What they didn't teach us in class (and what they should have)

A community pharmacist is a lot of things, but nothing like what they taught in class They taught a lot of things back in College, but also left out some critically important truths...

1) Kaaway ka ng taungbayan

A lot of people will hate you whenever you deny them their medication just because they don't have a prescription. They will express their anger towards you by raising their voice, yell or even scream at you, curse you, point their finger at you and sometimes, you may even get the occasional slap in the face.

Face it: To them, you are just a medicine seller and everything is your fault.

2) Not a job for the fainthearted

You are not a certified Community Pharmacist until you have been mistreated by a customer one way or another. You will be insulted and will feel degraded. There will be customers who will inflict emotional and physical harm on you. And you don't even have to do anything wrong; you just simply have to do your duty as a pharmacist.

3) Isa kang bayani

After all you've been through to get your license, you'll be underpaid and overworked. You will be mistreated just because you care for the customer.

4) Making up for the public's lack of knowledge

There's so much the majority of the Filipinos don't know, and you have to pay for it. You will have to deal with people who think medicines are just like candy – eat whatever they want when they like it.

Again, you'll be degraded and insulted, because aside from some people not knowing any better, some are just plain mean.

5) Pharmacists are not to blame

I've been there, and done that (although not for very long yet), and I can say with conviction that it is not the Pharmacists' fault that we are in this predicament, or at least, not entirely.

Face it: We need the support of our employers in order to fulfill our true role as Pharmacist. And we probabaly need some “organization's” support for the drug companies to realize this. Until then, good luck sa 'tin.

6) If salary=value of job, then pharmacist=almost worthless

If the salary is the basis, dealing with a patient's life isn't as important as being like, say, being a call center agent.

7) You get to use only 10% of what you learned

Believe it or not, my first months of work made me realize that: I didn't learn much from college, or particularly, I didn't learn much of what I needed in the real world. Most pharmacists tell me the same.

So, where did all those 223 units of 4 to 5 years go to?

I'll be elaborating each of these truths in the next articles. You'll get what I mean.

Reality bites.