Firstly, I couldn't help but take a pic of this new drug:
Varenicline, works on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. basically for smoking cessation. Seen this dispensed many times so I guess it is getting more popular. There are other drugs for smoking cessation too, such as one anti-depressant(guess?) but its ok since sg only uses nicotine.One day, one pharmer removes the pile of paper from the floor and to my horror, I saw this:
Poor martindale, if you all don't want give me laaa... tskkk By the way, there must be like more than 10 reference books in the pharmacy as required by law. So that's why these books are being tortured like that.randomly browsed through the shelves and saw this:
When I flipped it open, it looks like their Sanford guide but there are more content than the sanford guide. and the print is much bigger, thank god.and saw this in some random reference book... how random can I get.
The final interesting part has to be the patients! Let me start recalling....
1) 16yo patient comes in with a STAT dose of Azithromycin and Cefixime. Ben the pharmer dispensed the meds and the only thing that he said to the guys was:" Be careful next time." The guy grabbed the paper bag tightly and scuttled off. I was totally bewildered. Ben then told me that it was the dosing regimen to treat STD. OHHH.. no wonder he asked the guy to be careful. hahaha
2) Poor patient comes into pharmacy to get steroid cream. If any of you have paid attention in PP4 lesson, the patient in a canadian HC system visits the doctor for free but he has to pay for his meds. So poor patient went to see the doc for free but he didn't have a single cent to pay for the cream, nor does he have any insurance plans. Poor patient insisted that he needed the cream immediately and promised to pay for the cream when he gets his paycheck. But Boss Pharmer Kenny refused. Eventually, poor patient did not get any cream but he was advised to see the doc again to ask for free samples from the doc. Great move by Boss pharmer Kenny. It all ended well :)
3) The drug addicts are back again. This time around, they are here for a good cause: REHAB!! On one of the days, I saw Melissa filled small quantities of med into many bottles. Then, she asked Ben to check those bottles before placing them out on the shelves. I glanced at the bottles while Ben was checking. METHADONE. And of coz, Ben saw that look on my face and told me that its for rehab for the drug addicts. That reminded me of the methadone clinic back in HK. Now it all made sense. So I asked a stupid qns: How come I didn't see drug addicts coming in to take the drink? haha Ben smiled and promised to point to me those drug addicts if they are coming in.
So over the next few days, I saw quite a few coming in to take the drink. They look like normal people so it was not hard to go unnoticeable. Melissa usually takes the bottle out and top it up with orange juice. The volume should be more than one gulp just to make sure that those people don't hold it there and puke them out when they leave the pharmacy. Then, they must drink up the whole bottle in front of Melissa to prove that they have drank everything. After that they are good to go, but they will be back in a few days for another drink.
4) The usual ones. Those patients who come in to entertain us with their cutest babies and loveliest pets. Sometimes old grannies can be really funny too.. Loves the casual conversations they have with Debbie and Danielle.. :)
5) The Epipen. It's an ephedrine injection which the patient carries around if going to travel. Basically, its an antidote for patients when they get anaphylactic shock. I wonder what kind of allergy would be so great that may cause someone to go into anaphylactic shock but people get it just in case something happens. There is a spring inside the epipen that gives so much power that it is able to stab the needle thru a pair of jeans. Danielle demonstrated injecting the Epipen at the pail and it was really fast. An expensive injection, lucky that I get to see the thing injected coz it was expired.
6) Medications with SMELL.. While danielle was blister packing, she showed me some Apo-brand meds that had smell in them. There were cotton candy, bubble gum and some other flavour. But unfortunately, none of them are found in sg so too bad, can't show next time.
Although I was only there for a week, this pharmacy offered a totally new perspective of pharmacies in Canada. It is probably one of the busiest pharmacy in edmonton I would say, and now I wouldn't think that practicing there is really that NO KICK at all. Something to bring back to sg after working there:
Being accurate is more important than being fast, if you're accurate then you will be fast.
I wouldn't mind if I had to work another week over there, but my holiday mood was already telling me to stop wasting my last long holiday to work.
So I went shopping instead, but it was at the Shopper's mart.
Nicoderm patches were OTC and the pharmacy is just HUGE. lucky florence gets to work at shoppers.. :)
waiting place for pick up and inquiries..
A thoughtful device for those who didn't bring their reading glasses. sometimes i think i need them too.. hahaha
