#pharmacy intern

I CAME PREPARED!!! Got them special compression socks and softer more padded shoes.

My feet still hurt but not as bad as last week🥰

So I work as a pharmacy intern (and a student full time) - our store demographic is older, white, cis patients/customers, and we serve the general population (so we’re not a special focus healthcare service, like Equitas Health, for example)

I helped a patient ring up her meds today as normal, but at the end of the transaction, before I was about to say farewell, she said “Can I ask you a personal question?” At first, I thought she meant personal as in herself, as if she was about to ask about a sensitive medical topic, so I was like “yeah sure.. if I can answer it” and got ready to discuss a private-ish matter more quietly/seriously at the counter, also perking up in case I needed to ask my pharmacist to help out

And she goes “Are you non-binary?”

I was taken aback at the unexpected question, but I simply answered “yeah” and waited for elaboration. She basically explained that she’s a teacher for choir and one of her students approached her with a question (I forgot if she told me exactly what lol) but it was regarding how to section the choir students. Like men’s vs women’s sections, sopranos vs altos vs baritones etc. stuff, and basically she was asking my opinion on how it would be appropriate to section the NB students since they’re not men/women. (I consider it fully an opinion, but she might’ve been wanting my more “directional/personal experience so it’s a good non-offensive” answer 😂) I had no idea how to answer it without maybe a longer, deeper discussion that I didn’t have time for lol, so my quick response was I’m not sure, but might just be best to let your students choose for themselves where they wanna be/what they wanna do

She got apologetic like “sorry, I don’t mean to offend you” and all that, and I was like “no no, it’s fine! I’m happy to educate! 😊” I’m seriously warmed tho by her desire to be an understanding ally/teacher for her students, I’m sure they love her already coz she seemed very trustworthy from what I’ve experienced in my short interaction with her haha~ The fact that she was sensitive to the topic (that some people don’t like to discuss), that her students trusted her enough to approach her with consideration of NBs in the first place, and that she asked someone who identifies as such for advice~ I am super amused it was me, in the setting we’re in and as complete strangers, but I’m just very touched by that interaction~ Made my day after being misgendered a lot again 🤣🤣 (Also reminds me of another time where I was vaccinating a customer and she suddenly goes “omg I didn’t see your pronouns, I’m sorry!” referring to my name tag, and I just responded I’m happy she noticed and is aware - coz most people don’t notice or just ignore it :3)

Anyways, I was kinda in (pleased/amused) shock right afterwards while returning to my work, and my coworker and boss come over and asked me what the patient had asked. Lol I’m out (never really been closeted…?) to my immediate coworkers so it wasn’t an issue telling them my thoughts, coz I was just very wanting to share that whole interaction XD went a direction catching me completely off guard! But yeh, I stayed overtime of my shift due to how busy we are, but that interaction after my shift’s technical end made it really worthwhile I think, coz it was a fun little interaction I’m glad I got to be in the perfect place for ☺️☺️☺️

I’ll be honest - I don’t particularly enjoy working in community pharmacy. It is not my cup of tea, but I still do it anyway because I work with amazing people and I don’t know that I’d be able to land a hospital job right now since all of my experience thus far has been community - I might still try though.

Anyway, I digress - I know community pharmacy is not for me because I get super stressed out at work when things are hectic and it shows in my words, expressions, attitude, and actions. And I do genuinely hate that I get overwhelmed and flustered. I find that a lot of patients simply don’t understand the work that goes into preparing their meds and I want the general public to be more educated about the field of pharmacy.

We do not just slap labels onto bottles of pills - honestly, our jobs would be a lot easier if that’s all we had to do. But it isn’t that simple. Sometimes we can’t get your meds filled right away because the insurance company wants to have a prior authorization from your doctor. Sometimes your doctor hasn’t gotten back to us with a new prescription so we do what we can when we can - if we can give you an emergency supply, we will. We’re not heartless and we know that your meds are important to you. We also don’t want you to have to go without your meds. Your frustration at the cost of your copay is understandable - we get it, but please don’t blame us for it. Your insurance company sets the prices, not us.

Bottom line: You, as our patient, are important to us and we do care about you. We really do want what is best for you.

Anyway, I digress again - the only community pharmacy that I would ever consider is probably working for an independent pharmacy.