Where do you work?

SEC will be watching you!

saucywoman and 4444:

I actually tried explaining my thought process when filling prescriptions in a thread once to Ulic, and it was a huge thing written up... I tried to search it through my posts, but can't seem to go back that far...? Preferably i'd rather not have to write it all up again... but if you are able to use mod powers to find that post, that'd be awesome

The main reason for wait times is usually due to problems, and also because of all the prescriptions that we have to do before we get to an individual's prescription. It's like if you were waiting in a big line at mcdonalds to buy lunch. They have to prepare and make each one before they can do the next order. At the pharmacy, just imagine an invisible lineup of people. Even if there is no line forming around the pharmacy, there may be 10, 15, 20 prescriptions ahead of yours, regardless of how easy or not your particular prescription is to fill.

i.e. the guy at the front of the line ordering meals for a football team would still hold up the line for the rest of the people in line, even if you were just at the end of the line trying to get a simple glass of water.

The main thing we get paid for is what's in our heads, rather than the things we can physically do. Any trained monkey can put pills in bottles and put a sticker on it.

The monkey wouldn't know what the problem is with taking DM cough syrup and serotonin antidepressants... Or if you wanted something for your cough and cold symptoms and wanted a recommendation from the monkey, anyone could read the side of the box that says "this medication treats cough, runny nose, congestion, etc"... the monkey wouldn't know how each one of the active ingredients treats this particular symptom mechanistically... nor would they bother checking if you're pregnant, diabetic, have heart problems, etc... and the implications each one has on your recommendation...

Or if you just came out of the hospital after a heart attack and were prescribed a bunch of new medications, the monkey wouldn't be able to go over each medication, why you're using it, and discuss what you should expect while taking each one, best time of day to take it and why, etc...

Anyhow, yea it's hard to explain everything we know or do... but there is stuff happening behind the scenes, and things we consider and think about in our heads that we may or may not say out loud... but it happens for your safety of course

just wondering, how long is school to become a pharmacist?

I'm super jealous of all the pharmacists in my class. Drug interactions, basic human physiology, trying to think up whatever the heck is wrong with our PBL case.... they all have it in their heads already. Totally unfair advantage... lol

1 year of pre-reqs in university, then 4 years in pharmacy school

Alright, well, I've done many years of IT support, both at a tech school (CDIS, now AI), and subcontracted to ICBC (no, I can't fix your points). The last five years and a bit, I've been working with a small but specialized security-systems company based out of Maple Ridge, dealing mainly with higher-end CCTV systems. We do support, upgrades and some new installs for Petro Canada (they've been the company's main client for a dozen years or so), and we've done all the new installs for Esso in the Lower Mainland for the past few years, as well as some other large installations of some pretty cool high-end systems, such as thermal-imaging cameras with Video Analytics for a huge crane yard, and the systems in the new big Cactus Club at Bentall 5 (at the end of the month, I'm off to Edmonton to do their new store there).

Assistant branch manger at CIBC

Education: B.A. in Physchology with minor in Economics

I'm a gemmologist with my Canadian certification (FCGmA). Went to school at VCC which lasted 2 years, part time. Covered everything from crystallography, chemical, physical, and optical properties of a shit load of stones, identifying synthetics and imitations to use of standard gem equipment to help ID stones. I worked at low end mall jewelry store selling exactly that, low end jewelry. Currently working at a high-end store (think Birks, Montecristo, Brinkhaus) downtown, primarily doing back-end stuff: receiving stock, stock maintenance, handing repairs. I'm also the 'junior' appraiser, filling in for the senior appraiser on his days off. Hoping to get out of the retail sector of the industry and into the mining sector, probably working for a local diamond lab, looking at core samples and sorting rough diamonds and indicator minerals.

love the analogy :rolleyes: :p lol
I'm not complaining cause it's not really a big deal to wait... I was just curious as to what the wait was for. I think there's a huge misconception that all you guys do is put the right amount of pills into the correct bottle and discuss the poss side effects with the customer. ( I admit I'm guilty of thinking that)

^^ not to knock the pharmacist because there's no way I'd be able to do the job they do, but wouldn't the doctor be in a better position to make those judgment calls? (in the fact that they know the patient's history, current health status, etc). I would also expect the doctor to know which medications to avoid mixing. Maybe the pharmacist would be the second set of eyes to make sure there aren't any dangerous mixes going on.

As for me, I'm a Tier 3 support tech for a company that does telephone and surveillance (CCTV) recording. Those messages you hear "your call may be recorded for quality assurance"...that's what we do (on the voice side). I work as a remote tech out of home (I used to live and work out of our office in Denver, CO). Job is challenging and has it's good and bad days, but the pay is good, hence I've stuck with it.

I went to BCIT - did the CST program there, and graduated in 98. Been at this job ever since working my way up the ranks.

^the doctor could also make judgement calls like that as well too... but when you go to a pharmacy to pick up some cough and cold medication, your family doctor will rarely be there... a significant part of our job is making recommendations... people will ask us for our recommendations, and then the thought process as described above must come into play... I've had nice long discussions with patients about the health of themselves and their loved ones, about both OTC and prescription therapy... and also the medical conditions themselves... In some cases, a discussion may take 20-30 minutes of my time, and the patients are often glad to have someone really go through the illness with them, and just answer all the questions that they had...

