During my freshman year in high school, my science teacher assigned us to interview people in the community about how they use science in their careers. Although I don’t remember most of the people I spoke with, I can tell you that I spent meaningful time with a local community pharmacist who changed my life.
What I saw was a man who loved his career and truly cared for his patients. In an instant, I knew that I wanted to become a pharmacist, and I never wavered from that goal throughout high school.
Knowing what you want to be when you grow up at age 14 is unusual, but it is very liberating. I simply had to work backwards to figure out how to achieve my goal of becoming a pharmacist.
After high school, I chose to attend Ohio Northern University (ONU) because it had a unique pharmacy program. Rather than attending college for 2 years and then applying to the pharmacy program, ONU students were admitted to the College of Pharmacy from day one.
Although it was expensive, being in pharmacy school from day one and avoiding the risk of rejection made it worthwhile for me.
In college, I spent a lot of time in the library. Although the classwork was difficult, I did well with one exception: organic chemistry.
I did fail organic chemistry—a notorious “weed out” course—but I successfully retook the class over the summer and graduated on time with the rest of my classmates. Failing a course is a difficult stumbling block, but I stood strong and persevered.
Today, I’m thankful for the wonderful pharmacy profession for so many reasons.
First, I’m thankful that community pharmacists are the health care professionals most accessible to the public. If my local pharmacist wasn’t accessible to me, then I likely would have taken a different career path.
Second, I’m proud of the work we pharmacists do, the diversity of our career options, and the relationships we share with our patients and fellow health care providers.
Pharmacy is a profession that makes a real difference in people’s lives. It certainly has made all the difference in mine.
Bad Behavior, Criminal & Illegal, Doctor/Physician, Hospital, Ignoring & Inattentive, Nurse, UK | Healthy | January 17, 2018
(My mum had a stroke two weeks ago. As she was in the hospital at the time it was caught exceptionally quickly, and her doctors believe there will only be some short-term memory loss. I don’t believe there is any, for the reason I am about to tell you. I have dropped by to visit when there are several nurses and her doctor by her bed, arguing.)
Mum: “See? There’s my son. Ask him if you don’t believe me!”
Me: “What’s going on?”
Doctor: “We believe it might be a sign of memory loss. You mother is adamant that her grandmother is still alive.”
Me: “She is. She turns 100 next week. You met her last Friday before she was discharged.”
Doctor: *stutters* “I…I see… She also believes that money has been stolen from her purse; £100 pounds to be exact. Can you confirm that she had this money in her purse while staying here?”
Me: “Yes. It was for my great-grandmother’s birthday. She literally got it out of the ATM in the hospital’s atrium what, twenty minutes before she had her stroke?”
(My mum nods.)
Me: “In fact, that’s why I came around. She called me this morning to get a card.”
(I shook the bag in my hand and the doctor blushed furiously at the realisation that everything my mum said was accurate. All the nurses then backed away, seemingly suspicious of each other. They never found the money, or figured out who stole it, but my mum demanded to be immediately moved to another hospital, and the nurses managed to pool together £100 themselves as compensation. My mum refused to take it, though, as she saw it as an admission that they collectively stole it.)
Doctor/Physician, Medical Office, Oklahoma, Punny, Tulsa, USA | Healthy | January 17, 2018
(On my most recent office visit, I get some coffee but am hustled into a room before I can mix in cream or sugar. I spot a container of tongue depressors and grab one to stir. The nurse chuckles a bit at my audacity, but it makes perfect sense to me; it’s just like any other wooden coffee stirrer. Then, I have a bright idea. A few moments later my doctor walks in
Me: “I think I need Zoloft for my tongue.”
Doctor: “Why is that?”
Me: “It’s been depressed.”
(I got the laugh I hoped for. Nice to have a doctor with a sense of humor.)
Arizona, Crazy Requests, Extra Stupid, Jerk, Optometrist/Optician, USA | Healthy | January 16, 2018
(A customer comes in for a contact lens appointment. Their last appointment was nearly two years previous. They have an eye infection, so we bill them for a medical treatment visit.)
