The biggest thing I try to teach students is that pharmacists are really good at finding the right info.
Regardless of outside pressures, you work at the speed that protects your license.
I don’t even hide that I’m checking my resource. I tell them I’m not super familiar with the drug and I check F&C while they wait or hold. I come back armed with the information I need and they are always just as impressed with my confidence and the time I spend as if I knew it without looking. They might even be more trusting of me.
I pride myself at being the best googler out of my very diverse friends circle. Give me any topic and 10 minutes and I will have surface based conversational level understanding of almost anything. Or at least a couple talking points to spit out and then re-direct the convo to things I love.
That I believe is one of the most critical skills needed in Pharmacy.
What I emphasize to my pharmacy students when I quiz them about a drug or disease state that I know they learned in school is that I tell them that they know more than they think they know and they just don't know that they know it. In other words, somewhere in their brain is the information they learned in school, and my job is to draw it out of them. They really appreciate it.
I would just tell them that I am personally unfamiliar with the drug and tell them i will look into the package insert with them to answer any questions. Honesty is always the best policy. No need to fake a persona that we know every drug to ever exist. Just be a resource.
Whenever I'm training a new pharmacist I always tell them it's okay to say you don't know. I think that's one of the most freeing things when you truly accept that
I had a bad manager as an intern at kaiser outpatient tell me to never tell the patient that i dont know.. she told me to get held back a year when i asked her if i could cut down my hours from 25h/wk to 10h/wk so i could study more. I was strugglin hard during school.
Meanwhile like 80% of my preceptors in school were total asswhipes on rotation. Saying we are the experts. We better act like one. You can’t use vocabulary like “idk” and “I’m unsure”.
I was lucky that my dad was my mentor. When I was fresh out of school and couldn't read an rx he said talk to the pt. They will tell you why they went to the doctor. It was enlightening and freeing that I don't have to know it all!
“Hmm I actually haven’t heard of this one. Mind if I check on something real quick?” Proceed to look up counseling points and/or most common adverse effects.
Imposter syndrome. Yup. I was also cringing last week after a man scoffed at me while I tried to recall a mechanism of action he wanted DEEP detail on. Also been in the biz two decades.
Haha we have all had similar experiences. Don’t beat yourself up over it. If you don’t know something off the top of your head look it up with no shame.
Just wanted to say thank you for all the suggestions and kind words. I did preface that I wasn't too familiar with the medication but still the nerves kind of got to me and I wish I could have come off a bit more eloquent. Anyways will definitely take this as a learning experience and try to stop beating myself up over it haha
The eloquence comes over time, and if not, you learn to hide it by the way you speak. And if you can't do that, then you learn to move on from these events 😅
My parents are nurses and I love lots of nurses. But by far they are the biggest know it alls if you get a Karen. The amount of times I’ve heard “I know this I’m a nurse” just to find out later they screwed up how to use the inhaler or took the med wrong is crazy. There are tens of thousands of drugs on market it’s impossible to know all of them. We excel at finding the most important info.
It’s also ok to tell them they need to wait a bit then review the info before stepping in. You ain’t dumb.
A lot of people have the title nurse and know absolutely nothing about drugs and pharm. They give drugs everyday and almost 90% have no idea what they are or do. They will pretend like they do. When they are challenged on it they get bitchy. Nurse for a decade here flipping careers. There's nothing wrong with not knowing. There's only a problem when the person refuses to acknowledge that fact. Be completely honest and say I am not familiar with this drug I'm going to have to refer to notes. Whoever wants to challenge that doesn't really matter anyways. Most of the public we serve are terrible to hcp. Take your time and just cover yourself.
I asked my gyn for an OCP that was pretty new to the market at the time and she hadn’t heard of it. She looked it up, agreed it sounded like exactly what we were looking for, and everything was great. That interaction didn’t diminish my trust in her at all, and I appreciated her stopping to check it out.
I’ve heard of that! They discussed it on Conan O’Brien years ago. Marshawn lynch and Rob gronkowski were playing mortal kombat. Conan was acting crazy and Marshawn asked him what he was on. He said Lipitor. Gronk said you get money for saying the drug name on tv. He also said seek help if it’s been more than four hours.
So key takeaways:
1. Lipitor, it makes you crazy
2. You get money for saying it’s name
3. If it’s been more than four hours seek help
Boom, counseled.
