Pharmacists in the cashier's chair? Oh my! Yes, it's the pharmacist's fault for sitting on that chair and doing cashiering duties!
Pharmacist not counseling the customer? Oh my, how can that be? No wonder people see us as medicine sellers! We're not doing our job properly! Mystery solved, right?
If it's so easy to do the the ideal job of a pharmacist, then why is it still not happening?
Easy - Ideal is not equal to actual.
You see, when our profs were feeding us with the statements that pharmacists are to blame, and that when we graduate, we should initialize the change, I actually believed it. Yes, I will be the best pharmacist ever! Watch me world, I will change the face of the profession by doing my job properly regardless that others are not practicing it.
Or so I thought... Naive, that I was.
Let me enlighten you further with another example of how it is implemented that pharmacists are to blame through the words of our beloved PPA President, Ma'am Leonila Ocampo found in this article by Theresa S. Samaniego entitled "Pharmacists crucial in effective healthcare": (You can read the whole article here: http://business.inquirer.net/5116/pharmacists-crucial-in-effective-healthcare)
“It is a fact that there is a lot of medication errors occurring which the public may not know. The sad thing is, this error is very much preventable if only our pharmacists would really do their job,” Ocampo noted.
“We challenge the pharmacists to really do their job, meaning from educating an individual regarding a particular drug down to the selection, procurement, storage and dispensing of the drug,” Ocampo said.
I have to admit that as a Community Pharmacist, yes, on a whole, pharmacists are really not doing their jobs. But I think, if given the opportunity, we would be MORE THAN happy to provide patient counseling and promote correct usage of medications. Sinu bang pharmacist ang gusto na tindera ng gamot lang ang tingin sa min ng mga kababayan natin, di ba?
Those are the keywords: if given the opportunity. The question is, is the ideal job of a pharmacist applicable to the actual setting?
Let me give a true-to-life scenario:
In
a large drug store...
The
people upstairs can't give you enough staff because of whatever, so
the pharmacy section of your store is one person short.
Fact:
Pinagtitipid ang pharmacists. Kaya maliit ang sweldo mu kahit todo
multitasking at OTY ka.
Your
PA has to take a break, leaving you the only staff of the pharmacy
present.
Even
with two of you, it isn't enough, but with you by yourself, you can
already predict the chaos that is coming.
You're
the cashier, the pharmacy assistant and pharmacist all rolled into
one multitasking overworked underpaid worker.
You
cannot impart even a single word of patient counseling to a
customer because some of the people at the back of the line are
already yelling at you, and you do all you can to remain composed and
calm inspite of this for fear that in your haste, you might just
dispense the wrong drug.
Good thing, hindi naman ako namura sa instance na ito. Sinigawan lang ni lolo yung back office kung bakit ako lang ang nag iisang tao sa buong store dahil hindi na gumagalaw ang pila (lolo was shouting while I was transacting a senior citizen purchase with the customer asking me to compute what would fit with their budget with the senior citizen discount. If I remember correctly, there were less than 30 customers on that line. Men, it was like a battlefield to me. And again, this was a large store)
And
this is just one day.
Could I have made the people in line wait so I could impart 1-3 minutes of patient counseling to each customer rergardless na mumurahin na ako ng mga tao? Thereby making the people wait for at least 30 minutes in line for their order to be taken? There aren't any chairs. Take note that they're all just standing there in line, and I don't think that they'll like waiting at least half an hour just to get a paracetamol, for example.
I would accept those accusations from a fellow community pharmacist of a 'large chain retail drugstore' for at least 2 years, because if that was the case - Ah, community pharmacist ka pala dati sa Mercury at nagawa mung magpatient counseling sa BAWAT customer na bumili sa branch mu? Whoa, astig ka! You have to teach us how you were able to do that! (interested rin ako kung nanggaling ka sa Watsons or The Generics Pharmacy at nagwork ka dun ng at least 2 years at nakapagpatient counseling sa BAWAT customer na bumili sa store mo)
Hospital pharmacist ka? Do you counsel EVERY outpatient patient that purchases from your pharmacy?
Manuf experience? Not even close.
Academe? As in, no experience working in a drugstore whatsoever? Sorry, if that was the case, those accusations would be unacceptable.
*Ocampo is also appealing to hospitals and drugstore owners and operators to support pharmacists in espousing this type of practice, adding further that this is all for the good of the patient.
That was one thing I agree with. Yeah, appeal to the companies to actually LET us pharmacists do our jobs!
Andyan ang intensyon, pero asan yung oportunidad?
I hope I was able to make clear to you the mystery of why the ideal practice of our profession is almost never practiced here in the Philippines. It was a mystery to us back when we were college students, but now, I hope I have cleared up any doubts that you might have. Yes, college students, and people of the academe who have no experience in the field (other than internship) whatsoever but feel that they can rightly blame us - it is no mystery at all!
It's not us. It's the whole fucked up system.
Reality bites.
you have a very good point.... in fact u presented the real scenario.... it's the system and i really hate our law system allowing non-pharmacist owners to operate pharmacy related business without undergoing seminars on how important our role as health care providers.... pera lng and nasa icip nila.... mag.gawa naman sila ng pangil ng matauhan ang mga business men na ere...
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