5 ms·
Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by
by cstross 16y ago
Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by accident.
The pill-counting is mostly done by dispensers. The knowledge about medication side-effects, prescribing guidelines, drug interactions, and the messy rest of it? Not so much.
(Note that I missed out "dealing with insurance companies" because the NHS -- I'm British -- doesn't involve that step.)
((NB: I am an ex-pharmacist because being good at that job requires a peculiar combination of obsessive-compulsive detail work and total lack of imagination about what happens if you get it wrong. And I lack it.))
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- anamax 16y ago> Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by accident. Umm, do you really check drug-interactions by hand/memory? Even when the check includes asking the patient "are you taking {list}", shouldn't that list be generated by machine?
- cstross 16y agoI have no idea what current practice is, but back then we used reference books. Knowing how to interpret the reference books -- that's what you do the degree and postgraduate training for. (And the commonest stuff you learned to spot straight off the bat.) One problem is that you need to be able to talk to/see the patient yourself. There's stuff that won't be in their medical records -- if they eat lots of spinach or drink grapefruit juice, for example. (Both of which have nasty side-effects when combined with various medications.) Or ask them how/when they take their meds. (A surprising number of patients misunderstand their prescriptions ...)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]