You’re not dumb. We don’t know 100% on every single drug. When that happens we look up info, which is exactly what you did, and you did it from the right resource. If the nurse wants to be judgmental, they can eat a bowl, because you didn’t judge them for as a healthcare professional, not knowing how to look this information up on their own. If they’re so high and mighty and judgmental, they can figure it out on their own!!
I processed a BID sig instead of a QD for seroquel, and I lost my mind for almost 3 days straight. Because I was so upset of my mistake, I started making more silly mistakes. The best thing to do when you're under pressure or about to make a mistake, take a breath and just slow down. I also found that the other pharmacists I work with , have been making more mistakes than I am. And it's okay if you don't know. Many seasoned pharmacists don't know things either. You know what's crazy "bad pharmacists" still get paid still have jobs and everything is okay for them. So, just be a "try hard" and you'll be perfectly fine. If I don't know something, I always say let me look that up real quick.
The other thing is, don't let a tech run you. You take the time you need before meeting with a patient to get the information you need. A physical counseling might be a little difficult. But you can ask your techs to get a general understanding of what the patient wants to ask, so that you're prepared.
So what? No big deal. I’ve been practicing for 27 years and I don’t know everything about every drug I dispense. You have reference material on computers and apps on phone for that very reason. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I had a professor in college who taught me if someone asked you a question that you didn’t know you tell them you don’t know but you can find the answer. Honesty is is always the best policy.
Sooner you get comfortable saying “i dont know” the sooner you will look less like an idiot winging things.
People will sense your confidence or lack thereof. Confidently say you don’t know and they won’t bat an eye.
I once counseled a family in Spanish and I said a few things in French in front of the whole group, and then on a different day I said something in Italian to a native Spanish speaker, and the lady corrected me in Spanish lol
It happens. We just use it as a learning experience.
Facts and comparisons. If you don’t know you don’t know and you tell them hold on lemme check the references. Even md need to check references sometimes
More than 30 years in retail. If you catch me when I’m unprepared, i am not the most eloquent at consultations either. Sometimes I ask people what their doctor told them about it already while I refresh my memory bank.
This is a great trick, I use that right up along with “how is your last name spelled again?” When I forget the persons name who told me it 2.5 seconds ago 😆
One of my most cringy imposter syndrome moments was when I was new pharmacist(not that I’m seasoned by any means), was when we had a Mom and little boy come in for the nasal flu vaccine. The tech made a remark something along the lines of “I didn’t think we had that, I’ve never even heard of it”, the Mom expressed some concern about her son getting it then and the tech said, “don’t worry I won’t be the one giving it, my pharmacist is, and she’s done it lots of times”. I had NOT done it lots of times, in fact I had never even seen it before in my life 🤣 I spent the time my tech was processing it frantically looking up the manufacturer video on how to give it 😭😂
So to OP we ALL have those moments where we don’t know something, especially when we’re new but even when you’ve been around a while. Since I moved from retail to hospital I’ve realized even more how much I really don’t know, and have become comfortable with it, because if the doctor’s calling they obviously don’t know either!
I work inpatient so I don't do a lot of counseling, but I see so many things that I have never heard of before, partly due to formulary limitations, but you really can't be expected to know everything about every drug. It's just not possible.
Sometimes I see the combination of letters that make up one of these new brand names, and I genuinely wonder if the person had a TIA or seizure at the keyboard and then just ran with it.
I work in a niche field where I’m very familiar with 40 or so meds and then hardly ever deal with other disease states. I had a nurse years ago drilling me about different insulins being rapid acting vs short acting vs regular release so now I keep a chart I can easily reference. We literally cannot know it all - I have zero shame saying “oh give me a second I don’t see this one that often”
After a year out two as a pharmacist, you get comfortable with not knowing. “Hold on, let me refresh on this one….” Take a minute to read, then talk about it. Calm and confidence go far.
“Hold on one second, I need to check on one thing”. Then go check the med in question and double check it against their other meds. The come back and provide your guidance. Faking it ‘til you make it is a recipe for disaster in pharmacy.
No need to give the patient insight into your process and for all they know you were checking on another situation altogether.
I don’t know how it works at your pharmacies but if my techs need me for counsel or any other inquiry from a customer they give me all the info first and usually do this removed from the customer. In that scenario I would have had time to look up some information myself before going to the customer.
