Pharmacy

Pharmacy is a big part of my life. I'll graduate in May of this year and as the day gets closer, I have begun shifting my attention to how life will feel practicing as a pharmacist day in and day out. What's most interesting to me about my profession is how little the public actually knows about what I do on a daily basis. In many ways, pharmacy is sort of a secret society. You get hazed for four years, graduate, and then keep your mouth shut to ensure that you receive your check biweekly. And what has become more interesting as time has passed is trying to explain to family, friends, and even my patients as to what services pharmacist offer. 

So tonight, I will give my family and friends that have no association with pharmacy an education as to what I have studied for four years. Which as a side note apparently will cost you a house note upon graduation. If you're one of those young people thinking about taking up pharmacy as a career path, maybe this will be informative. 

After completing two to three years of undergraduate work, you can apply to a pharmacy program which then takes four years to complete. 

Calculations-a course designed to introduce pharmacy students to the basic math concepts seen in everyday community or hospital practice. Some of the things you will learn to calculate are total parental nutrition for patients that don't have gut motility or can't eat. Or how to calculate IV infusion rates and when its appropriate to use different formulations of normal saline, dextrose, etc. For the community pharmacist, how to calculate appropriate days supply or how to appropriately compound a suspension, solution, or cream.

Pathophysiology-I think the course name speaks for itself. Its the study of human physiology. For instance, diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels raise in the body. Insulin is produced by the pancreas and brings the blood glucose levels at a normal range of 70-110. Patho means disease in latin, while pathology is the study of disease. Thus this course describes how you will study what occurs in a healthy body, and what occurs in the disease state. 

Medical Biochemistry-To be brief, biochemistry is the combination of biology and organic chemistry. 

Pharmaceutical Dosage Form-The study of dosage forms and how different dosage forms are appropriate for disease states. The easiest example off the top of my head is rather than a woman taking a daily dose of a birth control pill, she can choose to receive Depo Provera(medroxyprogesterone). A shot that once injected into the muscle releases slowly over a 3 month period. 

Sterile Products-A class dedicated to understanding the process of compounding IV formulation, total parental nutrition, etc. under USP797. USP797 dictates that for patient safety a sterile environment must be maintained so that the drug product does not introduce pathogen into the body. 

Infectious Disease-The study of bacterial, fungal, protozoa, and viral infections that affect the human body. With each disease a review of treatment guidelines takes place. 

Medicinal Chemistry-The study of chemical drug structures and how each class of drug has its own uniform appearance. What you find is that the only difference between many drugs within the same class are a few functional groups.  

Pharmacology-The study of pharmaceutical drugs. Damn, theres alot of drugs. Ha!

There is three years of classroom work, with one year of rotations. Rotations are just a word that describes that you attend a different site each month. One month you could be at a hospital and the next month you could be at a community pharmacy. 

So with all that being said the degree a person is rewarded is a Doctor of Pharmacy and you're able to practice only after completing the NAPLEX and State Law exam. 

So, I've set the stage for how much education it takes to get the degree. In some regard I've discussed how much it costs, you can take an estimate. So with all this education, what do I do? Well... In some regards, even I have difficulty quantifying what I do everyday. 

A brief job description could include: patient medication review of potential drug duplication and drug interactions, knowing your product in regards to shape, color, liquid, tablet, injection and how it should be appropriately administered, patient consultation for drug products, financial billing of drug products, ensure that pharmacy law in regards to federal and state is being followed, provide drug information to patients and the healthcare team, administer vaccinations, and of course ensure patient safety. 

With all this being said with all the education that nurses, physicians, physical therapists, and pharmacists have to undertake to even practice. I feel as though there is a level of decay in the amount of respect that people show healthcare providers. And although I've learned that its just part of the business, it is very frustrating. 

Education is a privilege. The easiest thing for a person to do is to not share the knowledge, while the hardest thing for a person to do is to take the time to explain how a process works. When I consider what frustrates me in the business of pharmacy, it only takes a split second for me to realize that my profession is no different than that of a teacher, lawyer, police officer, and the list goes on. From the least paid to the most paid, I find it interesting that people don't take the time to understand what the people around us do for a living. 

I think its natural for people to get so wrapped up in their own lives that they don't take the time to educate themselves on the world around them. Funny thing though, is that you truly don't grasp why you do what you do, until you sit down and realize why other people do what they do. Does that make sense? Think of it like this. For someone to have a true appreciation of how my brain processes information and how I formulate perceptions and conclusions, I must first take the time to understand another person's process.

So, do we take the time to understand each other? Or are our lives moving so fast, that we only get fixated on our process, our desires, and our needs? So the next time a person wants their prescription filled as if it is a big mac with a large fry, or a high school teacher gets cursed out by a student because the student doesn't want to turn in homework, or a police officer gets spit on just because they're a cop... It makes you wonder, are we becoming a nation that doesn't take the time to understand one another. Maybe a brief description of what I do everyday for a living will help you understand me.