A Different Medicine

I picture a pharmacist sitting behind the well lit counters in the back of a drug store waiting for those anxious patients that come running toward them to fill their prescriptions. The pharmacist calmly explains the medications and the patient happily leaves the store. I think that is what most people who imagine with the word pharmacist. I never knew the other side of the pharmacy where there is more science involved. When I heard about these places called "compounding pharmacies" I didn't have a clue to what would go on there. The chiropractor I work for told me one of her friends is a clinical pharmacists at a compounding pharmacy and she would be happy to ask if a job shadow would be possible. I also went into this job shadow, like the last one, not knowing much about what I was going to see.

I got up bright and early and went to CarePro Health Services. They are in downtown Cedar Rapids, but serve majority of Iowa with their delivery services. There was a lot to see as I went into the building that is a pharmacy, special foods store, doctors office, and professional offices. I started my journey by looking around their store. They offer foods there that are hard to find in the main stores. They sell gluten free, dairy free, and replacement foods that can't be found easily. They also make their own vitamin supplements in the pharmacy that are all organic and free of any possible allergies. After looking around the foods, I moved onto the compounding pharmacy.

Compounding is a whole different way at looking at medicine. Their main purpose is to change medicine into different forms such as a tablet to liquid at the request of the patient. As I talked to Lucinda Harms, the clinical pharmacist there, she explained that a lot of what they do is changing tablets to liquid for children, and making hormone supplements for both men and women. I watched as the pharmacy technician made a testosterone gel for a women and filled progesterone capsules. It was very interesting to see how they change the standard prescription. I also toured the home infusion part of CarePro. They deliver IV medicine to patients all over Iowa. They make custom bags for the patient that have an IV system at home and ship them by mail. All the mixing and creating goes on in sterile rooms that require careful sanitation. It was neat because they also have windows surrounding the pharmacies, so if you happened to be waiting you can actually watch the pharmacists work in both the compounding and IV rooms.

CarePro also does a more scientific part of the pharmacy scale. They get prescriptions from doctors for the IV and they much figure out what size of bag, how much excess, how many bags for the dosage required, and make a label of the entire order. As I helped, I noticed with some of the orders it can be very tricky because there are a lot of restrictions on size and quantity of a certain solution. The pharmacists that work in this part are very good at math. This also goes for the compounding section of CarePro. The pharmacy technician must figure out if they change the state of the medication, if the dosage and the quantity the same. They change things and must rearrange the formula to the correct state to figure out with the patients information what needs to be changed. It seems like a very complicated and long process.

I am not so interested in this level of pharmacy. They have a lot more work to do for a small outcome. I don't think I would do well if my job was to rearrange formulas and do the math that it requires to send out the IV bags. I also wouldn't like how things change all the time. Even one of the women there said everything is always changing and it sometimes is hard to keep up. It was interesting to watch, but I couldn't see myself doing that day to day. I am more interested in the retail side of pharmacy. That immediately appealed to me when I researched it, and I was reassured when I did a job shadow at Walgreens. Even though the compounding job shadow was very interesting, I see myself doing the retail pharmacy and enjoying that more as my career of choice.

Experience in the Field

After exploring the career of a pharmacist, I wanted to get a first hand look at what they do. I read a few websites and a few books, but nothing can prepare you like going and experiencing the job yourself. While searching for ways to get into the pharmacy world, I found out I am very fortunate to have Becky Stephens as a teacher here at Kennedy. Her twin sister happens to be a pharmacist at the Walgreens on 16th Ave. and Edgewood Road. The nice teacher that Becky is, she talked to her sister and I was given the opportunity to do a job shadow for the day. I went into the job shadow not knowing much about what a pharmacist actually does.

