My sis is a camp nurse and this grandpa dropped off his granddaughter. The girl just had a fistful of loose pills in her pocket that she handed to my sis. Didn't know what they were or anything, just that she was supposed to take them. Like not even in a baggie. Just loose pills. She was like 8 or 9. There's a reason media come in bright orange bottles with clear labeling. If you don't know and no knethats with you knows either, don't remove them from their containers.
As a pharmacist, "Purse full of loose pills" is wildly accurate. It's my FAVORITE when a patient comes up to me and tells me they need their meds refilled. I ask which of their 12 they need and they tell me they don't know, and then get mad at me for not having a clue what they need.
As a doctor I get "I need all of them" and I don't know whether they need the prn meds, the ones prescribed by other doctors, etc. I am a stickler for medication lists. My after visit summary has a very detailed list. I have gone so far as to make a cheat sheet for a patient who cannot read by taping his pills to a sheet of paper in two columns for the morning and evening so he knows what to take when.
I used to be a tech....This is painfully accurate 😂 "I need the one from Dr __" "Ok...that narrows it down to.....8 medications you could possibly need..." Shit drove me nuts lol
And here I am with an excel document with prescription and over the counted meds, the dosages, when they're taken and why, along with allergies on one side. On the back is my major diagnosises, all procedures done, and all my doctors with their info. Always thought it was weird how grateful nurses/docs were with that till now lol!
SAME. Alphabetical. It's in word though...phone doesn't have Excel. 🤷🏼♀️ Oooh...just realized I should add what each is for (some are off label or multi-use, gotta love those seizure/bipolar meds) and prescribing physician! They always ask anyway. I keep an updated list in my purse.
Pharmacist saved my life one time when out of desperation in the middle of a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic I called the Pharmacy after calling the Dr office that prescribed it (Dr out to lunch and they wouldn't get anyone else on the phone to speak w me), and the Pharmacist encouraged me to call EMS for transport to hospital, but I refused bc no insurance... so he told me to take 2 Benadryl and that he'd call me back within 30 minutes and if I didn't answer he was sending an ambulance - he called to check on me in 20 minutes and again an hour after that. ❤❤❤
Pharmacy saves lives a lot, I've had 2 call me to say not to take a pill dispensed at another pharmacy because there's a fatal complication just as my dad walked in with the meds. Way back before the net made it easier to check with various Pharmacy. Plus another time they just called and said "your Dr should have known better but we won't give you this with your that, call them to find another script" I usually trust my doc with my diagnosis but I will always trust a Pharmacy with the chems more than the doc. The level of plain ol chemistry tables they have to learn is incredible ,especially a compounding pharmacist. Modern day alchemist wizards.
@@bleesev2 thank you. I'll confess I have taken an ambulance when I didn't have insurance (prior to the first story), and the 30k bill is why I never will again unless I'm bleeding out. The real kicker is: I have insurance now (thanks to ACA), but with deductibles & co-pays I still can't "afford" emergency care! But at least now I finally am able to do all the preventative/maintenance stuff.
On the way home from my OB-GYN, my Pharmacist literally came out to the car to discuss my meds during my pregnancy because I wasn't supposed to be on my feet. LOVE YOU, NOREEN!!
I work as a pharmacy tech, so when my grandfather was admitted into ER a few weekends ago, my mum asked me to call up the nurse and give a full list of his medication, which i did. The next day, on Monday, when I went to work the pharmacist asked me to give the list again (from memory) because the ER nurse apparently hadn’t communicated the list to anyone in pharmacy. 😅
Sounds about right. Where I work, the e.r. nurses can't be bothered to give the medications that are " super stat and needed like 10 minutes ago " after blowing up the pharmacists and the pharmacies main phone lol
@@ThatGirlJD look, I believe it. The nursing staff at my hospital will not give the patients their TPN's and/or lipids here. If we get 20 TPN's, at least 8 come back expired...I found out though, they are good for plants too
@@c.pissoff5389 I’m confused. What do you mean, they won’t give the pts. their TPN & lipids? Why not? If they’re ordered, are those orders just completely being ignored? I can’t imagine not giving those as ordered! I always have them!
