Do you like your job as a retail pharmacist

[admin]

Zoggite

I am really pleased for you, truly I am, as you are one of a very lucky few. Can I just ask you a few questions: -

1. Do you own the pharmacy you work in
2. How many items a day (average) do you do
3. How many methadone clients ?
4. Do you run a needle exchange scheme ?
5. How many physical encounters have you had - say in the last year
6. Are you a big guy - can you fight well etc ?
7. You honestly don't get bored of checking scripts - be honest now
8. Would you recommend pharmacy to one of your own children - be honest now - and I don't mean if they inherit your pharmacy
9. Where do you work

Thanks in advance. I'm sure we'd all appreciate your answers

[Linnear]

Zoggite I'm glad to hear you enjoy the job.

My old boss was the same he loved his shop and all the customers. I think that I miss out on the chance to form real relationships with customers as a locum but in my experience people these days are just more demanding and I'm too much of a mean spirited cynic to jump at their demands!

Good luck to you Zoggite, I hope the job remains a source of enjoyment for you.

[Zoggite]

1. No, I don't own my pharmacy(it's one of a Large multiple), never have done, and I don't want to, either. I willingly turned down an offer of a profit-related bonus as I believe there is often a conflict of interest between the healyh of the till-drawer and that of the patient...
2.average 200 items a day, peaks of 350/day, especially in the summer & before bank holidays when I open 7 days/week.
3. okay, I don't have any regular, local methadone patients throughout the year; I usually end up with about 6/day in the summer season, as they come on holiday to North Wales too!
4.No needle exchange, the scheme has collapsed in my area due to the "NIMBY"-attitude of the local population, so Hepatitis-C infection rates are set to rise again...
5.Not sure what you mean...lots of hugs from my staff, lots of handshakes from my patients, even the odd freebie haircut once!
I did get stabbed in the arm once when I was working in Brussels: I foolishly refused to hand out some rohypnol on demand, the script was a dreadful attempt at a forgery...
6.why do you assume I'm a bloke? I'm a 38-year-old woman, 5ft 8in, size 12 dress.
7.Honestly: no, I am not bored of checking scripts. It isn't a major part of my working day, maybe that's because I only have 200 items a day to check.
Dreaming up what to cook tonight and having to go food-shopping every week, now THAT's boring!
8.Without any hesitation I would recommend this job to my children. I myself didn't have any pharmacists in my family; I hope that I can infect as many people as possible with my enthousiasm and passion!
9.North Wales coast- why? would you like a new job? all things can be arranged!( nice subject for a TV programme-"Job-Swap"!)

[admin]

Thanks for the reply Zoggite

The idea of a job swap is a great one! Sorry I didn't mean to assume you are a guy. I have had two fights, been to court three times, and I am a woman too. I just wondered if its your area or you that stops trouble.

I guess working in a small town and in the inner cities is a lot different. I used to work at a needle ex scheme. We did over 400 scripts, had 40 methadone, 450 needle clients (average 40/day). In the pharmacies I work in, scripts just fly by your nose all day. If people are told they have to wait a lot of the time they get aggressive. I have tried to find a nice place to work, but haven't in over ten years yet.

Maybe it's the different area's of the country we live in. Everyone I know who is a pharmacist is trying to get some kind of an angle to get out of it. Be that via becoming an area manager or working for the PCTor something else.

So thanks a lot for your reply. It gives those thinking of studying pharmacy a different angle to look at it from, and for that we thank you.

I hope you remain happy in your job.