pharmacist

When I Was A Little Girl…My Story

 in Blog  tagged cheerleader / chemistry / girl / growing up / medicine / pharmacist / story / teacher by

My story starts like this…

When I was a little girl…

Don’t freak out, this is not my whole life’s story.
When I was a little girl, I told everyone that I wanted to be a cheerleader when I grew up. Later, I changed my mind and decided I wanted to be a teacher, like my mom (*Hi Mom!*). That was my career of choice until my favorite Jewish Physics teacher from New Jersey, with one leg shorter than the other, and a love for hiking pointed me in the direction of medicine. I ruled out every option that involved large amounts of blood and high risks of smelling people’s bath breath and settled on being a Pharmacist. And this is the trajectory I’ve been on ever since.

Yet something was missing from my story…

So, I ask myself “Is it possible to be a cheerleader, a teacher, AND a pharmacist?”
That is how the Pharmacist Answers Podcast was born. It is a place that I can take my expertise as a pharmacist, teach it to you, and cheer you on to independent and collaborative decision-making in your own health (rather than the amorphous entity we call Healthcare or Big Pharma making those decisions for you)!
Visit my Patreon page to see how you can help support this dream of mine and get another chapter of why The Pharmacist Answers Podcast is here!

5 Things Your Pharmacist Is Not [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged bestie / doctors / humans / mind-reader / personal assistant / pharmacist / precribing / secretary by


5 Things Your Pharmacist is Not

  1. A mind-reader (neither is anyone else)
  2. A robot (as is anyone else who serves you)
  3. A prescriber or diagnoser
  4. “Besties” with all the doctors in town
  5. Your personal assistant or secretary

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Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

2 Ways to Help Your Pharmacist [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged counsel / Help / honest / patience / pharmacist / soapbox by

2 things you can do to help your pharmacist help you better

  1. Have patience.  The pharmacist is one person, and they have one mouth and one set of ears, and can only listen and talk to one person at a time.  You want undivided attention, and we want to give you undivided attention, and to get that, there may be a short wait.
  2. Be honest.  Full disclosure is important when it comes to your health conditions, allergies or intolerances, and questions or concerns about anything related to your health.  Pharmacists in most states have a legal responsibility to counsel or offer counseling to patients in certain situations, but they can’t read your mind.

Sorry for the soapbox! (Well, maybe I’m not!)

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*NEW* Join the Pharmacist Answers Podcast Community on Facebook

Subscribe: iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, TuneIn Radio

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Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

How to Become a Pharmacist

 in Blog  tagged anatomy / board exam / chemistry / license / math / pharmacist / pharmacy school by

How did you become a pharmacist?  How many years did you have to go to school?  Was it hard?  Do you have to be good at math? I get asked all the time, whether at the pharmacy counter, on Facebook, or just out and about in town.

What does it take to be a Pharmacist?

  1. Decide you want to be a pharmacist.
  2. Go to college and make Pre-Pharmacy your area of focus.
  3. Take lots of chemistry, biology, anatomy, and physics. Take a little history, literature, and speech communications, and probably some PE…
  4. Research and apply to Pharmacy Schools.
  5. Take the PCAT (only after taking Organic Chemistry).
  6. Get invited for an interview.  Dress nice, comb your hair, practice good eye contact, and not saying “um, like” so much.
  7. Get accepted! *You don’t have to graduate with a degree before starting Pharmacy School*
  8. Start Pharmacy school. Move across town or across the country, if necessary.
  9. Study your brains out.
  10. Gain experience in different pharmacy settings through practical rotations and getting a job in a pharmacy.
  11. Pass all your classes (even if just barely).
  12. Graduate and get called Doctor.
  13. Study your brains out some more.
  14. Take a 3-hour test called the NAPLEX (North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination).
  15. Take a slightly shorter test called the MPJE (Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam) – aka Pharmacy Law.
  16. Pass your board exams and become a licensed Pharmacist.
  17. Start work.  *Somewhere between your last year of school and passing your exams you should have applied for and accepted a job*

This is not the only path to becoming a pharmacist.  It is just one option, the straightest option.  You can take many other paths to become a pharmacist, and any path you choose is going to give you personalized experiences and a unique story.

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