I used to shadow a pharmacist (not in a hospital though, and not in the US) and boy, the work they do is insane. From identifying loose pills, translating doctors handwriting and mispronounciation, to giving full blown consults sometimes (only for those with mild illnesses of course. We had one person come in asking for "asthma medication". Had to explain to them that we ain't fucking with asthma without any doctor's orders and that they need to go see an actual doctor lol)
By "actual doctor" do you mean a Doctor of Medicine? Because most pharmacists nowadays are Doctors of Pharmacy (PharmD). It would be more accurate to refer to professionals by their entire titles.
@@SilverShoes174 well idk where you're from, but in my country we keep it fairly simple. "Doctor of Medicine" is just doctor and "Doctor of Pharmacy" is just a pharmacist
I agree. The term “doctor” refers to the level of education s person has earned, but, unfortunately it has become synonymous with the job title “physician”. I have a PhD and people will say, “You’re not a real doctor”. Well, yes I am, I’m just nit a physician. 🙄@@SilverShoes174
Oh nearly every member of my family is a pharmacist. Except for the orthopedic surgeon and the two biomedical engineers. Well and me a politician but I digress. My mother‘s handwriting is atrocious. My brother took a look and he said I’ve trained my whole life for this. Again he is a pharmacist.
It's all online now, but back in the day we had this thing called the Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties, or the CPS. It was a huge book published every so often and it had the monograph for EVERY medication on the market. One of the cool things it had was a visual medication list. It literally had photographs of every single pill and tablet available, arranged by colour and shape. So you'd take one of each of that lady's loose pills and take them to the book. Let's say she was taking oval white ones. You'd flip to the white ones, find the oval white ones, and then identify the correct ones. The name of the med would be under the picture. I am not making this up, I swear. I've been a nurse for 16 years.
Hey Yep the CPS was the Bible of pills. So incredibly used, and on top the first unit dose med carts we rolled out siponyou could check a pill in the CPS when pouring outside the patient room! I worked in a remote northern hospital because of my husband's job, we had stock med cabinet with HUGE jars of pills I could barely lift that filled a cupboard 2 nurses could stand in. Pouring meds on to the old rays for all 222 acute patients and 8 long term patients was a chore. CPS was handy! Nail on the wall to hang the IVs because we had to mix all our own. Pharmacist from down the coast came by evry 2 weeks to stock us and check up and monitor narcotics. Wild!
When one is working the ER or school or camp nurse and checking in 100 kids we dont have time to check. All meds should be bubble packed...properly labeled, and we can always safety check anyway. I had a kid come to camp with a urine sample containerrs of a mix of pills and capsules. After a rather exhausting heated discussion with the Nutritionist who "prescribed" them, and after I cited Federal, State and County guidelines of Camp meds standards..and listening to threats from the Nutritionist who would "See you in court" BS, we settled on a BOWL of TOTAL CEREAL during Camp stay because I pointed out it was PROPERLY LABELED! KID was actually grateful...no GI distress. The "Nutrutionist"was a NUTJOB.
Let it be known that as the admitting resident, any patient or family member who comes in with a complete and updated med list that is accurate is automatically a favorite.
I didn't have a med list. But I knew my full, accurate medical history. I kept getting a lot of med students and residents coming to me go over my medical history. They even asked for permission to be in the surgery. I had the surgery at 11pm and was discharged at 4pm the next day. During rounds it was the same thing. I went in for a routine appendix surgery. It hadn't even burst. This is a common thing anytime I go to the ER. Lol
I have a meds list, with my contraceptive, my blood info and height, approx weight, my hubby's and Mom's number, my chronic conditions and med resistance. Also meds that don't work well. My topic allergy and id number just in case.
@@linpump55 Or family members who are healthcare workers. LOL But also, sadly, I see it a lot with the pts with chronic conditions that has led to way too many hospital stays.
My NP perfectly summed up pharmacists. When our pharmacist was on the floor, I said to my NP "pharmacists are such a pain in the ***". My NP responded with "it's their job to be a pain in the ***". So true. Nothing prepares you for a state pharmacy like a pharmacist.
