Pharmacy and Your Niche

What led you to choose pharmacy as a career? For me, it was a mention of "oh by the way, I am not only a chemistry advisor, I am a pre-pharmacy advisor" by a brilliant analytic chemistry professor, Dr. Anthony Harmon. I was just 21 years old, and I did not know what I wanted to be when I grew up. He pointed me toward pharmacy. I envied the quiet genius a lot of the serious chemistry majors seemed to possess. I was a more outgoing having fun type. Dr. Harmon told me a career in a chemistry lab may not mesh well with my personality. Well, let's be real... I wasn't an A student in his quantitative analysis class either. Pharmacy was suddenly on my radar.

I took the PCAT. Who knows what I made. My undergrad GPA was 3.2. Being female used to be a minority, but not in pharmacy in 1993. In fact at the time, being male was the minority. I was finishing my third year of undergrad and decided I'd apply to a handful of universities.

I had a couple of acceptances but really wanted the University of Tennessee at Memphis. I was told on the phone I was 99.9% in, so go ahead and respond decline to the private universities who accepted you. I turned down the schools and then received a rejection letter from UT. Guess i was that 0.1% eluded by the assistant dean. Talk about a downer. A lot of students do go the political route and a lot of acceptances are based on who you know, but I didn't until the rejection.

I reached out to some "who you know" types with my story and got accepted for the next year. So... I spent my fourth year in undergrad finishing a degree and biding my time. At least I did not have to reapply.

So there you have it. I remember thinking the pharmacist who worked in my small hometown had a large house. I didn't realize it wasn't pharmacy more than the sheer fact he had his own business. This is key.

Thirteen years later I realize you can make a good living in pharmacy or a great one in finding your niche within.

Have you found your niche?

The Most Hilarious (and not-so-hilarious-moments) in the Past 10+ Years of Pharmacy

This post has been long time in the making, and also a move toward a coming out of sorts for the Blonde Pharmacist.  It is time to just be me, if you know what I mean, so let's start out with a post about the past.  The most hilarious moments in the past 10 years of being a pharmacist (and not-so-hilarious-moments). 1.  Sometime during 1999, Keith Urban was living in the middle Tennessee area where I was working.  He wasn't a bit name at all, and in fact, in the Country Music City to make it.  (Make it, he did).  I worked in a small retail pharmacy with a fabulous technician named Kim and another pharmacist named Ladona.  Keith came in from time to time with his fabulous Australian accent.  Of course, I cannot divulge what he took medication wise, but I can say that he is indeed short, and was friendly.  It wasn't too much longer he sent in a driver...  he made it big.  This is a hilarious moment only because it was my only brush with celebrity while working.  Fun stuff.

2.  I was a floater for the same retail company and was working in a store one afternoon.  The best part of being a floater is that there isn't a lot of responsibility as far as the operations part of the day.  I would go in, do my job, and leave.  However, this one day, there was a man that came in holding what looked like a five year old needing an early refill on his son's albuterol nebules.  I told him he'd have to pay for them because TennCare wouldn't cover them early.  He was irate and began squeezing his son.  "Daddy!  You're squeezing me.  You're hurting me!"  He replied to his son rather dramatically, "Son, I'm not hurting you, SHE is!!"  As a twenty-something pharmacist, I sort of lost it at that moment.  "What am I doing a jedi mind trick on your son?"  It wasn't long after that, I knew retail wasn't for me.  I couldn't let it roll. I kept going with him, "I'm gonna have your job!"  He said angrily.  "You can have it!"  I replied.

If I can give some advice here it would be... learn to let it roll.  Don't lose your cool.

3.  JB.  The HIV positive homeless man that threatened to have my brains on the parking lot if I didn't fill his alprazolam 2 mg QID two weeks early.  Needless to say I didn't, and he was my last straw.  Good-bye retail forever.  I figured JB didn't really have much to lose.

4.  AG the former crack addict who kicked the habit for many many years only to die after shooting up again.  Some of the conversations we had were priceless in hindsight during a time I needed friends so desperately.

5.  Not a hilarious moment or not - but a moment where this blonde pharmacist worked for THE BLONDE pharmacist.  She was such a positive influence and hired me for home infusion with no experience.  Glad she gave me a chance.

6.  Who could forget the boss I had once who wanted to know what I was thinking once during a meeting.  The guy had more degrees than anyone I've met but yet asked the strangest questions.  My response, "Last time I checked, thoughts were still private property."  LOL  Seriously though, he sort of lost cred with me when a close friend and coworker was in labor and he stalled her for awhile to wrap up some things with her job and then took time later to brag about how he stalled her while she was in labor.  Gag.

7.  Who could forget the manager who threatened a punitive write-up in one sentence and the next began talking about Jesus.  Asked me if I had found a church.  So wrong on so many levels.

8.  Or the job interview where the pharmacy manager dove right in with the first sentence, "We'll begin our interview."  The next sentence, "Do you have kids?"

What are your most hilarious and not-so-hilarious moments in pharmacy?