The Bible of Dispensing

7 Habits of Highly Effective Pharm Tech

When providing your services, try and think of ways that you can make it better for your client. This will help you build a greater rapport with them, show them that you are trying to improve their experience, and make you look more professional.

Do you want do become an effective pharmaceutical technologist?

Having the seven habits below is key to being successful.

What is Habit?

In simple words, habit is synonymous with routine or behavior that is repeated frequently and that occurs without thought.

The (7) Seven Habits

Habit 1: Honesty

Be honest with your clients and colleagues and grow the habit of honesty. If you let your client know that you are going to deliver a drug at a certain time, then be truthful in your communication and express any delays in the exchange of information.

Do not promise what you cannot deliver, do what you say you are going to do.

Be honest in your dealings with others, and stay true to yourself. A person can tell a lot about you by the way you treat other people, so be kind and make sure you treat everyone with respect.

Habit 2: Understanding your customers need

Take your time to listen and understand what the customer wants, asking them questions with the intention of understanding even more.

This will give you a better sense of how they feel and what they need. Do not interrupt with questions when the client is explaining themselves, give them time to finish then ask your question.

As you do this, you will also start to understand where their pain points lie and how you can solve those problems. This allows you to build trust with the customer and make them feel valued, resulting in higher loyalty and more purchases.

If it is an online client or they have called, be sure to record each conversation and take notes, as this will make the process of understanding the customer’s needs and wants a lot easier.

Habit 3: Be creative

Don’t just do the same thing over and over, try to come up with something new. Show your clients that you are trying to improve their experience.

Get feedback from your loyal clients and make improvements where the client experience is not good.

Stay up to date with your social media profiles. Post regularly on your social media profiles, use WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook or twitter to reach your clients. Choose a platform that works better for you if you are not comfortable using all of them.

You can post photos of new over the counter products, free wellness checkups or information about healthcare conditions that you think clients would be interested to know about.

These are simple things that will help you grow and show your clients that you value their business.

Remember that what you post should be professional and avoid posting misleading information to generate more sales. Client will realize that you are not honest opting for other good pharmacies.

Habit 4: Take responsibility

Stop giving excuses, learn to accept your mistakes.

Most of us have made mistakes in our lives. It’s how we deal with those mistakes that differentiate one person from another. There’s no crying in- or out over someone else’s mistakes; however, there is a lot you can learn from those experiences. Accept that you’re human, but don’t let it define you.

Being new to the pharmaceutical field or even having worked for years you will realize mistakes are inevitable.

It’s easy to point fingers, but the sooner you learn to own up to your mistakes, the sooner you’ll start to see them as stepping-stones and not as one-way tickets to failure.

Habit 5: Plan

Even if it is a paragraph, or three sentences, or just one sentence do a quick check in to see where you are career wise.

Have a monthly, weekly or daily plan that is consistent. Your aim being to grow your business. Track your progress every month and set new goals depending on how you want to improve your services.

Habit 6: Embrace team work

Team work makes work simpler.

Be kind to others, let your colleagues feel comfortable at work.

Make sure you treat your colleagues as if they were family, don’t just work together but get to know each other on a personal level. This will create a strong work environment filled with positive vibes and help you work together as a team. When you work with a team, you’re not just working for an individual, you’re working for the team.

In order for a team to work well, the members must have a strong sense of unity. To have unity, you have to have a strong bond between the members. A strong bond is something that you can’t just create, it has to grow naturally. To create a strong bond between you and your colleagues, you should try to work together as a team, respect each other, and be kind to one another.

Habit 7: Practice your craft, learn from others

See how your colleagues are interacting with clients and ask questions where you need clarification. Attend online virtual or physical CMEs to learn new things and also interact with other healthcare professionals.

Read pharmaceutical books or pharmacy blogs like this for inspiration.

How to Dispense a Prescription in 5 Easy Steps

Step 1

Check the name of the patient, age, date and prescribers details.

Look out for the following;

Name – This will give you a rough idea about the patient’s gender, although not very important but it is just good to know. Sometimes it maybe difficult to tell the gender by name, that shouldn’t worry you – doctors will always indicate if that’s necessary.

Age – is the patient elderly, middle aged or young

Date

Know when the prescription was written. Is it new or old? For some reasons they might not have filled the prescription on time if so do they really need the medicines? Probably they need another evaluation.

Maybe they already filled the prescription the first time and they are coming to get a repeat dose for not seeing any changes.

Or it’s just a long term prescription that has to be dispensed monthly.

Prescriber’s information

This will help you understand where the prescription is coming from and the diagnosis. Is it from a dentist, a gynecologist or a pediatrician?

The clients are usually in a hurry so don’t spend too much time on this, it should take less than a minute.

Step 2

Go through all the medicines prescribed.

Make sure you are able to read all the medicines prescribed including the dosage form and frequency.

You must know the indications for each drug.

If anything is not clear, refer to the reference material available in your pharmacy.

Figure out the diagnosis, some prescriptions will have the diagnosis written most of them will not. Get hints from the prescribers details, age and the gender of the patients.

This should take less than a minute.

Now you are ready to retrieve the medicines from cabinets, drawers or wherever they are stored.

You can either check prices first and then bring out the medicine or bring out the medicine first and then check prices.

Step 3

Confirm any drug interactions, correct dosages and frequency.

Tell the client the cost of the medicines and the duration that they’ll be taken.