Although we don't have doctors charts on hands, I can usually find out anything I need to know about a patients medical history and conditions by either looking at their medication profile, or just asking them... You'd be surprised how much information is hidden within a list of meds that you've been prescribed.

i.e. if I see a list of drugs for blood pressure, and I see that your doses have been fluctuating recently, then that tells me your blood pressure isn't under control as well as it should be. If I see a potassium supplement on your profile, then that tells me that you are experiencing side effects of depletion of potassium related to some blood pressure medications and I need to take that into consideration... I may see that you've been switched from an ACE-Inhibitor blood pressure medication to an ARB, and that would signal to me that you may have had problems with a bothersome dry cough due to a common side effect of ACE Inhibitors... You might be on a beta-blocker for blood pressure for 3 months, and then be switched to another one with some intrinisic sympathomimetic activity, and that may tell me that you were having problems with the beta blocker reducing your heart rate too much, and needed to switch to one that didn't lower it as much.

Now this is just for blood pressure medication... so imagine people with drugs for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, hypothyroidism, etc... all together... (which is more common than you think). The medication profiles paint a really nice picture of what's happening, and you'd be surprised at how much your pharmacist knows about you before you even tell him/her anything about your medical history.

You would expect that all doctors would know which medications to avoid mixing, and for the most part they do... but physicians don't get the same amount and depth of pharmacology that pharmacists do. I wouldn't expect them to have to go through that anyhow, because they have their hands full in the diagnosis side already. Not to mention, the physicians are not around the actual medications very much themselves, so they may not remember exactly what active ingredients are in dimetapp cough control, vs dimetapp chest cold, vs dimetapp chest congestion, vs. dimetapp sinus and cold, etc... Or what about tylenol cough vs tylenol cold vs tylenol sinus, vs tylenol night/day, etc... As mentioned before, they have their hands full just trying to figure out what's wrong with their patients, so it is understandable that all the nitpicky drug stuff they may ask us about... and in fact, I have on many occasions had discussions about a patient's drug therapy with physicians... and they have asked for my opinion as a pharmacist about not only their patient's drug therapy, but sometimes for themselves too... Of course we're always happy to help, and in fact I've developed some really awesome relationships with some of the physicians I regularly work with. There's a couple doctors/dentists that I know who actually drop by the pharmacy to ask me what my thoughts are on drug XXX and then we talk about the studies out there, our clinical experiences and the feedback i've received, etc... I've also had some of them drop by with some new studies for me to look over and give them feedback on... One thing we learn how to do well in pharmacy school is how to analyze drug studies really well and assess the true value of the study, taking into account bias, study design, etc and the implications on treatment it may have.

Hope this clarifies some more...

as i mentioned in my first post, my thought process and what we do is hard to explain sometimes... but yea... regardless of doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, or any other health profession... everyone has a different knowledge set that noone will ever truly grasp without being one, but just have faith that all these people are working towards better health outcomes for you...

does anyone here work in the field of human kinetics/kinisiology? what kind of education did you have to do and how much are you making now (if you want to disclose it)?

i work at tnt in the morning and chubby lamb hot pot at night.

^ oh nice i like chubby lamb hotpot!

[QUOTE=syee;6203013]^^ not to knock the pharmacist because there's no way I'd be able to do the job they do, but wouldn't the doctor be in a better position to make those judgment calls? (in the fact that they know the patient's history, current health status, etc). I would also expect the doctor to know which medications to avoid mixing. Maybe the pharmacist would be the second set of eyes to make sure there aren't any dangerous mixes going on.
Let's not forget, too, that some people will go to two or more doctors for the same problems and get two or more different prescriptions... either looking to score more drugs, or just not trusting any one doctor to get it right. In other words, intentional or not, some people could wind up with clashing prescriptions that their doctor(s) know nothing about.

Just a 3rd year apprentice electrician working in alberta, but would like to move back to the coast and get my electrical engineering degree once i have my journeyman ticket. I figure it will help me understand what really works or doesnt work in the field better then having never worked in the field before going straight to University. And hopefully i could work in the summer as an electrician to pay for my schooling for the next coarse year.

I wonder who has the highest paying job here with the least amount of education....

Im not bragging because i dont have a job yet.

how can you spell your own major wrong...:eek:

H.S.

Personal Banker

Deal with investments, borrowing, day-to-day, protection, and small business. Taking CFP currently.

Probably the high risk jobs like king crab fishing or working on oil rigs or something like that would be the highest paying without as much pre-requisite education?

I would think it would be successful entrepreneurs who did it without an education.

He meant to do that - he was testing to see if anyone here was smart enough to catch it... ;)

:werd: thats a part of why I made this thread. I have a few friends who dropped out of school but are making big bucks now (legally) :thumbsup:

Good thread.

24 years old with no post-secondary and currently working as a Business Analyst for one of the world's largest financial institutions. Came to the realization that I've pretty much reached the top pay tier possible without having a degree and/or designation. With any luck I'll be starting my CGA courses shortly and I'll end up in a few years with a BBA in accounting.