𝑀𝓎 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒶𝓈 𝒶 𝓅𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓂𝒶𝒸𝓎 𝓉𝑒𝒸𝒽𝓃𝒾𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓃 (story time)

Hello. How are you sweet hearts? Hope you guys stay safe. I entered into University (pharmacy course) in 2017 with only a vague idea of this profession. I used to think that pharmacist/

pharmacy technician are person who sit behind the counter and dispending medication. This seems to be an easy and glamorous job. Never do I expect that this profession could be so challenging, demanding and carry such a high responsibility. I remembered one of my secondary teachers told me that studying in university is much more relaxed than going through form six.

How I wished that it was true. To my surprise, being a pharmacy student, life could be so stressful. Time is always against us. with classes starting at 8.00 a.m. and ending at 5.00 p.m. everyday, with hands full of laboratory reports, assignments and tutorials as well as tests and examinations too. We seemed to be the busiest students around the campus. I used grumble

about this. But soon, I realized it is a good training for us and learned to appreciate time more than i previously do. the word "laziness" had not been appearing in my dictionary ever since, as i did not have time to think about it at all. 4 years as a pharmacy student made me realized that time management is extremely important. I learned to manage my time for rest and study.

When I was work in hospital, everything was really similarly. I thought everything it really meant to be. so I got it there and I start working orientation like you know the whole routine but the second thing I want to talk about is the work environment. Of course its completely

the opposite of retail pharmacies because I was a little bit shocked when I got there because everything was so different. First of all the staff, we have a lot more staff during the weekday. There probably 20 pharmacies and three technician not include managers, directors, the buyers and everyone in the office. I don't like to work during the weekdays. its a little bit chaotic and I cannot work at the pressure. Everything during the weekdays is fast-paced so I never really

worked during weekdays after my training. The third thing I'm going to talk about is the task pharmacy technician has to do. so in the pharmacy there's three things you hear, there IV which means you go into compounds make IV fluid bags and TPN. It really complicated you know but I'm not expert on IV because it always stresses me out, it's freezing in that room and it's always like you by yourself so I really don't like IV. There central technicians which means the time you have to be in the pharmacy. Your task is to answer all the phone calls from nurses to find some medication and stuff also help the pharmacist whenever very wonderfully need.

Working as a pharmacy technician I think that you'll learn so much and especially with me playing planning to go to medical school, I have learned so much about different medication, what it's used for contraindications. I've just learned so many things and I can appreciate that because it's going to help me so much when I do become a doctor or pharmacist and it's also going to help me in pharmacology. I learned a lot through that as well so I just feel like I'm going to be way more prepared when it comes to knowing general like brand names versus generic and knowing like what these things do how they work, how they act on body and things like that. So I think a pharmacy technician is a great opportunity for you to learn however if you are not a people person and you not display good customer service skills not for you. you know when you're working in retail you have to deal with customers. You have to deal with patients that are wanting to get their medication. so a lot of times you're dealing with irritable, rude people that are yelling at you, that are acting like you're supposed to have their medication, they make it seem like it's your fault if their medication is not in stock. so you have to be able to be professional and you have to be able to calm the patient. Life is a learning process. Living through the 4 years in campus, I have learned to be positive, confident, persevere, patient,

hardworking, responsible and tolerant. come to think of it, I really enjoyed being a pharmacy student.

Thank you.