God bless me with Flying Colors

It's been a while since I last shared things about my life as a pharmacy student-to-be. I just wanna update my readers on how the things have gone, whether they seem good or bad to me.

It's a good tiding this time, to me, anyway. :D

To my surprise, I've successfully secured the 3 asterisks for Biology, Chemistry and Maths. Failing to get an asterisk for Physics is just predictable so I have no special feeling about it when I got to know it's not with an * beside the (A). I'm glad anyway cos overall I'm still an A-student for my A2 Physics though am not as good as some of my really extremist-like mates who have got A* and all full marks (they have robot-built brains, indeed)

Just to make this post much nicer to see (Sorry, I didn't mean to show off, haha), I have captured a copy of my result slip and share it here:

I'm very, very contented with my results though they were not as well as those that some of us could get. I'm just ordinary, having this extraordinary results is really a blessing from GOD. I can't deny that I really have had all my efforts into getting these good results but what's more undeniable would be the efforts of our lecturers who were really striving hard to bring us to the line of perfection (as some had requested).

If the lecturers happen to see my blog or this post in the future, I would like to express my gratitude here. I would like to say million thanks to Ms Law, Ms Chua, Mr Chan, Mr Ng and even Mr Fong (though I always played truant during his class) for without their dedication and patience in dealing with us, these so-called JPA-troublemakers, we won't have today.

These words are not superficially-written, they're from my heart.

I might not be able to repay what you have done for me but God will.

Thanks again and may God be with you always :)

My Journey as a Pharmacist (약사로서 나의 여정) 3

I’ve only a few words as a comment for my 4th day here on attachment, i.e. I’m bored to death.

Mr. Ong’s somewhat free from my observations. Apart from sitting for newspaper and surfing Internet for some own business unrelated to his job, he’s prompt in taking his meals. (I really hope he won’t have read this post by chance in the future or else the consequence will be too ghastly to think about.)

Anyhow, he deserves a simple life like this. Most of my friends and relatives had always questioned me about my decision to be a pharmacist. My refusal to select medicine or dentistry seemed to have puzzled them quite a lot.

I visited ReCom and became a member of this Internet community last year in April. It’s a cool forum-styled website with plenty of useful educational information. It’s really expanded and widened my pupils so as to let all the new images that I’d never seen to enter my eyes and then my brain. Besides giving me some precious knowledge, it also affected my mindset in a positive way after thousands of posts by the veteran ReCommers had been skimmed through.

I guess it also had inflicted some ‘damage’ to my confidence hereafter of choosing to be a doctor or dentist. Accordingly, I chose pharmacy.

The idea of choosing pharmacy came into my mind only when I couldn’t find a way to be a doctor or a dentist. This‘s a shame. I’ve been underestimating the roles of a pharmacist.
I’d done a mistake, much to my regret.

Have I ever asked myself that I’m suitably qualified for a pharmacist?
Before making this decision, there’re actually quite a number of issues to be dealt with:

Am I careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks?
Am I reliable, responsible, and dependable, and able to fulfill obligations?
Am I honest and ethical?
Am I able to accept criticism and deal calmly and effectively with high stress situations?
Am I sensitive enough to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful?
Am I able to be pleasant with others on the job and be able to display a good-natured, cooperative attitude?
Am I analytical enough?
Am I independent?
Am I able to maintain composure, keep emotions in check, control anger, and avoid aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations?
Am I being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace?
Am I willing to take on responsibilities and challenges?
Am I able to work with others rather than alone, and being personally connected with others on the job?

No. I’m not.

Despite a retail pharmacy to which I’m attached, it had really taught me an invaluable lesson that I shouldn’t judge the nobility of an occupation with its title. Every job’s noble as long as it’s a contributor to harmony and peace.

I can see there’s still a long, tough and hard way for me to go through. Be brave. God, please help me.

My Journey as a Pharmacist (약사로서 나의 여정) 2

It’s at seven-thirty sharp in the morning when I awoke. I presumed that I wasn’t as nervous as what I had felt for yesterday. Thank God for that.

(Andy can’t sleep usually when he’s encountered something that’s completely new for him, the first GCE examination couple of months ago, for instance, had caused him a terrible nervous strain: his hands were trembling with fear when doing his first GCE Biology test paper was a piece of evidence.)

I have to be on duty at 9 and off duty at 3 every weekday to learn about how’s a life a pharmacist should lead. In the meantime, doing some independent research’s also important for the sake of my own achievement in the long term in addition to giving some points to be included into my personal statement.

I guess I would never know that’s quite a range of careers in pharmacy if I didn’t get into Wiki this morning. What is a pharmacist? (Definitely known) How about a pharmacy assistant or a pharmacy technician? Oh no, I supposed there’s still many things for me to learn.

Pharmacy technicians are pharmacy staff members who work under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist, and perform many pharmacy-related functions: giving medication and other health care products to patients, for instance. Pharmacy technicians also prepare or compound prescribed medication in addition to providing drugs to patients with all the medications checked by a licensed pharmacist. What’s a pharmacist’s role again?

There would probably be a shift of responsibility of a pharmacist to consulting and advising patients if the role of the technician is to increase in the next few years.