Former us Navy pharmacy tech, I always worked 12hr nights alone at NAVHOSP 29 Palms (5yr orders 1992-1997) and over time spent so much time in the ER that I started literally being scheduled in both depts and being a shift leader in ER. This had me for real on my side with tears as I rolled with laughter! MuFKR's UNITE! OMG I'm still tearing up & laughing 🤣🤣🤣💖💖💖🎯🎯🎯 U fkng ROCK & are seriously my favorite creator. (Buying some socks BTW!) Do one showing why we have to type out "unwrap & insert" on suppositories! LMFAO
The simple fact that that needs to be said has me shaking my head. But I'm logical and the child of a nurse. I know more than the average Joe and I know how to use my brain.
As an A&E nurse I loved the pharmacy book with pictures of all the pills, every time a patient or relative said "you know it's the little white one", I gave them the book & said please let me know when you've found it! 😂😂😂
A pharmacist saved my life where the doctors yes PLURAL dropped the ball on realizing there was a deadly interaction. This was before the computers gave the notification. They also always call me a day or two after starting a new med to see how I'm doing.
When a nurse says another discipline saved her live, it is absolutely true. You were running blind, now you're not. Your sanity, love for your pt, the worry, the something not right, the crazy advice, And possible errors are killers
So that's why nurses love my med list. I carry a hard copy of my med list (with dosage and reason for taking), along with emergency contact, insurance information, and allergies. Last one I remember being really happy about it was a nurse inputting my meds while the anesthesiologist talked to me. Worked out for everyone really.
It always amazes me how many patients have no idea what they're taking or why. Almost as amazing is the number of patients who're totally perplexed by the notion that anyone would think they should know anything about their own meds.....
I cackled very evilly with that twist at the end...and yes, I felt a little bad about doing so afterward...but i still cackled, and I won't retract that reaction! ...As for pharmacists, the ones I've gone to have been very patient and kind, and have been willing to double-check for interactions. Not just with other prescriptions, but also warnings regarding mixing them with certain over-the-counter meds (allergy meds, etc).
I have a lot of respect for pharmacists - they're often a short cut for "hey this weird thing popped up, what can I get over the counter for it?" And they just KNOW like ??? What?! Excellent 10/10 - deffo beats going to the docs for something really minor when you know they've got a huge back log of patients to deal with 😅
Respectfully, if anyone has a "weird thing popped up" please for the love of all things KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON. I can't count the number of times my dad (41 years as a pharmacist) or I (8 years as a tech) have seen boobs, men's genitals, women's genitals, pus filled rashes, and just unending other examples. And yes, they whip it out in front of the entire retail store. I'm not as immune as my dad is with this, but he's been doing it much longer.
@@mommapit507Same with my 7 tech years. Lol. Yes, I agree it looks like green cheese pizza. I did not consent to seeing it, nor can I give any recommendation. Go see the pharmacist. Lol.
A huge shoutout to pharmacists! I am a full time caregiver to my mom and she is a complicated patient and most of the best help and advice I have gotten is from pharmacists. Pharmacists, people who work in patient care or care of the elderly. Ya’all rock. ❤ (Yes, I have had a lot of shitty experiences with doctors, so has my mom, can ya tell?) Edit: ok…. Now I have seen the full skit…. My opinion still stands. But lets be real: people’s experiences can vary.
I don't think the point of the skit was to say pharmacists are bad. I bet the pharmacist in the skit would've done a great job for his patients if he existed, but nurses and pharmacists really are overworked as hell
Nurse here. I have had pharmacists put me through the ringer on every floor and piss me off beyond belief. I've also had them help me quite a bit when they want to. Totally love the twist at the end!
As a nurse, where I work now our pharmacists are great, really helpful, don't get ticked off at answering questions. But I had some pharmacist talk sh!t about "stupid nurses and their questions" at a BBQ once. I told her off.
@@giovannigiorgio4622 I guarantee thatcompared to pharmacy staff, nurses are making bank. Techs and pharmacists get treated like we are slightly below burger flippers on the scale of importance to patient care and safety - as if we aren't medical professionals too.
@@mikitta47That's the opposite of what it is like in developing countries like the ones which I live in. Nurses here are the target of bringing down, even the seniors who work in the field for years discourage the nursing students to consider changing career paths because nurses are seen as the "Assistant of Doctors". Pharmacists on the other hand are highly respected. Now I'm currently studying in the International Program with Korean and American professors and I have high hopes that Nursing career will be a highly respected career in my country as much as it is in developed countries.
