Stressed Out!

#20June2012 Wednesday.

CELEBRATING THE END OF FOURTH SEMESTER AS UM PHARMACY STUDENTS

@

THE MINES SERDANG.

Wordless Wednesday 21

Ahlan wa Sahlan ya Ramadhan

To all muslimin and muslimat, 

Happy Holy Month of  Ramadhan and May All of Us Managed to Fulfill the Fourth of the Five Pillars of Islam Successfully.

      Besides the five-times-daily prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadan is compulsory on each and every Muslims who had reached puberty.  It's most visible and recognizable of Muslim acts the world over. During the 30-odd days of Ramadan, Muslims are required to fast during daylight hours starting from dawn(Subuh) until dusk(Maghrib). During fasting Muslims are prohibited from drinking, eating and abstain from bodily pleasures like sex or other forms of sensual abandon. The focus is on humility, spiritual oneness with God and social oneness with the community.

      Although Ramadan is when Muslims fast most, they may fast voluntarily the rest of the year. For example, fast for three days a month or six days during the month of Syawal, or fast on Mondays and Thursdays. Each of these proscriptions is recognized in Islam. For different religions, we are practicing different ways of fasting. But every religion believed that, fasting having great advantages include developing a healthy lifestyle, building healthy body, helping body digestive system, strengthening the faith towards our Almighty Allah and purifying one’s body and soul. Plus, fasting also can increase the patience, self-control and reducing temper. The advantages are very diverse. So let's grab the chance while we still in this Barakah month.

Why I Get Paid So Goddamned Much

***Patient Dialogue

***Pharmacist Dialogue

"Yes, I'm calling to get a refill of my blood pressure medicine." 

I could have just done what the woman wanted and filled her blood pressure medicine. One more prescription to get credit for and one more sale in the cash register. That's what I'm here for you know, just to put pills in a bottle.

Instead my super-spidey pharmacy sense kicked in.

"Well, I see we haven't filled these for you since October, has everything been going alright with your medicine?"

"Oh yes, it seems to work just fine, it's just that I don't need it that often"

Yes. This was definitely going to be a case for super-pharmacist.

"Hmmmmmm......well, blood pressure is usually a type of condition that's treated all the time....."

One of the reasons I make so damn much is because I know stuff like that.

"Well sometimes it gets up over 150 you know. And I'm scared I'm gonna have a stroke or something."

"I see, well do you have a blood pressure machine at home?"

I will point out again, I could have just filled her pills. That's all she was looking for. If I had just put some pills in a bottle I would have had a happy customer.

"Uh-huh. I usually measure it once a week or so, and most of the time it's OK, but sometimes it gets up to 150 or so."

"Well it's normal for a person's blood pressure to go up and down over the course of a day. The problem is when it goes up and stays up"

"Really?"

I'll also point out, that I was putting other people's pills in their bottles the entire time this conversation was going on.

"Oh sure, your doctor probably told you something like that when he wrote the prescription."

 I needed to find out where the doctor was in this mess.

"He said he wasn't sure if I was gonna need 'em or not, but honey, he went over everything so fast, I can't remember half of what he said." 

So now I knew the doctor's role. He started the process and then was nowhere to be found when the next time he was needed. I was on my own here. So was she. That's why I now became her honey.

"I tell you what."

"OK...."

I could hear the happy anticipation in her voice that someone in a white coat was actually going to give helpful guidance. I could have told her to hop-up and down-on one foot and cluck like a chicken at that point and she happily would have.

"Take your blood pressure a couple times a day here for the next few days. Mix it up.....sometimes in the morning, afternoon, sometimes in the evening, after eating, before eating, you get the idea, right?"

"Oh sure"

"Keep track of it in a notebook or something, then call me back in a few days and we'll figure out what to do about these high blood pressure pills"

She called me back today and has better blood pressure readings than I do. THAT'S WHY I MAKE SO GODDAMN MUCH. Not because my blood pressure's higher than hers, but because I can figure out when it's best not to make a sale.


