Community Pharmacist Interview Paper

The community pharmacist that I interview for this assignment is Eric Amber. Mr. Amber graduated from Duquesne Pharmacy School, and soon after his graduation became the owner of a Medicine Stop Pharmacy. Mr. Amber was the owner of his pharmacy for 32 years, and has massive amounts of managerial experience. He stated that most of his background knowledge and basic managerial skills came from his internships while still in pharmacy school.

His pharmacy was located in a small-town close to where I live in Pennsylvania. However, for being in a small town his pharmacy was quite busy by filling an average of 325 prescriptions a day. Mr. Amber employed/managed 2 pharmacists, 6 pharmacy technicians, and 2 delivery drivers. The employees of Medicine

Amber found aspects of his career in a managerial position as both challenging and rewarding. The most challenging aspect of his positions was dealing with multiple people and personality types. He said often times it is difficult to manage/work with individuals who often disagree or have diffident views. Mr. Amber strived his hardest to make a positive work environment and encouraged teamwork to reach their overall goal of providing reliable/friendly healthcare. The most rewarding aspects of his ownership position was having the freedom to make his own decisions that would benefit his patients, and being able to dictate his own schedule. However, he said when you own your own pharmacy you never truly have a day off. Before ending my interview with Mr. Amber he did leave me with some advice. He advised me to use my time wisely while in pharmacy school, and the best way to gain managerial experience is to work closely with a pharmacy manager like he

Allison provides a variety of services like reviewing the daily patient profile, reviewing labs/cultures, and through protocols has the ability to handle certain anti-coagulants and vancomycin dosing. While rounding Dr. Allison is the only pharmacist on the team, so he does not supervise anyone, but his managerial status is seen in the satellite pharmacy. In the satellite pharmacy, Dr. Allison supervises 2 pharmacy technicians. To prepare him for this managerial role, he gained experience in his PGY1 residency. During that residency, he completed two 5 week rotations that were managerial in nature. The first rotation was centered around shadowing one manager and working closely with them. The second rotation focused more on the fundamentals of a management position like staffing, handling call offs, reaching out to other institutions for inventory, and handling polices/procedures. In his managerial position, some of the most common decisions were based around adjusting staffing, scheduling off days/call offs, and inventory management. Dr. Allison stated that there are both rewarding and challenging aspects of having a pharmacy management position. The most rewarding aspect was being able to directly make decisions that impact patient care. He stated that there is no greater feeling that being able to work with a family to better the health of their child. The most challenging aspect of his position is having to be the individual that makes all the hard