#lostinwales

When starting you official first day of "observation" at a pharmacy in a foreign country you should always leave late, miss your bus, and get on the next bus and hope for the best outcome. Hope is really what gets you places. Then pull out the handy dandy business card cause people will point you in the right direction. Or they will simply point you to where they think the pharmacy is thus resulting in getting you more lost than before. Then you get so lost in Rhiwbina for so long that the pharmacy gives up on you making it and sends their driver to fetch you. And so begins day one of your rotation. 

While at the pharmacy your mind is blown by the differences between UK and US pharmacy. To summarize UK is better in like every way. Patient yells at you in the US considered the norm. Patient yells at you in the UK they can be banned from the pharmacy. Patient in US forced to go to doctor for fungal infections, sore muscles, pain, and general sickness. Patients in the UK are strongly encouraged to go to the pharmacy for such things because many anti inflammatories, antibiotics, and antifungals are over the counter so pharmacists can play a huge roll in patients healthcare. Patients in the US often go without needed medications. Patients in the UK (Wales specifically not the whole UK) get prescriptions for free. Pharmacists in the US don't get paid for reviewing a patients medications. Pharmacists in the UK are required to do an annual review of each patient's chart. . . . To summarize again. The UK is better in every way when it comes to pharmacy.