The Happy PharmD Blog
Coaching pharmacists into better jobs
Part Two Of Getting My Girlfriend’s Prescription With Hopes That Part Three Never Occurs
I recently saw the new Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie. It’s called Mission Impossible— Dead Reckoning Part One. It’s a lot of fun. Throughout the movie, Tom Cruise is chasing after the bad guy. About halfway through the movie, I realized that Tom Cruise would...
Decision Making Has Always Been In My DNA — Regardless If I Have The Right To Make The Call
I was in management for over thirty years in my hospital’s pharmacy department. I made a lot of key decisions. 99% of the time; they were good decisions. However, I’d be the first to admit that I had a few bad ones. When I left my last hospital, I got a job in a...
Client Success Story: Invest In The Future You Want
Imagine being a pharmacist who feels trapped and unfulfilled in their career. That's exactly how Anais Lee* felt before she found a way to break free and create a brighter future for herself. Anais was working in a hospital pharmacy, but the repetitive tasks and...
Why The Pharmacy Profession Wasn’t What I Expected — And How I Adapted Whenever It Got Boring
I like the profession of pharmacy. I’m very happy being a pharmacist. I’m retired. So I’m no longer working as a pharmacist in a pharmacy. Or anywhere else, for that matter. A colleague of mine is also a pharmacist. He, too, is retired. My friend saw no reason to...
Good Cover Letters, Thank You Notes, and Reference Lists Are Crucial – It’s Not Just About The Resume and The Interview
My son was looking for a new job. I helped him with his resume. I once taught a class to my pharmacy tech students who were looking for a job. I helped them with their resumes and other job-acquiring tasks. Resumes are easy to craft. Aside from the many books on...
Using My Medical Advocate Skills To Detect And Eliminate Errors With My Girlfriend’s Prescription
I was a staff pharmacist working in my first hospital. This was before I went back to school to get my advanced degree. This was even before I became a pharmacy manager. I liked working as a staff pharmacist in a hospital. From what I had heard, it was better than...
How A Possessive and Overstocking Atmosphere Resulted In Hoarding Between Departments
I think I first realized it when I was working at my first hospital. My hospital had a unique financial blueprint. They paid their bills went they wanted to. It didn’t matter what the amount was or when the bill was due, or what the terms were. It seemed that they...
How My Own Health Scare Made Me Appreciate Those Who Jump Into Crisis Mode
I had a stroke. I remember it like it was yesterday. I’m retired. I was volunteering at one of my former hospitals. I worked at the information desk. Visitors arrived at the hospital, got a pass, and went up to see the patient. I did the COVID screening. COVID...
Examining Different Decision-Making Methods To Determine The Best Practice Available
I was talking to my friend the other night. He recently became the Director of a long-term care facility. He was discussing his decision-making capabilities. My friend told me that he wanted to be “fair and consistent”. When my friend had to make a decision or put...
How To Create and Complete 2023 Career Goals
In this webinar to get you started for the year, I will be sharing wisdom and lessons from our research in career development and positive psychology. Read to the end to find out what people have done repeatedly to develop their careers and how you can do the same in...
The Happy PharmD 2022 Q4 Investor Update
2022 is OVER! *sigh* Thank you. This update will be shorter than usual. Let’s jump into what happened in Quarter 4. Highlights A new vision & mission “Helping pharmacists create jobs they love” once inspired me when I started HPD in 2017. Q4 was spent dreaming a...
Unwrapping the Job You Want – Special Holiday Session
In this special Q&A holiday session, I am joined by Eric Wilson, one of our Growth Advisors in The Happy PharmD and we talked about searching for a job during the holiday season. Read to the end to find out why it is important to have this frank...
How to Become an Informatics Pharmacist | Informatics
If you want to download this guide + 48 other pharmacy career paths for you to access later, you can download it here. This article is a part of a series of The Many Paths of Pharmacy, which has 48 other pharmacy career paths. Summary - Pharmacists in Informatics As...
Four Times When My Pharmacy Had To Say “No” — And We Weren’t Just Being Difficult
"Oh, you’re just being difficult!” As a pharmacy manager, I got that a lot. I always felt my pharmacy department was treated like second-class citizens. We were the ones that always had to compromise. We had to change the way we did things to make others happy. The...