Everyone knows they work in a pharmacy, they fill prescriptions, and they distribute to patients that need them. Spending the day there opened my eyes to what they really do. It surprised me that the pharmacist doesn't handle the medication much. The pharmacists take prescriptions by phone from doctors, hospitals, or patients who need refills. After they write the prescription, they enter all the information into the computer system. They look for any warnings for drug interactions, any other prescriptions that need filled also, or any possible substance abuse warnings. It is interesting how much information they can receive by just looking up someones information and the drug they are requesting. There is a pharmacy database that links all the pharmacies together, that way the pharmacist can see if the patient is overfilling or is filling at another pharmacy and trying to get another refill to early. They have to be careful filling any prescriptions, but especially careful with "C2's". These are the possible substance abuse drugs which some include anything with oxycodone, percocets, morphine, anything with codeine or hydrocodone, or any behavioral medication like Ritalin. These drugs are always charted and counted multiple times after filling a prescription. That is the most dangerous part of their day, they have to be very accurate and no pill can disappear or be uncounted. That is a serious offense and could end up in termination of their job is something was misplaced. Something else I noticed while there was quite a few drugs that were prescribed I knew about, simple things like allergy medicines, strong Tylenol, and things you hear about on a daily basis that you wouldn't think you would need a prescription for. While there, I watched the couple pharmacists there fill prescriptions for pills, liquids like cough syrup or children medicines, and inhalers. They have a very wide variety of pills since there are brand name and generic. One thing pharmacists do is consults if someone doesn't know how to use the prescription, or needs advice about if they should use the generic or not, or side effects of the drugs. This is where pharmacists use their knowledge background the most. They have to explain how the drugs work, and if there are any alternatives if the person is unhappy with an outcome of a prescription they have been on. Many people's questions though are very basic such as how many times to take it, or with or without food. At the end of filling a prescription they much print out a detailed sheet of any restrictions or special instructions while using the prescriptions. Everything has to be very detailed and easy to follow.

Watching the pharmacists was very interesting, even as an on looker I learned a lot about how careful they need to be when checking for the correct prescription, how many different kinds of situations they have to deal with as they explain to people how the drugs work and how to take them, and how much these educated people know. While working with them, I talked to a few pharmacy technicians who are going to school for pharmacy while working there. They all agreed it is hard to keep a steady job with enough hours and study the intense work load they get in the College of Pharmacy. I also talked with a man who is just finishing school and felt very fortunate to have the job placement he did, because now after graduating he has a set in stone job placement. All of the people working there went to the University of Iowa for their education, since that is one of the only accredited pharmacy schools in Iowa. They all say it was worth the long road of education and they enjoy their jobs.

Doing the job shadow at Walgreens reassured me of the career choice. Just spending part of a day there gives you a whole new look on how your future will look in the career you choose. I understand the schooling is long and tough, but seeing all the pharmacists at work showed me what I am working towards. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to explore more into retail pharmacy, and see how the job works being a pharmacist in a drug store.

Deciding the career of my future

Within the years of middle school, I started exploring careers that I maybe could look into as I get older. The Family and Consumer Science class at Harding Middle School really helped me figure out what careers are possible and gave me a brief idea on the vast opportunities out in the job market.

As a young adult, I always wanted to make a lot of money at whatever I chose to do. While in middle school, I saw this poster of all the salaries of major jobs that are available and pharmacy was one of the top. There are many other very well paying jobs, but pharmacy caught my eye and I chose to further explore the field. I'm not sure why, but becoming a pharmacist really interested me. I liked how they have a set schedule and work normal business hours, they have a very interesting education path, and of course they make quite a bit of money. I see people's families around me that are always struggling to pay the bills or give their children what they want, and I don't want to be that person. I am someone who never wants to struggle. I want to live a comfortable life and never have to have those extra worries that control how you live. With making that much money, as long as it is spent and saved smart, there is no reason to ever struggle. That is my overall goal with choosing a career based on money.

As I am in high school now, I also enjoyed Chemistry. I did well in it, and now in AP Chemistry I am still successful. Chemistry is one of the main subject matters when it comes to being a pharmacist. So, since i am good at it why not give it a chance. I've talked to several pharmacist who all say the same thing, Chemistry is what you will learn almost everyday for your six years in school. I already planned on going to school to achieve at least a masters degree, so this program really suits me well.

Pharmacist, I think, have an interesting job. If seems like a career where you never stop learning because there will always be new drugs or new health information. After all the schooling and trainings, in the end it seems to be a good job that will always be reliable. There are many pharmacies all around the country and there will always be a demand for prescription drugs. To me, it seems as if there will always be pharmacies around and they will always need help. If you think about it, every Walmart, Target, Hyvee Drugstore, and CVS all have major pharmacy stations. The most common places people go to shop is where the convenient pharmacy is located at. All pharmacies are not in stores though. There are also hospital pharmacies and compounding pharmacies. It is such a broad and big field that there is many different job titles that could be given.

As I leave high school, if it is possible, I am going to try to work at a pharmacy as a tech to be around the atmosphere while studying. I think that would help me because it is more hands on and real life experience instead of reading everything out of a book in class. I know the college courses will be difficult, but I am willing to give it my all. I've always wanted to have a job where I enjoy the field and make the around of money that will be more than enough for my future. Within six years of getting out of high school, I hopefully will be a successful and certified pharmacist.