Viagra man wants assistance with condoms

A middle aged man came in with a script for Viagra 50mg. When I handed him the medicine, he said: "I also need a packet of condoms."

Me: "Oh yes, its just in the first aisle on your right."

Him: "Can you please show me? Coz I don't know which one to get."

Okkkk, well being the professional I am, I led him to that section. 

Me: There a lot of different types, here they are. Different sizes, different flavours. 

Him: Yeh I just need a small one. 

Me thinks small packet or small size? But if its small size, i don't want to rub it in. 

Me: Hmmm, did you just want to go for the standard size like this Ansell one?

He picks up the Ansell RIBBED and asks me: "What's this one?"

I have no idea. I haven't used one before or seen one. Read the packet ..... me: "Oh its just not smooth. Its got bumps on it." 

He says: "Ahhh ok I'll get this one."

Doesn't help when you're a female......... 

Unprofessional nurse complaining about vaccines Havrix & Typhim

A nurse from a local medical centre calls the pharmacy to complain that our pharmacy didn't tell a patient to keep their vaccines in the fridge. The vaccines (Havrix Junior and Typhim) were dispensed by a colleague pharmacist yesterday. So I check with my colleague to see if they informed the patient to keep the vaccines in the fridge:

Pharmacist: Yes. Coz I asked him if he was going to the see the doctor straight away and he said no, his seeing the doctor the next day. So I told him to keep it in the fridge until he sees the doctor.
Me: Did you put a fridge sticker on the vaccine?
Pharmacist: Yes definitely.

Good. I asked the nurse is the fridge sticker on the vaccine. She says yes. I informed her that I spoke to my colleague who served the customer and they said they informed them to keep it in the fridge until they see the doctor.

Nurse: Well the customer says she didn't.
Me: The pharmacist asked him if he was seeing the doctor straight away and he said no. So she told him to keep it in the fridge. There's no point of asking when he was gonna see the doctor if she wasn't gonna tell him how to store it.
Nurse: Well maybe there was a language barrier? The customer doesn't understand English and you tell him to keep it in the fridge. His not gonna understand that.
Me: The customer is Arabic right?
Nurse: Yes.
Me: Well we've got many staff here who speaks Arabic. Any one of them could've translated it for him. If he didn't understand, he could've said he didn't understand. But he didn't say anything, he never asked for translation, and he seemed to understand some basic simple English. He probably just forgot when he got home.
Nurse: What about the fridge back and cool pack? He lives 20min away. You should've given him a fridge bag. The fact that you didn't - don't you think that's a big unprofessional.
Me: No fridge bag and a cool pack is not a legal requirement. Even if we did supply him a fridge bag, his not going to keep it in the fridge anyway. 24 hours later, it would be deemed unusable anyway so it makes no difference fridge bag or not.
Nurse: Look I don't know but your pharmacy is responsible for this. The patient is not going to spend another $100 to get these vaccines when its your fault.
Me: I disagree with that. I feel that the pharmacist did all she can on her part - informed him to keep it in the fridge and there's also a fridge sticker. Now if the customer goes home and doesn't do as we tell them to do, well that's beyond my control.
Nurse: The customer is always right.
Me: Now you're being unreasonable. From what I can see, the customer probably just forgot but please do not shift the responsibility to us coz we did every right on our end.
Nurse: Well I think you are responsible and I will be making an official complaint.
Me: Feel free to do that. You can complain directly to the Pharmacy Board. It doesn't seem we can resolve this today so let them decide. I am happy to supply you with their number if you want.
Nurse: Who are you anyway?
Me: On the pharmacist on duty today. If you like, you can speak to the Pharmacy Manager.


Transferred the call to the Pharmacy Manager who agreed with what I said and told her to get lost and that if the patient wants, we can sell them a second box for cost price. But if you want it for free, then she's dreaming.


Afternoon comes, the customer comes in with the vaccines and speaks to my boss. My boss told him the nurse knows nothing and that she's giving him all these wrong information. Customer said the pharmacist should have EMPHASISED to him to keep in the fridge. My boss' comeback which I think is perfect was basically: "The only thing she could've done better was to go home with you and put it in the fridge for you." LOL .........

We ended up giving the customer a discount (out of good faith) for the second box but certainly not free.

And that nurse was such an idiot. Is she really a registered nurse? Or is she some random lady that sticks needles in people? I can't comprehend how can she speak like that with no sense of judgement. So unprofessional and saying 'the customer is always right." I'm a health care professional, a pharmacist, not a random grocery seller at the markets. We have protocol and we've followed protocol.

If her patient goes home and doesn't take their medications, is she the one responsible for that?

Just go back to nursing school dude and don't step into the way we work. Trouble maker. I should be the one making the complaint to the Nursing Board about her unprofessionalism and giving wrong information the patient.

Creams are not for eating

Question of the day:

Lady: What's this Lyclear?
Assistant: Yes its a cream that you apply to your whole body to help treat scabies or body lice.
Lady: So how do I use it - do I just apply it to the body? 

Answer:
a) apply cream to body
b) squeeze cream into mouth and swallow


Such a difficult question, who can answer this?

Zyrtec lady not happy with price

People should get over paying for non-pbs items. A young lady with a young kid comes in with a few scripts - some prescription items, some over the counter items. 

When it came to payment, she purchased Celestone M Cream + Predmix + Zyrtec syrup. Total came down to $36 or something. 

