SE Of the fifteen retail student pharmacists I've talked to, all have one online drug information database provided to them at their work site via their employers. Usually the software program is Clinical Pharmacology Onhand or E-Facts and Comparison. Although the resource is provided by employers, few students and their co-workers have the time to log onto their work site computer network and look up information. Besides time constraints often times the computers are being used to process prescriptions.
It is not a common practice for employers to provide training or reimbursement for handheld electronic devices and software for their pharmacists. This leaves the pharmacist to use paper versions or online drug resources when they may prefer to use a handheld device. -End- SE
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PH: This was a very interesting posting. Having worked in a retail setting at a couple of different locations, I would agree with what SE found from interviewing other students. I found that the students virtually never used online sources, especially when I was working at a higher volume store. The reasons were pretty much as SE reported, the few terminals that were available to students were almost always being used by others to process prescriptions. I felt that some of the pharmacists took advantage of the online sources when they had a customer with a question that they didn't know the answer too, but the pharmacists usually had their own terminal that techs and interns were not allowed to use. At a lower volume store I have had the time available to use online sources on occassion, but have rarely done so.
TL: I also work at a lower volume store and tend not to use the electronic resources as much when asked questions. This is probably because the number of computer terminals available is limited. I am going to start bringing my PDA to work and see if I would be more inclined to use electronic resources when one is readily available.
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