Thursday, March 16, 2006
Pharmacy rant
I am irritated. I don't understand why people who are angry at pharmacist for so-called "conscience clauses" must demean or insult my profession. I used to watch Bill Maher on HBO until he compared pharmacist to tree surgeons. Not that I know anything about tree surgeons, but the point he was making was that my job does not require much skill or education. Today, I was reading about the proposal in Washington State to allow pharmacist to refuse to dispense prescriptions for moral objections on Pam's House Blend. The writer, Radical Russ, posted this rant:
"A pharmacist's job is to follow the orders of a doctor. We purposefully separated the doctors from the drugs so they couldn't abuse their own stash. You are little more than the security guard who loads the piles of cash into the ATM -- you don't get to decide how the ATM customers spend the money, your job is to simply load the money. Likewise, as a pharmacist, your job is to dispense the pills. You don't get to decide who gets the pills, the doctor and the patient do."
So, again the insinuation is that my job requires little skill or education. Then, why did I go to school for 6+ years and acquire $65,000 in student loans. Shit according to Bill and Russ, I could have gone to technical school. Why didn't someone clue me in years ago? So, I wrote this response to Russ:
"You are absolutely right about everything expect the role of the pharmacist. We are much more than "the security guard who loads the piles of cash into the ATM". We deal with your insurance companies for you. We make sure that the medications you are getting from 3 different doctors are not going to kill you. We make sure that you are not getting a medication that you are allergic to. We help you decide whether or not you should go to the doctor for that rash on your foot. We are medical professionals. I received a Doctor of Pharmacy after going to school for more than 6 years. I hate that few pharmacist have decided to make this a new front in the "culture" war, but I also hate it when our side diminishes my profession."
I am happy to say that I did get an apology. I think these instances point out the need for pharmacy to educate the public on our role in the health care system. For people who get medicines once or twice a year, we must seem like robots. For people on two or more monthly medication, we are often the only medical person they can easily talk to. I will continue to speak out for pharmacy on this blog and any other forum I can.
"A pharmacist's job is to follow the orders of a doctor. We purposefully separated the doctors from the drugs so they couldn't abuse their own stash. You are little more than the security guard who loads the piles of cash into the ATM -- you don't get to decide how the ATM customers spend the money, your job is to simply load the money. Likewise, as a pharmacist, your job is to dispense the pills. You don't get to decide who gets the pills, the doctor and the patient do."
So, again the insinuation is that my job requires little skill or education. Then, why did I go to school for 6+ years and acquire $65,000 in student loans. Shit according to Bill and Russ, I could have gone to technical school. Why didn't someone clue me in years ago? So, I wrote this response to Russ:
"You are absolutely right about everything expect the role of the pharmacist. We are much more than "the security guard who loads the piles of cash into the ATM". We deal with your insurance companies for you. We make sure that the medications you are getting from 3 different doctors are not going to kill you. We make sure that you are not getting a medication that you are allergic to. We help you decide whether or not you should go to the doctor for that rash on your foot. We are medical professionals. I received a Doctor of Pharmacy after going to school for more than 6 years. I hate that few pharmacist have decided to make this a new front in the "culture" war, but I also hate it when our side diminishes my profession."
I am happy to say that I did get an apology. I think these instances point out the need for pharmacy to educate the public on our role in the health care system. For people who get medicines once or twice a year, we must seem like robots. For people on two or more monthly medication, we are often the only medical person they can easily talk to. I will continue to speak out for pharmacy on this blog and any other forum I can.
# posted by Dawn @ 8:22 AM 
