Pharmaceutical Internship
Pharmacy Partners of Georgia
Pharmacy Introduction
Pharmacy, the career of treatment and the world of medicine, is a field that includes a variety of different
uses and benefits for us humans. The reason I chose this career is because I have always wanted to work in
the field of healthcare, but I wanted to work in an environment that involves a hybrid work environment of
working alone and working with others. Pharmacists deal with medications, reach out to doctors, advise
patients, and manage the pharmacy which requires traits of leadership, cooperation, and collaboration:
qualities that I enjoy performing in a working environment.
To become a pharmacist, one must earn a B.S. degree in chemistry or Pre-Pharmacy (or spend 2-
3 years earning just taking pre-requisite classes for pharmacy school), and then move on to Pharmacy
school and completing another 4 years of education. After the 4 years, one must take qualification exams
and spend some years practicing in the field before officially being employed as a certified pharmacist.
The work environment of a pharmacist often ranges from a local retail or grocery store to a hospital or an
ICU care unit. As more people grow dependent on pharmacists each year, the pharmaceutical field is
expected to grow by 3% between 2022 and 2032 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023, paragraph 1). The
job outlook for a pharmacist is projected to be brief yet steady in a positive rate with nearly 13,000 new
job openings each year.
On a day-to-day basis, pharmacists perform a variety of tasks in the work environment.
pharmacists manage prescriptions by making sure the packaging is accurate to the location and recipient.
They usually speak to other healthcare professionals for any changes they believe are necessary to the
order. They also keep track and update their medical inventory which helps the customers know how long
it will take before they receive their medicine and what the pharmacy needs in order to keep their
medications in stock. They also depend communication and interactions while completing these duties
because they need to talk to customers, consult people about over-the-counter medications, and
recommend certain changes to the technicians or the doctor. In the working environment, pharmacists both
generally work alone and independently. They work with others to inform people about changes, mistakes,
or changes in the workflow. Pharmacists also get to work in a highly clean and organized workspace, and
it is an ideal job for those who want to work in the medical field but don’t want to come into direct contact
with their patients and customers and prefer to work in a more private and systematic environment.
Overall, pharmacists carry heavy responsibilities reliant on the education and experience they
obtain throughout the years in college and in the workforce. Pharmacists utilize their skills of leadership,
organization, and accuracy to deliver helpful services to their community and their patients by authorizing
certain medications and prescriptions, giving patients advice and information, and working with doctors,
other pharmacists, and technicians to deliver helpful and high-quality treatments to the population.
Pharmacy Internship
My internship experience took place at Pharmacy Partners of Georgia,
where I first experienced the field of pharmacy through my position as a
technician. I first began learning to work in the aisles, which consisted of
an area with shelves full of different pill medications, and a working table
in the middle. I eventually learned to take the orders that come through the
label printer, find the corresponding medications, scan them into the
system, and package them according to the dosage, amount, and directions
on the prescriptions. After packaging, I would then prepare them to get
sent to the corresponding nursing facility that the medication would go to.
After mastering the pill-packaging process, I eventually got a feel of all
the different parts of the pharmacy by also learning how to package
ointments, liquid medications, refrigerated medications, inhalers, and other
different types of medications. I was also trained to learn how to fill the
Emergency boxes (E-boxes) which where individual emergency kits that
get sent to different nursing facilities. I learned how to refill them by
reading the requests from the nursing facilities and finding any missing
medications that were required to be sent with the E-box. While working
at the pharmacy, I was able to absorb the environment around me and learn
the working dynamic of the pharmacists, technicians, and other employees
working there. Everyone was extremely kind and willing to help me
whenever I needed to. Although it took me a while to learn the
responsibilities of my position and the steps, I eventually gained enough
practice to be able to work at the same pace as my peers.
Maryam Najeeb
Applied Learning Product Takeaway
Need
Overall, my experience at my internship has helped
After working for several weeks at the pharmacy, I realized the importance of having a good base of knowledge and
practice to avoid making mistakes and causing mishaps. Any small change in the prescription which could be caused by
me solidify what I plan to do in the future. Although I had
any accident (such as using wrong dosage, wrong amount, different but similar medications, different capsule/pill release already spent a lot of time researching the pharmaceutical
time…etc.) could result in serious complications for the patient. Avoiding these mistakes is crucial, and the best method
field in the past to explore what I wanted to do in the
to avoid them is by practice and knowing the exact directions and steps required to complete a prescription package. My
future, my internship experience helped me gain valuable
applied learning product focused on finding a way to avoid making such mistakes by making an instructional video that
explains briefly each step that happens before completing a basic pill-medicine prescription. insight into the field as I was able to be directly in it and
Product experience the real environment.
My applied learning product was finalized to be an instructional video that would serve as a training assistant for those Through my applied learning product, I understood
who are new to pharmacy or are just starting out as a technician. The video will serve to help refresh the technician's
the importance of having a clear understanding of the
memory of the steps and the details of filing a prescriptions. From experience, I believe that the video will be especially
helpful to those who may need to review the instructions multiple times to remember exactly what to do without having exact steps that need to be taken when filling a
to distract the other employees and repeatedly need help and to also avoid making mistakes. It is essential for prescription from start to finish. Through my product I am
pharmacists and technicians to understand the packing process fully, so the video will help serve as a helping hand for
able to potentially assist future technicians in
those who want to review the process and avoid completing a prescription with an error.
Process
understanding the workflow and their duties which will
To film my instructional video, I needed to ask for permission to film in the pharmacy since filming is generally avoid potential mistakes that could cause troublesome
prohibited for confidentiality. After approval, I began filming with acknowledgment of HIPAA policies and was careful outcomes.
not to include any confidential information of the patient of the pharmacy in the finalized product.
My goal to become a pharmacist becomes clearer for
I took a day of my internship to film the process from start to finish which included:
1) Taking the labels off the printer and cutting them apart me as I begin to narrow my field of study into
2) Putting a half-tab sticker on the pills that require splitting in half for the patient as a reminder for the technician pharmaceutics and the world of medicine.
3) Sorting the labels on the shelf based off the letter of the medications in the stack. My aisle dealt with letters M
through Z
4) Taking a stack of letters and finding all the bottles that correspond to the prescription
5) Scanning each label with the bottle into the computer software to be filed in the system and to warn the technician of
any errors
6) Writing the Lot number and expiration date on the label sticker
7) Organizing the table and setting it up for packaging
8) Taking each label and placing the pill into the fitting pill parcel, and placing the amount required by the prescription
9) Stacking them on the side until all the prescriptions on the table are placed into their parcels References
10) Using the sealing machine to press down the packaging and seal the medications A day in the life of a pharmacist. healthcaresupport.com. (2022, August 10). https://healthcaresupport.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-
pharmacist/#:~:text=You’d%20interact%20with%20patients,or%20assign%20medications%20to%20accounts.
11) Placing the stickers on the packaging and placing them into the basket to be taken by a pharmacist and checked
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Figure 2: Writing a-pharmacist
Figure 1:
expiration date
Figure 3: Editing
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prescriptions and Lot number
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Preparing to fill a Packaging a https://rx.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/PharmD-COA-2023-2024.pdf
prescription for a prescription
certain medication and preparing
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All photos taken and produced by Maryam Najeeb