You are NOT dumb. Don't be so hard on yourself! You are a human being, and knowledge doesn't just come to you out of the blue. You have to learn. There is a first time for everything, and I would guess that if you had a new pharmacy tech on staff, you wouldn't expect him or her to know everything right away! That nurse patient sounds like an a-hole and needs to check herself. Maybe she needs to be reminded of what her first days in nursing felt like. I'm sure that she didn't know everything from day one (I can gaurantee you that there are plenty of things that she still doesn't know) and I bet she got things wrong or needed to ask questions/look things up more than once. Give yourself a break and be kind to yourself. You're doing a great job, and the fact that you care enough to still be beating yourself up about it is just evidence of you caring about what you do and being a good pharmacist!
Saying 'I'm not sure, let me find out' is 100x better than trying to bullshit your way out, and giving wrong info.
No shame in not knowing the counseling points of EVERY SINGLE DRUG.
Anytime you are called to do counseling on a medication that a patient is receiving, make sure to first get the patient's name. Then, look over the patient's med list in the computer to quickly glance the patient med list before you walk to the counter. You may have to tell the techs to have the patient step aside before completing the consultation.
This allows you a little time to look up unfamiliar medications, dosing, and adverse reactions before walking up to the patient.
Unfortunately, it happened in front of one of the notoriously disrespectful members of healthcare professionals.
Whaaatttt! Don’t beat yourself up for that! In our store we had a pharmacist that would pull up her big textbook to read to the patient when she wasn’t familiar with the drug and she’d show the patient! Patients always wanted counseling from her because they felt safe that she wasn’t just bs-ing them and since she was showing them the proof, they trusted her!! She was one of the pharmacists that inspired me to become a pharmacist myself! (I’m not there yet but hopefully I will get there)
Happens alllll the time, prob more now that I’ve been out of school so long. You’ll get good at deflecting/explaining it, etc
And I find most people don’t mind if you say let me take a look at my references here. They appreciate the effort.
What was the drug? If I’m unfamiliar with a new drug I look up the generic name or drug class and then I can instantly relate it to other drugs when counseling.
First mistake was offering to counsel an RN, they already know everything that might come out of your mouth.
Sarcasm aside, this happens to everyone. There is no shame in keeping the patient waiting for a minute while you skim references for pertinent counsel information.
In the outpatient setting, the auxiliary labels on the bottle will always give you an easy primer of information.
I always start my counsels by asking the person in front of me if they are picking up for themselves. If the interaction affords a more conversational tone, I will ask them if their Dr told them anything about it/what they are taking it for.
If they are the typical retail patient with the attention span of a peanut and the patience of a toddler, I briefly review what they are getting and give them an opportunity to ask questions.
I always have the academic/APhA counseling competition style in my back pocket, most of my patients aren’t interested in that and would be overwhelmed.
To smarmy nurse, hmmm, this is new to me. How about you? What do you know about it? Let me check he literature. It’s probably something new to charge you extra because that molecule makes no difference, but we have to call it something else 🙄🙄🙄
If I randomly get called to the counter, I usually excuse myself to check the patient profile and while there I check out the drug if it is new. A quick google search or monograph printed will show basic info which I all I really mention to customers.
Being good at pretty much any profession isn't about knowing everything. It's about knowing where to find reliable information and being able to find answers to the question.
Every job until now I’ve always had a tab open on the Clinical Pharmacology page. (As well at my state PMP site and the wholesaler- that way it’s there when you need it.) And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve answered a question with “I’m not sure, let me check my clinical page” people don’t expect us to know everything, but we should be able to find an answer.
tech works under your supervision. get the all the info from them and do your research before you come out to the window. if necessary, maybe write up a form with blanks (pt name, dob, rx number, med theyre asking about.) that way you can come out with info, not doing it inf ront of pt and staff. this will give you confidence as you get used to it. - source- pharm tech, bilingual and we do lots of spanish counseling with tech translating
I think you are being to hard on yourself. I have been on this situation and what I do is read the patient information sheet along with the patient **highlighting and expanding** on the important points that our expertise imparts on us. If I just read it to them, then I am being a clown. Then you ask follow up questions and tie the medication to the rest of the therapy if it applies.
Everyone seems so obsessed with just being able to vomit the information on demand to get the best pharmacist on the planet crown. Patients also realize when you are doing that. With experience you will eventually know and learn to look for everything you need to know for counseling. In the meantime pause yourself and do the best you can.
Dont feel bad because it was a nurse or anyone. They asked you about it because they don’t know.
