Cvs In Pharmacy

CVS is a well known corporation around the world that offers an easily, accessible pharmacy service to millions of those who need their prescriptions fills and advice. Combining medical knowledge and patient care, those two factors peaked my interest in pursuing the pharmacy career. Thanks to the Biomedical Innovations class, I am able to continue learning in the PLTW Biomedical Sciences, and furthermore, have an internship at any biomedical health related field available. For me to set a foot into a pharmacy, I must follow multiple steps to obtain my pharmacy technician in-training license. To determine whether if it’s the right career for me, I took the opportunity given by my high school to submerge myself into the pharmacy environment

to gain invaluable experience.

When I received my license, I got to start my internship right when I got back from break. I knew that the pharmacists were the ones that I was more concerned with since they interact with patients with more medical expertise rather than the pharmacy technicians. They’ve graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy Degree and most likely, with a bachelor’s degree. Since most patients typically only come to drop off and pick up their regular prescriptions, the pharmacy technicians interact with the patients more. The pharmacists spend most of their time verifying medications, communicating with insurance companies, and also, managing the pharmacy technicians. I had expected that they would mix medications, which they do, but not often. On the other hand, pharmacy technicians require an associate’s degree and earn CPhT certification. They help patients with dropping off, filling, and picking up their prescriptions, managing and restocking medications, and answering customers’ questions on the phone. Pharmacists are permitted to do all the work it needs to give a prescribed medication to a patient; however, they must have the help of pharmacy technicians to be able to satisfy all their customers.

To keep track of these prescriptions, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians use the CVS system called RxConnect to keep track the progress of each prescription, making sure that we work in a timely manner so the patients can pick up their medication at the appointed time.

Prescriptions are either sent from the doctors directly to our system or dropped off at the pharmacy, where the paper prescription is photocopied at drop off. Depending on what time the customer patient wants their prescription filled, the production area is where prescriptions get filled. The medication and prescription are both scanned to confirm the correct medication before filling and passing to the pharmacist to check for the correct medication, allergies, and possible drug interactions (if the patient is taking another drug.) The pharmacist puts the prescription in the bag so it can officially be given to the patient by the pharmacy technician at pick up. Each pharmacy technician work at a station to focus on a specific task so the flow of the pharmacy flows orderly. For drop off and pick up, customers are not always present; therefore, drop off also helps with checking in and putting away new drugs that are delivered while pick up puts the bags in the waiting bin in alphabetical order so they can be easily found when needed. Plus, anyone could pick up and answer the phone when available. I find this organization method to be very efficient, because there is something to do when your main job

is done. Since a pharmacy is also a business, there are high and low times. There could be a rush of orders that come in, causing a disruption in the flow, but the only thing to do about it, is to keep up the pace to begin with.

As a pharmacist, pharmacy specific tasks are only a part of what a pharmacist needs to carry out their duties efficiently.

As a pharmacy technician in-training, I quickly came to realize the professional skills I’ve learned in my biomedical sciences classes plays a role in a pharmacy, too. Organization and time management plays a huge role in order to provide the proper medications. In Medical Interventions, we use aseptic technique and label plates to prevent human error and contamination, which is similar to in the pharmacy, we make sure to work with only one medication at a time and verify medication on a computer to prevent mislabeling. In Biomedical Innovations, we learned HIPAA, regulations to keep personal health information confidential. At the pharmacy, I got to apply these rules since I come in contact with personal information from patients in order to verify their identity and give them the right medication. Personal health information was explained in the CVS Health Code of Conduct for Externships and the CVS modules I studied, but with prior knowledge, it was very easy for me to recognize what information must be kept

confidential.

Throughout my internship, I’ve especially like that I get to communicate directly to the patients and my coworkers about my or their issues. I was able to talk to them on a personal level by addressing their names. However, I wished that I would be able to get the chance to significantly increase my medical knowledge. For example, what makes this drug or this dosage of the drug best for the patient’s needs? At CVS, pharmacy could be considered as a business. Even though I do not like organizing and restocking the shelves and medications log, I learn that these daily tasks are absolutely essential to provide a good service to others. I would have liked to keep an open mind at first rather than internally loathing some tasks in the pharmacy.

Although my internship has some ups and downs, the skills I’ve further developed are well worth the time. I’ve pick up some biomedical knowledge from my biomedical classes and able to recognize them in the pharmacy, such as ampicillin and insulin. I learned how to manage my time more efficiently when there is a pile of work to do. And the most important skill of all, I improved on how to communicate to my coworkers in the pharmacy and patients out the pharmacy to help ensure an efficient flow of the pharmacy.