@@phallykakrona8625 Probably because becoming a pharmacist is almost an equal amount of schooling as becoming a doctor, which would place them a little higher than a nurse on the totem pole. Not to say becoming a nurse isn't tough and they definitely deserve more respect in your country from what you say, but its pretty difficult to compare it to a pharmacist.
Im a tech and the purse with loose pills is spot on. Also the i dont know what i need/what its for/what it looks like/or directions but i need it now because i havent had it in over a week 💀 ive worked in the same place for so long that i can identify a some pills on sight/narrow it down to a similar one and use the process or elimination. I also know part of the frequent regulars med lists. This is retail so i cant imagine what its like in a hospital
Tales of A Camp Nurse could equal these skits, especially the unlabeled meds in baggies. 399 kids and there is always a few that show up with with either MED SALADs (Meds mixed together in unlabeled plastic bags) , or expired meds. GET THOSE MEDS BUBBLE PACKED MOM! PLEASE!
What I loved about day shift: having you pharmacy students. Anytime there were more than 8 meds the pharmacist and pharm student went in to verify the meds.
Your mind has to be non stop. All of your videos are hilarious. How you play all the parts so well is phenomenal. Thanks for putting a smile on my face every time I watch one of your videos.
I might just be floor staff in a retail pharmacy, but considering the number of patients who the pharmacists have to see daily, give correct meds in correct doses while ensuring that there are no interactions or mis-releases that could severely harm, mentally disrupt or kill a patient... I'm surprised more of them don't have this attitude
You know those plastic small file boxes at Wallyworld? We set up one of those for my stepfather, containing records from 6 hospitals in 2 states. Whenever he went to the ER, or any appointment mom brought the files. The box had a file for every admission, specialist/ condition/reports, a current med list including OTC, a timeline history, list of diseases, POA and living will. Handy!
My mother is dental hygienist and the office she works at happens to see a lot of nursing home patients. I could ALWAYS tell the days the NH would bring a bus load of their patients in because she'd be so disheveled and mentally drained by the end of the day. Apparently, none of her older patients could ever remember what meds they're on, despite the friendly reminder the office would send out for them to please bring a current list of their medications and dosages to the appt. All they could remember was the color of each pill and *sometimes* what it's for... So she'd spend at least an extra 15 - 20mins with every. single. patient. Just trying to figure out which medication they were talking about 😅.... which of course put her further and further behind schedule, every time. So often she'd have to reschedule their appt because without knowing what meds a patient was on, it was too risky to do any dental work, not to mention a huge liability... and when I tell ya, they'd get angry with her because of that, I mean they'd be FUCKING PISSED!! 😆 Mess with a senior citizens schedule and they get real fiesty, real fast!!
A pharmacist saved my life when a heart doctor prescribed a med that would interact with a med I was on. Needless to say the heart doctor was not happy about being called out.
Got a patient in the ICU on vent. Had been discharged from another hospital earlier in the day. The family came in after filling a laundry list of meds from the discharge and brought all the meds from home. Many in unlabeled bottles,.....and then they just put the trash bag of meds on the tray table and left.....Why,....why would you bring all those meds in and leave them there??? 🤦♂️ took me forever to sort it all out and count all the pills 😡🤬🤬😡
The unmarked bottles and the fact that they are in a trash bag is super alarming. And it sounds like they brought availutrly everything instead of a sample of each (which could work as an alternative to a list.) So that's also pretty weird. Who has time for that?
Lol I work as an ED Med Rec tech and there are 4 us doing this job so the doctors/pharmacists/nurses love us 😂 Med rec is no joke! I spend 75% of the time investigating what the heck is going on with patients outside meds so that I can assure that I get a complete/accurate list prior to their admission.
Floor nurse transitioning into ED here. During orientation, I was informed that we have pharmacy techs that do med recs and I was like WHAAAAAAAAT?! 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 I would still try to do them since that’s what I’m used to doing during admissions, but again, WHAAAAAAAAT?!
