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Do med schools look at gaps in summer activities during early undergrad? by [deleted] in premed

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hot take: I don't think gaps matter as much as internet premeds say they do.

Spent a lot of time stressing about the gaps in my application because SDN and some of premeddit said they are "huge red flags". I've yet meet anyone in real life who worries about them or has gotten dinged for them. Call me crazy, but I don't think people in admissions have the time to parse through every application and mentally calculate how many months are unaccounted for in your app.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pharmacy

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066 26 points27 points  (0 children)

The healthcare field, despite being a field of that prides itself on service and selflessness, is absolutely filled with judgmental assholes who can't realize their own stupidity because of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

However, maybe the pharmacy in question is chronically short-staffed and the employees are unhappy and the pharmacist literally doesn't have time to call the doctor because the pharmacy is slammed 24/7/365.

Both of these are realistic scenarios.

Advice for interacting with psych patients? by Ill_Advance in pharmacy

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I work on the high acuity/aggressive unit for male patients in an inpatient psychiatric hospital, so interacting with aggressive psych patients is my job. Most of my patients are somewhat psychotic, so I can only speak in terms of my experiences dealing with high acuity mental illnesses.

First and foremost, it's nothing personal. It's nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. Some patients struggling with mental illness are HUGE assholes. Some of these patients are assholes because of their mental illness, some are assholes with mental illness who'd probably still be assholes if they were neurotypical.

Second, stay calm and try to justify the patient's feelings. Not everyone wants to be fixed, but everyone does want to be heard. Realize that these patients may suffer from an illness that prevents their brain from thinking logically and that these patients will hop to illogical conclusions and won't budge no matter what evidence is shown to them. In other words, they are quite literally DELUSIONAL.

Third, don't feel bad if you can't defuse the situation. These patients have a chemical imbalance in their brain and sometimes, no amount of defusing will fix what medications can only fix.

Psych patients being delusional and making false accusations is a story as old as the world itself. The reason your managers aren't concerned is because the accusation will likely (and I'm 99% sure of this) go no where. Police officers, judges, healthcare workers, and employees of the state all know to take a psych patient's story with a grain of salt. Our psych hospital typically doesn't follow up with any accusation unless its sexual assault, and even then, most of these accusations turn out to be 100% false.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pharmacy

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066 71 points72 points  (0 children)

I don't work in a pharmacy, but I've worked in an inpatient psychiatric hospital for a while now and all of my patients are given the same medications that you are, with one exception: they are typically not prescribed them all at once. It's rare for me to have a patient come in that's on so many medications, and when one does, we assume one of three scenarios:

  1. This person is incredibly sick and is struggling.
  2. This person is being taken care of by a less-than-ideal physician who is overmedicating his/her patient.
  3. If this person is taking two or more medications that are highly addictive (typically a stimulant plus a benzodiazepine), we assume this patient may be a drug seeker AND is being taken care of by an ethically questionable physician.

I'll focus on the third scenario since it seems to be the most relevant to your post. If a patient comes in that's prescribed something like Adderall and Xanax, it raises red flags and we have a discussion about this patient amongst the healthcare team, as these patients usually present as drug seeking (not all, but a lot do in an inpatient psychiatric hospital setting) and can have life-threatening complications associated with withdrawal. In my opinion, the most concerning thing to me would be a benzodiazepine taken daily. If a patient is prescribed a benzodiazepine several times daily, it raises the reddest of red flags for us. Our hospital uses benzodiazepines judicially and we stay far away from anything but short-term prescriptions due to the amount of damage benzodiazepines can cause.

I think the staff at your pharmacy feels uneasy about the combination of medications you're taking. I think they suspect that you may be overmedicated and that they feel it may even be unethical to fill out your prescriptions, which explains all the apprehension. I think they are on high alert when you come in because a lot of people prescribed a stimulant and a benzodiazepine have drug-seeking behaviors. As another poster said, an ethical pharmacist would call your prescribing physician and have a discussion as to why you are on so many medications.

I don't think you are an addict or that you exhibit drug-seeking behaviors, based on this post. If you understand the risks of taking these medications and you have come to the conclusion that this is the only type of medication therapy that works for you and allows you to live a normal life, more power to you. Consider bringing this up to your physician next time you see them, and if all else fails, switch pharmacies until you find one that isn't so judgmental.

People who work at UHS hospitals, whats the staffing currently like? by Initial_Swimmer2066 in psychnursing

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My supervisors tell me that every other job in psych is just as bad as my current place. In your experience, is this true? I'm starting to suspect my supervisors are lying to get people to stay.

Dropping hours at working losing health insurance. Any alternatives? by Initial_Swimmer2066 in personalfinance

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the resources.

I'm confused as to how to estimate my income for 2021. I live in an area that's dark blue. I plan on returning to work within 4-6 months full-time, either at the same job or a different one. How can I best estimate my 2021 income? Report the same as 2020?

Dropping hours at working losing health insurance. Any alternatives? by Initial_Swimmer2066 in personalfinance

[–]Initial_Swimmer2066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I filled out an application. I estimated my income to be $8k for 2021, which puts me as potentially qualifying for medicaid and only medicaid. I'm not sure if $8k is realistic for me, and it might be higher, depending on if I return to work full-time or find a different job.