What does being a dispensor entail?

So you can swipe drugs from the shop and sell 'em down the Barras and earn more in a week than you could all year.
 
Gackt said:
Dispensing, presumably.

Do you enjoy dispensing?
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What on earth is dispensing hahahha. I got the gist of the job, but unsure what to write about "liking" it.

I like it because its inside, keeps me warm and pays money.

Can't just write that though :D
 
Being a dispenser means you would dispense NHS and/or private prescriptions. You would get paid a certain fee per NHS prescription dispensed, and you would be reimbursed the cost of the drugs, minus the fee the patient paid (unless they were entitled to free prescriptions).
 
mrochester said:
Being a dispenser means you would dispense NHS and/or private prescriptions. You would get paid a certain fee per NHS prescription dispensed, and you would be reimbursed the cost of the drugs, minus the fee the patient paid (unless they were entitled to free prescriptions).
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I assume the pharmacist is the person who does the actual drug sorting and what not, and the dispensist is the guy who then packages it up and gives it to the customer and charges them?
 
ac1d1ty said:
I assume the pharmacist is the person who does the actual drug sorting and what not, and the dispensist is the guy who then packages it up and gives it to the customer and charges them?
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Possibly, I thought you meant more generally as in the Pharmacy dispensing prescriptions, not as a specific job with the title 'dispenser'. I do know that people who work in the pharmacy can put prescriptions together, but that they all have to be signed off by the pharmacist (this is why it can take so long to get a prescription as there's only usually one pharmacist who has to check everything). If a drug has to be made up, then I assume the pharmacist would be solely responsible for that.
 
ac1d1ty said:
For a pharmacy that is?


I'm trying to find answer to why I would want to become a dispensor.
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If its for a job application just talk purely about customer service and customer facing experience if you have any. As a dispenser you usually have to also do patient counselling on how to take their medication and quiz them on allergies plus if they are taking other drugs in the most tactfully professional way possible. You will also face situations where you have to warn teenage girls with their parents that certain antibiotics on their prescription interfere with birth control pills, which needs to be handled perfectly to not cause aggravation.

To be a qualified dispenser in the NHS or community now, you need an NVQ2 in pharmacy services, which means if you haven't already got this, you must mention your willing to learn and complete it.

Dispenser needs the following:

Very good eye for detail and the ability to understand doctors awful handwriting, very high customer service skills and the ability to prioritise work effectively in very busy work environments with patients who could have had the worst news of their lives waiting for you.
 
A Pharmaceutical Dispenser may be beyond you, try applying for a Pez Dispenser position instead.
 
mrochester said:
Possibly, I thought you meant more generally as in the Pharmacy dispensing prescriptions, not as a specific job with the title 'dispenser'. I do know that people who work in the pharmacy can put prescriptions together, but that they all have to be signed off by the pharmacist (this is why it can take so long to get a prescription as there's only usually one pharmacist who has to check everything). If a drug has to be made up, then I assume the pharmacist would be solely responsible for that.
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Pharmacists in most pharmacies have no part in making up medication apart from quantity checks (rare if they even do that now due to pharmacy technicians). Making most medication from scratch is done by pharmacy technicians who undergo a 2 year BTEC course on how to actually do this properly, where as pharmacists only make around 5-10 total products during their 5 year degree from scratch lol.

(I know this as fact due to being a pharmacy technician in a hospital and visiting many other large pharmacies with the same systems)
 
James J said:
If its for a job application just talk purely about customer service and customer facing experience if you have any. As a dispenser you usually have to also do patient counselling on how to take their medication and quiz them on allergies plus if they are taking other drugs in the most tactfully professional way possible. You will also face situations where you have to warn teenage girls with their parents that certain antibiotics on their prescription interfere with birth control pills, which needs to be handled perfectly to not cause aggravation.

To be a qualified dispenser in the NHS or community now, you need an NVQ2 in pharmacy services, which means if you haven't already got this, you must mention your willing to learn and complete it.

Dispenser needs the following:

Very good eye for detail and the ability to understand doctors awful handwriting, very high customer service skills and the ability to prioritise work effectively in very busy work environments with patients who could have had the worst news of their lives waiting for you.
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That certainly sounds challenging :/


Guess we'll see if I can rise to it.




Thanks for taking the time to relay such advice . :)
 
A dispenser...

Basically scan the perscription/scrip, print the lables out for the drugs needed, go find the drugs and get correct quantity/strength, pap the labels on the drugs, initial as dispensed, put aside for the pharmacist/checker to check they will also initial the labels, shove them in a bag then either hang them up or give to the waiting customer.

The counter staff can do that part... pull the bag from the shelf or hand to customer, obviously a quick address check 1st tho :)

Its not a job to take lightly, as mistakes will happen! It is obviously the pharmasists job to check that mistakes dont, but sometimes they do.

There are thousands upon thousnads of drugs... ones in similar boxes, ones with similar names, pills of similar shapes and sizes, differents strengths... thats how mistakes can slip through.

Most back shops are fairly small, and there will be a few people kicking about...! So be weary of that!

Oh and i think you need to become one, you cant just walk into the job. Lots will train you up... saying that lots of them want you to stick with them for a few years after the initial few years of training to get the qualification.
 
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