I work at a hospital pharmacy and I’ve observed an unusual pattern of albendazole requests from a nurse who picks up the medication every two days, apparently for personal use. This have beeng going for more than a year. Albendazole is an antiparasitic with no known recreational properties, but I’m concerned it might be used off-label or combined with other substances for unrecognized effects.

Could this frequent use indicate a misunderstanding about its "detox" properties, or are there documented cases of experimental combinations involving albendazole for unintended effects? Has anyone come across similar cases or seen any references to unconventional uses of this drug?

Your insights or resources would be greatly appreciated to understand and address this situation better. Thank you!

Hello,

I've been a pharmacist for 12 years now and have worked in a variety of different settings: retail (WAG), inpatient hospital working overnights, outpatient hospital pharmacy, regular inpatient pharmacy (days/evenings), and my last two jobs have been mostly oncology related with a some informatics training. Currently I work PRN (due to having a child and needing to help out with childcare) at a children's hospital and I'm extremely burnt out of the career entirely.

Pharmacy has never been a passion of mine. I originally chose it because I enjoy the medical profession, the money is good, and (I thought) the QOL would be good. However after 12 years of variable shifts having no schedule stability I'm just tired. The overabundance of pharmacy schools pumping out (IMO) subpar grads has also made our profession worse and less respected overall. I know this has slowly started to correct itself over the last few years at least. And not to mention unless I wanted to go into admin/management (I don't) my pay will roughly remain unchanged until I die (adjusting for inflation of course). Also, the future of the profession just seems very bleak to me (and many on this sub) whereas PAs have a great job outlook for the foreseeable future.

Benefits of being a PA that I see are: higher ceiling for pay (although I should mention my wife is a physician and neither of us have student loans so as long as I'm making close or a little less than what I make now (130kish when full-time) I'd be happy), ability to chose a specialty I enjoy, and ability to change specialties later on, much better professional Union, more autonomy (setting dependent of course), set work hours (many PAs work bankers hours only and no weekends), relatively short amount of schooling required, high on average job satisfaction, and better work-life balance.

I'd love to hear this sub's thoughts and perspectives.

Hi group! I thought it would be interesting to see what pharmacy practice is like around the world. For obvious reasons, pls do not list money as a pro/con.

Is it conflict of interest to work at a mail order pharmacy and part time retail on the weekends?

I

I have daily footfall 150-200 please suggest a best inventory software which work PC as well as on Android

If so - why?

Thinking of making the switch to inpatient but it seems like a lot of inpatient people are switching over to ambulatory/outpatient

Note: NOT retail

Out of curiosity, are big city retail chains more or less toxic than small town retail chains?

I’ve worked in small towns my whole life and there are always shit stirrers and toxic coworkers who love drama because there really isn’t anything else for them to do in a small town.

It seems like in a larger city, there would be less drama because everyone is so busy with their lives that they don’t have time for toxic workplace nonsense.

For those that made the switch or currently work in home infusion….please help me with the pros and cons of home infusion!

TIA 😬

This is the weekly thread to highlight anything new you learned last week!

Links to studies and articles are great, but so are anecdotes and case reports. Anything you learned in the last week you want /r/pharmacy to know goes here!

Please choose a major with bright and more earning opportunities as a pharmacist. Other than a retail/community/hospital pharmacist, what career options do we have after completing these majors? Your contribution in this poll will help me and other answer seeking pharmacists that are bored, stressed or burned-out from their daily roles.

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Any new promethazine formulations you've seen compounded? Saw a home med listed on external History promethazine 25mg/0.3ml 2 pumps q6h top prn nausea, but my hospital stopped making the gel a year ago saying components were in background. Has anyone seen anything different lately?

Midwest chain pharmacies are NOT okay.

The complete closures of all rite aids closures from June to now have put a burden on chain pharmacists that is too high. A disproportionate amount of CVS stores have closed in Michigan and Ohio. A majority of pharmacies are operating and filling 450 to 900 rx (90 as 1) in one day with one pharmacist and 24 to 40 tech hours. There are no "slow" or "medium volume" stores anymore. There is no patient care that can be given with this operating model. Patients are being put in extreme danger and fellow pharmacists are beyond broken.

I have been a pharmacist for the past 10 years and have been in pharmacy for 17 years. I've never seen it this insane. The job market in the area is terrible - over 2k rph positions lost in Michigan from RA alone in the last 6 months.

I consider myself to be very resilient but this is truly the very last breaking point. Other stores continue to close and this is even before WAGS starts their closures. It feels utterly hopeless. I loved community pharmacy my whole life - but it's now making me feel bitter and like an empty shell of a human being. I can't see this getting any better - I'd rather be working at McDonalds than bearing this burden and guilt.

Are there any pharmacies that have a program to align prescriptions on the same day that actually work?

I work at CVS and lately I have just had to stop accepting any new hard copy drop offs after 2pm because there is literally nobody to type them. I already stay an hour past closing in order to get cycle counts done, make schedules, complete DUR documentations, change out the medication disposal bin liners, look into missing CS counts, look into high cost missing medications, do monthly regulatory reviews, etc. I used to accept all drop offs but they would end up not being typed and the next day pharmacist would be upset. At the same time I feel guilty that CVS is forcing us to turn patients away. If I accept the drop offs I would have to stay an another extra 30 minutes to type them up for tomorrow.

I literally do not get a chance or a second to look at my phone or use the bathroom at work. Sometimes I just go to the bathroom and risk falling behind. There is no second that passes by that there isn't a customer needing help with something. CVS has designed it such that they get every second of work out of us possible. I recently just have to look mean and unapproachable to customers so they don't talk to me or hold me up with long questions or problems.

