Being a Pharmacist....

[Cybercubed]

I've always considered becoming a Pharmacist but I've read a lot of negative comments about it especially with regards retail pharmacy, standing on your feet all day, no lunch breaks, mediocre pay (relative to the training required) and of course abusive customers.

So I decided to binge on a few youtube videos for abusive customers to let me know what I might have to put up from time to time.

Can a Pharmacist really swear at a customer like that? I love that Pharmacist but I don't know if that's allowed and I suspect a Pharmacist would lose their job no matter how unruly some of these people are. (I hope I'm wrong)

For any Pharmacists here, how often do you get patients/customers like this?

i work with a lot of pharmacists and this would be a sackable offence where I am, there isn’t only retail pharmacy, there is primary care, hospital, clinical, community and pcn pharmacy all which are very different!

That is american. I doubt even there they would be allowed to do that. I worked as a dispenser in the UK. We definitely did not swear at customers. Conflict resolution is definitely a big part of the job in retail pharmacy. We do have the right to refuse to serve anyone for any reason and we can call the police to help us but we would generally try to resolve a situation and we would definitely remain professional. It does help if you understand that someone's health and medication is a subject that is going to engender strong feelings and people will be stressed when talking to you. However sometimes it would not be in their best interests to do what they want and that can be difficult to them. I only once ever thought that I was going to be hit by someone and once actually had to call the police to remove someone from the shop. In several years of work. Being shouted at was a daily occurrence though. It is not a job for the faint hearted but it has many rewards too.

My local pharmacy is a small independent, and they have had the same staff there for over 10 years, both Pharmacists and assistants.

The pharmacist retired and has been taken over by another independent pharmacist.
I think they dispense to “Addicts” in a private room, but whenever I have popped in, it seems very friendly- The pharmacist is always busy.

The old Pharmacist used to work for. “Chain” and wasn’t happy there.

It’s seemingly rare to get unpleasant people- The Daily Dispensing customers are rarely any trouble, either.
(According to old pharmacist).

I was shocked by the starting salary for a pharmacist with the NHS after qualifications and training take 5 years - £33,700. That seems very low both for the work required and the high level of responsiiblity the job entails.

@Cybercubed this is a UK site/ why post that?

@underneaththeash

I know its from the US and its not really that relevant to the UK, but I was just using it as example, its quite an extreme one, but I was just looking for worst case scenario situations.

I have no idea what happened to that Pharmacist, but I'm just curious as to what would happen in the UK if a Pharmacist dealt with a patient/customer in such a way.

So this is the only research you have done whilst contemplating a new career as a pharmacist?

The pharmacist in the linked video shouldn’t have sworn, as it immediately escalated the situation.
Didn’t look a professional way of managing the situation.
Anti vaxxers are annoying, but swearing at them isn’t ideal.

Being able to deal with people humanely, without losing one’s temper, impeccable record keeping and diligence seem to be good attributes of Pharmacy staff.
”Mr Dispenser” was a blog I read years ago - By a UK Community Pharmacist.
That was probably more accurate than a USA video.

@PassThePud

Haha no definitely not.

You can now do a pharmacy degree and move straight into primary care. We have pharmacists in our practice and they are fantastic

@oakleaffy

I just google that blog and I'll take a look thanks.

God that guy was fucking irritating. Everything about his voice and his moronic argument made my skin crawl.

Yes, she shouldn't have told him to fuck off but he had it coming. He really was wasting her time.

Fair enough!

I agree.

My friends daughter is 29 and works within an NHS hospital and earns over £56,000 per year.

DP is a pharmacist.
I write this as someone who observes how pharmacy affects my other half.
Abuse- yes. It can be horrid. I don't know how he does it.
He's had actual faeces thrown at him (angry unhinged customer). He's a nice guy but some people are nuts.
He's shouted at most days. He's always scared when there are announcements about "getting rid of pharmacists and replacing them with robots etc" he thinks the career he trained for so hard, will disappear.

He's always worried he will make a mistake and someone will get hurt. He's good at what he does however.

Dispensing staff can be terribly rude. Some demand answers for customers now, now, now when he's trying to concentrate. Doctors make mistakes and that takes up a lot of time to get them to acknowledge this and make it right.

He does it because he cares about people but most make it hard to care when they can be so difficult and abusive.
I think this career has at some times almost killed him. Stress as an example.

I used to work in hospital pharmacy. It’s totally different and I found it very interesting. You don’t have to go the retail route.