Pharmacist Transition Series – Getting Into Remote Jobs
On this episode of the Pharmacist Transition Series – Remote Jobs, I am joined by Nupoor Kalke and Sam An. Both of them made amazing transitions to working remotely. Read on to find out the juicy details about their individual stories. Suppose you are currently...
How To Escape Burnout
In this special webinar session, I am joined by two pharmacists, Drs. Tulsi Shah and Melissa Turner as they share their burnout stories and how they overcame it. Read to the end to find out how Tulsi and Melissa, success stories from the Happy PharmD, discovered they...
Developing A Concierge Team — Escorting Visitors To The Right Place
I needed nails. Actually, I needed 3-inch nails with a flat head. So I went to a big hardware store one night. When I walked in, there was an old-fashioned popcorn cart filled with popcorn. Three store workers stood by the cart selling the popcorn. One of the...
Learn How To Easily Network – A Question & Answer Session with Alex Barker
In this special Question & Answer session, I take us on a journey where I break down the why, how, who, and what of networking. Many people miss out on opportunities because they do not know how to network. If you want to learn more about how the Happy PharmD...
The Happy PharmD 2022 Quarter3 – Investor Update
This is The Happy PharmD Quarter 3 2022 update for our investors, stakeholders, partners, and affiliates. The Happy PharmD (HPD) continues to shift pharmacists into inspiring careers and lives. Another 60 pharmacists decided to work with us in Quarter 3, which is...
Sentinel Events Should Result In A Blameless Society — Not Make The Employee The Scapegoat
Previously I wrote about medication errors in my hospital. I wrote about “just cultures”. This is an atmosphere in a hospital that blames the system rather than the person. Should a medication error occur, and the employee act properly, nothing would happen to the...
Transitioning to Specialty — Here’s How to Do It Right!
In this session, Laurie Linton and Laura Licari (a Happy PharmD coach), joined me live to share their experiences transitioning into specialty. Read till the end to find out how Laurie, one of our success stories from the Happy PharmD, made a smooth career transition...
Encountering Unique Mantras That Enhance Style While Leading To A Successful Career
It rarely happens. In fact, it almost never happens. My pharmacy was embarking on a new service. The hospital was going to become more accurate in their patient drug charges. The way our hospital charged for medication was simple. Each day my pharmacy sent a...
Transition Into Pharma and Pharma-Related Fields
In this webinar, I was joined by three pharmacists, Anna Schemel, David Steinberg, and Lori Huang, to discuss their journey into Pharma and Pharma-related fields. They share some decisions that helped lead them to their specific career path. They also highlight how...
Sometimes Involving My Vice-President Made Him Look Like A Fool
I’ve been very lucky in my hospital career. For the most part, I always had good bosses. Usually, they left me alone to run the pharmacy department. This was because they knew I could do the job. They knew I would do what was right. They knew that I was...
A Short Guide into Peer Review
An academic journal uses peer reviewers to ensure that an article’s content is scientifically and professionally appropriate based on what was studied and what was concluded from the study. Often, an article will have two reviewers. Several sources, including the...
Getting Started as a Medical Writer for Pharmacists in the United States and Canada
Getting Started as a Medical Writer for Pharmacists in the United States and Canada In this special webinar session, I had the pleasure of teaming up with one of the coaches at the Happy PharmD, Janan Sawar, to host our guests Milena Murray, June Stevens, and Warda...
Drug Shortages Plague The Pharmacy— Yet Are Often Overlooked By The Public
There’s a baby food shortage occurring in the United States. Imagine, first toilet paper and then baby food! I guess it’s a good thing that a shortage never occurred with drugs. Of course, it has. I started putting together a weekly list of drug shortages when I...
Realizing That A True Blameless Culture Corrects The System and Increases Medication Error Reporting
A while ago, there was a news story about a medication error. It seems a nurse gave a patient the wrong medication. The patient died. After a recent court battle, the nurse got three-years of probation. People make mistakes. Administrations and their...
Warda: The Journey of Fiction and Nonfiction
Warda worked in retail before transitioning to medical writing and novel writing. However, her passion for writing began in pharmacy school when she wrote a full-length novel that she is now attempting to publish. Warda's difficulties at the pharmacy prompted her to...
Kayla Dillon’s Testimonial: Seeking Efficiency with Coaching
For many recent graduates like Kayla, getting started as a professional can be difficult. Because many graduates apply for a few positions, competition for job opportunities is usually fierce. Despite this, Kayla was able to start her career after securing a job in a...
