how to save a life

so i got to thinking-- procrastinating, actually-- about something that's been in the back of my mind ever since orgo bit me in the ass and people at panera asked me if i was in medical school.

sam and i had a conversation about switching majors one day and possibly dropping out of pharmacy school to go to medical school. i thought about it, sam was thinking about it .. but then we both stuck it out, and now here we are, P2's [4th years] in the midst of studying therapeutics for our cardio exam on monday. i still think about it, about why i didn't go to medical school instead .. as i watch my pre-med friends apply for further education. i know that if i really, really, REALLY wanted to go to medical school, i would have. i would have applied to the accelerated program and gotten in [well, i would think i would. lol] but i decided against it, because i didn't know what i wanted in life, and i blindly fell into pharmacy. [and in the back of my mind i swore to myself that i wouldn't work retail .. but it's looking like a pretty good opportunity for some how]

my mom's a doctor, and she was the one who told me not to go to medical school. she said that i couldn't handle it [i know how encouraging] and that pharmacy is better for me. yes, she thought that. and she's a doctor. you would have thought she would be all for me going for medical school. sometimes she gives me slack that i'm just a pharmacy student and not a doctor, and it's kind of a double edged sword, since she was the one who told me to go into this field in the first place. because, you know, i don't diagnose. i just give out fucking medication. so it's like, what is this all for? if people are not going to give me slack for learning this shit, why should i? why should i give a crap about therapeutics when the doctor over there thinks he/she is the know-it-all .. do they really need me? they can get their own medication then! DAMMIT .. i want pharmacy to make a difference. and i'm not talking about the politicking. i'm talking about, when you're taking your medication, and you feel funny, call the pharmacist. because GOD knows that we'll know a lot more about what you're taking than anyone else. especially if you're on a new med. i mean, people are on 1203981209318 meds these days. and yeah, i have to know everything about those 1231023801298 meds. i know the doctor would know what is wrong with you, because they know symptoms and stuff like that, but still. trust me. trust the pharmacist.

i thought the dean was being a nutty guy, but he was right. i really wish that pharmacists had the respect that they deserve. even nurses deserve more slack than people give them -- after all, they have to learn what we have to learn and the physicians still think that they're better than us. after all, who checks on you in the hospital when you're sick? who do you call? [no, not ghostbusters] you call the nurse. so to all the nurses, props to you too! and props to the DO's; i think they don't get the respect that they deserve, especially since they are almost the same as western med MDs.

you know, they don't make nurses and pharmacists go on rotations/clinicals for nothing.

now to all the pre-meds and med students out there, don't think this is a personal attack on you all. to doctors, you are all very special people and you save lives and all that good stuff. but remember, you can't do everything. you don't know everything. remember that there are more people to the healthcare team than just you.