During my freshman year in high school, my science teacher assigned us to interview people in the community about how they use science in their careers. Although I don’t remember most of the people I spoke with, I can tell you that I spent meaningful time with a local community pharmacist who changed my life.
What I saw was a man who loved his career and truly cared for his patients. In an instant, I knew that I wanted to become a pharmacist, and I never wavered from that goal throughout high school.
Knowing what you want to be when you grow up at age 14 is unusual, but it is very liberating. I simply had to work backwards to figure out how to achieve my goal of becoming a pharmacist.
After high school, I chose to attend Ohio Northern University (ONU) because it had a unique pharmacy program. Rather than attending college for 2 years and then applying to the pharmacy program, ONU students were admitted to the College of Pharmacy from day one.
Although it was expensive, being in pharmacy school from day one and avoiding the risk of rejection made it worthwhile for me.
In college, I spent a lot of time in the library. Although the classwork was difficult, I did well with one exception: organic chemistry.
I did fail organic chemistry—a notorious “weed out” course—but I successfully retook the class over the summer and graduated on time with the rest of my classmates. Failing a course is a difficult stumbling block, but I stood strong and persevered.
Today, I’m thankful for the wonderful pharmacy profession for so many reasons.
First, I’m thankful that community pharmacists are the health care professionals most accessible to the public. If my local pharmacist wasn’t accessible to me, then I likely would have taken a different career path.
Second, I’m proud of the work we pharmacists do, the diversity of our career options, and the relationships we share with our patients and fellow health care providers.
Pharmacy is a profession that makes a real difference in people’s lives. It certainly has made all the difference in mine.
Two young pharmacists are talking professionally at their office.
Boy Pharmacist. : What do you want this time, with coat or without coat ?
Gal Pharmacist: with coating, because I don't want to release granules earlier.
Boy Pharmacist: So, Shall I start molding?
Gal Pharmacist: No, No... first close the door and window and switch off, because this work is light sensitive.
Guy runs into a pharmacy. He dashes to the counter and exclaims, "Please, help! I've got a splinter in my finger and I don't know what to do!" The pharmacist grabs a bottle of Ichthammol Ointment and says to the man, "Here my good sir...Try this black salve." To which the man replies, "This is no time for heavy metal music!"
A chemist walks into a pharmacy and asks the pharmacist, "Do you have any acetylsalicylic acid?"
"You mean aspirin?" asked the pharmacist.
"That's it, I can never remember that word."
Pharmacy, Retail | PA, USA | Right | March 12, 2016
(I work in the front end of a pharmacy retailer that recently stopped selling cigarettes in an effort to promote customer health. It’s been almost two years, but exchanges like this still happen regularly.)
Customer: “Hi, I’ll have a carton of [Brand] cigarettes.”
(I look behind me to where the cigarettes used to be stored, where there is now a large sign with a crossed out cigarette and a slogan that reads: “Quitting starts here.”)
(A customer is making a purchase, which has been going normally until the end.)
Me: “All right, that’ll be [amount].”
Customer: “What? That poster-board was supposed to be $4.99.”
(I go with her to check the price marked on the shelf.)
Me: “This is where it was supposed to go; someone put it in the wrong place.”
(I indicate the $8.99 shelf tag; assuming that she wants a $4.99 pack, I grab one and return to the front, to which she does not object. I void out the more expensive pack and ring up the other. After I finish ringing it up…)
Customer: “That’s not the poster-board I want.”
Me: “It’s the pack that’s $4.99.”
Customer: “Well, you don’t have to be so rude about it. Just void that and I’ll pick out the poster-board.”
Me: “All right, your other items will be six—”
(I’m cut off by the customer walking away to pick out her poster-board without finishing the sale for her other items, with three customers waiting in line behind her, and no other cashiers on duty. Fortunately, the other register hasn’t been closed out yet, so I can still ring them up somewhere. She finally returns with the poster-board she wants, but I need manager approval because of all the voided items.)
Me: *over the PA, right in front of her* “Manager approval at the front, please.”
Customer: “Why isn’t the sale going through?!”
Me: “I need approval because of all the voids.”
Customer: “You could have said something!”
(Finally, my manager can pass the sale through, with the customer complaining about my service the whole time; my manager promises to have a talk with me over it. Once the store is empty…)
Manager: “So… from how she was acting, I’m guessing she was already in a b***h-fit when she came in?”
(It is just after daylight savings and the clock in our work room has not been changed yet. My coworker decides to take matters into her own hands and stacks up boxes to be able to reach it. She then makes a face about how dusty it is.)
Coworker: “Oh my! I’m gonna have an asthma attack. I don’t have asthma but I’m gonna catch it from this!”
(This coming from someone who works in a pharmacy and knows how this stuff works!)
(Our store has recently been purchased by another independent chain and has undergone a massive remodel. All of our stock has been moved to different locations and some things we used to have are not available anymore. As the staff is learning the new layout, we inevitably have this conversation with customers three times a day…)
Customer: “I’m trying to find [Product].”
Staff: “Well if you need any help finding it, let us know and we’ll be just as lost as you are!”
(I work in the call center of a pharmacy that takes care of long term facilities such as nursing homes. As such, we speak mostly with the nurses taking care of the patients.)
Me: “Hello, I am calling from [Pharmacy] and need to know if a patient was discharged from your facility. We see another patient has been admitted into their room.”
Nurse: “All right, who was the patient?”
