Hrhmm

Right. Another day. Quite an eventful day, and learning progress is still quite comfortable. :) I went to work at 8am and as I got onto the bus, I wriggled my toes and suddenly felt that it's pretty cool down there. Looked down and realised that the sole has split from the top part of the shoe. Great. Now that the time is 8.40am, there is no way I could rush back and change into another pair of shoes. So I just walked slowly and hope that the "open-mouthed" shoe will not be too conspicuous.

So it was pretty uneventful opening of the store. There wasn't much customers and I just trailed after the pharmacy assistants, trying to make myself helpful. Yet, at the same time, I was feeling very self-conscious (because of the damned shoe). And just as I started to stroll around the store, the other shoe decided to "open" its "mouth" too. AH. DAMN. Now both my shoes are open! Sheesh. Time check: 9.15am. Briliant. And I have 4 hours to go before I can leave.

Oh dear. Before I get too carried away talking about silly things, I better get back to what this blog is all about.

Well, so I shuffled around the store, hoping very hard that nobody notices my shoes and tried to be helpful. My preceptor wasn't around today so I was stuck with the lady pharmacist. I did not learn much from her except to get orders and act on them. Maybe it's because she's busy so she can't really guide me in the learning.

There's some notable stuff I learnt today. The first thing she asked me to do today was to make a few phonecalls to other pharmacies and ask for certain medicines. Then, I had to help the pharmacy assistants to lay out stocks. Thereafter, more phonecalls to ask for more medicines. And a phonecall to a manufacturer to ask for details of some shampoo to treat receding hairlines and thinning hair. Some labeling jobs and of course, more observations on the patient counseling part.

There was this elderly man who came into the shop, wanting to fill his prescription. He asked for more tablets so that he doesn't have to travel so many times to the pharmacy. But the pharmacist did not allow that as according to the law, it is unlawful to dispense more than what is prescribed. So there, something noteworthy about the law and pharmacy. And the man just walked off, quite disappointed (I feel) about the situation. I guess there are times we have to let people down so that we don't risk their lives in any way.

And there was this man, possibly in his fifties, came to the pharmacy to have his wife's prescription filled. The handwriting on the prescription was illegible (normal eh) resulting in the pharmacist having to call the doctor just to make sure. Even though the pharmacist was sure of the usual combination of the prescribed drugs, she still called up the doctor to check. The very high standard of responsibility and professionalism makes me very proud to be in this profession. At least we have not heard of any lawsuits against pharmacists yet (better not hear of any).

Later in the afternoon, all the students gathered in a large Guardian store and we had a talk on merchandising. It was really fun and interesting! So many things we learnt about merchandising. The "golden cross rule", big vs small, visibility, space, vertical and horizontal display, storylines and so on. Interesting. I think I have learnt quite a bit today!