A DOSE of Reality for NEWBIES

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

I feel that this private email and my reply should be posted to give a

bit of reality to some newbies. We all have our 'first' of any thing.

IF you have an experience to share, comedy or tragedy while on the

FIRST job as a tech that you feel comfortable sharing please do. While

our intent is not to cause anyone to leave the pharmacy field, I think

it is a good idea to discuss the REALITY of the job. This email came

to me privately and I am withholding the name of the author, and I

removed any info that would 'place' the state or employer.....

" Dear Jeanetta,

Work today was hard. I filled my first peds. AZT script. The pt. rep.

is a nun from a local convent. I gave it to her through the drive

through window and after I thanked her for taking care of an HIV

positive 'throw away' baby, I just had to take a break, go into the

compounding room, and Jeanetta, I had to have a good cry.

What we deal with on the job other people can not understand. I hope

that I just made a difference, as now we have RX Flavori, and I mixed

in the orange flavor for the baby.

NAME Withheld "

My reply:

" " Dear NAME Withheld,

On my FIRST day at my hospital externship site, 16/17 years ago, I

walked in the emergency entrance (which also served as the employee

entrance) where they were wheeling in a very young girl. She was 5.

There was a pink teddy bear on her IV pole.

I filled her orders that day. Later before the end of my first 'real

life' shift, she died. I had heard it was a bursted appendix.

Some things you will NEVER forget. I recall that day so vividly and

sadly. It shook me up and I wanted to quit pharmacy. It took all I had

to go back the next day, especially since she was in the body bag on

the elevator, as I stood next to the transporters, who spoke of her as

they made their way to the morgue. I almost puked when the elevator

stopped after they got out and wheeled her to the last hospital room

she would occupy.

Pink teddy bears, any teddy bear for that matter, IV poles, gurneys,

emergency doors, ER shows, little girls and body bags; will all bring

back the same vivid memory at an unexpected notice.

While I could do nothing for this little girl, some how the Lord was

able to get me to understand that someday I could/would do something

for someone else, and that I may not even not know it. I was very sad

for a very long time at the externship.

Much later, one day on my first 'job' I realized that I had become a

bit calloused when I had to console a newbie who just realized that a

patient who had coded earlier, died and she was doing the billing of

the drugs that she had transported up via dumbwaiter. While I

empathized and felt bad for my co-worker, the loss of the patient was

not as devastating to me as it was to her. Then I knew I had 'arrived'

in pharmacy. I understood then how doctors, nurses and pharmacists can

do what they do with death surrounding them all the time.

Take care my friend,

Jeanetta " "

Respectfully,

Jeanetta CPhT

Founder/Owner