Last week I saw an ad posted at the counter of a drug outlet near my house. It reads "WANTED: Sales Clerk. High School Graduate -- Stay-in." I shook my head at the sight of it and thought why things like this still happen in the way we practice pharmacy.

While our foreign counterparts have licensed pharmacy technicians, we still settle for the services of high school graduates who have no or little pharmaceutical background. Not to mention that we also have colleges and schools of pharmacy that offer pharmacy technician course. What's worse about it is the fact that these sales clerks are left alone in most drug stores without the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist.

A few days ago, I posed as a customer of this drug outlet. I was able to purchase one tablet of captopril 50 mg without a prescription and two tablets of aspirin 80 mg. To check if I'll be given the right information, I asked if the captopril tablet can be divided since what will be needed is 25 mg per dose. (The truth is, I later donated the drugs to our patients in the ICU.) She replied in the affirmative. But when I asked if both drugs can be taken at the same time, she nodded her head without looking at me.

I know she was not sure about her answer but did not bother to call the pharmacist. I don't even expect the pharmacist to be there at 6 AM, anyway!

I have already filed a complaint against this drug outlet early last year for not having a full time pharmacist who will supervise during business hours. Although BFAD has acted on it by referring it to the DOH Center for Health Development, I am still waiting for the report regarding the latest status of the complaint.

In the meantime, I wonder how many will still get wrong information about the drugs they buy from this drug outlet...

Yesterday I saw a familiar face on the ground floor of the hospital where I work. She was a former head nurse of the ICU where I was assigned way back in 1995 or 1996. She did not see me so I rushed to her and after some exchange of pleasantries, she mentioned that she is now based in the province working also as a hospital nurse.

In our conversation, she commented about the pharmacists in their hospital. "Iba talaga," she told me. "Here we can easily ask you anything about drugs, like incompatibilities, and get answers. Doon wala...wala talaga silang pakialam. Probinsya kasi."

She is presently in Manila to train in the toxicology unit of our hospital along with other nurses from the Visayas and Mindanao areas. So I told her that they may have to train here also. It was nearly her time to report for the training so I bid her goodbye hoping that I will meet her again before she return to the province.

Later, I shared this encounter with my colleagues and although they were quiet amused by the way I mimic her remarks (with matching provincial accent), at the back of my mind I knew I felt uncomfortable about what she said.

As I travel to get home that night (I was in the bus), I reached for my pen and notebook, gathered my thoughts and record this experience. I hope that by writing this and posting it in my blog I can leave to the readers something to think about.

Nevertheless, it's really a great feeling to realize that we were able to gain the trust and confidence of the nurse we have worked with in the past. What's more about it is the recognition that we were their partners in caring for their patients in the ICU. They did not forget...Neither will I.

WELCOME TO pinoypharmacist!!

I hope that I will not bore you to death in visiting this site. If you're a student or someone who is lucky to have your "professional" license, it is my hope that you will not find what will be written and featured here as something irrelevant to your present state of mind. I assure you that you will find here some unconventional and unexpected approaches in dealing with the subjects in pharmacy and your curiosity might be awakened in every step of the way.

But before anything else, I will apologize for the unusual attack that may arise from the pages of this site. This is not to say, however, that I've learned to hate this profession and regret to have practiced it since 1992.

On the contrary, I have learned to love it more than most of those that I've known in my professional life. I have also learned to appreciate the efforts of my colleagues who, even though not recognized in the mainstream, were like heroes that marched and brought Pharmacy practice in the Philippines to a higher level in their own unique way. Their stories (and mine, too) will be written on this site.

So what is pinoypharmacist all about?

Pinoypharmacist is about putting heart and soul to the Pinoy way of practicing Pharmacy. It is about aspirations, experiences, frustations and opportunities. It's about sharing of ideas, of learning and unlearning. It is about facing the realities of our profession and taking actions to correct and improve it.

Most of the time we will be challenged by the pinoypharmacist. We can choose to ignore it, contemplate on it, or just laugh about it. We can even talk about it. And at the end of the day, what we will have then, we most likely deserve.