Finally passed the PTCE

Passed the pharmacy tech certification exam. I’ve been studying for it on and off for about a year now. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I’m glad I finally did it. Considering how anxious I was, this boosts my self-esteem a little bit. It also opens up more possibilities for jobs, and a slightly higher pay. On the other hand, it really isn’t a huge accomplishment. It’s supposed to be an easy exam. And after what I’ve seen working in a pharmacy, I don’t know if I want to have a part in the health care/pharmaceutical industries anymore anyway.

Even thinking about studying for exams makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t believe I once had to study for exams about every 3 weeks for school. My anxiety seems to have grown worse over time. It’s kind of a miracle that I made it through college. It’s so difficult for me to focus on what I’m reading. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Often I’ll catch myself following the sentences with my eyes but not actually understanding anything. And I’ll have to read and re-read the same stuff over and over. And then even though I spend hours on it I would end up hardly studying at all because almost nothing would stick.

This of course causes problems at work. I have to be able to read patient profiles, prescriptions, drug labels, and prescription insurance cards to do my job properly. I end up spending maybe 15 minutes on something that would take another tech about 2 minutes. I’m probably the slowest one there. Probably the only reason they keep me around is that despite how slow I am, I still manage to be thorough and accurate on mostly everything.

Listening to people talk is also difficult for me. At my job, there are many moments where either the patient or the pharmacist or a coworker asks me or tells me something, and I would have to ask them to repeat what they said. It’s like the first time they say something it sounds like a different language to me. And it’s not until the second or, god forbid, the third time repeating themselves that I finally understand.

I feel so dumb all the time. I feel like I have to put forth 100 times as much effort into something just to get the same results as someone else. So, in the end I feel like I haven’t really accomplished much, despite my efforts. I just sweated buckets over an exam that high schoolers can take with no problems.

Ironically, working at a pharmacy also got in the way of studying consistently and regularly. I picked up a few things on the job, but strangely enough the things done on the job is only a fraction of the content covered on the exam. There were a lot of topics on the exam I feel I will never have to use.

Working in a pharmacy is too stressful for me. Especially this particular pharmacy. We’re working with outdated software, we’re one of the busiest pharmacies in the area, and we don’t have enough staff to give each and every one of the 300+ prescriptions we get per day all the attention required to make sure everything is done correctly. Many of the techs don’t really know how to do everything that they should (myself included) because everyone is so busy and no one has time to train us properly. All of this just leads to mistakes, longer waiting times, more angry patients, and more stress. And for me it also means more anxiety, and depression.

On a daily basis, patients argue with me or some other tech about things that are out of our control. Like how their medication costs more than what they used to pay, or how a prior authorization is required for a prescription, or how insurance won’t pay for their meds at all, or how their prescription expired, or how we have to order something for them because we didn’t have it in stock. With how busy we are all the time, we don’t have time to call patients before they get to the pharmacy to tell them that their prescription requires a prior authorization, or how we had to order a medication, etc. And we have no automated system that tells patients for us as soon as we come across an issue like some pharmacies have.

But it’s not just this pharmacy. It’s this whole pharmaceutical/health care industry. It’s so inefficient, and unfair. I hate having to tell patients that their meds are hundreds of dollars. I hate having to tell patients that insurance won’t pay for a medication that was prescribed for them. I hate that people have to run around in circles between their insurance companies, their doctors, and their pharmacies just to try and figure out how to get the meds they need.

Congrats for passing! Yes, I can imagine that your work can be tough. But are there not also nice people who seek your help and don't blame you for all the med issues? Thanks for all you do.

Thanks.

Yes, there are nice people who come here. But it only takes one or two bad ones to ruin my day. I can ruminate over bad experiences for days after they happen. Sometimes bad experiences from months ago came back to haunt me for no reason.

I'm so tired of working in a retail pharmacy.

Congratz on passing!

Sweet! Very good work on passing and doing well. You will do amazing things in your life.