I am a third- year Psychology student at Goldsmiths University of London, who works part time at a pharmacy as a dispenser. I’ve been working at the pharmacy for three years and, while there are many differences within psychology and pharmacy, there are also many similarities in terms of the transferable skills and knowledge.
In this short blog, I will be discussing a typical ‘day in the life’ from a pharmacy dispenser’s POV.
As the morning begins and we open the pharmacy up, we turn on all computers, and sign in. My first task is to print out and dispense the medication for the substance abuse patients. Substance abuse patients are patients that are undergoing opiates treatment and addiction counselling to help with opioid (heroin) addiction. Nearly half of the adults in treatment were there for problems with opiates, and this remains the largest substance group compared to alcohol abuse. Once these are dispensed and checked, they go back into the locked controlled drugs cabinet ready for when a patient arrives to take their daily medication.
Stock deliveries arrive around 10/11AM – these need to be put away quickly and efficiently, so that we can have the medications available for dispensing deliveries and collections. This way, we can also avoid any hazards of the boxes being in the way. If there is a controlled drug delivery, we would need to sign and inform the pharmacist so that it can be entered in the CD register. Lastly, any fridge items would need to be stored away quickly.
The next step would be dispensing and labelling deliveries that have been sent by the GP, and preparing for the pharmacist to check and bag them. Once the pharmacist has done so, this will be given to the pharmacy delivery driver, who is expected around 11am to deliver the medication to a patient's house who is unable to collect due to health risks.
Similar to deliveries, our senior dispenser will print out prescriptions that are to be collected by patients from the pharmacy, that were sent from the GP that day. Once these are then dispensed and labelled, the pharmacist will then check and bag the medications, leaving them ready for the counter staff to file away. A text message then gets sent to the patients, notifying them that their medication is ready for collection.
The next steps involve preparing Dossets/ blister packs for any patients under the monitored dosage system scheme when they have multiple medications and are unable to stay on top of them. It is beneficial to use a multi-compartment box with days and times of the day for a month, to ensure they stay organized and take their medication correctly. This approach helps in managing complex medication schedules effectively. Similarly, we also do this for care homes. Although the dosset box looks slightly different, the process is quite similar. Nonetheless, once these are dispensed and placed ready for the pharmacist he will check, bag and prepare it for delivery. Around 3-5pm, depending on how many deliveries the driver has, he would arrive for his last round of the day.
In between those various tasks, picking up phone calls is extremely important, dispensing any walk-ins (patients arriving at the pharmacy) and seeing patients over the counter with any health queries. Any queries or confusion concerning any medication would be directed to the responsible pharmacist.
An important role is liaising with the GP doctors and nurses, ensuring dosage and strengths are correct and prescriptions requests are sent in time for patients’ repeat prescriptions.
To end the workday, we make sure all controlled drugs are locked away in the cabinet, that the till readings have been done and the substance abuse patients who have collected their prescriptions, have been all entered onto the system.
If you have any further questions about working in a pharmacy, feel free to get in touch!
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