pharmacy, is it just drugs?

[debrakevin]

We are exploring possible career ideas with our 6th form son. How "intimate" do pharmacists have to be with people? I notice pharmacies offer "stoma and truss fitting services" and all kinds of intimate medical appliances as well as medicines and drugs. Does this involve handing something over a counter or more personal interaction? Sorry to sound stupid!
If they do have tactile consultations with customers, is it something which happens occasionally or every day?

[tinkerbell23]

i dont think pharmacists would change stoma bags to be honest if the patient dosent do it themselves a district nurse would.
however advice these days is to contact pharmacist to advise on symptoms and reccomend drugs! i think that folk would be in daily asking advice. remember though alot of pharmacies hand out the methadone now to drug users....my friends just qualified....i think its a fantastic job...good luck with it all x

[theprof]

Hmm, I'm afraid that you don't want to take tinkerbell23's answer too much to heart. In the UK, specific pharmacies within a particular county health authority are allocated to dispense opiates such as methadone. In effect, this means that in a medium sized UK town, there may be just one pharmacy that's licensed to hand out methadone to addicts. What this means is that in reality, there's a good possibility that your son may never work in a addict methadone dispensing pharmacy, so don't be too concerned about this.

Pharmacists are not personally intimate with patients; that's the task of medical professionals such as nurses and doctors. Stoma and truss fitting services are confined to advice on fitting within a private consultation facility at the pharmacy as are advice on other medical appliances. Pharmacists are not licensed to involve themselves in "personal interaction" as you put it.

By and large, the extent of these demands upon the pharmacist depends on the nature of community served by the pharmacy. The throughput of clients in a busy, major town pharmacy owned by one of the major companies is totally different from the village pharmacy that's served by only one local, possibly, elderly GP whose prescribing habits are predictable from the pharmacists point of view.

[theprof]

I should clarify, that the dispensing of opiates and other controlled drugs from a doctor's prescription is something that's a daily occurrence at all pharmacies.

However, methadone supplied under a supportive care programme including a flexible dosage regime administered under supervision for at least three months, is carried out in nominated pharmacies within a particular Primary Care Trust in England. The situation in Wales and Scotland is similar but not identical.

[vascop]

Don't forget that you can be a research pharmacist or a hospital pharmacist. Retail pharmacy is only one possibility.

[mike11111]

It used to be the case, though probably not now, that pharmacists were by and large those who had failed their prelims to become doctors. Pharmacy was seen as a second best option.

[theprof]

I'm afraid it's still the case now mike11111. In my home town, there's a pharmicist who is indeed a failed medical student. He's been in practice for at least 30 years and he persists in offering medical advice to patients of the three surgeries in the town much to the annoyance of the GP's at the practices concerned.

I recently went into the pharmacy with MrsProf - who is now a professor of cardiology at my university medical school - to hear this chap give a load of claptrap to an elderly patient about the patient's hypertension. MrsProf was aghast but ethically, could not intervene. The problem is that this chap for a number of years, ran the only pharmacy in the town and his built a rapport with patients resulting in much of the population thinking that the sun rises out of his backside every morning.

Yes, there are professional complaint methods both I and MrsProf could set in motion regarding his behaviour, but unfortunately there's a lot to consider.