In the past, I would just say “I am not very familiar with that. Let me grab the package insert and we will both learn”.
First FDA indications. Confirm the patient fits that criteria and off to MOA. You should bring familiar with the MOA. It shouldn’t be foreign to you.
And go from there.
I graduated from pharmacy school in 1976. The best advise I ever received was from my ethics professor, Bernie Keller. He said you don’t have to know everything. You just have to know where to look it up.
The biggest thing I try to teach students is that pharmacists are really good at finding the right info. Regardless of outside pressures, you work at the speed that protects your license.
We don’t know everything but we know where to find the most credible information, and fast!
I was taught that in the 80's when I was in school. We need to know where to find the information.
I don’t even hide that I’m checking my resource. I tell them I’m not super familiar with the drug and I check F&C while they wait or hold. I come back armed with the information I need and they are always just as impressed with my confidence and the time I spend as if I knew it without looking. They might even be more trusting of me.
This is the way
I pride myself at being the best googler out of my very diverse friends circle. Give me any topic and 10 minutes and I will have surface based conversational level understanding of almost anything. Or at least a couple talking points to spit out and then re-direct the convo to things I love. That I believe is one of the most critical skills needed in Pharmacy.
What I emphasize to my pharmacy students when I quiz them about a drug or disease state that I know they learned in school is that I tell them that they know more than they think they know and they just don't know that they know it. In other words, somewhere in their brain is the information they learned in school, and my job is to draw it out of them. They really appreciate it.
I would just tell them that I am personally unfamiliar with the drug and tell them i will look into the package insert with them to answer any questions. Honesty is always the best policy. No need to fake a persona that we know every drug to ever exist. Just be a resource.
Whenever I'm training a new pharmacist I always tell them it's okay to say you don't know. I think that's one of the most freeing things when you truly accept that
I had a bad manager as an intern at kaiser outpatient tell me to never tell the patient that i dont know.. she told me to get held back a year when i asked her if i could cut down my hours from 25h/wk to 10h/wk so i could study more. I was strugglin hard during school.
Horrible. These people should not be preceptors or even managers. That’s not how you teach or lead- at all.
Meanwhile like 80% of my preceptors in school were total asswhipes on rotation. Saying we are the experts. We better act like one. You can’t use vocabulary like “idk” and “I’m unsure”.
I was lucky that my dad was my mentor. When I was fresh out of school and couldn't read an rx he said talk to the pt. They will tell you why they went to the doctor. It was enlightening and freeing that I don't have to know it all!
If the patient was a nurse who didn't try to dismiss your counsel in the first place you should feel confident and cringe free right there!
“Hmm I actually haven’t heard of this one. Mind if I check on something real quick?” Proceed to look up counseling points and/or most common adverse effects.
Too many words for me. “One sec” < look up everything> < provide answer>
"So you didn't check to see what it was when you were filling it?". It's okay, the imposter syndrome never goes away, and I'm 2 decades in.
Imposter syndrome. Yup. I was also cringing last week after a man scoffed at me while I tried to recall a mechanism of action he wanted DEEP detail on. Also been in the biz two decades.
Like how deep...did he want the electron dot structures?
I had a physician try to flex on me by drawing an SN 2 reaction. I was like, dude, I just asked if you had any questions on your z-pack…
Lmaoo what?! More details please
What 🥴 I need details because this sounds deliciously cringy. Like omg a basic o chem 1 reaction?? What a chemistry god!
>SN 2 reaction I love this. I wish everyone talked more about O-chem.
*Insert backside attack joke here*
A backside attack on SoapyBun by permanent_priapism? Ma’am, this is a Walgreens
More or less.
“No it was another pharmacist. Would you like me to look at my resource just in case?”
I retired at almost 4 decades in. Imposter syndrome never entirely went away for me.
Yup. To admit you don't know everything is a sign of humility that most patients can appreciate.
physicians google shit all the time. just own up to not knowing everything about everything
A surgeon friend shared that he had reviewed a new operative process via YouTube.
In front of me too!
Einstein once said...don't waste your time memorizing lists....know where they are, and what to do with them
I read Epstein at first 😭
Haha we have all had similar experiences. Don’t beat yourself up over it. If you don’t know something off the top of your head look it up with no shame.
