2024-04-18 17:00:24
“When consulting patients at the 24-hour health line, we receive a wide variety of questions. Most of them are related to routine assistance for the use of medicines, resulting from health problems.
However, there are also calls with requests to come to patients and their homes to deal with adolescent health problems or addictions, to perform drug tests, to review the baskets of medications they are taking and to tell them if they are taking them correctly.
In such cases, we offer patients to come to the pharmacy for consultation or refer them to doctors,” comments Vilmantė Mostautienė, a pharmacist at Gintarinės vaistinės.
Patience is often required
Kristina Žemaitytė-Lukošienė, another pharmacist of this network, says that strange situations occur not only when patients contact us by phone, but also when they come to the pharmacy for a live consultation.
“Once a patient asked for cough medicine and stressed that we would not offer ‘chemical’ medicine in any way. After finding out the nature of the cough and offering syrup with herbs, the resident refused it, as the latter is unpalatable to him. Then we offered an alternative to syrup in the form of tablets, but this option also turned out to be unsuitable, since it is not only difficult for the patient to swallow them, but also the tablets themselves are ineffective.
Finally, after being offered a chemical preparation for cough in the form of soluble tablets, the resident replied that this preparation would work best because it always helps him. Patience is really needed in such situations,” she says.
The interviewer shares that once a young guy visited the pharmacy who wanted to buy a pregnancy test, but had many questions that plagued him – how quickly a woman gets pregnant, when a positive pregnancy test “appears”. After the pharmacist explained what tests are available and when the earliest positive answer will appear, the boy kept asking why the test doesn’t show the answer right away, why it takes so long to wait. Then the pharmacist had to conduct a short biology lesson.
Looking for pantyhose and cat food
According to K. Žemaitytė-Lukošienė, people who visit pharmacies sometimes look for batteries, candies with fillings, cat food and are surprised not to find such goods.
“Sometimes, people notice late in the day that they have run out of one or another remedy at home, so they hurry to look for its replenishment. Shops are usually closed at night, so only pharmacies remain. More than once, patients who visited in the dark asked if we had toilet paper, razor blades, pantyhose. We sell compression tights in pharmacies, but visitors usually didn’t need them – they were only interested in simple, classic tights,” says the interviewer.
However, most of the unusual questions are received over the phone. It is likely that uncomfortable questions are easier for patients to discuss at a distance, maintaining at least a minimum of anonymity, but the pharmacist notices that people who call often have questions that have little to do with pharmacy services.
“For example, I recently received a call from a husband who asked to dissuade his wife from a job interview, because the husband does not like the job his wife is applying for. I answered that I cannot and do not have the right to discourage another person from working, and such matters should be tried to be resolved in the family – to express one’s expectations and arguments. The man thanked me for the advice, but seemed a bit confused as to why I couldn’t help dissuade his wife,” she says.
Pharmacists on duty often face unusual questions early in the morning.
“Once a colleague at 5 o’clock in the morning, received a question whether the manufacturer of the drugs used by the patient had not changed in the last 10 years and whether these drugs can be continued to be used. In the mornings, we often receive requests for advice on why it was difficult to fall asleep, why some part of the body hurts after sleep, and how such situations should be dealt with,” the pharmacist assures.
K. Žemaitytė-Lukošienė admits that strange requests occur almost every day, but the most curious situations happen right before or during the full moon.
“It is not clear how much the phases of the moon really influence human behavior, but after several unusual situations or conversations, we always glance at the calendar – maybe it sounds funny, but it is almost always a pre-full or full moon,” the interviewer summarizes.
2024-04-18 17:00:24