It’s been a busy, hectic time lately (as is evident from lack of posts) and today was not a people-pleasing day at work. From Moment 1 (well, actually since last week, it would seem) The Bossman was NOT happy on a certain unnamed issue, but none that was directly my fault save for the fact I have the inability to read minds (still haven’t achieved pure Wonder Woman status).  I’m usually the first to admit when I make a mistake but this time, I was not backing down. BRING IT ON!

But the whole situation brought a little more attention than normal to an article posted  on Medical News Today about how the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is pushing the UK Department of Health to decriminalise dispensing errors by pharmacists/in pharmacies. This would mean that pharmacists, the ultimate responsibility holder in the dispensing of medicine, would not be held criminally responsible for medication errors in the pharmacy.

I fully support this legislation (or, de-legislation as it is) and agree with the RPSGB when they say that “the decriminalisation issue is of key importance to both pharmacists and patients. The new guidelines will encourage the reporting of errors, from which pharmacists and colleagues can learn how patient safety can be further improved“. The only upside to a mistake is the opportunity to learn from it, especially regarding the evaluation of systems and protocols used in a dispensing procedure.

However, pharmacists are put in a unique situation, similar of course to other health professionals: their mistakes can cost lives. And when lives are lost, people want someone to blame.

When I  first graduated there was a devastating story about a medication dispensing error in a pharmacy where a friend of mine worked – the error resulted in the death of a child and the pharmacist “responsible” lost his license and was at risk of going to jail (however country in question did was not inclined to sue beyond reason, and a lost license served the purpose).

Of course, there is no way to compensate for this loss, but, in all out fact, it was a mistake. There is a very BIG line between a mistake and intent to harm and although accountability is a pinnacle trait of our profession, reason and the understanding that we, too, are human, must be taken into account.

I’m curious to see how long it takes the UK  to see this through.

Please press reset for a new start...

I haven’t posted much lately… Wait, let me rephrase that, I haven’t posted much period. This is partly because I am new to blogging, but also because I have been very busy with my last few months of pharmacy school. For all the pharmacists out there, be it industry, hospital, community, research, or something completely different, this memorable moment in your life’s history is probably not easily forgotten. I guess any ending of a major period in your life is always unforgettable, especially if your life is sort of “reset” after you get a small piece of paper that says you are a PharmD.

For me this is kind of how I feel right now. I had the most amazing 7,5 years of student life. I did it all: I drank till sunrise, quite often, even in winter; I travelled the world; visited numerous congresses; met hundreds of phun pharmacists but mainly pharmacy students; ow and I studied a few hours every now and then. And I am very happy I got my education in the Netherlands, because student life in the NL is quite something. I’m just going to go ahead and say it: Dutch Student life is unsurpassed by any other nation’s student life… Feel free to bash me on that one. Anyway, back to the reset.

In the half year run up towards my graduation I had to make a lot of decisions, big ones! The biggest one of course being: “What do I want to do after this?” I invested an enormous amount of time in finding this out, but still am not sure if the decisions I made were right. I guess I won’t know until I find out if I do or do not like the job I went for. This is why I kind of feel like I’m resetting my life. I finished the studies, got the piece of paper and now *BLAMMO* I have a new life, which is in no way comparable to the life I had, just a few months ago. A fresh start, a new beginning, and new adventures to endeavour upon… Absolutely frightening.

I often wonder if I am the only one who has this dilemma. The answer to that is most likely no. But I also wonder if it is more common nowadays, now that there are so many more jobs to choose from; So many more decisions in life. It would be fascinating for me to hear from the older generation of pharmacists how their period of graduation felt, and if anything has changed in this feeling over the years…