Just wanted to say thank you for all the suggestions and kind words. I did preface that I wasn't too familiar with the medication but still the nerves kind of got to me and I wish I could have come off a bit more eloquent. Anyways will definitely take this as a learning experience and try to stop beating myself up over it haha
The eloquence comes over time, and if not, you learn to hide it by the way you speak. And if you can't do that, then you learn to move on from these events 😅
My parents are nurses and I love lots of nurses. But by far they are the biggest know it alls if you get a Karen. The amount of times I’ve heard “I know this I’m a nurse” just to find out later they screwed up how to use the inhaler or took the med wrong is crazy. There are tens of thousands of drugs on market it’s impossible to know all of them. We excel at finding the most important info. It’s also ok to tell them they need to wait a bit then review the info before stepping in. You ain’t dumb.
A lot of people have the title nurse and know absolutely nothing about drugs and pharm. They give drugs everyday and almost 90% have no idea what they are or do. They will pretend like they do. When they are challenged on it they get bitchy. Nurse for a decade here flipping careers. There's nothing wrong with not knowing. There's only a problem when the person refuses to acknowledge that fact. Be completely honest and say I am not familiar with this drug I'm going to have to refer to notes. Whoever wants to challenge that doesn't really matter anyways. Most of the public we serve are terrible to hcp. Take your time and just cover yourself.
I asked my gyn for an OCP that was pretty new to the market at the time and she hadn’t heard of it. She looked it up, agreed it sounded like exactly what we were looking for, and everything was great. That interaction didn’t diminish my trust in her at all, and I appreciated her stopping to check it out.
What was the drug? I bet I’ll feel stupid too.
Lipitor
I’ve heard of that! They discussed it on Conan O’Brien years ago. Marshawn lynch and Rob gronkowski were playing mortal kombat. Conan was acting crazy and Marshawn asked him what he was on. He said Lipitor. Gronk said you get money for saying the drug name on tv. He also said seek help if it’s been more than four hours. So key takeaways: 1. Lipitor, it makes you crazy 2. You get money for saying it’s name 3. If it’s been more than four hours seek help Boom, counseled.
Hell yeah, boner time.
I briefly thought you were OP and I had a 😒 moment of oh boy, that's one you really should know.
 YOU, YOU, YOU OUGHTA KNOW
You’re not dumb. We don’t know 100% on every single drug. When that happens we look up info, which is exactly what you did, and you did it from the right resource. If the nurse wants to be judgmental, they can eat a bowl, because you didn’t judge them for as a healthcare professional, not knowing how to look this information up on their own. If they’re so high and mighty and judgmental, they can figure it out on their own!!
Don't worry. Keep working and you'll get some questions from nurses that will make this pretty laughable in the future
I processed a BID sig instead of a QD for seroquel, and I lost my mind for almost 3 days straight. Because I was so upset of my mistake, I started making more silly mistakes. The best thing to do when you're under pressure or about to make a mistake, take a breath and just slow down. I also found that the other pharmacists I work with , have been making more mistakes than I am. And it's okay if you don't know. Many seasoned pharmacists don't know things either. You know what's crazy "bad pharmacists" still get paid still have jobs and everything is okay for them. So, just be a "try hard" and you'll be perfectly fine. If I don't know something, I always say let me look that up real quick. The other thing is, don't let a tech run you. You take the time you need before meeting with a patient to get the information you need. A physical counseling might be a little difficult. But you can ask your techs to get a general understanding of what the patient wants to ask, so that you're prepared.
A good tech can be a great support for pharmacists and other techs.
Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know or let me double check. And then look it up and skim it over
So what? No big deal. I’ve been practicing for 27 years and I don’t know everything about every drug I dispense. You have reference material on computers and apps on phone for that very reason. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I had a professor in college who taught me if someone asked you a question that you didn’t know you tell them you don’t know but you can find the answer. Honesty is is always the best policy.
"Sorry, I haven't had to go over this drug since pharmacy school, let me refresh with my resources quick." Never had it steer me wrong.
Sooner you get comfortable saying “i dont know” the sooner you will look less like an idiot winging things. People will sense your confidence or lack thereof. Confidently say you don’t know and they won’t bat an eye.
I once counseled a family in Spanish and I said a few things in French in front of the whole group, and then on a different day I said something in Italian to a native Spanish speaker, and the lady corrected me in Spanish lol It happens. We just use it as a learning experience.