Obviously every pharmacist must be licensed in the state in which they are dispensing but it made me think should a pharmacist need to be licensed to counsel a patient in another state which they are not licensed in for a MTM? Does your Board see this as counseling or something else?

I haven't seen any BoP regulations on this specific topic.

I work for CVS and I have to meet vaccine quotas every week. So how do I force the patients that refuse? If they say no, should I be upset at them? How do I make so that they don't ruin my vaccine goals? Is it enough to just ask? Some days I am burned out debating and fighting back with the customers that they need to get their vaccines. But at the end of the day it amounts to nothing and my employer doesn't see my efforts because it didn't actually lead to the customer getting the vaccine. Should I hold a grudge against patients who say no. /s

I've worked in retail pharmacy for 6 years. I recently accepted a job In a compounding pharmacy specifically there formulation department. I'm looking for advice on any resources I can use to help prepare for this new role.

Have any other independent pharms/techs noticed a sudden drop in reimbursement rates on brand names, predominantly from Cigna plans? Of course we would always lose money on 90 day supplies, but we would at least be close to our cost, maybe losing $5-20$ on 30-days. However, in the past 48 ours I have caught several reimbursements + copays that do not even come close to our cost. For example, a loss of $54.28 on Tresiba, a loss of $92.74 on Jardiance, Loss of $182.17 on Mounjaro, a loss of $177.11 and $61.60 on ozempic, a loss of $93.74 on a Januvia, and a loss of about $72 on a Shingrix vaccine. That is all within the past day or so. Who knows what else went out the door that another pharmacists may not have caught.

These are all from plans I cannot file a MAC appeal through the state, because we "agreed" to these "contracted reimbursements"

I'm starting to wonder if our PSAO is as much to blame as the PBMs...

I have been waiting for for my Oregon pharmacist license for 4 weeks 😢. My intern incense is going to expire tomorrow. Does anyone know if the intern license automatical renews after I pay the renewal fees? Or do I have to wait for the OPB to manually renewal it? I am afraid I won't be able to work this week!!! 😔

To make things short and sweet, I haven’t worked in 4 years because of health issues and want to reenter the workforce. I have limitations that prevent me from driving and standing/sitting for hours at a time. I did work for 1 year as a pharmacist in a hospital before I left work. I need to reenter the job force and I really need by necessity a remote job and I don’t know what to do to land one. If I can’t, which I’ve been trying, that’s okay. Is there any other job field I could transition to if getting into pharmacy is not a thing? I’m single and basically homeless. I don’t know what to do

p2 here.

we just finished infectious block and this was never mentioned, so i thought i’d ask it here.

if a patient is on methenamine for UTI prevention and they get a UTI while on it and are prescribed macrobid to treat, should they stop the methenamine for the duration of therapy? or continue it?

this is a common scenario in the community pharmacy i work at, and I want to be sure i’m counseling properly

I am currently working in a small hospital around 150 beds. I am also exploring the feasibility to transition our pharmacists’ vancomycin monitoring and dosing protocol from trough based to AUC based.

Any experienced pharmacists went through this process and I am wondering what are some of the roadblocks and feedbacks you have received ? Any tips you have ? Thanks all.

I don’t want to provide cannabis to a patient who looks several months pregnant but when phoning them later on the quickly brushed off that they weren’t

Hello! I got an interview at Pharmachoice and I absolutely dont have any experience in this sor of job. I do have experience in stocking and handling events and I am in dire need of a job. I like to come to an interview well researched and prepared so Im asking beforehand.

Here are some questions I would like to ask: -What's the interview like and what are some questions I should expect? -How's the job like, what are your duties? -Do they even hire people with backgrounds like me? -What's usually your day to day routine?

That's all! Hopefully anyone can answer me, Im really nervous!

Dispensing medicine in the parking lot?

I recently started working at an independent pharmacy where we administer medication like testosterone. The manager has set a precedent of going to patients cars for people with mobility issues. One patient in particular is an amputee whose wife refuses to give his testosterone and drives him here. Today I offered to teach her because in a couple weeks it will be too cold to go out and do this. She is not willing to learn.

How would you guys handle this? It gets freezing cold where I am in the winter and I’m not ok going out to the parking lot to give testosterone injections that could easily be done at home.

ETA: this patient has one below the knee amputation (diabetic), a capable wife, and this is for testosterone every 2 weeks. She does his INR draws and doesn’t want to “do anymore”. Also, I’ve happily done this for him every 2 Fridays. Friday is my day to take over for the manager. I do not want to in the cold, which might make me petty or whatever but it is what is

Busy day at my pharmacy, everyone's busy I know day after a holiday some people are closed doctor offices were closed, but dear God. Optum calls me for a transfer. No problem, I respect their time I picked up I'm the pharmacist. Get the information and suddenly "ok thanks can you please hang on for the pharmacist?"

I guess it was a call center rep? So now I am on hold. For about 5 minutes. A pharamcist finally picks up and then repeats everything 3x then makes me repeat it 3x then puts me on hold again while she confirms with the original call person that was it.

I'm not too upset about the repetition (although for a script like eliquis 5 the dosing should be obvious?) but how about my time? What the actual. Is this normal? Am I cranky? Why was that process so complex lol

Hi there. I’m a registered pharmacist in the Philippines who recently moved here in Canada. My sister-in-law also came months after I moved. She has become a Registered Nurse in no time (less than a year or so). I hate to say this but I’m jealous of their profession about how you can find a lot of support groups/people you can connect with (mainly Pinoys) and how fast their licensure is with just 1 written exam in the US with NCLEX, then simply pay to have it converted to Canada. I guess I’m only feeling this because everytime I see her I’m reminded of how rough it can be for me. The licensure process to become a Canadian Pharmacist is much more rigorous than theirs, and probably more costly.

Anyways, is there anyone here who has similar sentiments?