What's it like working at a pharmacy?

March 29, 2015 6:38 AM

After not working for over 10 years, I filled out a job application at Publix, thinking I would be hired as a bagger, but they called asking me if I would be interested in the pharmacy store clerk position. I've never worked in a pharmacy before. What's it like?

Any tips on how I can prepare for the job and be the best pharmacy clerk ever (haha)? I know I'm probably going to mostly work the cash register, but what other responsibilities will I have? Answering the phone? Cleaning? Stocking items? What else? For example, will I have to call the insurance company/doctor's office about a customer's prescription or is this a job reserved for someone else? Any info or advice from other pharmacy store clerks would be greatly appreciated. Honestly, I'm worried I might not be cut out for this job (I think I'm mostly just nervous and overthinking things)... so the more details, the better I will feel.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (9 answers total)

The pharmacy tech will be the one calling about the insurance. Your main responsibility will be to check and double check that you are handing someone their medication and only their medication, not anyone else's. You will be dealing with people who are sick. Some will be in constant pain that you can't see. Some will be very rude. I started out as a clerk and ended up as a tech. I made it my priority to have every customer leave me feeling a little better than when they came in. It's a good practice to learn the names of the regulars. You will be a bit isolated during the slow times. The pharmacist and tech work at lightening speeds to fill the prescriptions. They never have a lull, so you won't have anyone to talk to. They may teach you how to restock the pill bottles and put away the medication during your slow times. It really isn't a hard job.
posted by myselfasme at 6:50 AM on March 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

The pharmacist and tech work at lightening speeds to fill the prescriptions. They never have a lull, so you won't have anyone to talk to. They may teach you how to restock the pill bottles and put away the medication during your slow times. It really isn't a hard job.

I'm not sure if this is specific to Publix, but this was the complete opposite of my experience at a different chain retail pharmacy working as a "pharmacy associate". It was a really hard job. I was doing everything the techs did from day 1 - entering prescriptions, counting pills, running the register, inventory, etc. This might vary from chain to chain I guess. Sometimes it was insanely busy and sometimes it was insanely slow and there was much chit chat. I think I did call doctors' offices a few times to verify something on a prescription that we couldn't read but I don't think I ever called an insurance company.

It's true though that you have to be very compassionate and have a lot of patience. Most of the customers will be in a bad mood because they're having a problem; that's why they're there. It's your job to help them make it right, as quickly as possible.

A lot of times people would ask me questions about medications (theirs, or ones they were considering buying from the store) and I would have to refer them to the pharmacist.

The worst part of the job for me was when we couldn't fill the prescription for whatever reason. Because I was the one doing the cash register, it was my job to explain why we couldn't fill it. Either their insurance wasn't covering it for some reason, or we were out of stock. I found the best way to handle this was to be informative without being overly apologetic. "Unfortunately, we couldn't fill this because ___. Here's what you need to do next." They will want to blame you and might get rude, but don't get sucked into a fight. Explain what they need to do and keep a straight face. If they don't stop, refer them to the pharmacist. This is what I figured out made things easier for everyone, but of course you should do whatever the pharmacist instructs you to do.
posted by bleep at 7:33 AM on March 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

IM not sure where you are, but they might train you to get your pharmacy tech certification. A pharmacy clerk might just ring up customers, because all the pharm techs are usually certified. I think there are states where they aren't but I don't know which those are.

I've worked as a pharmacy student intern, but not in retail settings, just hospitals and college clinics, where students aren't really rude, just tired and confused. My fellow pharm students who work in retail complain a lot about how rude and entitled the customers are, or how rough management is. Not sure about Publix; they don't have them where I'm at.
posted by discopolo at 7:42 AM on March 29, 2015

The worst part of the job for me was when we couldn't fill the prescription for whatever reason. Because I was the one doing the cash register, it was my job to explain why we couldn't fill it. Either their insurance wasn't covering it for some reason, or we were out of stock.

