Six months

October sixteenth was the day where I passed my sixth month mark of my year as a provisionally registered pharmacist (PRP).

Half of the road travelled and am I none the wiser?

Come to think of it, this half a year had been an enriching experience, in terms of pharmacy knowledge, human relationship, work politics and keeping a right frame of mind for the job.

I remembered starting my work in the Out-patient pharmacy (OPD) a picture of blur-ness, not helped by the marketplace like scene.  OPD was madness then, the baskets of prescriptions piling high, the pharmacy people having harassed look, patients, frowns of impatience. 

That’s what happens behind the scene in OPD the middle of the night…

Six months down the road, I found myself in OPD again, this time seeing mirror images of myself writing down notes  on things to learn tonight, flipping through books, asking questions. Ah new PRPs…they never cease to amaze. Me? well, I am a little bored now, feeling mechanical dispensing yet another paracetamol or benadryl. Just trying my best to keep the smile on my face going. Knowledge had improved leaps and bounds – its all about experience. But of course, it is still a process of continuous learning.

Office politics is all dirty, with half-baked rumours of back stabbing and two-faced people constantly flying in the air. Everything you did is tagged with an evil motive by green eyed monsters.  Being neutral is hard – genuine friend or spy from the other camp? Guess just need to survive as best as I can. Diseases of the human mind are more complicated than the sum of the diseases caused by all those little bacteria and viruses. Why can’t everyone just be friends…

Pills are now my best friends…

Me? Just going to work everyday in a cheery mood. I need to go work anyway, why choose to be in a bad mood? Amidst all this hocus-pocus I still find work fun. It feels great to be able to help people managing their medications and life better everyday. In the end, this is what pharmacists are trained to do – making a difference in the lives of the sick. Okay politically correctly, the medically deranged.   

So my views or wishes or outlook for the other half of the journey? Bring it on!