@@Neon_Moon2right, even if you come via Ambulance and not bloodied or heart stopped they shove you into the waiting room. My daughter went to ER by ambulance she had the signs of heart attack and it's a dominant force on both sides of the family. She went around 10:30 pm and her boyfriend who had to work next day fairly early was up with her. Around 4 am they sent her home. She came to my room to wake me up as she has all the same plus horrible pains in her lower back. She knew it was a kidney stone, that's another fun family trait. When she got to ER they shoved her in waiting room. She couldn't sit or stand, was vomiting from pain. You could tell by her face that she was dealing with something. Needless to say that they kept her ALL day and then admitted her that evening for a procedure for a stent. It was her first time under anesthesia.
Believe it or not, I know a 65 yr old woman who is not on any medications. I went with her for eye surgery and follow up appointments and got a chuckle at all of the gaping mouths when she was asked what meds she was on and replied none. Total disbelief by everyone. (I myself am on 5 Rx, plus supplements, plus OTC NSAIDs)
My Grandma was once admitted to hospital after a fall down some stairs....I can still see the look of relief/ disbelief when I handed over a list of all her medications complete with dosage.
Haha!! I've been in all of these situations, as the patient. Me, going through several surgeries in a year, remembering a medication or an interaction halfway.... thank god for healthcare workers 🙏
Good thing the nurse knows what the meds are. I went to ER 9 days after my ankle reconstruction surgery with severe pain and bleeding. First the ER doc asked me how the toradol was working (I hadn’t even seen a nurse yet) and a few hours later she sent me home with an Rx for Oxybutynin for the pain (that is a bladder suppressor that sounds kinda like an opiate). I asked a nurse on the way out what the med was and he googled it and told me it was a muscle relaxer for pain. Three days with no pain meds but fewer trips to the toilet :s
As a Dental Hygienist I'd review all meds at each appointment. I had my regulars trained. Almost everyone had a list or at least brought in the name of a new med!
In a country with subsidised healthcare all this info is already in the system at a touch of a button and you can see when they last collected their script and from which pharmacy. Also in my hospital each patient gets reviewed by a pharmacist and gets a medication reconciliation report in their file. The pharmacist also provides education to the patient on how to use the medication correctly and in some cases has helped with providing easier devices like a special asthma inhaler for patients with arthritic hands.
I'm In fbe us and there's still an app for that. But hey, we have to keep pretending that universal Healthcare is the only way to not go broke. But I've never paid a medical bill. So there's that.
Good solution there, get the person who has twice the workload of either of you to do the job! "Yeah that's my Pt. aswell as 35 other people on the floor". Then inevitably complain about the intern (because no way that would be pulled on any resident other than an intern) being lazy because they've just spent the last 30 minutes doing your jobs for you.
When patients are that sick, the nurses know what's coming, and just want them to be comfortable. Death is usually not a bad thing. (this skit being in ED makes it worse though)
Do one where it’s the pharmacist, GP, and insurance all arguing over who needs to sign what to release meds on time. Every month I have to go through this crap and now apparently pharmacists can deny my meds even if my doctor gives the ok so worst case I am forced to go to the ER and waste everyone’s time there too. Just another shitty thing to deal with when you are living with chronic health problems.
@@bethgramkow5225 Sometimes the system prompts them to not allow the refill which could be for refill too soon, DEA or most times the insurance won't pay until a certain date or even the Dr who ok'ed the prescription put a certain date on it.
@@bethgramkow5225 if it is controlled medication, DEA set a rule to refill a prescription. Even though doc said yes, there is a date DEA said to hold the prescription until certain day to fill it.
✨PHARMACY FOREVER✨ proud CPhT here, and god damn do i love what i do. half the patients in any given hospital would be dead without the pharmacy, the pharmacist in charge and a team of good techs - hopefully, ✨nationally certified✨ techs 😌
This is the first time I feel comfortable - even grateful - that my country has a national registry of medical data. Also we have an app for ordering / requesting medication refills that should have all of our current medication in it.
I keep on a calendar in my purse as well as in the notes app on my phone my meds. As well as the dosages. Not only are the prescriptions on it but all the otc's I take. As well as herbal dietary supplements. Unfortunately I learned from seeing my mom have ill-health after I had my oldest.
It is so sad how many meds a patient can be on. I remember one of my favorite oldies. He was very hard of hearing, and we'd have new girls flat out trying to yell at him to figure stuff out. I just print out his medication list and write to him to circle which ones he needs. A little patience goes a long way.
