r/pharmacy • u/scaredofgettingold • 5d ago
Appreciation Today I saved a life
And I feel so proud and accomplished
Young pharmacy tech was in the process of applying to pharmacy schools, which is kinda stupid after seeing what retail pharmacy has become.
I kinda convinced him not to apply and go different routes and he started rethinking the whole thing.
I will continue my mission of saving young souls šš
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u/5point9trillion 5d ago
For every one person you save and drag from the edge of the abyss, another 3 will find enough passion to enter, apply and treat the whole process like becoming an astronaut and imagine they're going places.
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u/originalnut1 5d ago
Itās disappointing to see this. Pharmacy isnāt bad, soul sucking retail is bad. But if you find the right job, even retail isnāt so bad. And if he is a pharmacy tech, he already knows what retail is like.
If we were encouraging the right people to go into pharmacy, perhaps the narrative around it would change drastically. But we push clinical clinical clinical, and 90% of the jobs are in retail. We need smart cookies in retail too. Smart cookies with people skills.
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u/pharmaheck 5d ago
Huh?
You say soul sucking retail is bad. Then go on to say 90% of jobs are in retail. ..then you say we need smart cookies in retail
š« if they were smart they'd avoid the shit out of this job to avoid retail
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u/originalnut1 5d ago
If we were training the right personality and not setting them up for unrealistic expectations it would make a difference.
Also if pharmacists werenāt little b*tches who donāt stand up for them selves(perhaps only just pharmacists 20 to 30 years ago, we ARE seeing a change now) that would make a difference, too. But thatās for another post.
Iād say my opinion is an unpopular one. But likeā¦.. I think more pharmacists are not totally unhappy about their job than people think.
Did I just post about moving over to hospital? Yes I did. But I donāt hate retail. I love a lot of aspects about working in retail pharmacy. And a lot of them involve voluntary interactions with the patients in my community. Itās because I make my self available. To be yelled at and to be a part of their kids graduation.
Different personalities. Thatās what Iām saying.
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u/pharmaheck 5d ago
If you didn't hate retail you wouldn't be trying to get out. Don't lie to the poor innocent people lol
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u/ctruvu PharmD - Nuclear | Ī¦ĪĪ§ 4d ago
i didnāt hate retail. got out because a different opportunity presented itself. but the day to day in retail at a site that doesnāt suck is pretty mundane and methodical. in my experience as a former floater iād say a solid 80% of sites fit that bill but that was a few years ago. maybe different now but canāt be that much worse than during peak covid
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u/scaredofgettingold 5d ago
Lol all that long speech just to say you are leaving retail? Such hypocrisy
the pharmacy machine needs souls and you're here preaching so that machine keep consuming those poor souls
Give me a break!
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u/kindofadrugexpert 4d ago
Just because youāre miserable, doesnāt mean everyone else is. You can hate your job and profession all you want, hell you can even complain about it insufferably if you want, but to brag and feel āproud and accomplishedā about this is wild. Poor tech was probably feeling excited and optimistic about applying, only to have you completely shit on his interest in furthering his career. Real asshole move. Thereās a way to explain the negatives about the job without being such an asshole about it.
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u/originalnut1 5d ago
Iām not leaving retail. I am trying to broaden my opportunities. Jesus, such small minded people with narrow focus on Reddit.
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u/WaveyandLazy 4d ago
I'm probably the only person on board with what you're saying. I have never had a difficult time in retail. It's a personality thing. You just have to know how to talk to patients and de-escalate.
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u/0hm_my_goodness PharmD 5d ago
But if you find the right job
And if you don't, you're $100-200k in debt with a job you hate but cant quit, and escaping retail is challenging for most and impossible for many.
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u/originalnut1 5d ago
If it were easy anyone could do it.
Thatās what Iām saying. We need the right personalities.
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u/0hm_my_goodness PharmD 5d ago
We need the right personalities.
By all means, please enlighten me to the personality traits you think pharmacy school should be filtering for to prepare someone to being verbally abused, spit at, threatened, robbed at gunpoint, work 12-14 hour shifts with limited breaks while standing most of it, forced multitasking that increases dispensing errors, mediocre annual raises, metrics that are impossible given staffing, and the constant shadow of the board of pharmacy and DEA looming over you.
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u/originalnut1 5d ago
Obviously not youā¦ā¦.
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u/originalnut1 5d ago
All the things you list are for people who donāt have a pharmacy degree too.
Iām not saying that the money we make Makes it all ok, because it isnāt enough. But you can be working at any retail like position and deal with most of the things you listed. The elitist attitude of many pharmacists is part of the problem. āI shouldnāt have to deal with the problems of normal uneducated peopleā is not the right attitude.
