Pilled: October celebrates American Pharmacists Month

Oct. 22—National Pharmaceutical Week, an annual celebration and appreciation week for the women and men working across the U.S. in pharmacies. Created in 1924 at an annual meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association, National Pharmaceutical Week became a tradition on the third week of October and later the month would become American Pharmacists Month.

To shine a light on the local pharmacists that fill prescriptions and help customers daily, Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy Managing Pharmacist Cameron Mooney and Auburn Pharmacy Managing Pharmacist Angela Horsfall shared their journeys and experiences in being pharmacists in Abilene.

Both Mooney and Horsfall attended The University of Kansas' School of Pharmacy, they can still remember the classes they loved to attend and the classes they loved to hate.

"My favorite classes were the labs, the hands-on compounding," Mooney said. "I got to do scenarios with fake patients, patient interactions. Medicinal chemistry, probably the hardest class involving all the chemical structures."

"Favorite class would probably be pharmacology, which sounds awful," Horsfall said. "But pharmacology is where you really learn about the drugs and how they can be used in each disease state. So it was hard, but it was the most useful now that we are out. My least favorite class would probably be biochemistry because it just gets really nitty-gritty into math and science. It's just math and science on steroids."

Drug compounding refers to the process of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients to create a medication specifically meant for a customer. Pharmacology classes focus on the uses, side effects and modes of action for different drugs.

With graduation looming over them, Mooney and Horsfall came to the decision that all pharmacy students make — to residency or to not residency.

"Your last year is just filled with month-long rotations at different pharmacy sites," Horsfall said. "So, they really want you to have a well-rounded clinical background."

"I did not do that route," Mooney said. "I went straight into the workforce... No, I did not want to do a residency, I was done with school."

After graduation, Mooney and Horsfall applied for jobs, which led them to Abilene and found a home in local pharmacies.

"I was raised in a really small town, so I knew early on, I didn't want to work in the Kansas City, Lawrence area," Horsfall said. "I wanted to be a part of a community in a small town, so Abilene definitely fits that bill. But, it's big enough that we've got things for our kids to do here and I feel like we can really be a part of the community."

"I love the small town," Mooney said. "Never thought I would like it coming from Lawrence. But, I like it out here. I don't really have any intentions on moving away."

Mooney found that working in Patterson's old building allowed for an interesting look as a pharmacy.

"I like having double doors," Mooney said. "That's kind of old school...They can come in on either side, I like it...I like being downtown. I like the downtown feel."

Looking forward to getting inside the pharmacy doors every day, Mooney and Horsfall know they will be assisting customers and filling everything from paperwork to bottles.

"Patient safety is probably our first (task) so we check prescriptions," Mooney said. "But then we're also here to take questions on recommendations for over-the-counter items... I just like the patient interaction...We are the most accessible healthcare team member so we get lots of people just coming in and asking us before they go to the doctor's office."

"I'm coming in and typing all the new orders from overnight," Horsfall said. "So, emergency room prescriptions came through and any new prescriptions from our wonderful walking clinic that's open...We also have just a daily order that we need to fill. We have a lot of people on automatic refill or we fill their stuff once a month...Getting ready for the shots we may have because shots are a big part of our services now."

For those who want to become pharmacists in the future, Mooney and Horsfall share the most important skills for people to learn.

"For pharmacy school, math and science and just a caring attitude towards patients," Horsfall said. "You can be really good at math and science and not really care about those patients and you're not going to be successful on the job."

"To me, I think it's communication," Mooney said. "You have to be able to communicate and be confident when you're asked questions, so confidence and communication."