Winged invaders in the pharmacy during summer don’t have to be a drama, writes Fintan Moore
The link between bees and community pharmacy is fairly tenuous, but the fuzzy flying creatures do cross our paths every so often, especially in spells of hot weather when pharmacy staff are more likely to leave doors open to get a bit of fresh air. Whenever a bee does meander into the shop, it can be a source of panic for people who are nervous of them, but mostly everybody is more concerned with getting it safely back out into the wild. This can be easier said than done because the bees don’t necessarily co- operate with the rescue.
A useful and cheap investment for work and home is a ‘Spider-Catcher’, which was presumably designed for spiders but works very well for bees too.
It consists of a short pole — usually about two feet long but sometimes it’s telescopic — with a cone of soft nylon bristles at one end, similar in appearance to a badminton shuttlecock. A handle at the other end has a trigger mechanism to open and close the cone of bristles, so the person can open the cone to cover the bee, spider, wasp etc, then close the cone to trap it gently in the bristles then bring it outside. It’s only a little thing in the greater scheme of life, but it’s a nice way to remove a distraction and get on with what you were doing.
Soft heart, hard head
After watching the World Cup final, my over-riding thought was that about three hours of my life had just been wasted.
It was clear from the first moments that the fired-up Argentinian players were going to chop down anything in range of their studs that resembled skilful play. Ultimately, the excess emotion created their own downfall as they had a player sent off, and Spain deservedly won. It’s an example of the message as old as humankind — ‘Never let emotions rule’. A bit of passion is a good thing, but
Paul O’Connell used to talk of ‘Fire in the belly, with ice in the head’. Sport brings it into sharper focus, but it’s relevant everywhere else too.
Pharmacy is fundamentally a caring profession, but we all learn early on that some people are easier to care for than others, and some of them make it hard to care about them at all. Over time, I’ve got reasonably philosophical about a lot of the ‘difficult’ patients. If you take a dispassionate look at the patients who are rude, curt, impatient, unreasonable or argumentative, you’ll usually find that there’s not a lot of happiness washing around in their lives. The medication history of antidepressants, hypertensives, cardiac medication and sleeping tablets tells a tale, so if one of these people tries to put a dent in my day, I choose not to let them. As the Dalai Lama says, ‘You can’t crack me — I’m a rubber duck’. (Maybe not the Dalai Lama, but you get the picture.) Having said that, I don’t expect the people I work with to be mistreated, so if anybody crosses a line with them, they become ‘expendable’.
I’ve also learned over the years that for a lot of patients, it’s hard to do them a favour just once, because as soon
as you do it the first time, they expect you to do it again the next time. Pretty quickly they’ll assume it’s the default unless you redefine the boundaries.
This can apply for anything, such as an emergency supply of medication, or having a permanent running balance of money owed, or an expectation of us preparing a prescription on the spot when they haven’t ordered ahead, or wanting us to phone the GP on their behalf. I’m more than happy to be helpful, and probably go to more effort than I should at times, but I’ve got a little bit more savvy at working out who really needs the extra help and who’s trying to take advantage.
My reputation precedes me
A while ago I heard through a local grapevine that one of the GPs was praising me for apparently being very helpful to deal with. The GP commented that whenever I got in touch, I always presented them with a solution rather than just a problem. Like anybody else, I’m happy to take praise where I get it, so I was pleasantly surprised, but it did get me wondering about the times I had been in contact with them. It couldn’t have been very often, and probably mostly involved an email to let them know that some medication such as a particular ear-drop wasn’t available, but as a matter of course I will always list what alternatives I do have in stock rather than simply report that the first choice was out-of-stock. The fact that
I send an email rather than bounce the problem to the patient probably saves time at the GP’s end also.
Similarly, if a patient comes in to me
The fact that I send an email rather than bounce the problem to the patient probably saves time at the GP’s end also
saying that the GP should have sent over a prescription but none has arrived, I will often send a quick Healthmail to check if it’s on its way. It takes me a less than a minute and keeps the patient onside with the GP instead of getting irritated by having to phone them. Or if a prescription comes in that we have a query about because of a dose change, or if there have been hospital-led changes that the GP is unaware of, we’ll try to clarify the situation directly with the GP. Often, the patient doesn’t even need to know there was a discussion. These are all little things at our end, but maybe they save more hassle than we realise at the GP side. Whatever I did right, I’m glad to have some credit in the reputation bank.
Fintan Moore graduated as a pharmacist in 1990 from TCD and currently runs a pharmacy in Clondalkin. His email address is: greenparkpharmacy@gmail.com.