Customer: “What is this charge here? I wasn’t charged for this last time.”
Me: “Last time, you didn’t have an eye infection. We had to charge you a copay for that because of your medical insurance.”
Customer: “You didn’t ask me before doing all that; you can’t charge me for it.”
Me: “But you did want contact lenses, right?”
Customer: “Obviously.”
Me: “The doctor can’t give them to you until that eye infection is cleared up; that’s why this was a medical visit.”
Customer: “Well, the eye infection was your fault, anyway.”
Me: “Umm, but it was from over-wearing your contacts, correct?”
Customer: “Yes, but that’s your fault.”
Me: “Ma’am, you made a three-months supply of contacts last 20 months. I’m quite sure we didn’t recommend you do that.”
Customer: “Well, the contacts are too expensive! I couldn’t afford enough of them.”
Me: “Then, might I recommend you get glasses instead? We have a large selection of frames to choose from.”
Customer: “Glasses make people look stupid.”
Me: *laughs awkwardly, as all the other employees wear glasses, as do I* “Well, actually…”
Customer: “I don’t want glasses; I want contacts, and I’m not going to pay for things I didn’t ask for. If you don’t want people to get eye infections, you need to sell contacts cheaper.”
Me: “Ma’am, if you don’t pay for your visit, we cannot provide you with a prescription for contacts.”
Customer: “That’s just unprofessional!” *pays and then flounces out of office*
Arizona, Extra Stupid, Pets & Animals, Silly, Tucson, USA, Vet | Healthy | January 16, 2018
(I am playing with one of the clinic cats, Bean, and toss a toy to him. Unfortunately, I miss and hit him in the face, though he doesn’t seem to mind. Bean is cute, but he’s not the brightest cat ever. Later, I am telling the vet about it.)
Me: “I feel kind of bad. I beaned Bean in the head with a toy.”
Doctor: “That’s okay; there’s nothing up there, anyway.”
Hospital, Japan, Non-Dialogue, Nurse, Tokyo | Healthy | January 16, 2018
Due to a chronic condition, I needed to have a series of blood tests done, some of which required larger gauge needles than normal. I headed to the hospital closest to my apartment in Tokyo, waited to see the specialist, and got my notes to take to the blood draw lab reception.
The intake nurses were a bit flustered to be treating me, but my Japanese was good enough that I got through the first steps just fine. Then, I headed into the blood test room and the nurse there started telling me that the tests would hurt, the needles are pretty big, etc., and that in Japan, they don’t use skin-numbing cream. I assured her that I’d be fine, but she didn’t believe me and stomped out of the room to find a nurse that spoke English, despite the fact that we had been conversing in Japanese just fine.
I took off my cardigan, and my heavily-tattooed arms were now visible, right when the nurse came back, dragging a young doctor behind her. He looked at me and said to the nurse, “I think she’s okay with needles,” then burst out laughing as the nurse just gawked at me. Turns out I was the first foreign patient she’d ever taken blood from and she was terrified I’d flip out or faint because of the needles.
Hospital, Ignoring & Inattentive, Nurse, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, USA | Healthy | January 15, 2018
(I fall in my house while holding my two-year-old. As I fall, I turn my body to hold her against the wall so I do not crush her, and as a result, end up with a spiral fracture on my fibula, and a broken and dislocated ankle. When I arrive at the hospital, they try to wrench my ankle back into place but don’t quite align it, so they have to do it again. Of course, this time I know it’s coming, so they decide to use some sort of anesthesia that is meant to make the patient woozy and forget what happened. I’m concerned about whether this will work, and express that concern to the nurse preparing me for the injection.)
Nurse: “Don’t worry; you won’t remember a thing! It probably won’t hurt, either.”
Me: “Can’t you just use this with some actual pain medicine, too?”
(The only pain medicine I’ve received at ALL has been two doses of Fentanyl administered by the paramedics, an hour ago. Fentanyl at the dose I was given lasts 20 minutes, tops.)
