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RxKaren

Listed below are comments made by RxKaren between Monday, 26th October 2009 and Tuesday, 8th December 2009 (13 Hours Ago) .

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PM Glass Box 5:53pm on 08 Dec 2009 I have every sympathy for the students because ten years ago I was there myself. The SLC messed up in 1999 and again many students were affected by delays in getting their loans. I was told by the SLC that I didn't exist despite the fact that they'd already arranged one student loan with me in the previous academic year. The Government Minister helpfully went on record in early November to say that if a student was still waiting for their loan then it was the student's own fault. I finally got my loan at the end of November.

The issue then was that it was never one call to sort anything out and nothing seemed to be documented properly on the calls they received from students. It took an absolute age to get through to anyone at the call centre. They don't seem to make the same mistakes when it comes to collecting the payments though.
AM Glass Box 08:30am on 03 Dec 2009 I was interested in the GMC prescribing error news. A few questions I haven't heard answered but the main one is:

What are the differences between error rates with medical and non-medical prescribers?

Today I have a consultant prescribing - I know I will be correcting at least one error he makes today on a routine prescription (well I do every other week). He told me once on a bad day (after I'd sorted out 4 errors for him) that he is glad to work alongside a pharmacist. He also told me that he's told his children that they should always listen to the pharmacists and the nurses - they're both at Medical School.

I would let this consultant operate on me as he is an excellent surgeon. I'd just want to check the discharge prescription myself...
Advent. 4:28pm on 25 Nov 2009 Thelma and Louise have gone missing from under the sink! We're left with just a broken snowflake as our departmental decoration stash. Please do the advent thing.
The AM Glass Box. 10:50am on 12 Nov 2009 David(36) - exactly what I advise the nurses here to do. If they're really worried they can wear nitrile gloves whilst handling the medicine.
The AM Glass Box. 10:34am on 12 Nov 2009 David(27) as long as you're not going to pop the tablets out of the blisters, crush them and force fertile or pregnant women to play with the resultant powder you should be fine!
The AM Glass Box. 10:25am on 12 Nov 2009 Happy Birthday Eddie!

NAO comment on money being squandered on the Chlamydia service. I remember going to a community pharmacy education night on pharmacy based chlamydia screening and thinking (a) this seems like an inefficient way to do this (b) will the target population want to faff around in this way? and (c) why is every PCT developing its own literature and branding to support a national campaign? I'm wondering how it compares with other national campaigns in terms of cost effectiveness.
Dear First Name. 11:09am on 09 Nov 2009 Many years ago when I worked in insurance we were playing with a new database/mail merge facility to send a marketing mailshot to customers with large houses.

Someone substituted the first merge field (where the salutation should have appeared) with "Rich g*t"

We generated 5000 of letters addressed "Dear Rich g*t" but thankfully didn't actually mail any.
The Beach 5:43pm on 29 Oct 2009 I'm not adding "kissing elderly men" to my pharmacy services before anyone asks!
The Beach 5:13pm on 29 Oct 2009 For those of you following the saga of my pharmacist friend and me...

He came in to see me today for a catch up. I'd been having a pretty rubbish morning up until then but sat in reception with him talking about where I knew him from and what he'd done. He was an absolute delight.

He sat and held my hand and told me that I should have ignored the careers advisor's advice, "What do they know anyway? Who are they to say you're not suited to pharmacy?" and chided me for not going into retail as an independent pharmacist and building my own practice. I did tell him that I was given a great deal of autonomy with my current employer and that I do have my "regulars" who want to see me which seemed to please him.

I told him that when I was 7 I thought he was the cleverest man around to which he said, "And you were right! A wise child sadly mislead by a careers officer. Such a shame." I then told him that I now know the secret is to have lots of books hidden out of sight which amused him.

His final words to me were "You have the great privilege of being a pharmacist and looking after your patients with skill and care. Remember, what you do is a privilege."

We are going to keep in touch and he is going to pop in and see me when he's passing. I even got a kiss off him which did get some strange looks off the other patients who were waiting.
Did your career advice at school help you? 8:22pm on 26 Oct 2009 On the face of it my school careers advisor wasn't helpful having told me twice that pharmacy "really wasn't for me" and that I should consider IT, insurance, banking, being a postal executive or a prison governor.

On the other hand her advice together with guidance from the Essex Careers Service did prompt me to take a year out before university (which ended up being eight years) and I worked for a local insurance company. I did learn an awful lot in the time working there which I have been able to apply in my work since retraining.

Obviously I did end up as a pharmacist after the OU careers service encouraged me to try JIIG-CAL again and discussed the options generated with me in a more meaningful way.

In some ways I regret taking the advice at 15 and 17 and wished I'd trained earlier. On the other hand trying a career path that ultimately I didn't enjoy did give me some extra skills and makes me appreciate my current profession just that little bit more!

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