veritas wrote:
I'm a physician.
People posting here don't realize a lot of what pharmacists do, even retail ones.
Believe it or not, physicians make mistakes, sometimes very dangerous ones. A key role of the pharmacist is as a safety check. And not just drug interactions. Wrong drug doses. Wrong drugs. There's a huge list of look alike, sound alike drugs out there.
Do you really want a clueless high school grad dispensing a cardiac med for your premature infant with no clue about dose or even whether it's the right med? Sure, anyone can count out a blood pressure pill - but what if the dose is suddenly dramatically different for that patient? Will cute high school kid catch the error? Or will cute high school kid call MD after he's prescribed Augmentin and forgotten to ask about the life threatening reaction parient had to a different penicillin class drug?
A good pharmacist is worth every penny they're paid. They've saved me and my patients countless problems over the years.
And hospital pharmacists? Really want a tech mixing your mom's chemotherapy at 3 a.m. or your newborns prostaglandins in the NICU?
All you do is push a button on a computer and you can do everything above