GoodRx.com • 13th October 2021

What Is Lifestyle Creep, and How Can Healthcare Professionals Avoid it?

Healthcare is a calling, but there’s no doubt that most graduates of healthcare programs are interested in earning a substantial salary after graduation. As a matter of fact, the top 10 highest-paying jobs in the United States are in healthcare.

GoodRx.com • 11th October 2021

Unpacking the Community Pharmacy Structure in Japan

Community pharmacies are the ones that dispense medications to patients who are not hospitalized or in nursing facilities. I’ve always been interested in how community pharmacies operate in other countries because it gives us a chance to view our own system in a new light, exchange ideas, and find opportunities for improvement.

GoodRx.com • 27th September 2021

Strategies for Paying off Medical School Student Loans

It costs a lot of money to become a doctor. According to recent statistics, the average medical school graduate owes an astonishing $241,600 in total student debt. This, combined with the fact that many graduates defer student loans during residency, means that doctors just entering practice face an uphill battle to pay off their debts, despite having high salaries.

GoodRx.com • 23rd September 2021

How to Manage Your Growing Income as a New Healthcare Professional

For those of us who have trained for years to work in healthcare, the rigors of training likely haven’t left much time to consider our financial future. Yet this is a critical piece of post-graduation planning that is equally important as finding a job or choosing a specialty.

GoodRx.com • 8th September 2021

How to Tackle Professionalism and Social Media as a Healthcare Professional

Social media has connected us in ways we could have never imagined. The explosive popularity of Facebook, founded less than 20 years ago in 2004, has transformed culture globally, and in fact many people use several social media platforms.

GoodRx.com • 2nd September 2021

How Healthcare Providers Can Overcome Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccination

Although there are adequate supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, our vaccination rates are not nearly high enough to stop the pandemic. Until then, we’re at risk of surges in infection rates along with a higher possibility of new variants emerging. It is critical that we overcome the current vaccination plateau and work to increase vaccinations. In this post, we’ll look at ways we can overcome barriers to vaccinating the public.

GoodRx.com • 18th August 2021

OTCs vs. Dietary Supplements: What's the Difference?

In a recent post we talked about discussing the differences between brand and generic drugs with our patients. Perhaps equally important, but also less appreciated by many patients, is the difference between over-the-counter (OTC) medications and dietary supplements, which make up the majority of items stocked in pharmacies. In addition, they are often found next to each other on the shelves with similar labeling, making things even more confusing for patients.

GoodRx.com • 13th August 2021

What to Know About Pharmacy Technician-Administered Immunizations - GoodRx

The authority for pharmacy technicians to administer immunizations has come on fast. The first state to approve technician immunizations was Idaho in 2017, and other states have quickly followed suit. As pharmacists and also pharmacy technicians, we know that technician roles are expanding and technician-administered immunizations are here to stay. But most boards of pharmacy are not yet allowing technicians to independently administer vaccines.

GoodRx.com • 28th July 2021

World Hepatitis Day: How Pharmacists Can Play a Part

Hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, is most commonly caused by a virus, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that millions of Americans are living with viral hepatitis and most don’t know they are infected. The most common types of viral hepatitis are hepatitis A, B, and C; the CDC has created a great visual guide with the basics of each one.

Patient Care Online • 15th July 2021

Mental Health & Cardiovascular Disease: What's the Link?

Anxiety disorders are extremely common mental health disorder in the US, experienced by nearly 1 in 5 Americans in any year and nearly 1 in 3 Americans over the course of their lifetime. Symptoms are both emotional (eg, restlessness, irritability, feelings of apprehension) and physical (eg, tachycardia and shortness of breath, urinary frequency and diarrhea). Subtypes include GAD, social anxiety disorder, PD, and phobias.

Patient Care Online • 8th July 2021

SGLT2 Inhibitors: 4 Questions Go Back to Basics

The sodium glucose contransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) are a relatively new class of medications, less than 10-years-old; the first approval was for canagliflozin (Invokana) in 2013. Since then, they’ve become a mainstay of treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) including addition to professional society treatment algorithms; the SGLT2is also have demonstrated significant benefit in other health conditions in patients with and without T2D.

