Of jobless and happy slacking

As some of you would have known, I have been working in SGH pharmacy for like 1.5 months and now i am finally out of the job. Not that they dun wan me anymore, but more like I want a break already. As I have mentioned to some of my friends, this could well be the last holiday I get to enjoy. Coming December, there is the reservist for 2 weeks. That means half of the holidays will be wasted. Next 3 months break, I am most likely doing my vacation internship, so no time to enjoy liao. Next December break would probably be taken up by fyp. So yea, better slack now if not no more chance sia. lol.


Right, the pharmacy job was an interesting one. Get to meet lots of people and learnt some medicine & their usage. The job itself actually involves quite abit of memorizing skill. Both short term memory as well as long term memory comes into play here. The medicines are placed in their picking locations and we pick the medicine by following the location printed on the labels of each case. Most of the time, the pharmacist usually do not take the labels away from the prescriptions so as not to cause confusion to the rest picking or checking, so we will have to memorize 1) the location, 2) the drug’s name (for verification), 3) the quantity. After which, we go to the respective locations and pick the required amount and pack them into zip lock bags ready for dispensing. By my last week, I managed to memorize most of the common drugs picking location. And so when the latest batch of interns came along (they are being rotated once every 1.5 weeks), they were quite impressed by the way i actually could point out the location without looking at the location printed on the labels. Actually, if you work there long enough, it is not that hard to achieve that lar.

Pharmacy people also have to be good in their mental calculation and the 7, 14 and 28 multiplication table. Cos the medicine are usually either in strips of 10’s or 7’s or 14’s and some in boxes of 100’s, 30’s or 28’s. Of course those nice numbers are easy to play around with but those weird weird ones like 14, 28 are the ones that cause problems. Ah, why the medicine comes in those numbers arh, I hear you ask; why not make them all in 10’s? Well, there’s a good reason for it and it’s not that hard to figure why.

Some of the common drugs I learnt:

Daneuron – contains vitamin B1, B6 and B12 which are effective in the treatment of pains due to disturbances of the peripheral nerves. This one very very troublesome when it comes to topping up cause they are wrapped up nicely in plastic in boxes of 100’s. Means I have to open the box, tear open the plastic and then tie them up.

Omeprazole – prevents the secretion of gastric acid and thus used in the prevention and treatment of gastric related diseases. This one is a very common drug, comes in strip of 7’s and often goes in 60’s 90’s and 120’s. So we usually do pre-packs in those amounts to improve efficiency.

Norvasc (Amiodipine Besylate) – treatment of hypertension and used to control blood pressure. This one has 3 different strength (5, 10 and 20 mg) and comes in boxes of 30’s, usually goes in amount of 90’s.

Metformin - anti-diabetic drugs which reduce the cardiovascular complications of diabetes particularly in those with cases of obesity and insulin-resistance.

Glipizide - another anti-diabetic drug.

Glucosamine sulfate – treatment or act as a health supplement for osteoarthritis which is caused by wearing of the cartilage in the joints.

Procodin syrup – temporary relief of coughs, in bottles of 100 ml. This is also very common sia.

Lactus syrup - treatment of constipation by allowing the bowels to draw in more water from tissues. This one pretty common too and sometimes goes in around 10 bottles... 200ml each btw.

And there are more but dunno their usage like dipyridamole, tramadol, fluimucil, etc. Okok you people must be pretty bored by all these bo liao things already. Alright then, thats all for now.