A Shout Out To Pharmers & Pharmer Techs!

 

You Know You Work or Have Worked in Pharmacy ...

• You bring the 'ready to expire items' to the front, in your own home and while shopping retail
• You offer unsolicited advice when you see the opportunity, "Take that script as directed by your MD"
• You answer your personal phone, "Pharmacy"
• ... you were supposed to take the foil off the suppository first
• .. to the new parents, "No, you were supposed to them not your husband"
• You hear someone dis Big Pharma, so you slap them
• You always make your own IVs while in the hospital
• You try not to call someone stupid when you hear them mispronounce a drug name wrong
• You know the current drug recalls better than your physician
• You can give sound, solid investment advice based on your inside R&D information

My Pharmacy Career

Retail

I started out as a front end cashier, until one morning when the main gal did not show up; summer 1976. My boss, who graduated from BHS, threw me behind the pharmacy counter and said you're all I have, let's go. No computers, everything by hand & not only did we have walk-ins we serviced all the clients at the surrounding retirement homes, so I was also doing deliveries on top of, cleaning, ordering drugs, typing labels, billing Medi-cal and insurance companies, calling for refills, checking in and stocking orders, answering the phones. I had to learn everything from the ground up, memorize billing methods, along with trade and generic drug names; interactions, drug classes etc. It was a lot but I fucking loved it; I was home. Based on what '75 said to me, I knew pharmacy was going to be my love and it was. Cherry on top, I just happened to be good at it, a natural, and the busier the better; I could not get enough! Nineteen years old & I was hot shit, the queen of pharmacy .. people started calling me Pharmacy Patti. 

I remember one night, at the Chic-a-shay bar a bunch of my softball cohorts were going into the bathroom to eat shrooms and then out back to smoke pot then come back in for beer. They're like come on Patti ... I know I looked hard at them and said something to the fact that shrooms were a hallucinogenic and scheduled drug and I would just drink [duh, EtOH is also a drug]. I quickly developed a God fearing fear and healthy respect for drugs; fuck that & I'll pass.

Sad point, if you're in pharmacy, you already know the above tasks are all done at once, lol, and done perfectly. That said, you can imagine my shock, horror, and dismay when BFD #11 said to me that morning in my apartment, "Two kids too much for you?" It's how you know the detectives and Mike said what they wanted knowing that morons would not question what they heard.

~

Some not nice things happened at that pharmacy, so I quit. It took the entire summer to find another job. The only problem was that there was a mail gal behind the counter and she was the queen bee; I really wanted to learn so the pharmacist trained me at night, computer, ordering using an electronic device, how to measure and compound drugs ... everything was on the sly. I also took a typewriter class at Glendale college and when I felt ready, I quit. I worked one more front end pharmacy job then switched to back end, servicing SNFs. It was okay, however, to get the orders (1978) the fax machine printed one line at a time, like I don't know, but annoying sounding and it took forever.

SNF

While I was there [Granada Hills] the family of the other pharmacy, that already had a queen bee was looking for someone to be in charge of the pharmacy end of the job. Dave from LA Drug told Larry Niemerow that I was computer trained and knew everything there was to know. Larry called me at night and hired me on the phone. GH pharmers were not happy about it lol turns out they all knew each other from USC pharmacy school. And yes, this pumped my ego up big time. [After I had Mack I interviewed for pharmacy work and one place offered me $7 an hour, 1996. I told the head Pharmer, do you have any idea who I am and what I can do? I'm not working for $7 an hour fuck that].

I stayed for a couple of years until Larry passed away, suddenly. I loved him so much; he taught me a lot and I am so pissed that I found out after the fact that I have Jewish ancestry like him. Management changed and they brought a guy up from Cerritos [our pharmacy serviced all the Beverly Manors from Central CA to San Diego. So the new pharmacy manager tells me that I now work for him and that when I come in I will have to vacuum and make coffee. Yea, no! We had an argument in the library and I quit. Dude, do I look like your fucking maid?  Jesus ... 

Larry Niemerow, the King of Pharmacy

The ASCP Foundation was established in memory of one of ASCP’s former presidents, Larry Niemerow, with the mission of fostering appropriate, effective, and safe medication use in older persons by providing leadership and expertise on the practice of senior care pharmacy and the use of medications to treat diseases that disable elderly people and diminish their quality of life.

[https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/altc/articles/american-society-consultant-pharmacists-2015-annual-meeting-exhibition]

~

Acute care

I worked for another pharmacy that did the same thing but in Burbank, then retail again in Northridge and then off to acute care at Cedar's Sinai. I had worked with 5FU a couple of times at Niemerow, over the sink though, and Cedars assumed that I knew everything about aseptic technique and IV manufacturing [whoopsie]. I was hired part-time through visiting nurses then eventually full-time in the IV room. I did mass productions, like antibiotics, TPNs, and chemo preps. Eventually, they wanted only full-time in the IV room, and since I changed back to part-time I was moved to billing, ugh. I quickly found another job at Tarzana, doin acute care, but after conditional acceptance to Rx school, I quit. I taught for 2 different vocational colleges teaching the pharmacy tech modules, once while pregnant with Mal and then again in 2000. Could I step back into any pharmer job? Yep, theory never changes. I miss it every single day. I miss the stress, working with my hands, the challenge, being part of the healthcare team, etc etc Pharmacy defines me.

