Flying Solo

Yesterday was my very first time as a pharmacist since I graduated in May. Well, not my first time working as a pharmacist (I guess I do that every day), but it was the first day I worked at a store as the only pharmacist. (It was almost like I took the training wheel off of my bike!)

Since the beginning of my residency, I've been paired with a pharmacist at my store to help make me more comfortable with what needs to happen to make everything run seamlessly. Kevin is the pharmacy manager, and Karen is the other staff pharmacist that works at the store. They have both been very understanding of my lack of speed in quality assurance and store processes. Because I am only in a store one day a week, it has been harder to get into a rhythm when I'm there. Plus, on top of that, I've been trying to enroll patients in my pain management study (that is a different beast altogether... if I've learned anything from this project, I know that I don't want to do research!) and finish filling prescriptions from my flu clinic that was at the beginning of November (I hate the flu!).

Fortunately, there were no crises when I was at the store but that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with my help. I would have been scrambling and running all over the place if I didn't have a very capable pharmacy student to help me (Thanks, Justin!). It is definitely true when they say you are only as good as your help. You can be a great pharmacist, but if your technicians and interns don't have good customer service skills and technical knowledge to go along with it, your ship will certainly sink.

Just a few more days until I head back to Indy for Thanksgiving. Things have been crazy at work, but I'm hoping that I'll have time tomorrow to write about something I've been waiting a *long* time to discuss.... the drivers in New England.