Presentations

I can't believe that my summer placement is coming to an end. 7 weeks of work flew by so fast. I can't believe I'm 7 weeks older already T___T It won't be long till I reach 30 and start worrying about my wrinkles...

Tuesday was Celebrate & Review Day, where all the summer students within a region gather, share, and celebrate their success. In other words, it is the dreaded Presentation Day. The day you "show off" your project, you brilliant light bulb ideas, and how "successful" it went.

Unprepared, I sent off my poster via email to the printers on Sunday, collected it at 9am Tuesday, only to attend the presentation at 9.30 am, the same morning. I was mighty impressed by how clinically knowledgeable everyone was. Frankly, I avoided the clinical project simply because I knew I would be rubbish at it. However, it seemed that I somehow did not do too bad with my business project, because I won Best Project in the region. Weee~~ Thorntons chocolates as the prize!

2 days later (today) I had to prepare for another interview with Lloyds Pharmacy. Frankly speaking, I was just drained from Tuesday, and really had no time to prepare for it. But since I got it, I might as well give it my best shot. Lloyds people were very very nice! And even that is an understatement. I was interviewed by the Area Manager, who really put me at ease, and patiently listened to what I had to say for a whole hour. I must say, although this was the day that I had to sell myself to him, he sold Lloyds Pharmacy to me.

At the same hotel where I had my Lloyds Interview, I met Ramak, another Boots Summer Student whom I met. He told me how upset he was that I missed out on the FRPS challenge. In case you're wondering, I was beaten by another candidate in my region by just 1 freaking sign-up, so I came up 2nd. He believed that the dude who beat me cheated somehow, and I could not believe my ears when he said he told his tutor about it, and even emailed our Pharmacy Area Manager about it. For justice's sake, as he called it.

I think he did that because he didn't think that dude deserved the prize:
An invitation to a Celebrate & Review Day at Boots Head Office, with other regional winners.

But honestly, I was secretly relieved that I did not win, because the prize sounded scary. It is awesome alright, but still scary.

For someone I have just met 7 weeks ago, he's one plucky fella who has made a very deep impression on me. He didn't have to care, but he did, and I appreciate it loads =) I don't know what I did to deserve his kindness, but I know he's gonna make a fine pharmacist one day.

Swine Flu

I've had it! All the fuss and commotion about the Swine Flu has gotta stop! It is bringing out the worse in people to the surface, and it ain't pretty at all.

Boots the Chemist, Summertown branch have officially sold out of THERMOMETERS (digital, ear, forehead ones)! Just a few days ago, we were also sold out of PARACETAMOL tablets & caplets, and almost sold out of alcohol hand hygiene gels. And no, we don't sell FACE MASKS.

Today's society is mentally sick. Alcohol hand gels claim to kill 99.9% of bacteria, NOT VIRUSES. Innocent bacterias are dying by the gazillions, while the flu viruses are enjoying a killing spree.

The NHS has advised that face masks are not going to improve your chances of survival. Good hygiene, however, WILL! So can everyone please stop asking for it.

Paracetamol tablets will lower your fever, and help with aches and pains. But! It will hinder you from detecting the crucial temperature of 38'C that is needed for swine flu diagnosis. Also, can the regular paracetamol addicts please stop taking these pill as if they're sweets.

And no, having a second thermometer isn't going to give you a different reading for your body temperature. Stop buying them.

Everything you need to know about swine flu is in the papers, asking me or the pharmacists about it isn't going to give you a different answer.

Please give up on coming into pharmacies, if you think you have swine flu. Everyone in the pharmacy is not keen to catch your flu, thank you very much. No matter how many times you ask, we do not give out Tamiflu / Relenza, just because you want some. We don't have it! And I won't let you have it, even if I have some, unless I have orders from your doctor.

Unfortunately, panicking about the crisis isn't going to deter the virus from coming anywhere near you. Wake up!

Summer Sale Spree

There will not be a single female that can resist the seduction of the notorious Summer Sales. I tried hard, in fact, I tried very very hard. I am embarrassed to admit that I succumbed, hopelessly to the evil sale.

I went on another spree at Jamie's Italian, French Connection, Accessorize, and Zara. The results were painful...

Tops, Coats, Hats.... OUCH!

Someone hold me back please!
But it was a very lovely weekend. I haven't had anything like it for nearly a year now, and I just know that days like this are hard to come by.

The sales in UK have been nothing short of exciting, incomparable to that of Paris, or KL. I wonder if Shanghai's gonna be any good at all?

When customers are not right

Whoever that invented the phrase "The customer is always right" needs to be shot in the head a million times over.

It's a big fat lie, that makes no sense of all.

As you can already guess, I'm very dulan with customers now. This happened today. This girl came in with a list of drugs on her iPhone, written in a foreign language that I have no clue about. I could barely make out what they sound like and what they might be. She claimed that they were medication prescribed to her by her GP back in her home country. Fine. So I asked her what she was diagnose with, so as to help me get an idea of alternatives that I can get her in the UK instead.

She said Herpes. I reconfirmed it with her, and she nodded.

Of course I was shocked, she's very young. Among the drugs that I managed to work out with her previously, was one for Aciclovir, an antiviral. To me, Herpes = a nasty viral infection, and I know nothing more about it. At this rate it didn't seem impossible that she might have Herpes. So naturally, I would pass on this case to someone who might know it more than I do, the Pre-Reg Pharmacist, my pal Toyosi. And then I went on to serve other customers.

Minutes later, Toyosi asked me why I diagnosed her with Herpes. I was like "What the *beep* !!!" I DID NOT diagnose her with Herpes! Apparently that stupid girl told Toyosi that I diagnosed her with Herpes. That LIAR. How dare she accused me of such things!

Diagnosing someone with a viral infection as foul as Herpes would be the last thing on my mind! There's nothing available for sale that can be used for the treatment on Herpes anyway. I had no motive to diagnose her with something this horrible at all.

I believe I have not disclosed any details (physical description or nationality) that will lead to the identification of this customer. Hence, I have not breached any patient confidentiality here. I just need to vent out my annoyance at some customers.

That will go down as one of the worst ever customers that I have ever served!

To make matters worse on the same day, a customer picked up my pen, and put it in his bag, and left! He seemed very well-to-do, if not rich, well mannered and all that. It wasn't by accident, I'm 100% sure of that. I was missing a pen, and I stood there staring at his hand for minutes! But he ain't letting go of my poor pen. I turned my back for a second to serve a customer, and poof! He bloody stole my pen!!!

IT EVEN HAS "LING'S PEN" WRITTEN ON A STICKER, STUCK ON THE PEN!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.... I am so frustrated I could throw pen darts at the customer if I wasn't paid a salary for this summer placement.

Cool down girl, cool...

Think:
Why are they our customers?
Because they're not smart enough to be the pharmacist.

My patience mantra, that will help me through this.

Guilty pleasures

Everytime I get frustrated in something I will be spending! Ish. I really shouldn't get all worked up with those PCS quotas.

The results were disastrous:

Dirt Cheap Items on Clearance Prices
Head & Shoulders Conditioner 43p
Trevor Sorbie Leave in Conditioner Spray £ 1.22
Boots Skin Clear Facial Gel £ 1.22

Impulse Shopping
Zara denim shorts £ 14.99
Jamie's Italian £ 18.00

Total damage: almost £ 36.00 (this week)

Bad girl, Bad!!!