A Heartless Pharmacist

Introduction

When I first entered the pharmacy profession, I was filled with excitement and a genuine desire to assist patients to the best of my ability.

I was eager to make a difference in their lives.
In fact, I was willing to stay late at work without extra pay and spend my weekends brushing up my clinical knowledge.

However, as I encountered more patients and faced various situation at outpatient pharmacy, I found myself slowly losing my initial passion.

After a long half-day of work, many of us are too tired to move at full speed, sorting things out for patients.
We maintain effective stamina and speed until the end of the day, but then, the days repeat again tomorrow, and it numbs us out.
While we understand that we cannot keep doing the same thing every day and expect different results, juniority cages our ability to enact pragmatic changes and leadership remains elusive. This gnawing powerlessness hollowed us out further.

NOTE: Every job on this earth has its own difficulties and workers are constantly facing different kinds of stresses.

Outpatient pharmacy surges with a constant flow of patients and their endless prescriptions, many in a hurry.

I explain patiently that many patients wait before them, so they should expect some wait time.

But, they remain restless and demand, "Just a few medications! Why can’t you just help me?".
Some even whisper about heartless or lazy pharmacists.
They are not there to entertain explanations but to engage in an "uncivilized battle" for their medications.
Harsh words spew from their mouths, filled with anger, despite their claims of civility and education. They refuse to follow rules and regulations.
Walking off unhappily is the minimum, worse is a complaint letter reaching my boss.

Sometimes, I question myself:

Have I grown numb to their dramas?
Should every patients be given a fair turn or elders prioritized?
How do you balance the need for fairness with the desire to help those who seem more desperate?

In reality, everyone would rather be somewhere else than waiting at the pharmacy.

Even seniors longing for home wait patiently because they have mentally settled in with a quiet sigh, knowing the wait is inevitable.

NOTE: Numerous hostile and rude patients exhibit improved behaviour (a surprising level of civility) when their requests are fulfilled.

Once, a fireman told me that he has met fire victims who angrily scolded him for not arriving sooner.

Every profession has standard protocols to ensure fairness and order.

I believe we should uphold our policies firmly, rather than compromising whenever patients become agitated.
If there is a potential for violence, do not hesitate to seek help and call a Code Grey for security assistance.

Nonetheless, I occasionally ponder the rationale behind certain inflexible rules, instead of just following our gut feelings and being more flexible.

Like the patient who questioned me, why a pharmacist at government hospital could not provide a few paracetamol tablets if without a prescription, even though it is readily available over the counter at community pharmacy.

At the end of the day, we go home so exhausted that we have no energy to do anything.

Yet, strings of commitments still await us. We have to prepare dinner, help our children with their homework and tidy up the house.
We ask ourselves, is it time to transition to a better job or situation?

In short, working at an outpatient pharmacy is undeniably stressful and tiring.

Our well-being is often neglected for the greater good of patients.
When every day is a struggle to stay afloat, our passion for the job slowly dwindles, leading to resignation.

Few years ago, a senior pharmacist told me, the most troubling issue that we face at work is insufficient workforce.

Yet, each year, we are expected to hit better key performance indicator (KPI) and introduce more services that benefit the patients, with the existing staff number.
Often, it is not we do not want to achieve more, but we are already too exhausted.