Moving on w pride

A senior colleague shared with us his retail experiences recently. He has worked in retail for a long long time, 21 years in fact. He revealed his secret to his loyality to retail and that is his love for this job as a retail pharmacist.

And true enough, i agreed totally with him that when u choose a job u loved and u never have to work a day. Another colleague, however, more senior than the first one, left our company to join a hospital. Before he left, he sent us an email telling us his reason of leaving and that is to move on to a place where he needs to learn and he encouraged us to take up a higher degree. And i agreed with that too.

But i agree more with the second colleague and i admired his courage and bravery in making the decision to move on (Hey, he is not a young chap). It is easy to stay in a place of comfort and familarity than to move to a place so chaotic and stressful as a hospital. In his pharmacy, he makes the decisions, he makes the call, he is the boss. In the hospital, he is juz the pharmacist. But who knows, he might like it.

Why do i feel that way? Becos i tink i understand how he felt.. or at least this is how i feel. In the hospital, u hav to work ur ass off. Dispensing, packing, counselling... Patients staring, patients waiting, patients complaining... U have to be on call and any1 can juz call u in the middle of the night for drug info. Its a matter of life and death if a wrong medicine is given in the hospital. Tough job, I know! But u r treated for who u r, a pharmacist.

In the retail pharmacy, I get 0 to5 patients for prescription medicine a day, I sell so many packs chlorpheniramine that i hav lost count. I can eat snacks the whole day and Hey easy job!! but i hate it.

I hate it when aunties ask me which body powder suits them better; baby powder or prickly heat. I hate it when the man yells "U dunno!!" at me when i cant tell the differences between the 2 types of refill heads for his electrical oral B toothbrush. I hate it when im counselling a customer at a busy hour and this guy comes straight to me and ask me where is the office. And when i told him its right at the other end and THIS IS THE PHARMACY. He replied angrily that he is juz askin me. I hate it when im nice to a customer and he takes advantage of that and wants to keep his grocery in the pharmacy til he is off work and free to come and collect. I hate it when customers kick up a big fuss when they cant get their free goodie bags becos they didnt bring along the flyer that entitles them to do so. I hate it even more when they say the flyers are all over the floor and any1 can juz pick them. All these doesnt make me feel very pharmacy-ing

Choosing a job that u love is not easy becos its means that u may have to give up a lot of privileges and freedom. Its also takes a lot of courage to learn fr the beginning and u need to be very humble even if u used to be a tyrant in ur small retail pharmacy. But challenges are wat make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

I dunno if staying in the same line for years is meaningful but i certainly know that if i dun try reaching for moon, how would i know if i cant grab it? I may not make a good clinical pharmacist now and most probably i will be placed in the retail outpatient pharmacy initially but who knows abt the future. Or mebe after a trip to hospital i may learn to appreciate retail afterall to know sweetness is to taste bitter.

There are many other colleagues who moved on to different sectors but hospital. And there are so many stories i hav heard abt ugly incidents between the nurses or doctors and pharmacists... And this kinda scares me a little but i think its abt time for me to move on... (after my bonus of course)

I will tell u my adventures in the hospital if im successful. :)