Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
You're a Pharmacist...so what????
"5, 10, 15, 20….countin by 5's and makin big money!" Hehe, I've sung this line many times in the last few weeks as I've learned the ins and outs of retail pharmacy on this rotation. Many people see this as the pharmacists only job. And let me tell you that can be really frustrating to those of us who have dedicated 6-8 years to school to have people only think we count by 5's and stick on labels. But I'll get off my soapbox on that one…
So what does a pharmacist do in the mission field exactly??? And I mean are we even necessary? How hard is it to read a name and count pills??? Sigh… Yes. To all my friends who are or one day aspire to be pharmacists, we are important and we do have a place in the mission field. Actually our place usually sits sadly unoccupied as someone else struggles to fill our place. Imagine a combination of a retail pharmacist (the chaos, the counting and checking, and did I mention the chaos!?!), a clinical pharmacist as you're often called on to dose, recommend, etc and an artist being that creativity is a must as working with a limited formulary and substitutions are a given especially by your last clinic day.
Now I'm by no means an expert missionary pharmacist. On the contrary, I am actually very much a baby. But I love it :) I love that in the middle of the chaos I can talk to a patient and not only give them their medication but pray with them. Instead of hoping that a young mother doesn't get mad when I explain that I can't give her medicine for her baby's cough, I offer to pray for the baby (and the mother's sanity cause sick babies are no fun!). In the mission field I feel like the perfect combination of pharmacist and soldier as God calls us to be for Christ. Is that weird??? Hehe, probably.
So what does a pharmacist do in the mission field exactly??? And I mean are we even necessary? How hard is it to read a name and count pills??? Sigh… Yes. To all my friends who are or one day aspire to be pharmacists, we are important and we do have a place in the mission field. Actually our place usually sits sadly unoccupied as someone else struggles to fill our place. Imagine a combination of a retail pharmacist (the chaos, the counting and checking, and did I mention the chaos!?!), a clinical pharmacist as you're often called on to dose, recommend, etc and an artist being that creativity is a must as working with a limited formulary and substitutions are a given especially by your last clinic day.
Now I'm by no means an expert missionary pharmacist. On the contrary, I am actually very much a baby. But I love it :) I love that in the middle of the chaos I can talk to a patient and not only give them their medication but pray with them. Instead of hoping that a young mother doesn't get mad when I explain that I can't give her medicine for her baby's cough, I offer to pray for the baby (and the mother's sanity cause sick babies are no fun!). In the mission field I feel like the perfect combination of pharmacist and soldier as God calls us to be for Christ. Is that weird??? Hehe, probably.
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