Communicative skills are very important, regardless of how well you can speak one or more languages. Pharmacy’s a medical profession demanding effective communicative skills, e.g. how communicable your information or knowledge on a specific drug is. So, the fact that the English requirement for a student to meet in order to get into King’s for pharmacy is higher than that for the other two didn’t really astonish me much.

I should say manual skill and dexterity are required also in pharmacy besides being needed for someone who aches so much to become a doctor or a dentist. A pharmacist needs to handle the drugs during drug-dispensing as well as how a doctor handles his patient during an operation.
Even counting circular tablets with a tablet-counting dispensing triangle (too long a name, I spent hours to find this real name) and using a spatula need both your hands to be skillful.

I was truly in delight when the friendly pharmacy technicians (a job title for those helping a pharmacist) invited me to learn preparing, classifying, dispensing and repackaging medicine with them. Till this moment, I had already mastered the technique of counting tablets by using two equipments. I really envy my partners that they could really dispense tablets with practiced ease. I guess ‘Practice makes perfect’ is rather suitable in this context.

What’s a blister pack? This question needs to come into my mind before I could understand what is meant by ‘deblistering’. A blister pack or package is an innovative containment system made up of three layers [http://www.cncmagazine.com/vol6thru8/v7i25/v7i25g-MrDeb.htm]: a layer of paper that is printed with an information or warning label, a layer of foil that seals in the medication and a layer of plastic bubbles (called blisters) that hold the pills or capsules. Deblistering is therefore referred to a system of product recovery that involves punching holes in the blister packages to retrieve the tablets for repackaging purpose.

Gaining working experience in a pharmacy solely is not enough for me, I reckon that expending more effort and time on research in regard to this is another principal thing I need to do in this break.

My Journey as a Pharmacist (약사로서 나의 여정) 1

One of the most meaningful Mondays in my life – this was the first day I started my journey as a ‘pharmacist-to-be’ as well as the date when I was awake to the reality of the situation that I should start getting serious about the career I’d opted for one year ago.

I only began to get worried about the fact that I’m going to work on an attachment yesterday. It’s shown that I was actually not more than ‘decadent’ or ‘self-indulgent’ would be a more appropriate term to describe the life before.

I reached the ‘assigned’ pharmacy promptly at 9.00 a.m. It’s not considered a true community pharmacy if you’re to follow the true definition, that the pharmacist doesn’t really prepare drugs inside (I don’t regard repackaging what’s ready is a part of drug preparation).

The drugstore wasn’t open punctually at the expected time but slightly later. It’s perfectly alright in my mind for I shouldn’t have complained so much or else I could have put myself at a risk of being thrown out.

I was invited into Mr. Ong’s after a polite greeting. I was glad he’s responding to me at that moment. Mr. Ong’s well-known for his having a calm and introverted disposition. I had to express my appreciation with a few bows.

Definitely nobody was in, except him. I was glad that I was the earliest among his employees despite the fact that I was paid experience rather than ringgits.

To my surprise, he’s the first to ask about some of my particulars before I racked my brain for questions to be asked to resolve the tense atmosphere – that’s what I think.

My questions popped out after the end of my answering sentences so as to relax myself a bit more. They were actually praises presented as a matter of fact for I’m always curious that how a pharmacist can have all his drugs’ names and uses as well as their locations clearly inscribed in his minds. I really have doubts sometimes as to whether will my memory be enough for all of these as I know upgrading wouldn’t be possible for me at this age.

Observing patiently is as important as being able to endure hours of standing at a fixed position, either for who’s keen or forced for gaining knowledge. I think I am in the 2nd group. Monday’s indeed a hectic day for everyone in the store as the day before was when the shop’s closed.

There’re lots of interesting visitors today and I was very fortunate to see how a new product was being introduced into the market in a more detailed way. There were actually promoters being sent by the drug company to persuade Mr. Ong to take the new product – Probiotics into consideration so the new product can be displayed like others on the shelf. Personally, I didn’t think Mr. Ong liked their special visit very much. From his expression at that time, he didn’t seem to be convinced though the explanations made were making the product fascinating.

An auntie-like promoter in early thirties had appeared abruptly. She’s acting like this drugstore is a chain store of hers. At first sight, I thought she’s Mr. Ong’s wife as her actions were showing that Mr. Ong’s her helpmate. Luckily, before I had time to regard her Mrs. Ong, another lovely employee of his told me that she’s actually another promoter of Vita-Health who’s coming frequently to this drugstore to the extent that she could identify every medicine in the store as well as on which rack a particular drug is placed.

Though she’s pretty bossy and always spoke in a peremptory tone, she did teach me something about how to dispense a prescription with correct dosage and also a way to know how many tablets or capsules should be taken by customers each day.

I was, and am still totally ignorant about dispensing medicines and therefore I only helped to settle some odds and ends for Mr. Ong; things like dusting the remainder drugs on the racks and tidying the boxes away.

Although I didn’t really work within this six-hour time, I was indeed worn out with satisfaction that I did actually learn a great deal. Observing and listening are really vital for acquiring knowledge and I should get myself into these arts.