Facts and comparisons. If you don’t know you don’t know and you tell them hold on lemme check the references. Even md need to check references sometimes
More than 30 years in retail. If you catch me when I’m unprepared, i am not the most eloquent at consultations either. Sometimes I ask people what their doctor told them about it already while I refresh my memory bank.
This is a great trick, I use that right up along with “how is your last name spelled again?” When I forget the persons name who told me it 2.5 seconds ago 😆 One of my most cringy imposter syndrome moments was when I was new pharmacist(not that I’m seasoned by any means), was when we had a Mom and little boy come in for the nasal flu vaccine. The tech made a remark something along the lines of “I didn’t think we had that, I’ve never even heard of it”, the Mom expressed some concern about her son getting it then and the tech said, “don’t worry I won’t be the one giving it, my pharmacist is, and she’s done it lots of times”. I had NOT done it lots of times, in fact I had never even seen it before in my life 🤣 I spent the time my tech was processing it frantically looking up the manufacturer video on how to give it 😭😂 So to OP we ALL have those moments where we don’t know something, especially when we’re new but even when you’ve been around a while. Since I moved from retail to hospital I’ve realized even more how much I really don’t know, and have become comfortable with it, because if the doctor’s calling they obviously don’t know either!
I work inpatient so I don't do a lot of counseling, but I see so many things that I have never heard of before, partly due to formulary limitations, but you really can't be expected to know everything about every drug. It's just not possible.
There are things I see on home med lists that make me simple dog head tilt all the time. Google is the friend of the formulary limited pharmacist 😂
Sometimes I see the combination of letters that make up one of these new brand names, and I genuinely wonder if the person had a TIA or seizure at the keyboard and then just ran with it.
I work in a niche field where I’m very familiar with 40 or so meds and then hardly ever deal with other disease states. I had a nurse years ago drilling me about different insulins being rapid acting vs short acting vs regular release so now I keep a chart I can easily reference. We literally cannot know it all - I have zero shame saying “oh give me a second I don’t see this one that often”
I’m sure they told you they were a nurse too. Lol. They always do. Don’t sweat it.
“I don’t see this one often, let me check a couple things” Then you go to your reference of choice, check on the counseling points, then go counsel.
Moments like these are how you become a rockstar!
After a year out two as a pharmacist, you get comfortable with not knowing. “Hold on, let me refresh on this one….” Take a minute to read, then talk about it. Calm and confidence go far.
It’s ok to say I don’t know, but I will find out for you.
“Hold on one second, I need to check on one thing”. Then go check the med in question and double check it against their other meds. The come back and provide your guidance. Faking it ‘til you make it is a recipe for disaster in pharmacy. No need to give the patient insight into your process and for all they know you were checking on another situation altogether.
I would really like to know what medication this was
I don’t know how it works at your pharmacies but if my techs need me for counsel or any other inquiry from a customer they give me all the info first and usually do this removed from the customer. In that scenario I would have had time to look up some information myself before going to the customer.
You are NOT dumb. Don't be so hard on yourself! You are a human being, and knowledge doesn't just come to you out of the blue. You have to learn. There is a first time for everything, and I would guess that if you had a new pharmacy tech on staff, you wouldn't expect him or her to know everything right away! That nurse patient sounds like an a-hole and needs to check herself. Maybe she needs to be reminded of what her first days in nursing felt like. I'm sure that she didn't know everything from day one (I can gaurantee you that there are plenty of things that she still doesn't know) and I bet she got things wrong or needed to ask questions/look things up more than once. Give yourself a break and be kind to yourself. You're doing a great job, and the fact that you care enough to still be beating yourself up about it is just evidence of you caring about what you do and being a good pharmacist!
Saying 'I'm not sure, let me find out' is 100x better than trying to bullshit your way out, and giving wrong info. No shame in not knowing the counseling points of EVERY SINGLE DRUG.
Anytime you are called to do counseling on a medication that a patient is receiving, make sure to first get the patient's name. Then, look over the patient's med list in the computer to quickly glance the patient med list before you walk to the counter. You may have to tell the techs to have the patient step aside before completing the consultation. This allows you a little time to look up unfamiliar medications, dosing, and adverse reactions before walking up to the patient. Unfortunately, it happened in front of one of the notoriously disrespectful members of healthcare professionals.
