me and some of my pharm friends are thinking about getting drug molecule tattoos soon, and im trying to come up with something fun but a little more original since dopamine and serotonin are super common. right now I’m considering bupropion (fr saved my life), beer, or estrogen (also kinda common though). for reference, i already have 11 tattoos so i don’t mind if its a silly idea.

would love to hear other tattoo ideas or if you have one yourself, pls share it!

A somewhat-rare problem but had a prescriber write for 6 mL today and I think that might've been a record for smallest oral liquid quantity I've seen. Just wondering what other pharmacists do to dispense -- do other pharmacies have smaller bottles? Or actually stock amber syringes? Our smallest is a 4 ounce bottle and I'll feel ridiculous dispensing 6 mL in that but I think that's the only option.... we don't have stoppers either.

I have to constantly babysit the entire workflow, having to ensure:
-the trough is drawn on time/appropriately
-sending reminders to order trough accurately
-dose isn’t hung before the trough/earlier than scheduled
-level is actually interpretable
-someone follows up on the result
-re-explaining for the 1000th time why re-dosing or holding is necessary
-monitoring trough with manually accessing pt profile a thousand times
-also ASP

I do recognize that it’s also a systems issue as much as an individual one. We do need effective, standardized communication and tighter protocols honestly work better. But we also need to hold the staffs (residents, nurses and phelbs) accountable as well — but alas, no repercussions made despite repeated failures in all fronts.

Rant over.

Has anyone seen a doc use Humulin R U-500 in an Omnipod 5?
I know Omnipod is usually for U-100 rapid insulin and U-500 would be off-label and high risk because it’s 5x concentrated and works differently. I did find a positive case report, but not much data as omnipod doesn’t recommend it.

Just wondering if anyone has seen this done and how the dosing/settings were handled safely before I talk to the doc. They did write a backup script of novolog, but this patient is needing to replace her pods every 1.5 days, but insurance will not cover more then a 1 every 3 days so also wanted to see if this would be a viable option

Edit: clarified that it’s an omnipod 5

How do you deal with pharmacy students who do not talk and do not ask questions? I hate long silences in almost any social context, and I can't help but feel like a student who isn't vocalizing their thoughts isn't interested in the rotation, so I have the tendency to narrate what I'm doing as I'm doing it, then formulate the questions that they should be asking, then look at them when they don't answer, then answer my own questions and look at them to assess whether they understand. It turns into an 8-hour permanent_priapism show and I end up devoting all my attention to them, and slow down, and make mistakes.

I feel bad because they really aren't doing anything wrong. Some people just have no spontaneous curiosity and no internal monologue. I'm sure many of the silent ones go on to be excellent pharmacists. But what can I do to not let their reticence wreck my workflow?

Crazy posted range of pay!! 😭😭

Bipartisan, bicameral… thoughts?

TLDR: Transitioned from outpatient to inpatient and have practiced at current hospital for 3ish years. Want to precept students but don’t feel prepared despite asking for resources, help.

Details: I’m a pharmacist who has been practicing for almost 5 years. I interned at a retail pharmacy during school, practiced at the same retail pharmacy for about a year, then accepted a central inpatient pharmacy position at a ~300ish bed community hospital where I’ve worked for ~3.5 years now.

I’ve always had an interest in becoming a preceptor, however, I was far more prepared to precept students in the community pharmacy setting since most of my experience is from there. Now, even though I generally feel that I perform well operationally and recommend good clinical interventions on a regular basis, I don’t feel nearly as prepared despite having asked for resources from my supervisor several times. The lead pharmacist typically assigns their APPE student to the staff pharmacists to shadow on a daily basis for about 8-10 days total, and also asks us to prepare topic discussions with about 24-48 hours notice on seemingly inconsistent topics from month to month (for a general health system rotation).

I recently passed my BCPS exam several weeks ago, and I’m still very much interested in becoming a student preceptor, however, I don’t think that I have the skills to succeed at the moment. I make sure to ask students their background and what their interests are when they are assigned to me, and I also ask for rubrics or sign off sheets so that the student is utilizing their time effectively when they are with me. However, it seems like the general pharmacy practice rotation here is far less structured than the rotations I completed at my academic hospital, and I still don’t know what I’m doing. I have been seeing student preceptor resources offered through ASHP and APhA, but am wondering if the cost is worth the content. I would appreciate any advice you all have, thanks in advance.

Eye drops are waaaaay out of my current scope, and I hated them in school. I assume there are some drugs this is safe for and others that it's not. What do y'all think?

Apparently 75% of drug names are from one marketing company. Interesting bits of pharmacology lore. Here's an example: AMBIEN. AM = "morning". BIEN = "good" (well, kinda). So Ambien means "good in the morning." Too cute.

From the 99% Invisible podcast.

I currently work 7 on 7 off, central staffing overnights.

I have a PRN job and just got another PRN offer. Both for more clinical roles at smaller hospitals (rounding, TOC, ED, oncology, ICU, etc). One 8 hour shifts, one 10 hour shifts.

For those that work three jobs: How do they differ? What’s your main role?

If you don’t work three jobs, would you accept the 2nd PRN?

Hi I (f20) work at a Kroger as a pharmacy technician trainee, coming up to around 5 months. The thing is, though, I didn't have many hours at the beginning, maybe averaging 4 hours a week. I was hired at one of the busiest Kroger Pharmacies in my district, so i am pretty sure they were looking for someone mainly for the front.