GoodRx.com • 8th July 2021

Preparing for an On-site Insurance Audit at Your Pharmacy

On-site insurance audits are a routine event that most community pharmacists will encounter at some point in their careers. Unlike Board of Pharmacy inspections, which are typically unannounced, insurance audits are usually scheduled and pharmacies are notified in advance. This is a huge advantage, because it gives them time to prepare for a smooth audit.

GoodRx.com • 8th July 2021

Behind the Scenes: Billing and Payment of COVID-19 Vaccines

The pandemic isn’t over. Even if your pharmacy hasn’t started giving COVID-19 vaccines yet, there is still plenty of opportunity to support this historic initiative. As of June 9, there were 140.44 million people fully vaccinated in the United States out of a total population of 328.2 million; 63.8% of adults have received at least one dose, and kids 12 and older are now able to receive the vaccine. In addition, it is very likely we are going to need boosters in the future, and pharmacies will be critical in that effort.

GoodRx.com • 16th June 2021

How to Discuss Brand vs. Generic Drugs With Your Patients

All of us who’ve been in practice for a while have taken care of patients who insist on either a branded product or a specific generic manufacturer for at least one of their medications. As pharmacists, it’s important not only to be on top of the differences and similarities between these, but also to communicate this information to patients in an effective way. Let’s explore ways we can discuss branded and generic products with our patients.

GoodRx.com • 10th June 2021

What Pharmacists Need to Know About the 340B Program

The 340B program doesn’t seem to be mentioned much in pharmacy schools, yet it is a great business opportunity for community pharmacies and also a nontraditional career path for many pharmacists and technicians. I hadn’t even heard of the program as a community pharmacist until I started working in an outpatient pharmacy.

GoodRx.com • 7th June 2021

4 Side Gigs for Pharmacists

Since I started my side hustle in medical writing, I have come to realize that it is essential to diversify income sources. Few companies have all their revenue coming from one product, and virtually no investor would recommend having everything in just one type of investment. Yet many people are fine with all their income coming from one source. Even if you’re drawing a high salary, a layoff or an unforeseen situation where you are cut off from that income will result in earnings going to zero.

GoodRx.com • 4th June 2021

3 Soft Skills Every Pharmacist Needs

Pharmacy schools traditionally have focused on providing students the clinical skills and body of knowledge necessary to safely enter practice after graduation. This is, of course, critically important and should make up the bulk of pharmacy education; however, pharmacists who have been practicing understand that real life requires more than that.

Medium • 19th May 2021

These 3 skills will open the doors to non-traditional pharmacy

When many pharmacists talk about developing their skills or advancing careers, they often talk about it within the context of clinical knowledge and skills: pursuing board certifications, moving into a more ‘clinical’ role (though I think it’s time to stop using that word), or taking certificate courses to enhance clinical knowledge. While these are all excellent pathways, in this post we’ll look at other, nonclinical career-enhancing skills that are often overlooked.

Patient Care Online • 6th May 2021

Preventing Medical Errors: Pandemic Lessons Learned

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a surge in demand for health care, leading to widespread shortages of PPE, staffing, hospital beds, and more. During this time, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) issued a report that raised concerns about the alarming conditions, which one nurse described as ‘pandemic nursing,’ and which was increasing the risk for errors.

GoodRx.com • 5th May 2021

The Pros and Cons of Being a Floater, Staff Pharmacist, or Pharmacy Manager

In my first job out of school, I worked as a float pharmacist for a national chain and was fortunate to be in an amazing district, where I learned a lot and had great experiences in numerous stores. After about a year, I got the chance to pursue my dream and move to Hawaii, where I worked for about 8 months as a staff pharmacist at a long-term care pharmacy, and then later became its manager. I’ve managed a couple of different pharmacies since.