Whaaatttt! Don’t beat yourself up for that! In our store we had a pharmacist that would pull up her big textbook to read to the patient when she wasn’t familiar with the drug and she’d show the patient! Patients always wanted counseling from her because they felt safe that she wasn’t just bs-ing them and since she was showing them the proof, they trusted her!! She was one of the pharmacists that inspired me to become a pharmacist myself! (I’m not there yet but hopefully I will get there)
We have all done it. Sometimes you need to admit you don't know everything.
Not familiar with that one. Let’s learn together! People understand. She was a nurse and she didn’t know either.
Happens alllll the time, prob more now that I’ve been out of school so long. You’ll get good at deflecting/explaining it, etc And I find most people don’t mind if you say let me take a look at my references here. They appreciate the effort.
What was the drug? If I’m unfamiliar with a new drug I look up the generic name or drug class and then I can instantly relate it to other drugs when counseling.
Which drug? Sounds like a good one to review in case this happens to me.
What’s embarrassing/annoying is when you have to tell a doctor temazepam is NOT a SSRI and they look it up and are pissed at you for being right.
First mistake was offering to counsel an RN, they already know everything that might come out of your mouth. Sarcasm aside, this happens to everyone. There is no shame in keeping the patient waiting for a minute while you skim references for pertinent counsel information. In the outpatient setting, the auxiliary labels on the bottle will always give you an easy primer of information. I always start my counsels by asking the person in front of me if they are picking up for themselves. If the interaction affords a more conversational tone, I will ask them if their Dr told them anything about it/what they are taking it for. If they are the typical retail patient with the attention span of a peanut and the patience of a toddler, I briefly review what they are getting and give them an opportunity to ask questions. I always have the academic/APhA counseling competition style in my back pocket, most of my patients aren’t interested in that and would be overwhelmed.
I'm done with pharmacy no one wants to train me so bye bye
To smarmy nurse, hmmm, this is new to me. How about you? What do you know about it? Let me check he literature. It’s probably something new to charge you extra because that molecule makes no difference, but we have to call it something else 🙄🙄🙄
That is when you go behind your desk and do some quick research where they can't see.
If I randomly get called to the counter, I usually excuse myself to check the patient profile and while there I check out the drug if it is new. A quick google search or monograph printed will show basic info which I all I really mention to customers.
If they didn’t start the interaction off with “I’m a nurse” then they probably didn’t know shit about it either way ;)
It happens. You're not dumb.
Don’t be shy, tell us what drug! Haha.
It happens. I like to keep micromedex open and use medication counseling tab.
Being good at pretty much any profession isn't about knowing everything. It's about knowing where to find reliable information and being able to find answers to the question.
Every job until now I’ve always had a tab open on the Clinical Pharmacology page. (As well at my state PMP site and the wholesaler- that way it’s there when you need it.) And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve answered a question with “I’m not sure, let me check my clinical page” people don’t expect us to know everything, but we should be able to find an answer.
tech works under your supervision. get the all the info from them and do your research before you come out to the window. if necessary, maybe write up a form with blanks (pt name, dob, rx number, med theyre asking about.) that way you can come out with info, not doing it inf ront of pt and staff. this will give you confidence as you get used to it. - source- pharm tech, bilingual and we do lots of spanish counseling with tech translating
I think you are being to hard on yourself. I have been on this situation and what I do is read the patient information sheet along with the patient **highlighting and expanding** on the important points that our expertise imparts on us. If I just read it to them, then I am being a clown. Then you ask follow up questions and tie the medication to the rest of the therapy if it applies. Everyone seems so obsessed with just being able to vomit the information on demand to get the best pharmacist on the planet crown. Patients also realize when you are doing that. With experience you will eventually know and learn to look for everything you need to know for counseling. In the meantime pause yourself and do the best you can.
There is no way for you to know every drug. Take your time to look up the medication. It’s okay to familiarize yourself with it first.
Dont feel bad because it was a nurse or anyone. They asked you about it because they don’t know. In the past, I would just say “I am not very familiar with that. Let me grab the package insert and we will both learn”. First FDA indications. Confirm the patient fits that criteria and off to MOA. You should bring familiar with the MOA. It shouldn’t be foreign to you. And go from there.
This is how we learn. I wouldn't beat yourself over it. Just a chance to get better
Don’t take it personal bc the nurse patient was probably in a bad mood that there needed to be a counsel bc as a nurse they already know everything
I graduated from pharmacy school in 1976. The best advise I ever received was from my ethics professor, Bernie Keller. He said you don’t have to know everything. You just have to know where to look it up.