Nurse: “Look: you won’t remember, and you won’t feel anything. The only time you might feel something is if I pricked you with a pin, or something!” *he says this as though he’s a genius for thinking of this persuasive argument*
Me: “You mean like the kind of pain I’d feel if someone was moving around my dislocated ankle?!”
(I remembered everything. They also acted like they were doing me a massive favor in keeping me overnight instead of sending me home with three broken bones before surgery the next day. I finally got pain medicine six hours later at the room they begrudgingly gave me, and the call button didn’t work! I had to call my own room phone number with my cell phone and let it ring until a nurse came, because I couldn’t find the nurse’s station phone number!)
Chicago, Illinois, Medical Office, USA | Healthy | January 15, 2018
(I’m at my ob-gyn office for a prenatal check-up. I’ve been going to this office for six years. A doctor I’ve never seen before walks in.)
Doctor: “You’re here to renew your hormonal birth control prescription?”
Me: “No?”
(I’m just entering my third trimester with triplets. He could see my belly if he’d look up from his phone. You could see my belly from the other side of the state at this point!)
Doctor: *looks confused for a second but still doesn’t make eye contact, instead condescendingly says* “You are aware that condoms aren’t 100% effective, right?”
Me: “Gee, I wish you’d told me that seven months ago…”
(He finally looked up and tried to pass it off as there being another patient in the office right that minute with my very unusual first and last name.)
Hospital, Indiana, USA | Healthy | January 13, 2018
(My cousin is a nurse. One of the doctors, male, at the hospital where she works has gotten a few complaints for dismissing women complaining about certain symptoms as “pregnant.” One day she’s talking to a fellow nurse and another doctor, female, in the hallway, when they hear this from a nearby room
Patient: “HALLELUJAH! I’M PREGNANT WITH THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS!”
(My cousin and her coworkers exchange looks as an energetic and loud speech about “virginal conception” and “accepting my heavenly duties” sounds from the room.)
(She went in and took over the rest of the exam while my cousin and her coworker escorted the other doctor out. She said the look on his face was priceless! Needless to say, the story quickly spread around the hospital staff, and the doctor in question got in some trouble with the higher-ups thanks to this and the previous complaints. It’s been two months now, and he has yet to dismiss another woman’s complaints since then.)
Florida, Hospital, USA | Healthy | January 12, 2018
(I am doing clinicals at the hospital as part of my certified nursing assistant (CNA) program, on the communicable disease ward. I enter at patient room. Now, in this program students aren’t even allowed in the rooms of any patients with airborne contagious diseases. It is also a rule of the hospital that signs be placed on the front of the door along with masks for airborne diseases. I’m making my rounds and enter a room where the patient is sleeping, and grab the chart. He has a serious infectious airborne. I backtrack out of the room and look at the door. No sign, no masks. I approach my teacher about this, and then the head nurse.)
Me: “I read the chart in 334—”
Nurse: “You shouldn’t be in 334. He’s airborne and you’re a student.”
Me: “That’s why I came to you. There is no—”
Nurse: “Why were you in there? You could get seriously sick.”
Me: “You assign—”
Nurse: “It doesn’t matter what I assigned you to. You should know the rules. That’s why I hate working with students. Too stupid to even notice the sign on the door.”
(Now I’m irritated at the interruptions as well as the insinuation of stupidity.)
Me: “Look, lady, I’m not dumb; I’m top of the class. If you’d let me finish a sentence, I could tell you–”
Nurse: “Oh, God. If you’re top of the class, I’d hate to see—”
(I finally snap and interrupt her.)
Me: “And if you’re the head nurse here who is in charge of making sure people are doing their jobs so patients don’t die, I’d hate to see your mortality rate. As I was saying before, there is no sign, no masks, nothing on the door to indicate airborne. There aren’t masks inside or out. As the head nurse, shouldn’t you know this? You assigned me three rooms. When I said the room number you immediately knew he was airborne without pulling a chart. One could figure you knew this upon assigning my rooms, and ignored the rules, or have come across this information since, and rather than changing my assignment, or at least informing me, you just let it go.”
