It's a cold Friday morning, I arrive at work 15 minutes early. The carpark seemed quiet, and I said my usual pre-work prayer before I went ahead with the day.
I breezily walked into the shop and had a good feeling things were going to go well.
The morning started good, I managed to open up the shop with no dramas. Still feeling the exhaustion from the 12.5-hour work marathon a few days before, I tried to relax as I picked up one of the trashy gossip magazines left on the benchtop by one of the girls. Hmm....nah...too trashy so early in the morning! Grossly over-emphasized pictures of Amy Winehouse and poor Britney Spears flashed acrossed the front page. I decided I had better things to do with my time than watch the media ruin more lives in Hollywood.
The day started slowly, as I secretly hoped it would remain that way.
Two hours later, patients started flooding in. Non-stop I was pumping out prescriptions like a madhouse, my little fingers punching away at the near 20-year old yellowing keyboard with dangly keys.
The printer decided to throw a tantrum while a shopful of patients and customers waited impatiently for their prescriptions. The only console they had was my smile and chirpy 'You're next Mr Smith!' remarks. I took ONE second to pause and drink some water before my mucuos membranes dried out on me, then:
"I'm still waiting on my prescriptions," I hear an old lady starting a conversation with the shop assistant who was new as new can be. I chose to ignore the rest so I could get the job done. Then both phones rang while another shop assistant handled a special order request.
"Hey do you know about medicational things? Someone from medical company is on the phone," the new shop girl blurted out of the blue.
"Wha...? Where are they calling from?" trying to do three things all at once, I tried my best to screen the call.
"I don't know these medicine things, I think you should take this call as I have no idea!" she laughed it off.
It was a doctor on the phone asking for advice on writing a prescription.
A few seconds after I got off the phone a mentally challenged regular patient came in with his carer/dad. He wanted this new medication he was on to be packed into his current dosage administration aid box but the pharmacy assistants couldn't find a prescription for it. Meanwhile, ten other patientes were scrutinizing my every move waiting for their prescriptions to be done once they realised I was the one in charge. I promised them I would get the pack done, but not without first ringing the doctor for authorisation.
Five hours of non-stop chaos continued on as the shop asssistants and I did our best to hold the front.
"That's it, I'm leaving!" a senior shop assistant burst out laughing. "If I don't laugh, I'll cry!" and that's all we had time to talk about all day.
Soon after that, it became crazier. The phone rang again, so I picked it up out of pity for the person on the other line. "Where can I get some ADHD restricted medications for my young daughter as we're from New Zealand?" a distressed mother was on the other side sounded as though she was at the end of her tether. So was I, to be honest, but no- I had to be professional, reassuring, and calm. At the end she was happy with the answer I produced but the shop was in shambles.
A medication mix-up, till error and a broken drawer was then brought to my attention.
"Can you ring my old pharmacy to get all my prescriptions transfered here? We've just moved into the area," an elderly lady requested. I took down the phone number of the pharmacy only to find out later it was wrong even in the yellowpages.
"I ordered this last week, and I am expecting it today," a red-faced, menopausal looking lady raised her voice as the pharmacy student explained the boss had ordered the wrong medication for her husband.
I could only pretend I didn't see what just happened.
"I don't want this brand! I want the other one, " a fussy patient nonchalantly voiced out as she received her medications.
Phew! I popped a green Glucogel and took a deep breath as both the student and I looked at each other pitifuly. Then a patient came in wondering what had happened to his antifungal prescription the day before. Without good command of English, it wasn't easy explaining that it was out of stock long term. A lot of other incidences happened too, but it would take forever to write every detail..
That was an example of a normal day or just a few hours of a day at a busy pharmacy- too bad I am not going to comment on staffing and ergonomics. This is not a bitching blog!
Patients in shopping centre pharmacies are way worse than suburbian ones. Talk about judging a book by its cover, and the customer is always right policy (which I don't believe in), I get that 24/7 when I work at a shopping centre.
"Here's the boss lady," an elderly man walked towards the pharmacy student and engaged in a deep conversation. He was so adamant she was the boss he ignored everyone else and would only listen to what she had to say. We looked at each other blankly before I surrendered the case to her. I had no energy left to correct stubborness.
"Can you help me just buy this? Can, can, please? I always come here so you can just give me this I want," an Indonesian lady asked for a prescription medication to be sold to her without a prescription. I had to explain it was illegal in this country. Or at least I wasn't about to do anything illegal for the sake of money.
The phone rings and an annoying man asks for sleeping tablets for his mother. And they didn't have a script! "But we're regular customers, and the boss always gives us owings."
I refuse to do any illegal things like owing medications. The best I could do was legally supply what's called an 'emergency supply'. Whether they decide to be unhappy with the service is the least of my worries, as long as it is all legal, its all good to me.
I think I've been working far too much, and soon I might go crazy if I didn't blog about this.
Ok, now I can sit back and relax before another chaotic week commences. Phew.
2 comments:
oh dear...hope your days at work will only get better and better...nothing beats staying at home once in a while doing nothing la...i think ur best customers on saturday must be myself and ching...but yeh surely will go crazy and start shooting like that cat!!LOL!cz i recalled i asked quite a lot of questions..."wat about this? what about that???"
that sounds sooo crazy...the customer service stuff I mean. and difficult customers!!! (And I was complaining about how stressful my previous job was too when I shouldn't :P)
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