Focused During Adversity – Exposing My Secret and Overcoming My Adversities Over the Last Year
I’ve been keeping a secret from you over the past year as I’ve struggled with family members’ health and my own mental health. In this interview with Mike Koelzer from The Business of Pharmacy, I finally talk about exactly what I’ve been going through. We cover how...
Well-Being Survey Discussion: Alex Barker and Mike Koelzer
Well Being Report: Are Pharmacists going crazy? Listen to the full episode at the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brF9ggsLDPw&t=4s Pharmacist well-being: Changes Post-COVID-19 78% of Pharmacists say they are not happy at work Post COVID-19...
The Issues With Evaluations— A Necessary Evil That Needs To Be Dealt With
Evaluations— they were a necessary evil of my job. I didn’t like writing them, I didn’t like giving them. My staff didn’t like getting them. So why did I do them? Two reasons: 1) Management thought that employees liked or needed feedback about how well they were...
Finding the Right Job for You as a Pharmacist
By going through pharmacy school, you have a well-rounded background in various areas, including communication skills through delivering presentations and counseling patients, motivational interviewing experience, and some degree of technical writing experience. The...
How to Get Out of the Pharmacist Job Search Cycle
We have all been at various points in our lives where we felt we have had enough and desired a change. It could be breaking free from an addiction, deciding to start a family, or in this case leaving a job where you have been unhappy and stressed. However, a few days...
Nupoor Kalke: A Success Story
Like many other pharmacists during the COVID pandemic, Nupoor had to take on more responsibilities in addition to the ones she already had. Having to work 16-hour days, the bulk of which was spent on her feet, at work without bathroom or lunch breaks was a tipping...
How Life Caused A Second Act— Not Looking For One, But Ready Nonetheless
What’s a second act? As I said in a previous article, it’s the ability to reinvent oneself. Some people do something that they’re really good at. Or sometimes, a second act involves doing something that one always wanted to do. For the most part, it usually...
Creating A Second Act— Developing A Strategy To Increase Happiness and Decrease Stress
I enjoy watching TV. Several years ago, actress Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle) starred in a TV show called “Carol’s Second Act.”. It was about a woman who worked as a teacher. However, later in her life, she left her teaching position and...
Feeling Stuck in Your Career and How To Get Out
After eight years, Dr. Ken O'Shea recently quit his role as a retail pharmacist to pursue a career in insurance. He shared his experience and reasons for quitting in an interview with the New York Times. One of the reasons he cited was the increasing pressures on the...
Four Imaginary Courses That Should Be Part Of Everyone’s Basic Education
Pharmacy is a very educated profession. On the undergraduate level, pharmacists have a deep knowledge of the sciences. As they progress through school, their clinical expertise expands. Thus, giving them a true understanding of the field of medication. On the...
Why It’s Important to Envision the Future
There comes a time in everyone’s career when we are faced with the question; “what next?” While we arrive at this point by different means and at our own unique pace, it typically occurs when the journey has reached a crossroad. It can come at an exciting time like a...
How To Say “No” When Your Plate is Full
For most pharmacists reading this blog, our specialized training and commitment to work mean that we are high-achievers and take pride in doing our best. It also means we often already have a lot to do on our plates in our career. For the community pharmacist who is...
The Value of Well Being: Why it is Important for Pharmacists to Take Care of Themselves
We’re taught from a very young age that the most important person in the whole wide world is you. Oftentimes this simple truth gets blurred, leaving us feeling empty and unfulfilled. As pharmacists it’s easy to see how this happens. You’re constantly taking care of...
Assessing Your Career Health
On the surface, things often seem perfect - a great salary, a reasonable schedule, a stable job… But it’s also important to evaluate what’s going on inside. At the Happy PharmD, we have been reading up about the psychology of motivation lately. Abraham Maslow, the...
My Deep Admiration For The Night Pharmacy Staff Who Perform A Difficult Job At A Ridiculous Hour
I’m Jewish. I don’t celebrate Christmas. It’s not my holiday. To me, it’s just another day. Now this is a tough concept for someone to grasp who celebrates Christmas. Because for those who celebrate the holiday, Christmas is a big...
Pharmacy Career Coaching
Our Pharmacist Career Coaching is based on our Indispensable Career Model. This model is broken into 3 pillars: Clarity, Strategy, and Systems. By following this model, you will be able to build an indispensable pharmacy career that attracts new job opportunities and...
Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work and Why You Need A Guide
New Year's resolutions are beautiful. They constitute one of the incredible ways we showcase our desire for change; to be better. Sadly, only 8% of Americans achieve their New Year’s resolutions. Many factors contribute to this. The most obvious error is perhaps that...
The Power Of Volunteering — Producing A Retirement Benefit For Me As Well As Creating A Job Opportunity For My Students
Producing A Retirement Benefit For Me As Well As Creating A Job Opportunity For My Students Producing A Retirement Benefit For Me As Well As Creating A Job Opportunity For My Students The Power Of Volunteering — Producing A Retirement Benefit For Me As Well As...
Transition Series: Retail to Non-Traditional Clinical
Watch the webinar replay here.In this warm session with Tracy Dabbs (PharmD), Tracy shares details of her life and career journey. She talks about how we helped her move to a non-traditional career from retail that helped her achieve more work-life balance and the...
Transitioning from Retail to Non-Traditional Pharmacy Roles
Job satisfaction has been a common illusion to most working class people. People tend to view conventional work activities differently. Hence, some do not get to have as much fulfillment as they anticipated prior to their recruitment. Pharmacists are...
Transition Series: Retail to Loving Work Again
Watch the webinar replay here.In this episode of the Transition Series, Alex Barker chats with Julie Kidd and Keenan Rea. Julie is one of the coaches at the Happy PharmD and worked with Keenan in transitioning from retail to ambulatory care. Keenan also shares details...
Avoiding The Argument While Encouraging A Meeting Of The Minds
Pharmacy is always wrong. I’ve noticed that. No matter who Pharmacy fights with— whether it’s doctors, patients, nurses, administrators, or other department managers. No matter how logical we are. Or no matter how well we follow the...
Strategies For Selecting The Right Answer And Passing Multiple Choice Tests
I’m a trivia nut. I’ve always loved trivia questions. I wanted an activity to play with my fellow Temple Men’s Club members during the pandemic. So I organized a daily trivia game. In order to make it more interesting, I asked questions on a variety of topics. I...
Why Pharmacies Can’t Find Good Pharmacy Technicians — Is It The School Or Student That’s Not Successful?
I’m from New Jersey. There are a plethora of hospitals in our state. Large ones, small ones, major medical complexes, and smaller specialty facilities. We have a multitude of retail pharmacies, also. There are many larger chain pharmacies—sometimes...
The Never-Ending Process of Devising Schedules – Why Catering To The Staff Made The Schedules Work Out
I’ve performed many difficult tasks as a pharmacy manager. I’ve remodeled a pharmacy, designed a new clean room, and started a chemotherapy program. I’ve even worked with management to present a new contract to our unionized pharmacy staff. But the toughest job...
How to Become a Compounding Pharmacist | Compounding Pharmacy
If you want to download this guide + 48 other pharmacy career paths for you to access later, you can download it here. This article is a part of a series of The Many Paths of Pharmacy, which has 48 other pharmacy career paths. Summary - Compounding Pharmacist...
How to Become an Independent Community Pharmacist | Independent Community Pharmacy
If you want to download this guide + 48 other pharmacy career paths for you to access later, you can download it here. This article is a part of a series of The Many Paths of Pharmacy, which has 48 other pharmacy career paths. Summary - Pharmacists in...
Recognizing Special Individuals Who Excelled In Their Field And Impacted My Career For The Better
I’ve written several articles for The Happy PharmD. Most of them have been adversarial: Me and my pharmacy vs. the doctors. Me and my pharmacy vs. the nurses. Me and my pharmacy vs. the hospital’s administration. Most of the time I’ve painted these groups as the...
How My Short-Lived Role as an Acting Director Allowed Me to Merge as a Valuable Commodity
I really enjoyed working in my first hospital. I was hired by an older gentleman. He was the Director of Pharmacy. I believe he liked the suit that I was wearing. He was very knowledgeable and very soft spoken. He was also very close...
Placing The Pharmacists On The Nursing Units Why It Was Never Viewed As A Beneficial Project
It was 1997 and I was starting a new job. My previous hospital (where I worked eighteen years) was closing. My boss (Director of Pharmacy) had made the transition to another hospital’s pharmacy department. Working with her vice-president, she...