Source:

DrugMonkey. Your Pharmacist May Hate You: You Wanna Know Why I Get Paid So Goddamned Much? I'll Tell You Why I Get Paid So Goddamned Much [Internet]. 2008 July 21 [cited 2012 July 17]. Available from: http://drugmonkey.blogspot.com/2008/07/you-wanna-know-why-i-get-paid-so.htm

Have you ever notice the person with white coat, doing a ward round in the morning, checking patient condition with no stethoscope around their neck neither in the pocket is a pharmacist?   

Do you ever realize who's the person spending lot times with you, listening you mumbling and ensure you are taking your medicine in the right dose and time is a pharmacist?

Don't you know the person that give consultation regarding the medicines intake when you are about to discard from the hospital?

*BECAUSE YOU EXPECT THAT PERSON IS A DOCTOR*

don't you?

Why Pharmacist are Paid High?

My eyes was caught by this popular-search-keywords "why pharmacist paid so much" when i was googling recently. Well, it's kinda big issue bought up by some people. Without further delayed, I started to read some of the articles posted regarding the issues.

The fundamental role of pharmacists as a healthcare practitioner was to distribute drugs that had been prescribed to patients. In these days, pharmacists advise patients and health care providers on the selection, dosages, drugs interactions, and side effects of medications.

       They also act as a middle person between a prescriber (doctor) and a patient. Besides, pharmacists also monitor the health and progress of patients to ensure the safe and effective use of medication. Pharmacists may prepare the prescribed medications. However, many medicines are now produced by pharmaceutical companies in a standard dosage and suitable drug delivery form. But, still certain medications have to be prepared once it is prescribed due to certain factors.

     One of the most important roles that pharmacists are currently taking on is one of pharmaceutical care. Pharmaceutical care involves taking direct responsibility on the patient's disease states, medications, and the management. It helps in improving the outcome for each patient. Pharmaceutical care gives many benefits such as decreasing in medication errors, increasing patient compliance to medication regimen, better chronic disease state management, strong pharmacist-patient relationship and decreased long-term costs of medical care.

    Believe it or not, pharmacists are often the first point-of-contact for patients with health inquiries. This means that pharmacists have large roles in the assessing medication management in patients, and in referring patients to physicians. Other roles include:

• compounding medicines
• pharmacokinetic of drug evaluation
• providing pharmaceutical information
• supervising pharmacy technicians and other staffs
• referrals to other health professionals if necessary
• double check of dispensing medicines on prescription
• provision of non-prescription or over-the-counter drugs
• promoting public health by administering immunizations
• assessment of patients with non-diagnosed or diagnosed conditions
• clinical medication management, including reviewing and monitoring of medication regimens
• specialized monitoring of disease states, such as dosing drugs in renal and hepatic failure patient
• providing patients with health monitoring and advice, including advice and treatment of common ailments and disease states
• education and counselling for patients and other health care providers on optimal use of medicines (e.g. proper use, avoidance of overdose medication)

With all the arguments above, do you still wanna deny our right of getting high payment?

     All the stated roles above are most likely comply to the pharmacist who work in the hospital especially. Most of the people unaware that, lots of branches for the graduated pharmacy students to practice the knowledge they've gained to uphold the professionalism of pharmacist.

These include the:

1. Community Pharmacist
2. Enforcement
3. Hospital Pharmacist
4. Clinical Pharmacist
5. Lawyer 
6. Industrial Pharmacist
7. Lecturer
8. Researcher
9. Radio-pharmacist
10. Consulting Pharmacist
11. home health Pharmacist
12. Military Pharmacist
13. Etc. 

As for me, I'm more attracted to serve the patients in the hospital as hospital pharmacist or be in the industry field as industrial pharmacist. Interested to know what industry pharmacist is all about? I think I'll update on it later.