She gives me a dirty and says: "Is this price correct? Why so expensive?"

Me: Yes its correct. That's coz the Zyrtec is not covered on your health care card.
She: Yeh I've got a health care card. It should be covered.
Me: No its not covered. Not everything you buy in the chemist is covered under Medicare.

She rolls her eyes and frustrated says: "Fine."

Why be so stuck up for? Its not covered. Get a grip. 

You've got a health care card which I think IMO she doesn't deserve it. She doesn't appreciate she gets some discounts already. Sometimes I just want to pat her shoulder and say: "Its alright. $18 is affordable and not much. Calm down and relax. You have no one to blame but yourself when you get sick so its money that you can afford to spend." 

And its not my fault its not covered on Medicare so stop giving me those dirty looks - its got nothing to do with me. 

Courtesy does not exist in their vocabulary

People these days should learn some basic social etiquette. It was busy and I was serving a customer at the counter. An Asian lady wanted to speak to me so she waited patiently behind that customer until I was finished. Now a Turkish lady comes after and decides to stand right NEXT to the customer I'm serving. Totally no respect of privacy at all. I could feel from the corner of my eye, she was looking at me - waiting for me to make eye contact. I never make eye contact with people I don't want to serve yet. Coz once I make eye contact, they will open their mouth and ask for assistance. By not giving eye contact, you don't give them a chance to ask you stuff which is what I want.

Anyway, when I was finished with the first customer. I gave eye contact to the patiently waiting Asian lady and said 'Can I help you?'

The Turkish lady which was standing at the counter gets frustrated and yells at me saying: "I've been waiting here for a long time!!"

Me: Yes but this lady here has been waiting for a very long time too. She came before you. 
Turk lady: No I was here first!
Me: No. She was here first. She was waiting in line over here. 

Turk lady continues to wait all grumpy.

I just shook my head. Honestly, just coz you barged in front of everyone and stuck your fat self at the counter, doesn't mean your first. I might be busy but I see who's waiting around so I know who to serve next. Be a little bit more courteous and wait in line.   

Why can't I get medications for free?

A man comes into the our pharmacy for the first time. He says he usually gets his medications for free from his usual chemist. I asked him if he has his Safetynet Card on him. He goes his chemist did not give him any cards and all he knows is he gets it for free.

Fine. So I call his local chemist and ask them for the safetynet number. The chemist says he hasn't reached the safetynet yet. I called Medicare Australia for the SN number. They said they have none on record.

So I tell the customer I called his chemist and they said there is no number. 

He gets angry and asks me: "Why do I get it for free then?"
Me: I dunno. Maybe you have to ask that chemist why. 
Him: Because I go there all the time and I saw your chemist and its big so I wanted to get my medicines here. But you're not giving it to me for free so how can I come here next time?
Me: (me thinks are you trying to threaten me to give you free meds so i can win you over??) Well I've tried to help you by calling that chemist and Medicare Australia, they said you don't have a safetynet number. Without that number I can't give you medications for free.
Him: Why can the other chemist to me for free but you can't?
Me: I don't know know why. You have to go and ask that chemist why. I don't know the answer. That card entitles you to get medications for free at OTHER pharmacies. Now I don't know why your chemist didn't you a card. I even called them and they said you don't have one. If you have any questions, I think you should go and ask them why. Because honestly, I don't know the answer to your question.

And he kept on repeating the question WHY WHY WHY...... 

Why did you have to come into our pharmacy?

OMG

Adult first time taking a syrup?

A lady comes in with a script for E-mycin Syrup for her child and Codeine Linctus for herself. Both syrups. After I dispensed it, I informed her how many MLs to take of each. 

She looks at me blankly and says: How do I measure 3ml? 

Me: Do you have a syringe or measuring cup at home?

She: No I don't.

Me: I'll give you a syringe then. 3ml is here (points to the 3ml increment).

She: How do I measure 5ml for the Codeine Linctus? 

Me thinks *what do you mean how?? Just with a measuring cup. Who DOESN'T have a measuring cup at home???!!!

Don't know why people act noob. 

She's like a young mother as well with a child. I mean, fair enough, it could be the first time the child is taking a syrup and you don't know how to measure, but surely as a child, SHE herself must've taken some sort of syrup in the past. As if you don't know how to measure MLs properly. 

We don't sell body parts here

A lady walks into the pharmacy with a piece of paper written by her doctor. All it said on it was: bunion. 

She said she would like to buy it.

I'm like this is not a product, its a body part. 

She: How much is it? 
Me: Its not a product, its a body part.
She: Do you have it? 
Me: Its a body part. We don't sell body parts here.
She: I don't know. The doctor wrote that for me.
Me: You're doctor wrote down the name of the problem you have. Let me draw you a picture.

I draw a foot. Point to the bump on the toe. 

Me: See this? This is a bunion. 

She: Yeh I know. But I want to buy this. Do you have? 

Me: No. Don't have products for it either. 


------

How many times do I have to explain myself ? And doctors never write clearly what they want. I don't know if the doctor explained that it can only be fixed by surgery and this is the name of your condition. Or go to the chemist and ask them to give you something for bunions. 

There are cushions and stuff but that only makes it a bit more bearable but really you can't fix it. 

Can't the dr simply write bunion cushions or something if that's what they want?