Your phone vibrates in the palm of your hand. It’s that automated text message again, the one where your pharmacy tells you that you have a prescription ready. You arrive and wait in the long line that you always see when you’re grocery shopping and watch as the technicians swiftly move around the pharmacy. You sit and wonder what goes on behind the scenes, what they do all day or their opinions on burning issues in the news. Do all the technicians and pharmacists get along because you know from personal experience that there’s always that one coworker who people are collectively not fond of. The technician gets your attention and it’s your turn to go to the counter. Behind the typing of their keyboard, you hear the constant hum of the phone and the laughs from behind the counter that flow throughout the air like freshly baked bread and you continue to wonder.
In reality, I highly doubt when you’re picking up your prescription, any of these thoughts actually pop into your head. In fact, it’s probably the last thing you’re thinking about. However, for the people who have always had that burning wonder, my pharmacist whom I work with in one of the busiest pharmacies in our district, Mary Dileonardo, eagerly answers all of your curious questions.
Our frenetic days, as our leading pharmacist Ray would describe them as, start at the same time every day, when the patients start lining up at eight o’clock on the dot. In our pharmacy, we have two pharmacists working simultaneously and about five technicians. Today, it’s “Mary’s day,” meaning she’s scheduled to work the long shift. She promptly puts on her white coat as her long, wavy brunette hair falls down her back.
Instantly, the phone starts to ring, the drive-thru buzzer beeps and patients form a line at the front counter. This persists all throughout the day and eventually, other various tasks fall into our hands as the day proceeds. Some include typing prescriptions, filling them, fixing insurance claims, filling out vaccine information and answering a million questions. Mary revealed how sometimes she feels like a professional receptionist rather than a pharmacist because half of our day consists of answering phone calls and those one million questions.
For Mary and other pharmacists like her, their days typically consist of strict twelve-hour shifts. However, it has become more common in recent years that they can vary. When asked about how she copes with working long hours, Mary jokingly responded with “Yeah, good question…I still have yet to figure that out…a lot of screaming!” We shared a laugh and she went on to describe how in order to get through the day, she tells herself to remain calm, cool and collected because the more you get flustered, the more prone you are to making mistakes.
On top of work and her personal life, Mary also balances motherhood. As a single mom of two teenagers, not to mention they’re twins, her schedule tends to be hectic. When there is a moment where she could take time for herself, she chooses not to. “I feel guilty,” Mary described to me while she glanced out the window. She explained how there’s just so much to do with the kids that she feels this wave of guilt when she’s behind on things at home, so she doesn’t do anything extra for herself. Her eyes widened when I asked about how working in the pharmacy has impacted her life as a mother. She responded “Oh, it’s definitely very challenging…very challenging, especially for a single mom [who is] working full time. It’s just very stressful.” Despite the twins being teenagers now, when they were younger it was impossible to find childcare that was offered and affordable for twelve hours a day. Mary nodded and expressed gratitude for her parents who helped out tremendously with the kids. She added, “Otherwise, I would not be able to do what I do.”
Out of my own curiosity, I asked Mary how long her maternity leave was and what that looked like overall. Despite everything being a fog, she expressed that because of her c-section, she had a three month leave. There was a point in which she asked to extend it, which was granted. The leave was extended for another three months until her boss at the time told Mary that she had to come back full-time or else she was going to lose her job. I commented that I could not imagine creating a routine with two little babies, only having six months with them and then having to go back to work and handle a twelve-hour shift at a job that requires so much attention and responsibility. Mary responded, “I know, it was exhausting!”
As a mother you also want to be there for every moment, but when you’re required to go to work for the better half of the day, it is impossible to be there for all the big moments. Mary recounts how when her kids first learned how to ride a bike, she wasn’t there. Even something as simple as a sporting event or special occasion, most of the time she couldn’t make it. Due to how our company’s scheduling process works, pharmacists are required to know the days that they want off one year in advance. Then, they request the days that they would like off. However, the majority of the time, those days are not chosen and the pharmacists are usually left with a bunch of random days off. Mary explained to me how it goes by seniority. There were multiple times during the interview where she wished that her career offered a better work-life balance.
Every pharmacist that I’ve worked with, I’ve asked the same question to them: “What was your “ah-ha” moment that made you decide to go into pharmacy?” For Mary, she said that it was her first pharmacy technician job in her first year of college. It was a small retail company, not a chain pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens. “For some reason, I just fell into there, out of
nowhere and that’s where it all started.” I chuckled and added how I felt that that was similar to how I ended up in the field of pharmacy, by accident. In this case, it was a happy accident as Mary showed an immense interest in the ways that medicine could assist people in their everyday lives. The science behind the way that drugs worked fascinated her to a new level, which led her to getting her degree in pharmaceutical sciences.
However, she epitomized that pharmacy school was a “bumpy ride” to say the least. At one point, Mary expressed how school started to take a toll on her and she called her parents to tell them that she wanted to drop out. “Just come pick me up now, I’m done!” Mary said to me as she explained what she told her parents on this particularly challenging day. Mary added “It was one of my rock bottom times, that and my divorce.” She confessed that in Italian culture, the phrase ‘I love you’ is not used explicitly. Descriptions of emotions are often kept hidden and expression of love is done mostly through action. During this hard time in Mary’s college career, despite her parents’ initial confusion regarding the phone call, for one of the first times, they expressed their love through words. “It was kinda a big thing!” Mary exclaimed. They revealed that she should know that they love her, they support her and that she’s got this. With their love and unconditional support, Mary succeeded in completing her five-year bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences.
