A pharmacist recently recommended that I purchase a homeopathic cold remedy for my 4 month old baby.

The first part isn't necessarily true depending on your practice vs. said pharmacists practice. For example, I would wager that a Board Certified Clinical Oncology Pharmacist actually has a pretty comparative knowledge (and judgement) set compared to yours. I would say the same for an Infectious Disease Pharmacist. Of course, I don't know your practice so I could be wrong.

Regarding malpractice insurance, I actually believe that is a better reflection of how many mistakes are made than how knowledgeable you are. There was actually a Anesthesiologist in /r/futurology who commented about how that practice had some of the highest malpractice, and it has gone down substantially due to the field researching what they have been doing wrong and correcting for it. They now have one of the lower insurance costs (this could all be wrong of course as it's second hand info).

Regarding the checking for interactions. You should have software to help you with that. It's also like... your job. Literally. You are suppose to know what your patients are taking and you really should have a basic understanding of the concerns regarding the various interactions. Further, my statement was regarding a doctor who was informed of the interaction but not aware of its mechanism, severity, or the proper way to mitigate risk.

Regarding time. Many (most actually) pharmacists have less time than you. I often have doctors say "I can't talk right now, I'm in clinic" while I'm working outpatient, dealing with their upset patient because they can't do basic math to properly calculate out a mg/kg dosing. I mean think about what you just said... If you don't have the "time" to prescribe properly, you really should be taking on less patients or entering another work field. Otherwise, you can't exactly say you are "doing no harm." Plus, when you consider that a pharmacist gets between 5 to 15 minutes to evaluate a script, fix any insurance issues, fix any pharmacologic issues, record everything legally, and provide the patient (free) consultation, I really don't see where you get off acting superior. Hang out in a busy pharmacy for a few hours and see how "easy" it is. There is a reason pharmacist report a lower job satisfaction and higher stress level than most other healthcare providers.

But then again, you don't really seem to see pharmacists as people from your comment... Why are you in this subreddit again?

/r/pharmacy Thread Parent