Pharmacists
Apply in-depth knowledge of medicines and medication management to ensure the safe use of medicines, and optimise health outcomes by contributing to prescribing, dispensing, administering, monitoring and evaluating medicine therapy.
A Saturday morning behind the counter
You are a pharmacist in a community pharmacy on a Saturday morning, with a queue at the counter and a pharmacy assistant helping you. It is 10am. The queue stretches towards the door, the phone is ringing, and you have several scripts waiting to be checked. You have to decide what comes first.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I need a certain strong medicine for my back. I don't have a prescription, but I got it from a pharmacy overseas last year. Just give me a box. I know what I'm doing and I'm in a hurry.
Explain that you can't supply it without a prescription, and who he can see
He is frustrated, but you offer a suitable alternative and tell him how to get a proper review quickly. He leaves with something that helps and a plan.
Give him a small supply this once, since he sounds sure of himself and the queue is long
You have supplied a medicine that needs a prescription, and you don't know his history. If he's taking something else, it could be dangerous, and your registration is at risk.
Tell him he cannot have it, turn to the next person and keep the queue moving
You follow the rules, but leave him with nothing. He storms out and may get it from somewhere less safe, and you have missed a chance to help.
I've just taken in a prescription that looks a bit odd to me. The handwriting is unclear and I can't tell the strength. The customer is waiting and getting impatient. What should I do?
Tell her to guess based on what's most common and hand it over
A guess about a medicine is a serious risk. If the guess is wrong, the patient could take the wrong strength. Never guess when a prescription is unclear.
Tell her to wait while you ring the prescriber to confirm, and keep the customer informed about the delay
The doctor confirms, and the customer is patient once she knows why. It takes ten minutes, and you fall behind with others in the queue.
Check the prescription yourself, confirm with the doctor and show Carla what you checked
The doctor corrects an unclear strength. Carla sees the process and handles the next odd script with more confidence. Checking becomes a shared habit.
The doctor gave me new tablets and I'm confused about when to take them with my others. I've got a headache from worrying. There's a line behind me, but could you go through it again?
Give him a printed sheet about the new tablets and ask him to read it carefully at home tonight
The sheet is clear, but he's worried and won't remember it. He rings you that evening with the same question.
Say you're busy right now and he should check it with his doctor, or ring the surgery tomorrow
He leaves more anxious than he arrived and may take the tablets wrongly. He needed a pharmacist's help, and you were the right person to give it.
Ask a colleague to cover, take him aside, and go through each medicine and when to take it
Mr Walsh relaxes as you write a simple schedule. It takes ten minutes, but he leaves confident, and the queue is served by your assistant meanwhile.
How it went
By closing, the scripts have all been dispensed, and no one noticed the checks. Pharmacists combine knowledge about medicines with calm communication and a habit of double-checking. Would you enjoy being the safety net that people never see?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The two prescriptions that did not belong together
A fictional case set in a community pharmacy on a busy suburban main street.
The situation
Sunita was a pharmacist in a busy community pharmacy. On a Saturday morning, a woman handed in two prescriptions from two different doctors for her elderly father, Mr Walsh. Each prescription looked fine by itself. The queue behind her was growing, and the woman was already checking her watch. As Sunita read them side by side, something made her pause. The two medicines were ones she knew could cause problems when taken together, and neither doctor could have known the other had prescribed the second.
What they did
Sunita told the woman she needed a few minutes to double-check, and apologised for the wait. She looked up the combination and confirmed her concern. She rang the first doctor's surgery, explained what she'd seen and asked the doctor to review. She told the woman clearly and calmly that she'd found a possible problem and that nothing would be given until the doctor confirmed. The doctor called back within the hour, adjusted one prescription, and sent a new one through.
How it turned out
Mr Walsh got the right medicines that afternoon. The daughter was initially impatient, then grateful. Sunita went back to a long queue and a few unhappy customers, and said that checking is the thing nobody notices, which is how it should be.
What would you do?
- Why was it worth making a queue wait?
- How would you explain a delay to someone who was in a hurry?
- Who might not have caught this if the pharmacist had not looked?