Nurse: “I shouldn’t have to tell you not to enter an airborne room. Now you say you went in without a mask?”
Me: “You should be sure that airborne is indicated as per the rules.”
Nurse: “You’re rude to me. You make a mistake then you’re rude to me. Your teacher will hear about this. Go work on your other patient rooms.”
Me: “My teacher has already heard about this. From me. And I’m not going to work with other sick people when I may have been contaminated. I’m going to tell my teacher I’m going home. I’d suggest you get a d*** sign and masks on that door before you get someone killed.”
(I go to my teacher and fill her in on the conversation. My teacher said she would deal with it, I should go, and to be sure to get tested as well. Then she says this…)
Florida, Nursing Home, USA | Healthy | January 12, 2018
(I am a student in a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program doing rotations in a nursing home shadowing a CNA working there. This patient is not part of our assigned rooms but is screaming for help. I ignore it at first, as I’m literally surrounded by medical professionals and figure her CNA or nurse will be in soon. Instead it carries on.)
Me: “Shouldn’t we check in on her?”
CNA: “She’s not ours, and she’s always like this. She just wants attention.”
Me: “Okay.”
(Ten minutes later, she is still screaming for help. Nobody is paying attention, and my CNA goes to do something without me. So since I have a 15-minute break without anyone to shadow, I decide to check on the woman. If she just wants attention, no harm done, I can talk a few minutes.)
Me: “Hi, I’m a student. Can I help?”
Patient: “My stomach.”
Me: *picks up chart* “How does your stomach feel?” *I look at the page detailing all she has ate and drank and any output, or waste, that day, thinking it’s an upset stomach*
Patient: “It’s exploding.”
Me: “That’s awful.”
(Then I notice she’s on a catheter, but no urine output has been recorded on her otherwise detailed chart. I look at her cath bag, and there is no urine in it. For those who don’t know much about caths there is always something. The body is constantly producing urine, and with a cath it drains straight off. This seems dangerous to me.)
Me: “I’m going to get you some help.”
(To the nurse at the station.)
Me: “The patient who has been screaming, I just checked in with her.”
Nurse: “She wants attention. Ignore it.”
(I find my teacher.)
Me: “This patient isn’t mine, but she’s been screaming. I keep getting told she’s attention seeking, but she has a cath and no output.”
Teacher: “I’ll check her.”
(I go about my day, and right before the students meet with the teacher for end of the day, I check in with the patient and she starts crying and thanking me profusely, saying nobody else listens, and I helped, and now she is ok. I note there is urine output in the bag. I go on to meet my class, and my teacher starts our reporting. As her final note
Teacher: “Oh, and [My Name] saved a woman’s life today!”
Me: “I did?”
Teacher: “Her catheter was misplaced. She had no urine output. You noticed while everyone else ignored her. When I placed her catheter correctly, the bag overflowed. Her bladder was close to bursting, which could have been serious or even killed her. Let this be a lesson, class: don’t ignore a patient just because they aren’t yours or want attention.”
(I am in the ER waiting to be treated for a severe migraine with EXTREME nausea. In the next cubicle is a man who apparently had a blockage in his digestive system. A stomach pump has just begun when I am shown to my cubicle. I am very happy not to have been an “ear-witness” to the tube insertion!)
Female In Next Cubicle: “Oh, look! There’s a jelly bean! And that must be the chicken from dinner!”
(She continued describing every morsel being pumped from his stomach. My nausea increased to the point that I vomited on the floor near the curtain. She wasn’t as excited about seeing what I had eaten. It stopped her narrative, though.)
Fredericksburg, Pharmacy, USA, Virginia | Healthy | January 11, 2018
(I work in a popular chain pharmacy/convenience store as a pharmacy technician. It is a week before Christmas and patients are swarming in to get medications refilled before they depart for the holidays. I’m currently working at a prescription filling station that is directly across from where the pharmacist verifies them, allowing us to talk as we work. Another technician takes in a couple of prescriptions and preps them for data entry; however, when the pharmacist spots them, he immediately sees a problem.)