If i had a dollar for every person that told me "well I take a blood pressure pill but i can't remember what it's called" in their new hire physical assessments, I could retire sooner. At least in a modern hospital, if they've used any part of the system before, you can look at what their list was last time and try to extrapolate from there.
Oh so funny. As a nurse I once had a patient tell me she didn’t take any meds - unless I would count these has she opened a suitcase with a grid system in it and every little box filled with pills- none of them in labeled containers. I counted over 100 - asked her where these came from and she told me none were prescriptions. I called a friend in the pharmacy and he took and locked the suitcase up until she was discharged. We then told all of her family not to bring in any “meds” to her. I was offthe next day and then she was sent home. But forever grateful to that pharmacist for his act of kindness.
And then there’s our local hospital who wouldn’t give my great aunt her psych meds (despite her showing the prescriptions) because they weren’t prescribed by a doctor at that hospital. She had manic bipolar. Long story short she had an episode and the hospital sent her to a psychiatric hospital who tried to make her a ward of the state and take her money. She went into the ER/got admitted to the first hospital because she has emphysema and couldn’t breath.
I laughed so hard at the end. Poor resident. My grandma has very long and complicated med hx, multiple allergies and dozens of different meds. She keeps an updated typed list in her purse at all times. I tell all my pts they should do this too. Preferably typed so we can actually read it.
You need to do a nurse vs lab. Generally my conversations with pharmacy are short and collegial. And the one that works with us in the ER is great. However I think it is a well known fact that no conversation with lab ends without one both wanting to break the phone. LOL
I've been admitted to an epilepsy specialty hospital a handful of times, weeks at a time. It was always the nurses that handled medication, except for when things weren't as they were supposed to be. They always were for me, but I heard them complain about other patients. All unidentified pills are confiscated, the rest are in the system on a national scale for each patient. You can't even go there if you don't approve of them being able to access your profile in advance.
When I worked at a Dr's office people would have no idea what they were on or why. Most would hand me a full grocery bag of pill bottles. The ones with loose pills in a sandwich bag drove me absolutely insane.
I'm a chronic pain patient, malpractice during sinus surgery left me with TN2. Trigeminal neuralgia atypical, I just found your channel and am addicted 😅 thanks for the different perspective 🌼
As a pharmacy tech student (two more hours of clinicals), i get so sad to see long med lists or mulitple painkillers On the other hand, thank goodness those meds exist to be prescribed to the patient!
Our local hospital just copies from the last ER visit which means they are never up to date with the latest medications. The patients claim they don't even look at a list if they bring it in. It drives me crazy if I change a medication and every time they go to the ER it gets changed back because nobody wants to actually update the list.
Does a mortician complain of he "gains one" on the table? It would freak me out to learn I was about to embalm someone that was just in deep meditation . . . Speaking of dentists (switching gears), dentist asked patient if he wanted nitrous or novacane. Patient answered "neither, I'm trying to transcend dental medication.
I never get asked. Which is a pain in the proverbial as I'm allergic to novocaine. Have had to remind dentists several times before I finally found a dentist who bothered looking at my files properly.
Back very early in my hospital nurse career, a worked at a couple of different hospitals where we were not suppose to tell the patients what meds we were giving them🤫. That made no sense to me, so when any of them asked - - I told them. If you don’t tell people what meds they are on, how do expect them to understand their own meds. EDIT: this happened back in the 1970s.
I graduated from pharmacy school in ‘94. I worked with pharmacist who was almost 70. He told me back in the day if a patient asked what he had been prescribed, he had to refer the patient back to his doctor.
I used to work in a pharmacy. We once had a patient bring in their medications, all mixed together, in a plastic bag. They wanted to know what each pill was for. It took the pharmacist on duty that day an hour to separate all the meds out and to look up what they were because some medications look very similar to others.
I'm not a nurse or a pharmacist, but I have seen that in a ER...a possible suicide was averted because the pharmacist on duty was able to identify the bag of pills that the paramedics found in the patient's pocket. I'd never seen a person shake that violently before in my life.
Yup, it happens. If you're lucky they are in a pill box (more hygienic) that seperates them by hour / time of day but that doesn't make it much easier to identify. Doesn't help that many people only know their different meds as "that tiny yellow one."
