Week 3 in community pharmacy

Posted by Nina Cimino at Wednesday, September 14, 2011

It's really amazing how quickly rotations fly by, and how quickly you adjust to an environment when you're there everyday. So far, both of my rotations have felt overwhelming (in different ways) during my first week, and, by week 3, I've started feeling comfortable in my new environment.

Now that I have been in the community pharmacy for 2 and 1/2 weeks, I'm feeling more comfortable and enjoying it a lot more. I have gotten to know the pharmacists and technicians a lot better, and I really enjoy working with them. I'm lucky to be with people who are used to having students and who are fun to be around. Another thing that has been beneficial, is that the pharmacy staff is now more comfortable with me. Now that the technicians and pharmacists have seen me counsel patients and answer questions effectively, they seem more comfortable referring questions to me. This is great for me, because now I get to spend more time counseling and answering questions, which is my favorite part of community pharmacy!

As I mentioned in my last post, one thing I've been working on this rotation is letting things roll off my back. I've had some patients who are extremely nice and grateful for my help, and I've had others who are extremely rude. I think I'm getting better at taking everything with a grain of salt, and not letting angry patients upset me too much. The technicians have to get used to this too, and they have given me good advice and helped me to not take things too personally. I try to keep in mind that I only see a small snapshot of these patients' lives, and I don't know what else they may be dealing with. Remembering that patients may have a whole lot going on besides whatever brought them to the pharmacy helps me to not take it personally when they get upset with things besides my control (like insurance co-pays).