1st Year Goodness

Its almost the end of the first year of Pharmacy school and looking back...I have learned nothing that I can put into practical use in ANY situation. I understand that this is the first year which further knowledge will build off of but come on! I pay thousands of dollars to be in graduate school and I learned nothing practical for the first 8 months! What the hell!? I have the same responsibilities as a 2nd or 3rd year intern and how well do you think I can consult a patient with my 'vast' knowledge of pharmaceuticals???? Might as well let one of the dumbass techs at my Pharmacy teach the patient about their medication. I'm not saying I am a dumbass but the fact of the matter is the same...if they allow us as pharm students to have so much responsibility at least teach us something useful in the first year about our careers as Pharmacists rather than training us to be a hybrid of nurses and statisticians. Do I honestly care how to use a Othalmoscope or how to calculate P and T-value of clinical data. If I wanted to physically interact with patients I would've applied to Med School or if I wanted to do research I would've done my PhD...but wait--oh my! I'm in PHARMACY school.

I am sure many would bitch and complain about my rant saying things like its important to understand and diagnose DRPs and understand the Drug Handouts and blah blah blah. I don't care...I don't care who you are...if you're in Pharmacy School- no matter what you say- 90% of you all are going to end up in fucking Rite-Aid or CVS, it is inevitable and it is a career in which 4 years of training is totally unnecessary. All you need to know is : how to count by five and how to find answers to questions on the internet!

This is how I feel about Pharmacy after one year. I know its terrible but it makes my life a hell of a lot more interesting when I bitch and complain about how stupid the patients and colleagues I interact with are! Honestly though, I love my career choice because I have accepted my fate as an overworked pill dispenser, and a constant search on salary.com makes me smile.

Plus working at a Pharmacy is the perfect job for a cynic like myself. There is no other job where you can face the most obnoxious uptight assholes and despite their constant bitching and yelling is depending on you to dispense their medication. Therefore I have so much material to rant about the patients yet my ego isn't destroyed because I know they NEED me!

Which pharmacy associate has NOT purposely gone slower than usual to dispense a medication or transfer a script for a patient who is a complete fuckface!? I take my profession very seriously, though I bitch about it, and extend my scope of practice beyond pharmaceutical care, I am a social counselor that teaches individuals to become more polite and patient with the world. While many are intimidated by the constipated look the patients gives them when it takes more than 45 seconds to fill their order (since when did CVS or Rite-Aid become a damn Taco Bell??) , I take that as a sign that I am making him/her into a more humble person. See, as an intern--I am making the world a better place!

--IISboy