Key Takeaways

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This project did not go exactly as planned. I took a math class through SUU in June which hurt my ability to do the internship hours as quickly as I had intended. I also thought that I would be doing more than just filling prescriptions, but that was basically the only thing I did. I was there at 9 AM every day, but the Walgreens pharmacy only had so much work that I was allowed to do, so by 2 PM I was so bored I could hardly stand it. I didn’t want to leave because I needed the hours, but I also wasn’t learning anything just standing there, so that was a struggle. I didn’t know until I got there that I was not allowed to answer the phone except to put someone on hold, and I wasn’t supposed to talk to customers at all for liability reasons. (Even though I purchased insurance for that reason.) In a pharmacy technician job, most of what you do is interact with customers. I knew this aspect of the internship would hurt me in the long run, but it was the policy of the company so I definitely wasn’t going to say anything about it. 
    This experience help me learn to ask questions, and not be embarrassed about having questions. Being a good leader requires humility and I definitely had to gain some through this internship. I had to realize that I didn’t know anything and the pharmacy employees were here to help me. This taught me how to better deal with different personality types and how to approach situations from different angles. I don’t know if this helped me to change anyone else’s life but mine at the moment, but I gained many aspects of good leadership that I can use throughout my life and career. 

After completing this project, I know that unexpected is okay. Not everyone will do things the way you are used to and you just have to embrace it. This has taught me to be more prepared before starting a project. I hadn’t learned the names of very many drugs or what they do, so my whole first week was full of very avoidable mistakes from lack of effort on my part. Preparation is the key to being a good leader and basically anything else in life. This project set me up for the rest of my foreseeable career. I want to be a pharmacist and this is one of the basic steps to get me started. Because of this project, I became a certified pharmacy technician then got a job as a technician. Through this I will gain real world experience and be more fully prepared for a career in Pharmacy.