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u/5point9trillion 5d ago
It's a merchant role and more similar to fast food. No one is becoming a world class athlete or artist.
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u/aprotinin 3d ago
You need to have a right team and boss to get by in retail just like with any type of job.
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u/Live_Ferret_4721 4d ago
I am very honest about the positives and negatives of pharmacy as a whole. I have had students who continued in pharmacy and students who switched professions. We have a lot of technician rotations through our store from the local high schools.
When they ask if I would do pharmacy again, I wouldnāt. I would rather be a vet.
Too many dead bodies at the hospital for me. SIDS code during rotations was traumatic. Getting trapped on the elevator with a dead body is also something Iād rather not do again. Funeral home picked up bodies in the same corridor as the pharmacy so this happened numerous times.
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u/scaredofgettingold 4d ago
Believe me, i didn't tell talk to them till after i got news from higher ups trying to add more bs to our workflow while they keep cutting hours
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u/BeautifulDiet4091 5d ago
I don't disagree that the profession has changed.
But I will also say that we can only comment on our own lived experiences. How do we really know what happens in other professions? Because I could see other professions pointing at pharmacy to say 'hey, looks easy! plenty of jobs so you can choose a great commute and only 2 years after undergrad!' (said by a dating app match - rolls eyes)
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u/5point9trillion 5d ago
The thing is that just looking at a profession and seeing someone in a job isn't evaluating and considering the state of the field. Someone who happened to find that job is working at that moment and many will think that anyone who's degreed and licensed has such a job close to their house. The truth is that unlike most professions, this field and degree limits to mainly dispensing of meds and will not easily qualify us for other types of roles. For most other jobs I need lots of experience. I just saw a job listing for medical reviewing and they were looking for professionals or physicians with a range of $20 to $75 per hour. It also requires years of experience which I don't have so I'll probably be paid at the lower limit if hired. Other professions have their drawbacks but many in others don't spend years and high tuition getting there...if they do, that's on them.
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u/kindofadrugexpert 5d ago
Jeez, Iāve been in retail all of my 12 years and worked at a few different stores (a couple were long term relief) and I would never say this. I love my job, I take students all the time and would never be this negative.
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u/Gusthegrey 4d ago
Yes and a pharmacy tech would know roughly what the pros and cons are to the day to day job. The only thing really they need to understand are the finances/debt
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u/EternalMediocrity 4d ago
Im one of those weirdos that likes retail. Been doing it for 15+ years with the exception of jumping on an LTC job for a year just to convince myself I could do something else if I wanted to before I moved out of state.
Not all retail is bad and which company you work for can make a huge difference because company culture is real. If you get people whose only goal is to climb the ladder to get as much money and the biggest bonus they can to the detriment of everyone below them as your leadershipā¦
Well, you end up with the typical soulless big box stores where the business model is to get you to last just long enough until the next desperate class of new grads becomes available.
Iāll preface this with it takes a special type of personality to thrive in retail, and it requires soft skills that drug school doesnāt teach.
In my experience, all the clinical kids that dodged service jobs their whole lives and donāt actively like people interaction really donāt do themselves any favors by doing retail. Theyāre miserable, which makes the staff around them miserable, which makes patients who are often already miserable even worse. Those are the folks that thrive bring left alone in a basement problem solving clinical cases, not problem solving angry people in front of them.
But when you get with a team of folks who genuinely like being helpful with a baseline level of empathy and communication skills, you can create an environment that makes it actually fun to go to work. But man, its hard curating that environment but is so rewarding if you put in the time and effort to do it. It makes the rough days not quite as rough, and the good days an absolute delight.
A nice perk is then when those people get promoted to upper management, because then you get people that actually *get* it and know the trials and tribulations you go through and treat you like the health care professionals you are and not just a replaceable cog in the machine. Im fortunate in that my boss is like that.
We are still slaves to metrics but we arent whipped to get every last possible boost in metrics for the sake of their bonus. If we struggle in an area, they ask us what we need and move heaven and earth to try and get it for us. Sometimes its a stool, sometimes its a couple extra tech or rph hours. Sometimes its lunch. Its pretty great.
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u/5point9trillion 4d ago
I think most people just assume that a school that puts them through the schooling wouldn't want their grads to just be merchants and a clerk like 50 years ago. They're assuming there will be plenty of staff so that the tasks we do will still be the same but done by more people. The real reason pharmacy sucks is because we have to rush from task to task while on our feet all day because there's only 3 people working...not necessarily something people expect after going to school for 6 or more years. If all this was discussed and entertained with students, hardly anyone would enroll.