Being a wife and mom came easy, because it demands organization, skills, time management and the ability to step back and access the most efficient way to get the job done. I remember at Tarzana, I wanted to be queen bee, and I am fucking competitive for sure. I worked Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and the other days in school. One Saturday [and these Pharmacists did not play] I went out and sat down at the main counter. The Pharmer asks me why was I sitting? I told him I was done so far with everything. And it was only 11am. They were shocked. All IVs done, the oral meds cart filled, returns credited, scripts out to the floors ... D.O.N.E. Oh yea, so from that point on I made everyone look like crap lol [the other techs].

Quite often, while at Cedar's and Tarzana, I would sit and read in their medical libraries. Had I of done a pharmacy residency, it would've been in Oncology or Antimicrobials. I've participated in codes, watched shunts put in, saw a baby born, seen corruption, been part of 2 ground up projects, as well as part of the double-blind clinical trials for Ciprofloxacillin. All my thanks and gratitude goes to '75, without him I'd still be at Jack-in-Box, no lie. Miss him, too.

I also worked at two clinical laboratories doing specimen entry. It was okay, but not like Pharmacy. While I was at Tarzana, I was in charge of JCAHO. I had to comb the entire hospital, every square inch for drugs, any drug, to check expiration and to make sure it was in it's proper place. I also was in charge of everything that fell under Cal-OSHA. So, 2 kids and running the household .. piece of cake. And Mike knew it, too! All I have is God knows everything and while I live an unbearable hell now, I'll be rewarded for all the good I did after I get to exit the blue grip of hell... God does't care what you think BPD!!!!! He does not!!!

18 years pharmacy, 2 years clinical laboratory, teaching. Hard to believe that I have no credibility, no respect, no place in the community or society; because of a few horrible men, I barely exist. 

Twice, on my lunch breaks and time off I sat with terminally ill cancer patients, both were members of AA; 1 a ballerina, the other a brother to Mary Tyler Moore.

Pharmacy as Frontline Responders

https://www.google.com/search?q=pharmacy+techs+as+frontline+healthcareworkers&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS948US948&oq=pharmacy+techs+as+frontline+healthcareworkers&aqs=chrome..69i57.22157j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Respect Your Pharmacy Staff

Here are a few simple things patients can do to make pharmacy staff feel appreciated:

1. Actually say “thank you.” ...
2. Write a letter or e-mail. ...
3. Write a positive online review. ...
4. Participate in surveys. ...
5. Make a donation to charity. ...
6. Refer friends. ...
7. Be loyal to the pharmacy.

[https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/7-ways-patients-can-thank-a-pharmacist]

My spatulas

When Did I Start My Pharmacy Career?

Chloral Hydrate

Quaaludes 

Seconal

Tuinal

Miltown

Erythromycin for acne

Tincture of Iodine

Mecuricome

Bactine

Calcidrene 

Terpin Hydrate with Codeine lol

My Own Pharmacy Trivia

• In 18 years I made only 1 mistake and it was caught
• I prepared Gilda Radner's cancer IVs
• I prepared Lucille Ball's IV medications; fucking emotional for me
• There's never been an order by a Physician that I haven't been able to read
• I have never, once, mispronounced a drug name

What it takes be in Pharmacy

Be a people person or work behind the scenes; SNF, acute care

Be compassionate

Understand that the last place I patient is the pharmacy; you need to be patient with them

Like math

Like science

Like and can work under stress

Addicted to stress

Can find errors

Perfectionist

Team player

Workaholic

Can handle other healthcare workers and patients treating you like shit lol

Perhaps, never getting thanked

Can get everything by yesterday

Have a good memory

Ability to read scribble

Multitasker

Breaks and meal breaks are not important

Like helping others

Random Shit

1975

Diazepam quickly gained immense popularity with doctors and patients. Between 1969 and 1982, Valium was the most prescribed drug in the US, and sales peaked in 1978 with more than 2.3 billion pills sold that year.

SALES FORECAST OF TOP PHARMACEUTICALS IN 2021

RANK	BRAND	MANUFACTURER	NATURE REVIEWS FORECAST	EVALUATE PHARMA FORECAST
1	Humira	AbbVie	$19.96 bn	$ 20 bn
2	Keytruda	Merck	$ 16.83 bn	$ 16.8 bn
3	Revlimid	BMS	$ 12.71 bn	$ 12.7 bn
4	Eliquis	BMS/Pfizer	$ 10.54 bn	$ 10.5 bn
5	Eylea	Bayer/Regeneron	$ 8.87 bn	$ 8.9 bn
6	Opdivo	BMS	$ 8.76 bn	$ 8.9 bn
7	Stelara	J&J	$ 8.44 bn	$ 8.4 bn
8	Biktarvy	Gilead	$ 8.42 bn	$ 8.4 bn
9	Imbruvica	AbbVie/J&J	$ 7.61 bn	$ 7.6 bn
10	Xarelto	Bayer/J&J	$ 7.6 bn	$ 7.6 bn

How to Protect Yourself and Loved Ones

Buy a PDR

Buy a Merck Manual

Triple check everything, people are human and mistakes happen

Don't be afraid to challenge healthcare and ask questions; it's your life

Ask your pharmacist drug related questions; their entire terminal education is Pharmacy [docs and nurses? couple of semesters unless it's changed]