The Process

... for the Washington Department of Health to produce a wonderful piece of paper known as a Pharmacy Technician license. In the mean time, I am biding my time anxiously patiently. I'm pretty sure everyone knows just how ADHD calm I can be while waiting. Thanks to the Washington State Department of Health, along with the licensing needs of pharmacies all around Puget Sound, I am UNABLE to work in the community I have so graciously paid $14,000 to enter.

A few weeks ago, I called the department of health with questions. I did get some answers. Some of it made sense. I learned...

the DOH receives applications with payments every day
there are 1000's of these applications pouring in from all aspects of health care every day
upon receiving an application package, the DOH separates the payment from the application.
the application is then filed away in line with all the other applications waiting for processing
I was told there was a two to four week wait for application processing
applications are currently waiting a period of five weeks

After all that waiting, THEN the processing begins with

data entry
a dark past background check
I hope there is a second dark past background check thanks to all the time we spend waiting for these pieces of paper
the waiting pointlessly processing check
the reality legality check
the final data entry
the printing of the paper
the mailing of the paper

I guess I don't think like normal people. i tend to have a very hard time accepting lame excuses when it comes to just about anything. You can give me a lame excuse. That part is fine. How I tend to respect anything about you or anything you do after the lame excuse is given is for you to deal with. I pretty much wrote you off as annoying and lazy.

Honestly, why it takes the DOH that long to do anything is plainly BEYOND me. I have spent the past several weeks trying to figure out how that state agency can even live with itself knowing there are thousands of people all over the state being denied the ability to have a decent job in health care; all because of the DOH lag time. I'm not sure if that office is pro-customer service, or pro-cash waster. Seriously, if the load is so heavy for the DOH that it just can't handle it, HIRE MORE PEOLPE. After all, I need a job. Obviously that office has a need for staff. I see a win-win situation there.

I may see my license come to me sometime in January. So far, I have been denied several interviews because I don't carry the proper license. That just isn't cool with me at all. Of course, by the time I get my first Technician license, it will be time to send off for the renewal.

Well, I may SOMEDAY be able to get a decent job in a pharmacy, and maybe even be able to re-enter college for the Pharm, D. program at the UW.  I guess I can always dream on.

My Extership Rocked. (and Now I Wait for My License)

I have never had, in my entire life, a better 160 hours than I did in my time at Peninsula Community Health Services. In 160 hours of free working time, I discovered:

just how much I really love being in the pharmacy
my first real experience in pharmacy work
PDX is a software program of its very own uniqueness
PDX is quite maneuverable once you figure it out
the desire to beat PDX sometimes comes quite often
different pharmacists function with different work habits, but still get everything done
brand new sharpie markers do not leave the desired dark X on bottles
older, blunter sharpies leave a beautiful, dark, bold X on the bottle
some patients can really try a person's patience
keeping your patience with patients who are trying your patience causes said patients to leave a pharmacy counter with a very open jaw
how blessed I am to have worked with former pharmacy tech instructors
how blessed I am  to have worked with the pharmacists that I did
160 hours of full-time volunteer work comes as fast as it goes

To the Pharmacy of Peninsula Community Health Services:

Thank You for the best 160 hours I have ever spent working on a volunteer basis. I have now worked with the greatest people I could ever have been with. Thank you for the support and encouragement.

Did This Really Happen to Me?

Now that I have six five weeks left of school, I am wondering just what happened this week. I went from a great start to total a total chaos of mess.

Monday was a great day for me. The pin-stripe black suit went on. My resume was printed, on pink resume paper of all things. I normally don't even fathom the idea of printing a resume on anything other than a shade of white and heavy-weight paper. This time, I needed to tap the "extensive" supply of paper at school. My choices of color extended to green, gold, gray, and pink. Right off the bat, green and gold are out of the picture for me. I could have handled the gray if it wasn't a dark gray. Pink ended up being my option since it was the only paper I cold find that would actually make the ink look good on the paper. For some reason, that pink paper ended up being a good thing. Peninsula Community Health Services is working on my background check for externship right now. I don't think I even had a ten minute interview with the lead technician at the clinic and she told me to head over to the administrative offices for paper work! I got my externship!