For instance;

^{“I am seeing your doctor has prescribed some antibiotics and painkillers, antibiotics for a week and painkillers for three days which will cost you Ksh160”}

Try to answer all of the client’s questions before or after providing them with the price, usually they want to know side effects or there might be a problem with the price.

Call the doctor if there is anything that is not clear.

Let the client know the reason why you are calling the prescriber. It could be an unusual dosage, a new drug you have not seen or maybe you need to give a substitute.

Step 4

Assuming they have paid you, write prescription labels (how the medicines is going to be taken).

Explain what each medicine has been prescribed for if possible how they work.

Ensure they understand the instructions clearly and let them ask questions if any.

If not sure about anything, tell your client you need to refer. Use the reference materials in your pharmacy.

You may ask a colleague to assist you if they’re not serving another client.

Step 5

Pack the medicines nicely, wish the patient quick recovery.

My Hospital Pharmacy Internship Report Sample

I did my internship at Webuye District Hospital now referred to as Webuye County Hospital (after the 8 provinces and their administrators and districts were replaced by County Commissioners at the county read more) as a requirement by the Kenya Medical Training College – KMTC for the award of Diploma in Pharmacy.

Webuye county hospital is located along the Kakamega-Kitale road, Webuye Road Matulo Webuye West Bungoma, Kenya.

This is the report I wrote after completing my internship at the Webuye County hospital as a student.

The report provides some light on how the hospital looked in 2012. Despite its botched writing, it provides some insight into how the Webuye Hospital looked.

Here is my hospital pharmacy internship report sample.

Enjoy.

The main pharmacy Webuye District Hospital

In the main pharmacy, drugs in form of tablets, syrups, injections or topical applications include;

Antibiotics e.g. Septrin, Augmentin, metronidazole (i.v. or tablets), I.V ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin tablets,

Antimalarials e,g. artemether-lumefantrin and quinine

Analgesics e.g. paracetamol, diclofenac and ibuprofen

Multivitamin e.g. enervit

Skin antifungal e.g. cotrimazole cream, hydrocortisone cream

Cough expectorants e.g. salbutamol

Antihistamin e.g. chlorphemiramine

Antihelminth e.g. albendazole

Ophthalmic medicine e.g. predsol, dexagenta, atropine, betamethasone and tetracycline eye ointment

Antacids e.g. magnesium trisillcate,

Anti-diabetics e.g. glibenclimide and metformin

Hypertensives e.g. atenolol, hctz, enapril and nifedipine

Just to mention a few.

Drugs in the pharmacy from the store are arranged in shelves and cabinets according to pharmacological action i.e antibiotics, analgesics, anti-psychotics.

Dispensed and pre-packed medicines are not arranged in any particular order, those that are fast moving e.g. paracetamol, amoxyl, piriton, and ibuprofen are kept in drawers near the dispensing window easy to pick and issue to the patient.

Others are arranged to the right and left of the dispensing bench. Some tablets are left loose in containers to serve the orders from the wards.

The pharmacy has one fridge where refrigerated drugs are kept e.g. insulin, muscle relaxants (atracurium, suxamethonium).

Morphine is kept in a large bottle in a cool dark place, other controlled drugs e.g. DF 118, misoprosital and morphine injection are kept under lock and key in drawer cabinet.

Drugs are dispensed to patients using patient cards, prescriptions and/or patient discharge form from the wards.

Prescriptions and patient cards come from departments like OPD, Ampath, Eye clinic and Dental clinic.

When the patient arrives at the window, he or she is given a quotation of drugs available in the pharmacy and send to pay at the revenue office first before he or she presents the same receipt to be given the medicines. The patient is counseled accordingly on the use of the drugs before going away, some prescriptions are send through the computer via FUNSOFT application, with this the patient number is entered in the computer then the medicines are viewed, available drugs are highlighted, the patient is given his quotation and his bill sent to the revenue office via the same. If the drug is not available the prescription is printed for the patient to buy from the chemist.

For antibiotics and ALs there is a register in which, for antibiotics e.g. amoxyl, doxycycline, and augmentin the patient’s name, OP/IP number and the quantity of the drugs issued are entered,

For ALs the IP/OP number is entered, the type of AL 6s, 12s, 18s, or 24s is marked and the quantity given recorded. These two registers are balanced page by page.

Orders form the wards and other departments e.g. amenity are served using the patient’s admission file. Drugs to be issued are written on a treatment sheet, one indicates on the file that the drug has been issued with the date of issue and the price of the drugs is written on the charge sheet. If they are fluids i.e. normal saline, ringers lactate or 50% dextrose, these are tallied according to the number of bottles given.

For injectables e.g. I.V floxapen, I.V metronidazole and I.V ceftriaxone they are tallied according to the daily dosage. For ampoules, charges are per ampoule. Other drugs are recorded on the charge sheet with the cost against.

Bin cards are used when issuing these drugs, oral antibiotics are entered in their respective register.

There is usually clinics for hypertensive patients on Monday and that for diabetic patients on Friday

Therefore, drugs like nifedipine, atenolol, enalapril. HCTZ and glibenclimide, metformin respectively are prepacked earlier to avoid a large queue when dispensing.

There is CME (Continous Medical Education) on Monday in the pharmacy. Every one is given a chance to present. I got a chance to present and also learn from other educative topics presented by others.

Topics on diabeates, malaria, anemia, poisoning, management of burns, asthma, schizophrenia and hypertention which focused on the signs and symptoms of the conditions and management, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological were of great importance to me.