Intern in the ‘ship

Welcome to the College of Pharmacy summer internship blog. I am John, an upcoming P2, one of many who will be blogging about summer experiences. My experience will be in the community retail setting. Policy rules though limit what specifics I can talk about. It should be an interesting summer because this is my first time working in the pharmacy retail setting. I am hopeful I will learn a great deal and at least know what it takes to be a retail pharmacist. To explain my blog title fully, I will be working as a Pharmacy intern in Macomb Township which is about an hour north of Detroit.

I had my first day of training at the regional training center at the beginning of the week. We went over the basics of the company and work flow. I have to do some web modules tonight and I will be reviewing my pharmacy 404 notes which was dispensing lab. The computer system is not the same as dispensing lab but every community pharmacy has the same basic concepts: Picking up prescriptions, entering patient information, making the label, and checking the tablets. The next day was more in class training about ways to talk to customers and polices not to break. I thought of it as ‘all the ways to get fired on the spot’ day. Remember you have to be at least 18 to buy pseudoephedrine over the counter!

My third day of training was in the pharmacy store. I learned how to work the register and several of the pharmacy stations. Each station has a different task assigned to create better flow in the pharmacy. This place also has a drive thru (one of the busiest in the area). I got to spend some time at the pick-up and production stations. It was also neat to meet the pharmacist and see him counsel a patient. A lady was asking if ringworm was contagious. It was interesting because I knew the answer from self-care class. And yes, it is contagious. I still have a couple more days of training then I will be in the pharmacy doing the normal routine.