Tuesday, I learned it is darn near impossible to pull from an ampule, chemo style. My first round in the chaos of Tuesday's lab involved the flinging of an ampule with it conveniently breaking open for me. not only did I not get it the first time, I screwed it up the second time. How anyone pulls anything from a 2ml ampule in a vertical flow hood successfully, I may never know. It reminds me of the Tootsie Pop owl. I never did finish my chemo lab on Tuesday.

I learned on Wednesday that it takes 2 hours to fill 6 retail style prescriptions. New patient information; fine. I can handle that. New Dr. Information? Why am I having to create 6 new doctors in the system? Oh, and to whoever wrote the Robitussin prescription: We don't have it in tablet or capsule form on the school shelves. We only carry it in OTC strength and in syrup form. It takes 100mg to administer a minimum level dose. There is no efficacy in 10 to 20mg of guaifenesin every 4 hours. Let alone, 30 tablets will not do the job. Did you not read the PDR when you wrote the form, or did you just make it up? I had to deal with this crap on Wednesday. Thank you.

I was about to blog about all of this Thursday, that is until I got home from school. That Weird Woman was sick. I had dinner to make, and a conference call to sit in on at the same time. By the time I was done with everything, I was feeling awful, right along with the rest of the family.

I don't like running route when I am feeling sick. I wake up late, drive slow, and make mistakes. Not being able to get back to sleep afterwards due to a caffeine high doesn't make the situation any better. This would be the particular case when I have a demo gig for the day. So today, I fell asleep after route, and woke up late for demo.

Since I hadn't read my sales info, I decided it would be a good idea to stop at Cash & Carry today for gloves. Boy, was that a life-saver. I never needed them, but would not have picked up a food-service grade plastic tray if I had not gone in for gloves. I never did need the gloves, but did need the tray. Actually, I was supposed to have a cooler, but never got that in the mail like I was supposed to. Just like the store I was supposed to work was supposed to receive a memo about today's demo. Sure. Whatever. the store did not know I was coming. The produce manager didn't really want to help me out. There was no product in the store, and he was very adamant that he doesn't carry it what so ever. My confirmation letter sent me to his store, but the forms were printed for another store. My scheduler couldn't figure out what was going on. The other store had no product in stock for me and wouldn't have any for tomorrow either.

So I found my car making its way back across lovely Bremerton to the parking building where I park for school. Since I found my Friday afternoon free of working, I could at least make use of the time for open lab. I, along with two other classmates did make a very nice ointment of sugar, peppermint and clove. Measuring out 15 grams of petroleum jelly is not really my idea of a good time, but the practice was useful.

So, if this was the week I went through, can someone please wake me up now?

Count Down

I am not counting down. Three months and 160 hours. I am not counting down to the end of my Pharmacy Technician program. I only have three months and 160 hours of externship to go.

In three months and 160 hours, I will be qualified to work in the Pharmacy. I am in denial of counting down. I'm not counting down. I only have three months and 160 hours left to go.

In three hours and 160 hours, I will not be required to toss another newspaper. My car will no longer be beaten up by the turning and stopping and backing up of newspaper. I will be working in a Pharmacy counting pills into vials.

I'm not counting down at all.

Choices

Beadgirl has instructed me to write the following:

I should be doing my schoolwork instead of blogging. I have an research paper outline on chlamydia due today, but getting turned in tomorrow. I have 20 genereic drugs, their trade names, classifications, and general usages to complete for a test tomorrow. There is also a research assignment regarding medicating a patient for bronchial asthma, and Chapter 5 of Mosby's Pharmacy Technician workbook and textbook assignments to complete for grading tomorrow.

I should not be blogging right now. I should be doing my schoolwork. All while Beadgirl is watching Jeopardy hoping and praying for a new season and episode of Knight Rider. She has completed season one several times over on the internet. She needs a new Michael Knight fix. She wants a new season of episodes to watch.