Pharmacist: “Whoa, I am not filling this.”
Other Technician: “Why, what’s up?”
Pharmacist: “This drug combo, carisoprodol, benzo, and an opiate…”
Me: “Bad combo?”
Pharmacist: “It’s outright lethal. I need to speak with the patient.”
(We try to page the patient back to the pharmacy via the store intercom, but it appears that they’ve already left. The pharmacist decides to contact the doctor who prescribed the drug trio to alert them to the potentially fatal consequences. He immediately identifies this doctor as being a sketchy one that he has dealt with in the past. Nonetheless, he steels himself for the call and gets him on the line.)
Pharmacist: “Hi, I’m calling because of a couple of prescriptions that you’ve prescribed for [Patient]. When taken together these drugs are a potentially lethal combo. I wanted to see if perhaps we could if we could get the carisoprodol switched to, say Flexeril.”
Doctor: “There’s been no issues in the past.”
Pharmacist: “Right… but you are aware that is THE Unholy Trinity of drugs, correct? If nothing has happened previously then great, but all it takes is a single time or misstep and the patient is going to die. I highly suggest a switch here.”
Doctor: “I don’t want to do that.”
Pharmacist: *blinks* “So, just so we’re on the same page, you want to knowingly prescribe this potentially deadly combo to the patient, rather than switching?”
Doctor: “I’ve already discussed it with the patient. It’s fine.”
Pharmacist: “Okay, well, I’m going to notify the patient of your decision and make them aware of what’s going on here. I need to cover my bases.”
Doctor: “All right, sure.”
(The pharmacist was shocked by the nonchalant nature of the doctor, but decided to follow his gut instinct and not fill all three scripts. While there are noted instances of patients taking these drugs together, they are few and far between, and the benefits do not outweigh the risks; finally, the sketchy nature of the doctor meant that the pharmacist was less than comfortable doing so. He notified the patient of the situation (who seemed more disappointed with the fact that we wouldn’t fill all three drugs than with the fact that the combo was lethal) and wrote a note on the prescription stating that it was denied as well as our contact number should the patient try to have it filled elsewhere.)
(I have a concussion and am getting a CT scan. The tech hands me a waiver where I sign that I’m not pregnant. I have to check a reason that I know this. I look up and down the list, and see reasons such as “I’ve had a hysterectomy,” “I’ve had tubal ligation,” “I had a negative pregnancy test done in the hospital today,” and “I have gone through menopause.” I don’t see one that describes my situation so I draw a box at the end of the list, and write, “I’m a virgin.” I check my box, sign it, and hand it back to the tech.)
Tech: “Do we really not have an option for that? Wow.”
Hudson Valley, New York, USA, Vet | Healthy | January 11, 2018
(I work as a receptionist in a small, single-doctor veterinary practice. A first-time dog owner drops off his 6-month-old male Golden Doodle to be neutered. The surgery is routine, and the dog goes home that evening. I get this phone call the following day.)
Me: “Good morning. [Veterinary Hospital]. This is [My Name]. How can I help you?”
Client: “This is [Client]. I brought Fluffy in to be neutered yesterday. Did you also remove his testicles?”
Me: “Pardon me?”
Client: “Did the doctor remove Fluffy’s testicles yesterday when he was in to be neutered?”
Me: “Y-yes. That’s what the procedure is.”
Client: “I wish someone had explained that to me before I agreed to the surgery. Dr.
[Name] only said Fluffy would be castrated, not that his testicles would be removed.”
Canada, Clinic, Manitoba, Winnipeg | Healthy | January 10, 2018
(My husband and I had decided to go on a trip to the Dominican Republic with another couple. This couple is about 10 years younger than we are and more attractive. When we go to get our vaccinations before the trip, this happens.)
Nurse: *to the other couple* “Now, you two weren’t planning on getting up to anything naughty with the locals, were you?”
Male Friend: *grinning* “Like what?”
Nurse: *wags finger coyly* “You know what I mean. No sexual activity, okay? You could catch something that these shots won’t prevent.”
Female Friend: “Don’t worry, we won’t.”
