This is the second post of a short series titled “Reflections of a Pharmacist One Year In” that talk about my pharmacy career thus far.

My first day of work came rather unexpectedly.

I had gotten my schedule from my manager earlier, and everything was planned out. I was going to start this certain day, and spend 3 days at the same pharmacy to slowly acclimatize to the role. I was anticipating, mentally preparing for how my first pharmacist shift was going to play out.

Then, a couple days before my original start date, I got a call from my manager.

“Hey Frank, can you cover one shift at this location? They’re a bit busy, and you will be closing (shift.) The original person supposed to take this shift failed their board exams and cannot be a pharmacist at this time.”

I responded: “Sure, no problem, I can take the shift.” It didn’t seem much at the time, but thinking back I realized that would have been my scenario if board exams didn’t go through. I definitely feel privileged that my licensing was okay and that did not become my roadblock to employment. Obviously, this departure from the original schedule increased my anxiety on how my first shift would turn out.

The day came. I brought my backpack (packed inside was my white coat, name-tag, and a lunch) with me and I arrived at the store a solid 20 minutes before the shift. I remember walking down the pharmacy OTC product aisles multiple times, trying to familiarize myself with where things were. I introduced myself to the opening shift staff pharmacist.

“Hi, I’m your relief pharmacist for the night.”

The pharmacist welcomed me. “Hey I hear you’re a new grad?”

I responded “Yes, I’m a new grad. It’s my first shift as a pharmacist too!”

The pharmacist chuckled and said something along the lines it was a bit crazy to have my first shift at this pharmacy. They showed me the relief pharmacist instructions for operating the pharmacy. I then went to check in with the store staff to get access for the till (since I will probably have to run the till if the assistant was not around.) The store staff had issues setting me up and couldn’t get me access. Things were off to a great start already.

The staff pharmacist was off, and I took over. I donned my white coat and went to the pharmacist computer station. The moment has come. I was officially working as THE pharmacist. My work and advice was now officially one of a regulated health care professional’s. The weight of each little tick on the prescription hard-copy, each checkbox in the verification screens of the pharmacy software were heavy and real with the legal and ethical responsibilities I had as a pharmacist.

I slowly went through the day’s prescriptions and performed the duties of a regular community pharmacist – fill and check prescriptions, answer questions and give advice to patients, field the phone calls, ring the till, take the drop-off … Fortunately I had an able pharmacy assistant for half the shift to triage and help with some of the miscellaneous technical tasks. The flow of patients in and out of the pharmacy are like waves – they come in waves and go in waves. Managing the height of the wave is always the most stressful and challenging; you have to juggle the various tasks and attention that is needed at all parts of the pharmacy, efficiently perform the most important tasks first and eventually get everything resolved in a timely manner.

I remember one particularly stressful “wave” I had that night. I had quite a few prescriptions that needed to be checked to go out, and people were waiting at both ends of the pharmacy for questions or counselling. It felt overwhelming and I was trying to sort out what I had to do first. In the middle of all this, as I was about to pull my hair out, a person interrupts me at the counselling window.

“Can you help me get this medical equipment covered on my insurance? Like direct bill so I don’t have to pay anything?”

At that moment, I lost it. I looked at them straight in the eye: “This is my first day as a pharmacist. I am not sure how to do that, and it is rather difficult for me to get a timely answer for you on that right now. Can you come back tomorrow when the staff is around?”

The person didn’t want to take that as an answer. I replied “No, I can’t help with that right now. I have a few other things to finish first. I’m sorry.” The person looked rather disappointed and left shortly afterwards.

The pharmacy calmed down for the rest of the evening. My shift ended at 11 PM. I finished my closing duties as instructed, and proceeded to lock the pharmacy doors and report to the closing store staff before leaving…

… Or so I had hoped. The relief pharmacist keys would not lock the door. In desperation, I attempted with increasing strength until the key started to bend. I thought to myself “Oh shit. This is how I end my first night. I’m screwed. I’m gonna be here for who knows how long. ” I pulled out the written relief pharmacist instructions (that I had to return to the store staff along with the keys) and made the decision to call the morning staff pharmacist at 11:25 PM.

I think I woke the pharmacist up (I’m sorry!) and they told me to video call on WhatsApp to see if I was locking the door properly. I tried it again, obviously not working. We decided to page the closing manager at the end, who fortunately had spare master keys to lock the door and send me on my way home.

As I was leaving the parking lot, I thought “Wow, what a first day.” And so officially ended my first pharmacist shift, at a pharmacy I would never return to again.

I feel like everyone’s first day as a pharmacist, or heck as a professional or whatever first day of work in the real world would be memorable in one way or another, whether if it was memorably mediocre or memorably went sideways. I can definitely say my first day was memorable for its quirks, but also memorable for being the first true test and trial of pharmacy skills and time management I’ve developed over schooling and student work. And now, looking back at this not-so-distant past event, I can laugh, cherish and share its memories.