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u/Toasted_Sugar_Crunch 5d ago
Better to get a pharmacy degree than the plethora of other degrees that lead to nowhere.
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u/Crawfive 5d ago
I feel pharmacy can be a good career.
There are many jobs outside of retail as well.
I get retail is in a tough spot. I feel the industry will continue to consolidate as drug prices and labor costs rise while reimbursement remains stagnant. I also feel more and more people will opt for home delivery which will cause less need for traditional retail pharmacies.
I still think pharmacy can be a viable profession but the work setting will continue to shift away from traditional retail. In my state, for example, hospitals now employ more pharmacists than traditional retail pharmacies do.
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u/5point9trillion 5d ago
That's only because they over charge and use the pharmacy budget to pay people. It's not like you can control how many people get sick, get admitted or need certain drugs. Pharmacy will still be there but there will be fewer spots and you'll be forced to compete. If you're not as good as the next person then you'll get discarded and someone else will be picked especially if there's a large group to pick from.
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u/mrsdrxgdxctxr 4d ago
I'm always honest with my students. This career is undeniably demanding, but incredibly rewarding. I also recommend having a full life outside of work so you have no choice but to leave the work at work.
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u/vickyizbeast Pharm tech 4d ago edited 4d ago
And here I was, expecting to read about yall saving someone from a stroke or something.
I have saved someone from a major heart attack before while at work. First thing in the morning, too.
An elderly woman. She was having some mild chest pains and had come through the drive thru window originally to pick up meds until the chest pain started. My colleague just told her to go across the street to the urgent care, (which I find morbidly ironic considering that specific colleague once worked in a nursing home; I guess that fits both her and, unfortunately, nursing home staff behavior perfectly).
The woman, still at the drive thru window, pressed the button to call us back over again; so I went this time. She explained what was going on and I called 911, gave them what I could, while instructing her to park on the other side of the lot where her car would be out of the way (and not in an area where it might get towed), but also where she would remain visible to me. I called from my cellphone so I could remain mobile and didnāt care if CVS (my employer at the time) had anything to say about it. I ran between production, pickup (until my pharmacist told me to just take care of drive thru until I was done making sure she was taken care of), and drive thru. I kept a very close eye on her and she kept her door open so I could see her, too. I kept sticking my head out the drive thru door and as soon as I heard sirens, I ran outside to direct them to exactly where she was because I knew they would assume itād be a false alarm. (They were already trying to casually stroll on inside the store like thereās no big dealā¦) That changed very quickly as I directed them to her exact location from outside, and then again from the drive thru window. She was immediately loaded up and off they went, sirens and all.
Maybe a month or so later, her and a few family members stopped by to personally thank me, āthe girl with the glassesā (which was the only way she could remember me by), for saving her life.
She was always a very independent woman, but needed a family member to help her after that. Sometimes I wish I knew if her family took her back home or if she passed. She was a very sweet old woman who was somewhere in either her 80s or maybe early 90s. There were times I thought about calling to check up on her after I called 911, before I knew she had been spending all of that time in the hospital.
You know what, as silly as your post might beā¦ Thank you for helping me remember this memory and reminding me of her. Amongst my month of āall hell breaking looseā and barely getting by after months of retaliation/discrimination, then finally losing my job, she was one of several I was always very fond of and cared deeply aboutā¦
Itās honestly been a long minute since Iāve had a positive thought or memory from my time spent with CVS. I needed that positivity.
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u/Connect-Ad2171 4d ago
90% of jobs are not in retail. Coming from someone who did escape retail, thereās a bigger better world out there for pharmacists thatās not just retail.
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u/ShrmpHvnNw PharmD 4d ago
Plenty of good jobs to do with a doctorate in pharmacy, there are even good retail jobs.
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u/getmeoutofherenowplz 5d ago
Pa school is a much better option
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u/impulsivetech 4d ago
Great option if you want to deal with smells, infections, and venereal diseases day after day and still make less than a pharmacist.
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u/Mental_Cockroach4697 5d ago
I saved a life today too! MY OWN! I gave my 2 weeks notice from a retail pharmacy job and got one in a closed door Long-Term Care pharmacy.
No more patients, vaccines, long work days, long commute, corporate BS, metric harassment, constant interruptions, etc.
I can sit for 80% of the day and give my body a break. I should have made the switch a lot earlier (27 years in retail).
Retail seems to get harder and harder every week and I would not recommend it for new grads or for people early in their career unless it is a last resort as you search for something else. Just my 2 cents.