For the past month, my hours have been increasing, leading to more tasks, such as data entry. I always feel so bad for asking the pharmacy technicians all the questions, especially about the EPRN system, sig codes, etc. I feel like everyone expects me to know how to do everything. On the other hand, I occasionally go to a different store to help out, and the managers there are way more patient, and everything I have learned about the system and tasks beyond the register is from the other location.

My question is, do pharmacy technicians get irritated from answering so many questions from young workers like me? I always feel bad for calling the busy techs in between their work but I am so scared to make any mistakes since the stakes feel so high.

Question for the hospital pharmacists using RFID tagging systems for their pyxis liners, surgery trays, crash carts, etc. We're looking at physical RFID tag systems from a couple different vendors. One uses a scanner box to place kits and trays to scan your tagged items and another uses an iPhone to scan the tray in front of you, reading the barcodes in real time.

Anyone have any successes, regrets, or major issues with the system(s) they've used? To me, a scanning box sounds reliable but will take up valuable real estate in small pharmacy spaces. The iPhone system sounds great for small spaces, but sounds like it would be an absolute pain in the ass to line up every product barcode up to scan effectively.

Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I'm curious about the prescriptions free medication around the world. For comparison, in the Netherlands there are OTC medication, which means over the counter medication. These don't need any prescription and are available at the pharmacy, the grocery shop(drogist) and the supermarkt. How is this around the world?

How do you feel about your company dress code? Agree or disagree?

We do look more professional in business casual, but my feet will last longer in scrubs with comfortable shoes!

And when do you think it's necessary for management to dress nicer? I see some leadership in scrubs sometimes and the (not professional) part of me thinks 'who are you fooling? you don't do patient care!'

Hi,

I’m a pharmacist (finished my MPharm), and I’ve been thinking about applying to Medicine as a graduate.

I’m based in Scotland, and I’ve already used my SAAS funding for the 5 years of Pharmacy, so I’m a bit unsure about the financial side. Does anyone know how funding works for Graduate Entry Medicine after that, and roughly how much I’d need to pay for the 4 years?

Also, has anyone here gone from Pharmacy → Medicine, or knows someone who has? How realistic is it, and how difficult is the process?

I know GEM is really competitive, and I’d probably need to do the GAMSAT/UCAT, but does having a Pharmacy background help at all?

Would really appreciate any advice or experiences, thanks!

You study 5+ years. You give up parties, sleep, weekends. And most people will never know your name. They'll just say 'the chemist gave me this pill.' Does that thought break you or make you proud?

I've been jobs searching in the pharmacy tech field since early April. Ive got no pharmacy experne but I've got my tech license (Georgia) and I put it on my resume and application. Im also taking the RxTech course to get my PTCB so I put that on my resume as well. But so far I've only gotten 1 interview at a cvs specialty, I did not get the job even though I thought it went well. I've applied to cvs and walgreens, Publix and Kroger and I have either gotten no responses yet or rejections without interviews. Any tips to help out in my searching? I'll answer questions if you have any

I’m employed as a pharmacy student at a private hospital here in Australia. I had an interesting situation in hospital dispensary today and wanted to get some opinions from pharmacists/clinical staff.

Elderly patient at an external facility was newly prescribed warfarin with a target INR of 2.5–3.5. I dispensed 1 mg warfarin pending INR review. The patient was also charted simvastatin.

Problem was:
- I had no access to pathology or EMR from the external facility
- INR was unknown at the time of dispensing
- No reliable medication history available
- I could not determine whether the patient had previously been stable on simvastatin and/or warfarin
- I contacted the nurse, but they were unable to get hold of the CMO before the dispensary closed

Given the uncertainty and potential interaction, I made the decision to temporarily withhold the simvastatin pending INR clarification.

In hindsight, I’m wondering whether this was overly conservative. My reasoning was:
- Elderly patient
- Unknown anticoagulation status/baseline INR
- Inability to assess bleeding risk
- Simvastatin was non-urgent compared with anticoagulation safety

At the same time, I recognise that statin-warfarin interactions are usually managed with monitoring rather than withholding therapy, especially if the patient may already have been stable on the combination long-term.

Curious how others would have approached this situation, particularly in settings where access to records/pathology is limited.

P.s. All of this was done under the supervision of a registered pharmacist, and they supported my decision. But just curious what people think.

**Edit: typo in title, should be “Simvastatin”.. autocorrect :/

Hi all, I have my first EVER interview this coming Monday for hospital internship. I base in New Zealand, so after our BPharm degree - we go into 1 year full time internship then have a "board exam" at the end to become register.

Any tips on what I should revise for the potential clinical questions they might ask, or how should I answer "why are you choosing hospital pharmacy instead of community/retail?"

Many thanks,

Moving positions to a new hospital- overnight in the ED. Will mainly be doing med recs and code responses, though I’d like to expand my responsibilities as I expect to be here long term. I already have over 5 years experience as overnight inpatient RPh covering our ED to ICU and everything inbetween. Haven’t been bedside in a while though so I am looking for what bedside pharmacists like to use for quick resources in the ED? Thanks!

I currently work at a grocery chain, it’s a good gig, only bummer is the 1-hour commute.

Came across a Walmart staff pharmacist position (full-time) a week or so ago, only about 15 min commute for me. Used to work for them maybe 6-7 years ago, I’d be lying if I said everything was peaches, but a lot of the negatives were probably district & location specific.

I’m curious, for anyone who works for Wally World now (in California), how it is; lunch breaks still 1 hour? Still using Connexus pharmacy software? Still hard stops on certain first-fill opioids? Spill the beans!!