NC "Pharmacists for Life"

http://www.wral.com/news/4410490/detail.html

I foud this article on the web recently and was completely disgusted. Pharmacists in North Carolina are rallying together to keep the morning after pill away from the public! These pharmacists are refusing to dispense the morning after pill (levonorgestrel) and traditional birth control pills because the whole idea of birth control goes against their religious beliefs. These people knew what they were getting into when they were still in pharmacy school....aaargh.

I am a pharmacy technician myself, and I was considering becoming a pharmacist in the future, but now I second guess my decision...if people like this get their way, how can I knowingly become a part of their community?

 

I can only shake my head in disbelief. Shocking.

Ben

 

This issue is getting hyped beyond belief:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/28/EDGJNCFT2Q1.DTL

While I appreciate the gist of her column, I almost fell out of my chair when she labeled RU-486 as "contraception."

 

Feel that? Do you?? That's the cool breeze coming from a frozen Hell.

I have to agree with Huck on that one. RU-486 is NOT a contraceptive. It's an abortifact. Contraceptives prevent conception and the Morning After pill prevents implantation.RU-486 sheds a pregnant uterus and it's contents.It causes a miscarriage of sorts.

I do not think that RU-486 should be available OTC or through a pharmacy. It should only be administered by a doctor and the monitored by the doctor. Which currently, it is. You go to the clinic.You take the pill and go home. Once you have expelled the contents,you go back to the doctor where he/she checks for completion and makes sure you won't hemmorage.They know you are on the drug and if you end up in the ER, your records can be reached in time for the ER staff to properly treat you.

These drugs can be very dangerous.Not all women are able to safely take them and they can cause blood loss,strokes,even death to the woman.


There are just some things that the average person should not be allowed willy-nilly access too.A powerful abortifact is one of them.

I could see serious abuse potential happening if RU-486 ever became so easily accessible.

 

because we need pharmacists like you! you can work to change the things you dislike, from inside the system where your voice can be heard. you can also back up the things you believe in. if a state says that it is the pharmacists decision on whether or not to adminster birth control, for example, we will need as many pro-birth-control pharmacists as we can get. i'd much rather have a pharmacist like you than one who would deny me my yasmine.

 

MANY pharmacists do what they are supposed to. BUT they are not there to diagnose illlness or make judgements about the treatment patients are gettting.

I have had my run ins with phamacists who "don't beleive" in treating chronic pain the way my doctor treats it (of course none of these people HAVE chronic pain) and have actually had legit prescriptions turned away by ignorant pharmacist who make judgement calls about patient care, and they don't have the medical training to do that.

If a pharmacist feels he or she can't fill ALL prescriptions a DOCTOR writes, they should get into an other profession. They aren't "treating" the patient, they are there to follow the doctor's orders. If they think a medication is not correct, they can always call the doctor for an explaination, but to QUESTION a medical doctor's decision or to let their religious beleifs prevent them from doing their job is NOT the job of a pharmacist. Not in any way or shape.

 

FTR, you can't get RU687 at the pharmacy. This is a completley different drug than "Plan B."

 

I know...I was just agreeing about the RU-486 comment.I don't think they should be OTC or pharmacy-available like how PP is lobbying for.

Pharmicists should administer the prescriptions and shut-up about it.

 

RU-486 is not something I believe should be over the counter, it is far to dangerous for someone to use without direct medical supervision. Plan B on the other hand, is safe and effective. It is essentially just a very high dose of your everyday birth control pill.

Maggie-I understand where you are coming from with the chronic pain problems. I've got fibromyalgia and pharmacists would quiz me on why I had narcotic perscriptions-I'v even had pharmacy employees tell me my scripts were fake...and proceed to call my doctor to try and "catch me in the act" of forging a script. Jackasses. I suppose a tattooed/pierced young girl cannot possibly suffer from chronic pain.

I can also see the other side of pharmacists questioning the need for certain scripts. Many times patients will be seeing several different doctors and do not tell each one what medications they are on. It then becomes the pharmacists responsibility to have certain drugs changed or eliminated so that there are not any harmful drug interactions. Ultimately it is the pharmacists ass on the line if Joe Schmoe has a fatal drug reaction that could have been prevented.

 

I think I understand what you mean, but I have to disagree with what you actually said. . .

The oath pharmacists take is to protect the public. Requiring pharmacists to fill every prescription they are presented with severely limits their ability to fufill their professional and/or legal obligations. It most certaintly IS the pharmacists job to question EVERY prescription a doctor writes (well, not necessarily physically question, but at the very least carefully consider). Pharmacist serve as the last defense for the public before receiving potentially harmful drugs, as well as being highly accessible healthcare professionals. Adverse drug reactions and interactions are the fourth leading cause of preventable death/injury in this country. Pharmacists ARE very qualified to provide and monitor treatments. The way pharmacy is practiced in this country is what prohibits it. In some countries, doctors diagnose, and pharmacists prescribe. This is also commonplace in many hospitals. In this country, doctors insist on having complete control.

That being said, I don't think that it is a pharmacist right to impose their own morals onto their patients, and I think most pharmacists agree.

 

Hmm, I don't know about every one. There are situations where a Rph needs to make sure a prescription is legit. Or make sure there are no interactions with other medicines. But some pharmacists do this too much. (I once walked into one pharmacy where they had a sign that they "confirmed with the physician all Scheduled drugs." That is going a little overboard. (Not to mention making the patient wait and all the extra work for the pharmacist.)