Nurse: “Good to know. Have fun. Next!”
Me & My Husband: “That would be us.”
Nurse: *suddenly very business-like* “I have a warning for you two, as well.”
Me: “Don’t have sex with the locals?”
Nurse: “What? No, I was going to warn you not to eat the fish. It might make you sick.”
(As we walked away, my husband said “I feel vaguely insulted and I’m not sure why.”)
Hospital, Melbourne, USA, Victoria | Healthy | January 10, 2018
(I go to get an internal ultrasound due to some gynecological issues. The place I’ve been referred to is specifically for women’s ultrasounds and while they do things for not-pregnant women, most of their work is women who are trying to get pregnant, currently pregnant, or just had a baby. They need to check off a couple of things before they start and the technician is going through my file notes.)
Tech: “I see here that you have the copper IUD.”
Me: “Yeah, I got it about six months ago.”
Tech: “Why do you have one?”
Me: “…because I don’t want babies?”
Tech: *laughs* “Yeah, that was a stupid question. I meant copper was an unusual choice. Why not the [Brand]?”
(This is back when the “puff of air” type of glaucoma test was still common. I am 13 or so at this point and have a very strong blink reflex, as well as anxiety that makes me very uncomfortable in medical offices, meaning I have a bad startle reflex, as well. My dad has warned me that the glaucoma test is unpleasant, so I make a request of the nurse doing the test.)
Me: “Can you please count down before you shoot the air? I’ll jump really badly otherwise.”
Nurse: *dismissively* “Uh huh, got it.”
(I’m shaking like crazy when I put my eye up to the machine but trust that the nurse will honor my request. I hear her making some adjustments, and then suddenly she shoots me with the air and I nearly fall out of my chair.)
Me: *startled and close to tears* “You said you’d count.”
Nurse: “I can’t; you’d move away if you knew when it was coming. Oh, come on, you jumped so fast my results got messed up, so we’ll have to redo that eye.”
(She has to do the test three times on one eye and two on the other because I keep jumping so badly. By the time she finishes, I am a wreck and terrified of coming back the next year. Fortunately, shortly after that they raise the minimum age for the test to 18, but when I reach 19 and have an appointment at a new practice I’m still petrified at the thought of the test.)
Me: *to the nurse* “Is there any way I can opt out of the glaucoma test? I don’t have a family history of it and I’m not old enough to be at risk yet.” *I explain my bad experience from years earlier*
New Nurse: “Oh, don’t worry, we actually don’t use that version of the test here. It’s not as accurate, anyway.”
(The new version involves numbing drops and having the eye touched with a small instrument, and I didn’t feel a thing. The new nurse said the other woman had no reason not to count down for me.)
(I arrive for a dentist appointment to have some X-rays of my jaw. I am sitting in the waiting room for around 10 minutes when I am called through.)
Dentist: “Okay, sit yourself back down and we’ll take a look.”
(She starts feeling around my gum line. I’m not sure why, but just assume it has something to do with the X-ray.)
Dentist: “How does that feel?”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Dentist: “Is it numbed up yet?”
Me: “No?”
Dentist: “Hmmm. We can’t give you any more anaesthetic today. We’ll give it another few minutes.”
Me: “Umm, you haven’t given me any anaesthetic.”
Dentist: *turns back to computer* “Are you [Name]?”
Me: “No, I’m [My Name].”
Dentist: “Oh, you’re my next appointment. Looks like [Assistant] called you in by mistake.”
(I was sent back out and the other patient is called in — a young girl, while I’m a 27-year-old man. I was honestly so shaken by how the dentist didn’t realise the difference that I left and forgot the appointment. I didn’t go back for another two years until the pain in my jaw reached unbearable, at which time most of the staff had been replaced (including my old dentist). I had to register again, but I was put with someone more competent. I got my X-rays and found out I have temporomandibular disorder. I was sent to my GP (which admittedly I should have gone to initially) and prescribed antidepressants to try and relax the muscles. I put myself through two years of additional pain because I was mistaken for a child.)
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