Esther Banker is a third-year PharmD candidate at the Creighton University School of Pharmacy and Health Professions.
You may have thought about working as a pharmacy technician during pharmacy school. It can be a difficult decision to make, but there are numerous benefits to working in such a position. Here are some of the highlights I found after starting to work in community pharmacy.
Making an impact on varied patient populations
Working in a pharmacy, no matter the setting, enables you to practice what you are learning and gain familiarity with the material. You will encounter medications, dosages and frequencies, and administration instructions on a constant basis. Dealing with insurance companies and understanding how coverage works is another benefit, as this will give you experience in these areas. Throughout the course of a day, you interact with all different kinds of health care professionals, from pharmacists and technicians to nurses and prescribers. As a technician, you also have built-in access to pharmacists, many of whom are happy to mentor students and serve as a resource for finding answers to your questions.
However, the resource I gain the most from is the resource of the patients themselves. Getting to interact with them daily has helped me gain so many skills, including confidence in my counseling skills and the ability to establish a relationship with patients.
Vaccinations are another key area where I felt my confidence and skills grow. The rewarding feeling of enabling patients to receive the medications they need helped me establish confidence that I was in the right field.
Many student pharmacists say a desire to help people is the reason they pursued pharmacy and seeing the impact you can make on a patient is a great motivator through the long years of school. Whether it is assisting a patient with discount programs so they can afford a medication or counseling them on the best way to minimize adverse effects, there is no better feeling.
When in community pharmacy, you also get to interact with lots of patient populations, from children to older adults. Many pharmacies even fill prescriptions for pets! This can give you exposure to many subspecialties in pharmacy and help you decide if you want to pursue a career that allows you to work with a specific population.
Prepare for the challenges
Challenges do come up when working, with the main obstacle being the time commitment. School takes up a lot of hours, and balancing work and school takes practice. I recommend setting a maximum number of hours you are willing to work each week and making it clear to your supervising pharmacist beforehand. Most pharmacists are very understanding, as they were in pharmacy school not too long ago.
Another aspect that can be difficult, especially in a community setting, is dealing with frustrated and angry patients. They often don’t understand the pharmacy process and express their frustration when having to wait for medications. Realizing that they are undergoing a stressful situation and are anxious about their condition and their dependence on medicine has helped me not take it personally. However, most patients are grateful and appreciative of what we do.
Just remember that with every prescription filled, you are positively impacting someone’s life and helping your education at the same time. It doesn’t get better than that!