My First Blog Post -- Introduction
This is my first blog post ever, so I wanted to provide an introduction about myself. I currently work as a pharmacist at an independent pharmacy. My role is clinical pharmacy lead which I investigate ways where our pharmacy can provide clinical services. If anyone has experience with this, you would know this is a frustrating battle since this is not a common practice. In a typical retail pharmacy, your job is to check prescriptions for patients hence the term, “vending machine pharmacist”. This is a lot of what you will see at large chains like Walmart, CVS, Walgreens and more. I am here to change stigma of retail pharmacy by developing a sustainable program.
To be honest with myself I absolutely hate writing and it is
not one of my strong skills. That begs
the question, why would I take the challenge of writing? Well, I found myself frustrated. Frustrated with healthcare, frustrated with
patients thinking it’s our fault their copay is so high, and frustrated with companies
making tons of money off retail pharmacies.
I am using this as an avenue to vent my frustration and open the door to
the problems we face.
Let take a deeper dive into myself. I graduated pharmacy school in 2019 right
before the Covid-19 drama we are currently facing. My passion has always been being a hospital
pharmacist. I enjoy the rush of rounding
on patients and providing detail care to each of these patients. For me, it is like a puzzle. I must figure out the problem of each patient
and provide an individual care plan for each patient. Yes, the doctor is the one who assesses the
patient, but it is my job to make sure the doctor treats the patient with the
most appropriate medication. So why did I
choose retail. For one, most hospital
jobs require or look for someone who has completed a residency. Second, I enjoy a challenge of maybe one day
owning and operating my own pharmacy and if I can become successful in creating
clinical services then I would be doing the same thing as working in a hospital.
I hope to bring you along in my journey to education you about
what retail pharmacy is. As I said it is
more than just being a “vending machine pharmacist”. I will also provide insight to how we operate
as a business. We must watch so many
things as you will learn most of our income is out of our control. So, sit back and enjoy my rant. Please feel free to commit. I look forward to hear your thoughts.