Pharmacy U news

When I sit down to write this blog, it not uncommon for me to identify experiences I had at various conferences to use as inspiration for my writing. I realize now that we really shouldn’t be surprised about that. After all, a conference is not a natural place where we find ourselves, so when we get there, we absorb and process things differently.

Spreading word in the community about patient counselling is no easy chore – especially when many of your customers would rather head for the parking lot with their medication than listen to advice from a member of your dispensary team.

Courage to persist strongly regardless of how dirty the task allows us to outwork others. Pushing forward, notwithstanding the required sweat, provides an identity of tenacity that we grow to actually enjoy. The effort finds small wins in getting the hard things done by showing up each day and doing things right. For this reason, joy is found in the grind.

One of the best things that a leader can do is to collect a big bag of ideas. Then, when various challenges come up, you have a deeper well of solutions or possible solutions to draw from.

Have you looked at your pharmacy the way a patient does? This is a key question Wayne Caverly of Caverly Consulting asks his clients. One pharmacy he worked with – an old-style drugstore within an even older grocery store – had not seen any serious updates since the 1970s.

Pharmacies have increasingly become the target of potential violence over the past few decades. The presence of drugs has always put them at risk of robbery, but early and late hours have made them more vulnerable to holdups.

A couple blogs ago we looked at the concept of options and how leaders look for options to navigate through various challenges. Today, we are going to consider the value of an idea. We all have ideas. Some are good. Some are not. But consider the value of a good idea. Ideas can literally be worth millions of dollars. Good ideas can change the world.

As a young Sempei, or brown belt karate student, I went through the frustrating stage every brown belt goes through. At the two-year mark, I wanted to know when I would be nominated for black belt testing.