I think there needs to be more tolerance towards pain patients and contraception taught in pharmacy school. I have had the misfortune to run into pharmacists who thought their job was a Jr DEA agent. When I was taking small amounts of pain meds during my last pregnancy, the pharmacist told me "my wife was told not even to take Tylenol when she was pregnant." This dude was an idiiot. And I am not his wife. He proceeded to call my neurologist to "tell him I was pregnant." My Neuro said he knew, and knew the meds were safe, this dude (the pharmacist) wasn't happy, so somehow he found my OB and tried to "tattle" to him My OB was livid that this dude was bothering him with 1) A drug he knew I was taking and approved of my taking it and 2) wasn't even the prescribing doctor. (And when I asked the pharmacist about calling my doctors he LIED and said he didn't and the doctors had his name and the day he called!)

Needless to say, I switched pharmacies at the first opportunity.

GOOD pharmacists don't need these warnings, but when it comes to anything controversial like pain meds or morning after pills, some (not all) pharmacists NEED some more education.

I consider you one of the Good Guys, Photo, you know that. But the bad pharmacists make all look bad. THEY need the education and tolerance training.

 

AND extra work for the doctor! Usually, such a sign is only a scare tactic, and not really a policy. Either way, I don't agree with doing it. Mail order, however, usually does do this.

I agree that there should be more education on pain, and pharmacists are often their own worst enemies!

 

One thing about my mail order pharmacy (as much as I really hate it) they are really tolerant of pain meds. No problems filling them at all. They also have a service where any pharmacist at a local pharmacy sees your screen and all the meds you are on when they log on to get insurance approval of a medication. This helps prevent interactions, and also the local pharmacist knows what you are also getting from the mail order. I know not all mail order pharmacies are connected with insurance companies, so they don't all do this.

 

So I'm confused by the original post and I am moving to Raleigh in August. Am I going to be able to get my birth control at the local pharmacy or not? I didn't realize that a pharmacist had the ability to refuse to fill a script simply because they don't believe in contraception.

 

Maggie, this is a marketing ploy used by all mail order pharmacies. Your community pharmacist CANNOT access the mail order records. Mail order will send a very small message if an interaction occurs, and it appears on the screen when the technician accepts payment from the insurance and prints the label. The pharmacist RARELY ever sees this message, and it is not a "hard stop", requiring an overide, so it is usually misssed.

Be sure and update your community pharmacist regularly with a list of meds you receive through the mail, and ask them to make a record of them on your profile for DUR screening.

 

Yes, you will be able to get your contraceptives filled. There is a very small group of pharmacists, both nationally and in Raleigh, that refuse to dispense them. Pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill any prescription for just about any reason, though the overwhelming majority are very professional, and only refuse a prescription if they believe it would likely cause harm to the patient. If a pharmacist ever refuses your prescription, you should as them to document their reason on the back of the Rx, sign and date it, and put the pharmacy name and phone number on it, for your own records.

Good luck to you! I hope this situation resolves itself quickly. It is making all of us look like idiots with an axe to grind.

 

Bear, don't worry, if you haven't had any problems filling your prescription, you most likely won't now.

In my state the govenor just signed a law that pharmacist MUST fill all BC prescriptions, including Plan B, or face their licsening being taken.

Here is the thread. I am so proud of our Gov.
http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81912

Photo I will have to look into what you said. I was at the pharmacy once, and there was a "fill in" who gave me a hard time about my prescription, and I told him that I WAS on a "preventative" (he said he was going to have to 'educate' my doctor on how to treat my condition LOL!) I only get that preventative from the mail order, and he pressed a key and said "Oh I see that." He was able to access my mail order only files. I have no idea how it works, though.

My home pharmacy knows everything I am taking, even without the computer screen on. I do want to remain healthy.

 

I think that it's reasonable to require pharmacists to fill BC prescriptions, or at least provide referalls to willing pharmacists, since hormonal contraceptives can have many possible medical uses. However, this is not true of "Plan B," and pharmacists should not be required to have any role in dispensing it. "Freedom of choice" is a 2-way street.

 

When you take on a job, you are required to do what is expected of you. You have the "choice" of doing something else as a living, if your job may require you to do things which you don't morallly agree with.

I quit a job, years ago, at a home for autistic children, because I thought the "negative consequences" they used on the children were immoral. I voiced my opinion and realized that that was what was expected of me. SO I got an other carreer.
There are pharmacists who don't "beleive" in pain medication. There are some who don't want to fill antianxiety drugs. What about Pharmacists who follow Dianetics and their Anti-psychiatry stance? Should they be allowed to refuse to fill antidepressants and antianxiety drugs and antipsychotics, because their "morals" are against people taking these?

You choose your carreer and KNOW what comes along with it. If you are an RpH or a PharmD you fill the script, end of story. Regardless of your personal views on the drug or the people who require it.

 

A pharmacist should intervene from a professional viewpoint. For example, if a doctor prescribes two drugs, that don't go well together. Things like that happen accidentially, and it's good that there is a second check up, as PhotoGra said.


But a Pharmacist should not intervene for personal/moral viewpionts. Morals are often a personal thing, and one should not try to be a missionary for one's morals in a job, that requires being highly professional, such as pharmacists, doctors and so on.

And to me, a pharmacists that doesn't "believe" in pain medication, looks really unprofessional to me. These medications have been proven to work, and are approved by authorities. However, I believe it is the pharmacists duty, to care that these medications are not misused/overdosed. But this can simply be made sure with a talk with the prescribing doctor.

If somebody is so much into morals, and "believing" about medication, he/she surely did choose the wrong job. Maybe being a priest or religous worker would have been better, but not a scientific thing like pharmacist.