I had this happen at a student health center pharmacy and literally once spent an hour with the pharmacist and another pharmacy tech trying to run this kid's insurance for his scrip. He was kind of a clueless stoner so he called his mom on his phone and just handed it to me, and she didn't have an updated card for him so the pharmacist and other tech and I just kept working at trying known codes until it covered it. That was tiring and frustrating, and the kid disappeared.

It's really unlikely that kind of thing would ever happen at a retail chain unless the customer went completely berserk, but I wouldn't put that past some of them. The whole "I'm going to get you fired!" patient is a handful, so don't antagonize them.

Also, this could be a pretty great step for you. They could pay for you to get certified, you'd have a new means to have useful knowledge and experience, and you might find other opportunities with that kind of knowledge.
posted by discopolo at 7:54 AM on March 29, 2015

This is a GREAT opportunity! Working in a pharmacy, even as a clerk, could get you set up to do further training. It looks great on a resume - it'll mean you're very trustworthy, dependable and trainable. I'd JUMP at this chance and try to be the best you can be: unflappable, eager to learn, ready to problem solve. Get as much sleep as you can. Do some meditation before going to work. Eat well, bring snacks for your short breaks. Basically - see this as a great step off the unemployment train!

Additional training to be a pharmacy tech could be a great option after doing this for a short period of time.
posted by barnone at 8:47 AM on March 29, 2015 [5 favorites]

I worked as a pharmacy tech for about five years or so. It's hard job, but WAY more interesting than working as a regular cashier (which I also did for many years). You have to be fast. You have to think fast, write fast, talk fast, count fast. You will get yelled at. People who are sick or who have sick kids can be impatient and kind of mean. But I also developed friendly relationships with our regular customers and they were happy to see me and vice versa. Sometimes it's kind of heartbreaking. Several of our chronically ill customers died and it was really sad.

I typed prescriptions (I think this varies from state to state whether you are allowed to do this), counted pills, cleaned, ran register, called doctors and insurance companies, ordered supplies and medications, did inventory, helped people find things in the store. Once I put out a fire in the trashcan outside the store. You'll pretty much do everything.

One bonus is you will learn A LOT about medications and how they work. I would ask the pharmacists all kinds of questions when the store was slow and I learned so much. Learning how to read what a prescriptions says (because it's not in English, it's Latin abbreviations, I think) is really valuable for later.
posted by Aquifer at 10:11 AM on March 29, 2015

I did this part-time in high school, and my mom was a pharmacy tech for about fifteen years--two different pharmacies in our little town. As a clerk, I ran the register, cleaned, bagged prescriptions, counted pills, and did prescription home deliveries with the boss's truck. If customers had questions, I referred them to the pharmacist or tech. Both were generally busy but always made time to talk to me and the other clerks, especially about work-related stuff. The longer I worked there, the more they trusted me to do stuff related to the prescriptions. I found the toughest part of the work to be dealing with customers: you get the same crabby people you see everywhere in retail, but with the added stress of "I need my medication" or "why didn't my insurance go through?" But overall I enjoyed the job.

My mom, otoh, did the tech duties described by others above -- in essence, everything the pharmacist did, except her work had to be checked by the pharmacist before the scrips went out.
posted by pepper bird at 10:53 AM on March 29, 2015

Are you interested in moving up within the company or this just a part-time job for you? If the former, then Publix is a great company to do that with and I wish you the best of luck.
posted by signondiego at 10:53 AM on March 29, 2015

My friend works as a pharmacy clerk while she's taking classes to get certified as a pharmacy tech. She mainly answers the phone, rings up customers, and calls or faxes doctor's offices when prescription refills are needed. Sometimes, they'll get her get to grab "restricted" OTC medications for customers--the pseudoephedrines, mostly.

It's a lot of dealing with people who are feeling poorly, and requires a lot of patience. When they're unable to fill a prescription, she often will call another pharmacy in town to get it transferred over to there.

Publix is a pretty good company to work for, and they're big on friendly customer service and trying to make people feel better about coming in, even when they feel like crap. They've been my go-to grocery store for most of my life, and my fiance gets nearly all of his prescriptions through them.
posted by PearlRose at 1:17 PM on March 30, 2015