Friday, July 15, 2005

Thieves and Plunderers

As I have stated in earlier posts, I have been away from my current place of employment for some time due to clinical rotations. In order to keep some money in my pocket, and my manager slightly sane, I have been working every other Sunday. I work on Sundays for two reasons - #1)I make $1 extra per hour and #2)We're open 10-4. Being an eternal night owl, 10AM is the earliest I like to make an appearance at the pharmacy. That being said, I have always respected the individuals that I work with. AL has been a technician at the store for several years and is a total sweetheart. The customers love her, our pharmacists love her, and I love her. She's a reliable person and a great co-worker. JC has worked for our company for many years, but came to the pharmacy last summer. She does her job and does it well. She's a reliable individual and I don't think I've ever been there when she's called in. SF is another pharmacy student. To protect the innocent, I am making no further comments on this individual. Finally, MP came to the pharmacy during a technician crunch. She was supposed to fill the eternally open evening shift. MP and I went to middle school and high school together. We never really talked in middle school and high school just shifted us further apart. She's worked for our company for several years, but like JC, is a transplant to the pharmacy department. Finally there are our three pharmacists - RC, CF, and MN. RC is pharmacy manager and CF and MN are staff pharmacists. All three are great pharmacists. Some have strengths that others lack - but trust me, from being on rotations and having worked in other pharmacies - these are 3 top notch pharmacists.

I gave you the background of the staff I work with so that we can play a little game of Clue. I arrived at work on Sunday to find my smock pockets conspicuously empty. This is extremely odd because I keep no less than 3 pens in my pockets. I also have a bad habit of keeping money and my register sign on number in my pocket. Of the 3 pens in my pocket, one was very special. It was a Plan B pen. This is my favorite pen. The other pen was a run-of-the-mill Risperdal pen and the last pen was a very nice Enbrel pen. Since the company that makes Enbrel charges $1500 for a month's worth of medication, they can afford better-than-average pens. (I'll post on disgusting drug companies at a later time) The Enbrel pen was given to me by my preceptor at Washington Hospital Center. It was a very nice pen. All three pens are gone. They were there the last Sunday I worked, which was June 26. Now, I pose to you this question - who stole my freaking pens??? The answers should be posed in a Clue-like fashion. Example - CF in the pharmacy with the Plan B pen. You can name individual pens or simply accuse a person of stealing all three pens. I will be returning to work on Monday and plan to post the correct answer on here. Because after Monday, everyone will know to keep their grubby paws out of my shit! :)

3 Comments:

Blogger ROMA said...

MN in the coat closet with all 3 pens.

1:39 AM  
Blogger ahsirt said...

Correct answer: MN in the coat closet with all 3 pens

Someone buy ROMA a drink! :)

10:37 PM  
Blogger ahsirt said...

Good point. I agree that my use of drug company paraphrenalia furthers their price gouging. In a perfect world, all the pens in my pocket would be non-endorsing pens. There actually is an organization totally against drug representatives and their paraphrenalia. It's called No Free Lunch. It is my understanding that some employees at VA Centers support this organization and actively wear No Free Lunch pins on their chest and do not accept ANYTHING from drug reps. For further information go to this link: http://www.nofreelunch.org/.

I would like to also reply to your comment about my supporting high price pharamceuticals. First of all, I do not support high price pharmaceuticals. WV state law requires pharmacists to substitute generic drugs when available - if there isn't a generic available for one brand, I offer to call the patient's doctor to have it switched to a drug with a generic product. I ask my doctor to write prescriptions for medications with generics. Yes, I enjoy the lower copay - but I also know that I am not supporting high price drug companies. That being said - research and development is not cheap. I'm definitely not supporting drug companies, nor am I back pedaling on my stance; however drug companies are a necessary evil. If there were no profits, drug companies would not develop new drugs because 1) it would not be profitable and 2) they simply could not afford it.

1:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home