Mary recognizes that her education came with personal sacrifices, as well as many sacrifices from her parents. Mary’s parents immigrated to America from Sicily, Italy before she was born in order to work towards a better life. Their overall goal was to make a lot of money through hard work and sacrifice here in the States, open a restaurant concurrently in Italy and the U.S and then eventually move back to their native country. After a few years of work, when Mary’s older brother was in middle school, their family decided that it was the right time to go back to Italy. However, he refused to leave and the original plan was voided. The restaurant in Italy that Mary’s parents spent years building, sat vacant for the duration of their time in the U.S. Just as of recently, they finally sold the restaurant, which was previously a challenge due to the economic condition of the country. Now instead of operating the restaurant there, they decided to open up a restaurant locally. Their local restaurant in New York was a success for over forty years, which they also sold recently. “Long life in the restaurant business!” Mary said excitedly.
Moving to a new country was an exceedingly hard adjustment for Mary’s parents. The first reason being because of economic circumstances, as they didn’t come from wealthy families and came to America with almost nothing. The modifications they had to make to adapt to life here in America was another hard adjustment. Running the restaurant here and still hanging on to the restaurant in Italy, their time was spent managing their businesses. Mary classifies this as their biggest sacrifice: the time and work they put in to give her and her brother a stable childhood. Mary also informed me that she felt like her parents’ work at the restaurant caused her and her brother to have to sacrifice parts of their childhood too. Since her parents worked long hours, they would stay with her grandparents for the majority of the day. “Then, at night when my parents were done working, they would come wake me and my brother up and take us home to our beds. So, we were like half asleep. It could’ve been one or two in the morning!” Mary explained to me while she used dramatic hand gestures to express her feelings. She also added that even though her and her brother were allowed to participate in sports, her parents usually didn’t have time to come and watch them. “But, I can’t really complain about my childhood; we had a good upbringing. My parents really provided for us.” Mary said, nodding her head in satisfaction.
All of the hard work from both Mary’s parents and herself does not go unnoticed. The outcome of the dedication that Mary put into her studies was rewarding but unfortunately, working as a pharmacist sometimes isn’t as rewarding as you’d think. Above all, the most rewarding things tend to be the small moments of success such as fixing an insurance claim or counseling a patient on their new medications. In the moment, they make her feel content but when she goes home, she doesn’t typically feel rewarded. Mary always thought that her job as a pharmacist would be a bit more fulfilling. She identified how most of the time the pharmacy is the “middleman” in between the patient and the doctor’s office. This causes us to receive a lot of pressures from both ends of our healthcare spectrum. One of our pharmacy techs, Marcia, who has been with the company for over twenty years also described our work environment as stressful. “…A lot of the time, the problems that are created from one side or the other cause us to be in the middle and makes it a lot more stressful and a lot of the patients don’t realize what’s involved in processing their prescriptions.”
Despite the chaotic environment of a retail pharmacy, some people dream of a fast-paced work environment. “Did you ever dream of being a pharmacist?” I asked Mary as we chuckle together in unison about how I already know this answer. “No, never really.” she responded. After she started to study pharmaceutical sciences in school, only then was she able to see it as a career but prior to that, it was never a consideration. “Yeah, it’s funny because I actually wanted to be a ballerina!” Mary says followed by a boisterous laugh. An exposed fact about her that I did not previously know. Mary depicted her love for dance classes when she was a child, but it was clear that being a ballerina wouldn’t be a suitable career for her, nor a realistic one.
For anyone who is aspiring to become a pharmacist or is considering going into the field, Mary made it clear that there’s a few things to consider. “Oh my gosh, so much advice!” She
says excitedly. First, Mary distinguished how the profession has changed immensely and there are a multitude of challenges that we face every day. These challenges are bound to happen as we try to provide the best care for our patients. Sometimes, things can be going great and then out of nowhere something could happen that might dampen your day. She adds that there will be tremendous amounts of stress for pharmacists and everyone else who works in the pharmacy. “We all feel it.” Mary expressed as she proceeded to describe how she’s starting to notice her own mental and physical strain. Mary glanced down at her notes one final time, exposing her last piece of advice. “So, my advice to anyone who is considering the field is to really think about it and make sure you know what you’re getting into. It’s a great profession; you’re able to help a lot of people. That’s what I really like about it.”
It’s now 8pm and our shift is finally over. Yawns are shared throughout the pharmacy, hitting us one by one. Silence sets throughout the store and all that can be heard is the noise of the air vents that produce dust particles all day. Mary takes off her white coat and proceeds to hang it up on the hook. We close the drive-thru window shade that shields the bullet proof glass and leave the twenty unfilled scripts in the queue. A shared sense of temporary relief descends upon us, as we know we get to do it all again tomorrow with grace and humor. We don’t panic, the scripts will still be there in the morning. “Stay awake, the best part’s coming!” yells Ray with his popular catch phrase. We lock the gates, say goodnight to one another, and prepare to do it all over again the next day.
Agreeing upon the idea that running a pharmacy is a team effort where techs need pharmacists and pharmacists need techs, the term “pharmily” was introduced to our team by our third pharmacist, Melissa. ”Pharmily” or pharmacy-family, can be defined as a group of people who have bonded for better or for worse through the profession of pharmacy. Melissa expressed
that “Our staff relationship is family-like!” One of our newer techs, Michael, pitched in and said “I think we’re all a great team, especially our fearless leader!” We were all caught off guard by Michael’s humorous comment about our leading pharmacist, Ray. After a moment of bickering about his comment and how it does not formally fit the aesthetic of our interview, Melissa jokingly said “Sometimes the techs act like my children when they’re arguing, so I feel just like I’m at home.” After much conversation about the term, our pharmacy team concluded that home truly is where the “pharmily” is.
Sabrina Silvester graduated from Marist College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She also completed two minors in creative writing and women, gender, and sexuality studies. Most of the time you can find her journaling or curled up with an admirable book. Currently, she works as a pharmacy technician.
