Assalamualaikum Ni hao Konnichiwa ,
Here is the continuation for week 2 of my diary in community posting. Click here if you have not read for Week 1.
Last
thing which is most important point in retail setting practice, when the
customer requested for any medication which are not available at the pharmacy
or never heard before, ask for the indication or problem/symptoms and then
recommend the medication which is available in the pharmacy. This step is
important because we do not want to lose the customer.
Here is the continuation for week 2 of my diary in community posting. Click here if you have not read for Week 1.
This week, I learn about the setup of
Sdn. Bhd. pharmacy, inventory management in details (has been described in
details as in Assignment 1 (Question No. 3), filling cream and liquid iodine
into the small containers and beakers respectively, placing the newly received
items on display, explore the Prescription book, and also familiarize with the
process involved upon stock received. According to the pharmacist, it is not
easy to get prescription and there are even some customer who want to keep the
prescription by themselves. This is the most challenging part in retail
pharmacy. Most of prescription come from private hospitals or specialist clinics.
Some of the printed prescription even has fade away maybe because of low
quality of ink being printed while some handwriting is difficult to be read.
The pharmacist actually have
experienced working in retail pharmacy for many years before opening her own
pharmacy outlet. She gets the help from her friend in order to choose the
fast-moving items, stocks, credit, and some cash to start. The location of
pharmacy is also very strategic since it is located near the resident/housing
area. From this story, I noticed that it is important to have good social
networking in doing business and build good rapport with friends. Additional
information is that Sdn. Bhd. company must have their own secretary, auditor,
and accountant. It is more cost-effective to hire auditor rather than another
pharmacist because pharmacy only need to pay once per year to the auditor. Pharmacist
responsible to make SOCSO and KWSP for the staffs. Pharmacist also sometimes
act as an office boy, manager, HR, and clerk accountant.
Arrangement of items in the store is
divided into unpack section, unopened product section, cream/ointment section,
small product section, loose vitamins section, and bottle section. When arrange
things in the store this way, it is easier to find anything. From my opinion,
it is better for one person (or at most 2 persons) to in-charge in the store
for keeping and searching since it is very much easier to find if he/she is the
only one in-charge. If more than 2 persons in-charge with the store, the
arrangement of the items in the store will be bit messy since different people
will have different way of arrangement.
New information for this week are pharmacist
told that if we change location of pharmacy and want to transport poison, drug
enforcement officer (DEO) need to seal the package and monitor the process of
transportation. I also discover new items while exploring items in the pharmacy
which is Winged Infusion Set (Terumo Surflo). Since the item look like branula
but more attractive, I asked the pharmacist. She explained that the
things usually used for neonate to administer drug through IV. However, in this
community setting, saloon business and gay people used this for cosmetic
purposes such as Vitamin C injection. I also asked about MooGoo product and the
pharmacist told that they no longer sold since there is no demand while the
product is very expensive. New things that I have discussed with the pharmacist
is about long term use of ferrous fumarate which is not good for health because
the drug produce free radicals. Therefore it is important to counsel the
patient to consume more anti-oxidant food or if still require long term intake
of medication, the patient can change to Saferon product which are
radicals-free.
Another new information is about KKM
label/registration number, more specifically about herbal product/drink. The
pharmacist explained to me that any product having KKM label can be trusted and
can be displayed in the pharmacy premise because DEO can inspect at any time. Summon
will be issued if get caught displaying product without KKM label. Other new
information is product containing Clobetasol and Betamethasone has the strongest
efficacy, Megacid suspension is better than Dyna-U suspension for antacid.
After observing customer being given
ibuprofen for fever, I asked the reason from the pharmacist. She told that
Ibuprofen is being prescribed because we assumed that patient is already
self-medicated at home with PCM. Ibuprofen is an NSAID group and more effective
than PCM. We can also ask the customer whether he/she had took any medication
at home to reconfirm whether he/she already take PCM or not yet. One more thing
that I observed for past week and this week is advertisement being stick to the
glass wall of the pharmacy. I found out that the sales rep from the company
that come to the premise and decorate it by themselves. Sometimes, the company
even pay to the pharmacy since it is one of the method of advertisement from
the company to the customers.
New activity done during this week is
performing blood pressure test to the customer and still observing blood
glucose test and lipid test since I’m bit less confident to do. The lipid test
require to draw more blood by using special small dropper. This week, I felt
more confident and able to serve customer more often than last week. One
customer come and requested Scott Emulsion with “milk”. At first I’m bit
surprised to hear that but then after asking the pharmacist, I show Scott
Emulsion DHA product to him with more confident. Another customer also come and
requested Scott Emulsion for elderly and I quickly take the product at the
display rack and try to convinced him that this product suitable for elderly.
Since there are many types of Panadol
available in the pharmacy, I looked at the ingredient for each type of Panadol.
I have notice the interesting difference from each Panadol product which are
Extra (plus caffeine), Regular, Actifast (plus sodium), Extend (increase PCM
dose), Children (decrease PCM dose), Menstrual (plus Pamabron), and Soluble
(plus sodium more than Actifast). I also learnt from the sales assistant that
there are 3 types of OCP usually given by government clinic which are
Rigevidon, Regulon, and Microgynon. There are even some customer requested
medication to have menstrual period and will be given OCP. It
is because some or most of the customers believe when taking those medication
will help improve the menstrual cycle rather than taking OCP. However, it is
usually psychological effect since menstrual cycle will become normalize when
the patient stress-free (because feels more secure and normal after taking
medication).
I
am also able to have some chitchat with few customers this week. A friendly
aunty customer that come this week advised me not to eat sweet food too much
since it is painful to inject insulin every day. Even though she already has
used the small size, she still feels as if pricking the organ. She told that
she need to inject three times per day and therefore next time she wants to
replace with oral medication. Another customer, uncle around 55+ years old,
which is my 1st experience seeing customer asking about the
indication for the medicine. He come to buy Bromhexine to remove phlegm and
Panaflex for pain near the waist and told me that he don’t want to consume oral
painkiller since he has kidney disease. Next customer is Sir ABC which told that he felt disappointed to G******* pharmacy because there is no pharmacist even after waiting for 30 minutes. I’m
also having short chatting with pharmacist who worked at P***** Pharmaceuticals
and he told me to contact him when graduated.
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