Pharmacist Workshop

More Than Counting Pills…

Presented by: Nicole J Clark PharmD, RPh; Intensive Care Clinical Pharmacist, Hallmark Health System

Workshop Description

When many people think of pharmacist, most think you spend all day counting pills. This workshop will explore some of the other aspects of pharmacy. As pharmacists you need to be able to answer many drug questions, example resources will be provided to show how pharmacists go about finding out information. 

If you have ever looked at a prescription you or a family member got from a doctor and tried to figure out what it said you know that pharmacists need to learn a special language to be able to translate prescriptions. Participants will learn how to “decode” some basic prescriptions, like what “1 tab po bid prn” or “1 gtt ou q4h” means. 

There are many different types and forms of medications available, but sometimes pharmacists have to make or compound medications that aren’t commercially available – either in that particular strength or dosage form.  An example of this would be if a medication is available only as a pill but the patient needs it as a liquid.   Participants will go over examples and learn some basic compounding techniques.

Many think that pharmacy is all science, but as pharmacists you also have to do math everyday.  Many of this is related to dosages of medications and how they can be given to the patient. We will cover some examples of pharmacy calculations to demonstrate how math is important in pharmacy.

The goal of this workshop is to give participants incite on the various types of jobs you can have as a pharmacist and the skills required of these roles; and that pharmacy is More Than Counting Pills.

Leader’s Job Description

As an Intensive Care Clinical Pharmacist instead of working from a central pharmacy I work directly on the Intensive Care Units of two different community hospitals.  The Intensive Care Unit is the place in a hospital that the sickest patients are taken care of.  Working right on the unit allows me to be an integral part of the patient care team, here I am consulted by physicians, nurses and other hospital staff to help provide the best patient care.  My day to day activities include: reviewing and accurately interpreting doctors orders, consulting the doctor as needed; providing drug information to nurses, physicians and other hospital staff; reviewing all critical care patient’s computerized and written chart (where all the patients medical information is kept), and making recommendations to doctors when necessary.  I also sit on several committees that include doctors, nurses, dieticians, social workers and other members of the healthcare team.

Advice for Career Path

Pharmacy is a program that you can go into right from High School or can transfer in after completion of some college or obtaining a previous degree.  Pharmacy school is six-years, if go straight through from high school and you receive a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.  This might seem like a long time, but you get a professional degree and have great opportunities after you graduate.  If you do decide to go straight from high-school it is very important to have a strong math and science background.  One of the things that makes pharmacy so interesting is that it encompasses different aspects of science and math.  You need chemistry to understand the chemical compounds of the medications and physiology to know how they work in the body.  If your high-school offers a type of anatomy and physiology class it would be strongly recommended.  Pharmacy also involves calculations and statistics.  It is also helpful to work in pharmacy as soon as possible to get yourself familiar with medications and see if you like it, some pharmacies hire at 16, though many require you to be 18.  Some pharmacies particularly in hospitals will take volunteers, so this is a way to see what happens in a pharmacy as well.