Years ago, a member of the New York State legislature
walked into a pharmacy and wanted some advice. I don't
know what he was asking about, but as the story goes,
he told a lot of personal details and then, to his
chagrin, discovered that he had been talking to a clerk
rather than the pharmacist. As soon as the legislator
got back to work, he pushed through a law requiring
pharmacists to wear an ID badge.
The law was quite detailed, and specified the size
of the badge, the color of the print and the background,
and even the typeface. While the law has been modified
a bit since, we still have to be properly labeled in
case an inspector walks in.
There are other requirements, good ones, that require
that patients picking up prescriptions be given the
chance to speak to the pharmacist and go over the details
of their medication. Regrettably, these regulations
aren't followed the way they should be, but they're
on the books, and I at least try to make myself available
for counseling, and try to get any technicians I'm
working with to ask the patients if they would like
to go over their meds with me.
Wednesday, I was working with the technician, Harry*,
and he was very good about asking: "Would you care
to speak to the pharmacist?" I stood by with a sort
of lonely expression on my face, waiting for somebody
to talk to me. Nobody wanted to, but several patients
did want to ask Harry about their meds. Trust me, I've
stood in front of several clocks, electric and mechanical,
and they've all continued to run. I wasn't hiding,
and it was clear that I had the professional qualifications,
thanks to the badge – but nobody wanted to ask
me anything – and they did ask Harry questions
that would have been more appropriate for somebody
with better qualifications to answer. My best guess
is that they preferred the familiarity, the person
whom they knew by name, and who knew them. Harry represented
a known, he was security. Maybe the person who wrote
the laws wanted to tell his problems to a licensed
professional, but the people he wrote them for would
rather tell their stories to a friend.
*not his real name
Would you like to share your story about a touching,
funny, or memorable event that happened to you on the
job? Do you have your own story of being a patient? Email
us today at submissions@medhunters.com.
Article published on Jul 23
07 12:59AM.
