Memories: Pharmacy work experience
Oct. 22nd, 2007 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stephbgI spend a lot of time in pharmacies, and this afternoon I thought I'd write about my only retail experience: two weeks of work experience in the local pharmacy when I was 14 in 1985.
Things I remember:
* I quickly discovered the difference between pharmacist and pharmacologist. Doh.
* The most commonly prescribed drug by volume (and a loooong way): Valium, followed by The Pill. Antibiotics a distant third and everything else bringing up the rear.
* The most exciting thing that could possibly happen: the arrival of the drug delivery. It was like Christmas, but with checklists, and the excuse to go into the dispensary to stack the shelves.
* The task I struggled most with: the banking. The pharmacy was an agency for some tiny bank or other, but I never felt comfortable with the processing, and the threats of recrimination should an error be made.
* The task I felt proudest of: learning how to use the cash register, and curiously becoming a better troubleshooter of it than the regular staff. I defeated a Machine!
* Most stupid action: A man came in with a black eye looking for something to "cover it up". I, er, led him to the flesh-coloured eye patches. He said he was thinking about makeup. I handed him over to someone else. Anyone else. Fled out the back.
* Most boring task: dusting the shelves. We did that a lot.
* Saddest but most useful realisation about the career of retail pharmacist: There's a lot more retail than science in the job, and the pharmacists both wistfully recalled the amount of study they'd had to do and almost never got to use. They both advised me against the career. I'd figured that out on the first day.
* In the two weeks I was there, the pharmacist only "made" two things, one of which I actually made. A mix of chamomile lotion and sulfur for some really bad acne. Possibly some koala eyeballs, but I can't remember that bit too clearly. Fumes. It took a hell of a long time to clean the mortar, pestle, palette knife, marble board and sundry measuring things.
* Lesson learned: I didn't like and had no knack for cleaning things.
* It was kind of fun counting pills, but not sufficiently so to tempt me into the career.
* I was "paid" with a bottle of perfume, which I still have and still use on extraordinarily rare occasions. That scent holds powerful memories of its own. I was a bit miffed to not get any cash though.
* Being on my feet all day *really* hurt and I didn't plan to ever do it again. Mostly succeeded.
* I attended some after hours "professional development" in first aid, and that was when I learned RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. I was less impressed about walking home in the dark.
* The boss asked me to pick up his lunch and put his Lotto numbers in, and it felt Wrong. I've never really shaken that feeling.
* The skill that remained with me the longest: the ability to decipher really really bad handwriting.
* The fear that remained with me the longest: The really really bad handwriting on the prescriptions, and the number of things that could go wrong. Fortunately almost all of the customers were regulars and the pharmacist could make educated guesses. Aiiieee.
What did you learn on work experience?
Things I remember:
* I quickly discovered the difference between pharmacist and pharmacologist. Doh.
* The most commonly prescribed drug by volume (and a loooong way): Valium, followed by The Pill. Antibiotics a distant third and everything else bringing up the rear.
* The most exciting thing that could possibly happen: the arrival of the drug delivery. It was like Christmas, but with checklists, and the excuse to go into the dispensary to stack the shelves.
* The task I struggled most with: the banking. The pharmacy was an agency for some tiny bank or other, but I never felt comfortable with the processing, and the threats of recrimination should an error be made.
* The task I felt proudest of: learning how to use the cash register, and curiously becoming a better troubleshooter of it than the regular staff. I defeated a Machine!
* Most stupid action: A man came in with a black eye looking for something to "cover it up". I, er, led him to the flesh-coloured eye patches. He said he was thinking about makeup. I handed him over to someone else. Anyone else. Fled out the back.
* Most boring task: dusting the shelves. We did that a lot.
* Saddest but most useful realisation about the career of retail pharmacist: There's a lot more retail than science in the job, and the pharmacists both wistfully recalled the amount of study they'd had to do and almost never got to use. They both advised me against the career. I'd figured that out on the first day.
* In the two weeks I was there, the pharmacist only "made" two things, one of which I actually made. A mix of chamomile lotion and sulfur for some really bad acne. Possibly some koala eyeballs, but I can't remember that bit too clearly. Fumes. It took a hell of a long time to clean the mortar, pestle, palette knife, marble board and sundry measuring things.
* Lesson learned: I didn't like and had no knack for cleaning things.
* It was kind of fun counting pills, but not sufficiently so to tempt me into the career.
* I was "paid" with a bottle of perfume, which I still have and still use on extraordinarily rare occasions. That scent holds powerful memories of its own. I was a bit miffed to not get any cash though.
* Being on my feet all day *really* hurt and I didn't plan to ever do it again. Mostly succeeded.
* I attended some after hours "professional development" in first aid, and that was when I learned RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. I was less impressed about walking home in the dark.
* The boss asked me to pick up his lunch and put his Lotto numbers in, and it felt Wrong. I've never really shaken that feeling.
* The skill that remained with me the longest: the ability to decipher really really bad handwriting.
* The fear that remained with me the longest: The really really bad handwriting on the prescriptions, and the number of things that could go wrong. Fortunately almost all of the customers were regulars and the pharmacist could make educated guesses. Aiiieee.
What did you learn on work experience?
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Date: 2007-10-22 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 12:37 pm (UTC)I LOVE IT.
I used to work in a pharmacy. I also worked for pharmaceutical compounders for a while, which was a hell of a lot more fun than pharmacy work, which, yeah, is totally just retail. With the compounders I got to make things, and that was hard on my feet but heaps of fun.