Feeling unsure

[KJRod]

Hey everybody! I am in need of some perspective. I am a nursing student and clinicals will be starting in the spring. I am pretty much at the beginning of the nursing program.

But here is my deal...

Today was my last day as a pharmacy technician. I decided it was time for me to part ways with this job in order to really focus on my studies. However, I feel as though I struggled the entire time working as a technician, which was about 2 1/2 years altogether. Yes, there were things that I was great at but there were also many things that never truly clicked for me. Therefore, my confidence is shaken.

This feeling of incompetence is causing me to worry about my future as a nurse.

If you have been through this or have any advice to offer, I would love to hear it.

[Silly_Sally_RN]

May I ask what you felt never really clicked? It might help us give more directed advice.

The unknown is scary and your feelings of uncertainty are certainly understandable. I knew I wanted to teach and I knew I didn't want to work full-time on my floor any longer, but as the start date of my educator position grew closer, I thought to myself "The floor's not really that bad." It was because I knew the floor; I was one of the nurses with longevity on my unit and had seniority. But once I started my new position, I knew it was the right decision.

[KJRod]

Hi Silly_Sally_Rn,

I mostly struggled with multi-step processes that involved some sort of problem solving. Most of the time it had to do with insurance. And often times, the rejection messages were so vague that it was like a guessing game. But I worked with experienced techs that knew the system so well that they always knew what to do. Moreover, there were different overrides that we could put in for certain claim issues, but they were all multi-step processes that I seemed to always forget.

I would forget some of the steps involved in Bin Rack, which was the process of scanning all the rxs we had ready in the bins and comparing it to what the system said we actually had ready. The hands-on part of actually scanning the rxs was fine, but I would get tripped up as soon as I had to continue to the next steps.

There are a lot of little details that go into pharmacy work. Many little things one has to remember. And I didn't work on a consistent basis because of school. Therefore it was easy for me to forget things.

I think part of my issue had to do with how I learned at the beginning. I barely wrote anything down and it was a lot of information being handed to me. I thought I was maintaining it all but there always seemed to be a missing piece to the puzzle. It's almost as if I should write down directions for myself because having people show me over and over again doesn't help me remember.

[TheFutureChoice]

Hello! I am a pharmacy Tech who WANTS to transition to nursing. I am looking to advice myself! I think you will be fine as long as you think about the steps before a script ends up at a pharmacy- Symptoms, testing, diagnosis, treatment plans, etc. YOu are gonna be learning everything that goes on behind the scenes. Horray!!!