Week 1

As promised, a recap of my week! :)

Day 1
Yu Lee, Seng Thiam and I started our journey all the way to the East for our orientation! We had to be at Ubi Avenue 1 where Unity's HQ is located. We took the MRT to MacPherson station and looked for the place by foot! We almost got lost! Luckily, Yu Lee asked a passerby for directions! Otherwise, we would be heading towards Paya Lebar!

At the headquarters, all 12 of us sat in a meeting room where we were thoroughly briefed about our entire stint. We were given a handbook and a copy of an old edition of MIMS each. One flip through the handbook made my eyes popped! There were so many things to do, so many questions to be answered!

Then, we went to Suntec City for lunch. We were treated Swensens! Yums! :D Thank you, Unity! After lunch, we visited the Unity outlet in Suntec City which is where Yu Lee is attached to! Over there, we had another briefing about the quality control aspect of the store. We were dismissed by 5.00 pm!

Day 2

I was a little bit nervous and had butterflies in my tummy probably due to the new environment that I was about to experience. I met my preceptor, Mariana and a few other staffs. She took me on a little tour of the store. The store is very small compared to the regular Guardian and Watsons outlets you see in shopping malls. I can see the whole store from the dispensary counter!

Then, she taught me a few things from the operations aspect of the store. After awhile, there were deliveries coming in back to back which I learnt how to handle. The store was starting to get busy! This went on all the way till about 5.00 pm! I also met my preceptor's partner, Doreen. She taught me how to do daily submission in which I had to do invoice recording into the computer.

Besides the operations stuff, I also listened and observed how my preceptor counselled patients. :)

Day 3

My preceptor wasn't around in the morning because she had a meeting so I had to work with the staffs and attend to customers' needs! I was quite blur and had to rely quite a bit on the staffs. Good thing that all of them were very familiar with the medications and products in the store. Unfortunately, we could only sell medications that were on the shelves (General Sales List) and not in the pharmacist's cabinet (Pharmacy only medications and Prescription Only medications).

I had to explain to customers about our inability to dispense P and POM medications because only licensed pharmacists are allowed to and I'm not one YET, heh. When my preceptor returned, I helped her to stick cautionary labels on certain medications!

Day 4

This was the day when so many warehouse stocks came in! Unity is in the midst of going through a change to a new system. Hence, all stocks had to be delivered by this day and orders could not be made until the new system begins. I had to stick labels on all the P only medications! I spent a few hours on that!

After lunch, a sales representative from a company who manufactures blood glucose monitoring devices taught me how to use their blood glucose monitor! We actually did it before last semester during our last lab session of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology but it was from a different manufacturer. She did a test on me and my blood glucose level was 7.2 (which is high!). Well, that's because I just ate! Hahaha :) Then, the sales representative asked me to test my preceptor's blood glucose level *gasp* But then, since all the staff wanted a test too and she was quite busy, she asked me to just conduct the tests for the staffs. So I pricked their fingers and tested their blood glucose levels! So random but quite exciting! :)

I also was given the privillege to dispense chlorpheniramine (runny nose) and Zyrtec-D (runny nose and blocked nose) which were P only medications! :D So exciting cause I normally have to ask my preceptor to dispense eventhough I know what to give because I'm not allowed to dispense these medications unless she approves!

Day 5

I was feeling quite bored because there weren't any deliveries! Didn't have much to do in the store. So I just walked around the store to sort of familiarize with the locations of items. Doreen also explained to me a few things about the common medications for minor ailments. I also did some packaging for a few medications together with my preceptor.

I also had the chance to observe how my preceptor explain to a customer about smoking cessation!

Day 6

Half day work! Didn't have much to do in the morning so I helped the staff to replenish stocks! I also helped them to handle the cashier! :) At least I had something to do, rather than just stoning around.

That's all for this week! I am quite pleased with my experience thus far but I know there is still a lot to learn! Glad that I'm attached to Unity because learning how to manage a store is a plus! Guardian and Watsons have their own store managers but in Unity, the pharmacist is also the store manager!

Next week could be an entirely different story! Wait and see! :)