Having worked in a hospital pharmacy as a pharmacy tech, I can say I've asked myself the same question sometimes. :grin: That being said, in the hospital I worked at, pharmacists have stopped Dr's from prescribing incorrect medications, have answered nurses' questions about drug interactions, basic math, etc. There are drug interaction databases (computer programs) that pharmacies use to trigger a warning in case a patient is prescribed a med that may react adversely with another medication. One other aspect of working in a retail (and some hospital) pharmacies that often goes unnoticed is the stress level and the amount of continuing education pharmacists need to keep up with. With all that being said, again, there are times I couldn't figure out why they got paid as much as they did, but hey, more power to them because I know computer programmers that shouldn't be getting paid anywhere near as much as a pharmacist, yet there they are making their 6 figures.
If this isn't worth 100k a year to you, then I don't know what else to say. And there's more to pharmacy than just counting pills and putting them in a bottle.
Not from where I'm standing. I the many years of purchasing medication not one pharmacist has ever given me any insight or recommendations on medication. I've just seen them work a register and hand me some pills.
your experience is strictly retail, which is what it is. Most of the time, the techs are the ones that work the register and give you the bag. Pharmacists have to counsel by law on prescriptions. If not, then you'd actually have to ask them about it.
Every pharmacy has a counseling section you can go to, to ask questions. Are you really blaming pharmacist for your own laziness?
I was thinking the same thing. Pharmacist only has to tell you how to take the meds. Everything else is on the patient as far as questions go. A good pharmacist will cover all bases in regards to interactions and side effects but most will do the absolute minimum.
I'll be sure to stop in, ask questions, and annoy you next time you're counting pills behind the counter. After all I want to make you earn at least some of your money.
I'm a pharmacist. Most of the stuff we do is behind the scenes so it can be hard for regular people to understand. Our responsibilities vary but some examples include monitoring drug-drug interactions, knowing common side effects, correct dosages/frequencies, indications, routes, contraindications, storage/stability. Retail pharmacy can be very stressful when you're standing on your feet sometimes up to 12hrs/day w/o a lunch break or chair. You have to be knowledgeable about OTC products, be able to counsel patients, interact with physicians, compound. It's not uncommon for you to have a patient at the window needing an allergy/cold recommendation, another for a new med counsel, 3 cars waiting in the drive thru, all while the phones are constantly ringing, you've fallen behind with an inch stack of prescriptions to type and insurance problems to solve. I think that the addition of the drive thru has diminished the respectability of the profession because of the obvious correlation now between pharmacies and fast food chains. And any district manager will tell how great drive thrus are for business because of its added convenience. But it becomes a huge burden on us because now the ppl driving by have a expectation of getting their meds quicker, which sometimes isn't possible. Fast food will kill you slowly, but an incorrectly filled drug can kill you in an instant. Luckily I work in a hospital so I feel like it's not as crazy and I can focus more on the pharmaceutical side of things. I do mostly order entry and probably catch 1 or 2 life-threatening mistakes each week made by physicians, whether it's a high dose, wrong rate, drug interaction, I'm there as the last line of defense before it goes out to the nurse to administer. I also check IVs, TPNs, crash carts, perform pharmacokinetic dosing, IV to oral conversions, lab monitoring..definitely not things your average Joe can do with the same accuracy that I can. Do I think I'm overpaid? Probably slightly. Underappreciated? Definitely.
Do you not realize that pharmacists have doctorates in their profession? The amount of education required for the profession and the scope of practice and knowledge and responsibility required makes them worth the money. Maybe even underpaid. In a very real sense, they're scientists. Even the ones behind the counter.
Truth. They all earn a DOCTORATE in pharmacy. These dudes are inherent nerds. They spent four years of school learning how every drug works, its pharmacokinetics, what class of drug it is, and black box labeling, indications, contraindications, dosing, titrating, etc. I see pharmacists correct dosages and drugs to residents (although it's mostly the resident interns) all the time. They definitely earn their 100k+.
Haha, I love this. Yes, a computer definitely can replace your doctor. How about you be the guinea pig on that one. Tell us how it went when you typed in your symptoms and it gave you a list of 10 possible causes. Also, you don't pay the pharmacist just because they memorized a bunch of side-effects or drug interactions. You could probably google that for every drug you will ever take. What the pharmacist gets paid for is to be able to interpret those side effects and explain them to you where you will understand them and the risks associated with them.
You also have to know enough about the drugs and their biological effect to overrule the doctor's prescription, if necessary. That's why they spend five years in college, learning about different types of drugs.
A lot of people love to simplify everything and when the ***** hits the fan they wonder why weren't the safeguards there in the first place. Well, they are there its just people don't want to pay for it and will complain about it, the restriction will be taken away, bad stuff will happen, then the restrictions will be put back in place. Vicious cycle.
