A pharmacist is not required to notify the patient of the change (from brand name to generic), although some choose to do so.
Posted in pharmacy Tagged counseling, drugstore, FDA, generics, job description, perception, pharmacology, public 1 Comment
The Pharmaceutical Industry Pharmacist
When you think of prescription medications you may think of the pharmaceutical industry which is involved in researching and developing drugs and then bringing them to market. When you think of pharmacy, you probably think of the corner drugstore where the pharmacist dispenses those same pharmaceutical drugs. Naturally, you would think pharmacists work within the pharmaceutical industry, and they do. This post is to inform you on what these pharmacists do behind the scenes.
Posted in pharmacy Tagged health professions, job description, pharmaceutical industry Leave a comment
Of Pharmacists and Passive-Aggressive Blogs
Do a simple google search with the search terms pharmacy and blog and you will find that the top results feature sites such as The Angry Pharmacist and Your Pharmacist May Hate You. The fact that these blogs are listed so prominently has much to do with their popularity. Having followed these blogs for I while, I suspect that their authors’ rants and raves strike a chord with many pharmacists who can identify with their experiences and viewpoints. Being unequivocally controversial probably doesn’t hurt their popularity either.
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