Office Politics -
In the pharmacy, there a lot of rules to be followed. When I was there yesterday, I made sure to count every set of pills twice before putting them in the bottle to give to the customer. If I do not follow this rule, pills could be miscounted. Miscounting pills leads either losing money or not giving the customer as many pills as they paid for. It could also lead to causing the patient to become ill or stay ill due to overconsumption or underconsumption over their medication. There is a system of hierarchy within the pharmacy that I figured out on my first day, because it is an obvious system. The pharmacist is the highest in rank, because he knows the most about the medication, its effects, how it is used, and what it can be taken with. The full-time technician ranks above the part-time technicians, because she has more experience than the part-timers. The part-time techs rank above me, because they know how to look up prescriptions, fill prescriptions on the computers, and print stickers for the bottles and instructions for the patients. I know how to run the cash registers, apply labels to bottles, count pills, and make the liquid medicine using the water diffuser. The other employees communicate with me and teach me how to do new things. Dr. Dan, the head pharmacist, taught me how to count pills, what the numbers on the bottles' labels mean, where different kinds of pills are located, and how and where to apply labels to bottles as well as the according warning stickers. The techs communicate with me by teaching me how to use the cash register and use the water diffuser.
Dress -
Everyone, excluding the head pharmacist, wears scrubs. The techs wear different color scrubs, all of which have the TLC logo on them. The pharmacist, however, wears nice clothes (such as dress pants and a collared shirt) with a white lab coat. I also wear scrubs, but mine do not have the TLC logo. Because everyone below the pharmacist wears scrubs without any particular color coordination, everyone is looked at equally based on their apparel.
Personal -
While working in my mentorship, I have the opportunity to use my personal skills; i.e., I apply patience and my keen eye for detail while counting, listening, learning, and searching for pills. I also get to learn about medicine, which is something that I am extremely interested in.