Me: “[Name of patient].”
Nurse: “Oh, yes she was discharged to the hospital this morning. She isn’t doing too well.”
Me: *typing her answer without thinking* “Oh, wonderful, thank you so much!”
(The nurse was silent until I said goodbye and I didn’t even think about my response until I had hung up. I promise I am not that cold!)
(An extremely rude customer has just left our pharmacy after we refused to fill his prescription. We legally couldn’t fill it without his doctor’s permission because another pharmacy had filled the same medication the day before. The tech who helped him is telling us what happened.)
Tech: “…and so then he said, ‘I make more money in a day than you do in a month!’”
Pharmacist: “Well, what you should have said is, ‘Yeah, but I have ninety Xanax back here and you don’t.’”
Pharmacy | Allentown, PA, USA | Right | January 20, 2016
(I work as a pharmacy technician. A lady needs her medication refilled but has no refills left. I offer to call the doctor for her but she is mad that we won’t just fill her prescription then and there. Her medication is used for blood pressure.)
Customer: “Since you won’t give me my medication, can I just take this in the meantime?” *holds up aspirin*
Me: “Uhm… no. Aspirin is not the same as your [blood pressure medication].”
Customer: “Why? It’s the same size and color as my medication.”
(I’m a 23-year-old woman who moved away from home over four years ago. I have no significant other or kids, so I’m only fending for myself. Because I rarely get sick, I have never gotten around to buying a thermometer. Finally I do catch a cold, so I decide to pick one up. I’m not feeling entirely clearheaded because of my cold.)
Pharmacy Assistant: “Hi, how can I help you?”
Me: “Hi! I’m looking for a thermometer. Where can I find them?”
Pharmacy Assistant: “They’re here.” *shows me a baby thermometer* “This one is really good if your kids are really young, because it has a soft tip and it gives results fast.” *shows me two more baby thermometers* “These are also good for kids.”
(A long silence follows, as I try to figure out in my woozy head why I should be using it on kids, not myself.)
Pharmacy Assistant: “Oh, and here’s our basic model. But those are all really good for kids!” *looks at me expectantly*
(Feeling like a bad mother to my non-existent children, I picked up the basic model and thanked her. Don’t adults take their own temperature any more?)
Pharmacy | Washington, DC, USA | Working | November 26, 2015
(My wife has a bad eye infection and after a trip to the doctor, we take her prescription for antibiotic eye-drops to a pharmacy to be filled. They tell us we can pick it up in an hour. A little more than an hour later I go back to pick it up.)
Me: “Hi, I’m picking up a prescription for [Wife].”
Pharmacist: “We don’t seem to have that here. When did you drop it off?”
Me: “About an hour ago.”
Pharmacist: “Oh, here’s the record… This won’t be ready for three days. We don’t have it here.”
Me: “What? She has an infection and needs her medicine now, not three days from now. Why didn’t you tell us it would take so long when we dropped it off so we could go to another pharmacy?”
Pharmacist: “Well, we just got the shipment in today, but we haven’t opened the boxes yet to take out the medicine.”
Me: “It takes three days to open a box?”
Pharmacist: “Well, I guess if you want to wait 10 or 15 minutes, I can get it for you.”
Me: “…Yes. Do that, please.”
Pharmacist: *sighing* “Fine, I’ll go get it. I hate having to open the boxes.”
An artist asked the gallery owner if there had been any interest in his paintings on display at that time.
"I have good news and bad news," the owner replied. "The good news is that a gentleman enquired about your work and wondered if it would appreciate in value after your death. When I told him it would, he bought all 15 of your paintings."
"That's wonderful," the artist exclaimed. "What's the bad news?"
"The guy was your doctor..."
An artist had been working on a nude portrait for a long time. Every day, he was up early and worked late - bringing perfection with every stroke of his paint brush. As each day passed, he gained a better understanding of the female body and was able to really make his paintings shine.
After a month, the artist had become very weary from this non-stop effort and decided to take it easy for the day. Since his model had already shown up, he suggested they merely have a glass of wine and talk - since normally he preferred to do his painting in silence.
They talked for a few hours, getting to know each other better. Then as they were sipping their claret, the artist heard a car arriving outside. He jumped up and said, "Oh no! It's my wife! Quick, take off your clothes!"
After his wife divorced him, Joe asked his best friend, Bill, to fix him up with a blind date. Bill obliged. The next day Joe called up Bill and shouted at him angrily: "Bill, what kind of a guy do you think I am. That girl you fixed me up with was cross-eyed; she was almost bald; her nose was long, thin and crooked; she had hair growing on her face; she was flat chested; and her ankles were as thick as her thighs".
Bill answered: "Either you like Picasso, or you don't like Picasso
There was this world famous painter. In the prime of her career, she started losing her eyesight. Fearful that she might lose her life as a painter, she went to see the best eye surgeon in the world.
After several weeks of delicate surgery and therapy, her eyesight was restored. The painter was so grateful that she decided to show her gratitude by repainting the doctor's office.
Part of her work included painting a gigantic eye on one wall. When she had finished her work, she held a press conference to unveil her latest work of art: the doctor's office.
During the press conference, one reporter noticed the eye on the wall, and asked the doctor, "What was your first reaction upon seeing your newly painted office, especially that large eye on the wall?"
To this, the eye doctor responded, "I said to myself 'Thank God I'm not a proctologist.'"
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