- I ate one anchovy, and that is why I did not eat two anchovies.
- I got a belt on that's holding up my pants, and the pants have belt loops that hold up the belt. What's going on here? Who is the real hero?
Friday, January 21, 2011
A Dry Tribute to Mitch Hedberg - Comedian
- I ate one anchovy, and that is why I did not eat two anchovies.
- I got a belt on that's holding up my pants, and the pants have belt loops that hold up the belt. What's going on here? Who is the real hero?
Pharmacy Tech Regulation Update
Ok, now this is a partially annoying topic to rehash again...well I haven't talked about it much on here.
At the beginning of this year, the Pharmacy Technician name has officially and legally become a protected title, like Pharmacist, Doctor etc. We are now called Pharmacy Assistant. A number of techs in the pharmacy I work at were and are still ticked off about that change. It feels like a demotion, even though our job descriptions and pay don't change.....yet. Some techs are taking the change literally and wanting to not do 'technician' duties like CIVA mixing, Chemo mixing, and order entry. But the same techs who said that are still doing those duties.
Anyways, since this name change we've all had to get our name badges changed to reflect "Pharmacy Assistant". Lots of complaining over that too.
So let me lay out the history of this regulation change:
The College of Pharmacy in Canada has put together a regulation process that will certify/regulate Pharmacy Technicians. There will be specific job descriptions and a pay increase. The HUGE downside to this process was the College hadn't figured out the whole process before rolling it out. First there was an Evaluating exam for those techs who didn't go to an accredited tech school....that was me. So I forked out $325.00 for the exam, which I passed. Now I'm enrolled in the Bridging Program which consists of 4 modules. They are called: Pharmacology, Management of Drug Distribution, Professional Practice, and Product Preparation. I challenged the Drug Distribution course by writing an exam, $125.00. I'll find out in wks if I pass. I'm doing the Pharmacology course online because there aren't any in-person classes offered in the north...no one to teach them up here! So that is another $360.00. The Professional Practice and Product Prep are also offered online, $425.00 and $360.00. To top off those costs, the text book was $85.49. Now I also had to register with the College of Pharmacists of B.C., that was $246.60. So that's been paid now too. Not all of these costs have been paid off yet either.
Total = $1927.xx.
Another exam that's to be written is the Ethics and Jurisprudance exam and that'll come with the Professional Practice module. Then the final exam, Qualifying Exam, will conculde this process, then we're regulated.
BUT the kicker is.... unless we are hired into a 'regulated pharm tech' position at our workplace, we are STILL called a pharmacy assistant.
The frustrating things about this process is when it was first available to start doing, the 4 modules weren't even completed and available to the techs. They said we could do the Evaluating Exam or modules in any order....well the modules weren't even ready to be set out for us. They became available after almost 10 months....we think the deadline to be regulated, under this particular process, should be extended by that lag time. We have until 2015 to complete the process.....after 2015 the assistants who will go through this regulation process will have an additional step.
So while our union, College and Director of Pharmacy figure out how many pharm techs will be hired and what the pay wage will be, we'll plow through the exams and courses.....WITH no guarantee of a pay raise or regulated pharm tech job!
At the beginning of this year, the Pharmacy Technician name has officially and legally become a protected title, like Pharmacist, Doctor etc. We are now called Pharmacy Assistant. A number of techs in the pharmacy I work at were and are still ticked off about that change. It feels like a demotion, even though our job descriptions and pay don't change.....yet. Some techs are taking the change literally and wanting to not do 'technician' duties like CIVA mixing, Chemo mixing, and order entry. But the same techs who said that are still doing those duties.
Anyways, since this name change we've all had to get our name badges changed to reflect "Pharmacy Assistant". Lots of complaining over that too.
So let me lay out the history of this regulation change:
The College of Pharmacy in Canada has put together a regulation process that will certify/regulate Pharmacy Technicians. There will be specific job descriptions and a pay increase. The HUGE downside to this process was the College hadn't figured out the whole process before rolling it out. First there was an Evaluating exam for those techs who didn't go to an accredited tech school....that was me. So I forked out $325.00 for the exam, which I passed. Now I'm enrolled in the Bridging Program which consists of 4 modules. They are called: Pharmacology, Management of Drug Distribution, Professional Practice, and Product Preparation. I challenged the Drug Distribution course by writing an exam, $125.00. I'll find out in wks if I pass. I'm doing the Pharmacology course online because there aren't any in-person classes offered in the north...no one to teach them up here! So that is another $360.00. The Professional Practice and Product Prep are also offered online, $425.00 and $360.00. To top off those costs, the text book was $85.49. Now I also had to register with the College of Pharmacists of B.C., that was $246.60. So that's been paid now too. Not all of these costs have been paid off yet either.
Total = $1927.xx.
Another exam that's to be written is the Ethics and Jurisprudance exam and that'll come with the Professional Practice module. Then the final exam, Qualifying Exam, will conculde this process, then we're regulated.
BUT the kicker is.... unless we are hired into a 'regulated pharm tech' position at our workplace, we are STILL called a pharmacy assistant.
The frustrating things about this process is when it was first available to start doing, the 4 modules weren't even completed and available to the techs. They said we could do the Evaluating Exam or modules in any order....well the modules weren't even ready to be set out for us. They became available after almost 10 months....we think the deadline to be regulated, under this particular process, should be extended by that lag time. We have until 2015 to complete the process.....after 2015 the assistants who will go through this regulation process will have an additional step.
So while our union, College and Director of Pharmacy figure out how many pharm techs will be hired and what the pay wage will be, we'll plow through the exams and courses.....WITH no guarantee of a pay raise or regulated pharm tech job!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Imagine Christmas
On Christmas Eve there was a Christmas production called "Imagine Christmas" at church. My sister Caitlin and bro-in-law, Brad, were both in it. Caitlin was one of the dancers and Brad was an angel....if you look at the pic of the 2 guys...well one guy and the other's boots, well the boots belong to Brad. I was sitting in the balcony and couldn't see him unless I watched the screens on the sides of the stage.
The production wasn't like any I'd ever seen and I've seen ALOT of them in all my church-going years. This one is kinda hard to explain but if you wanna check out a promo video, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVdp9s3a7Y (copy & paste it). There was amateur ariels done by 2 girls who were angels. They were in hoops and flipped around. (In one of the above pics there's a bit of a blurry pic of one of the ariel angels.)
It was all done very well....a very artsy take on the Christmas story. The whole production was about 45 min long. The music was all live, not recorded either.
After that, our family and one family friend, Rebecca, went to Caitlin and Brad's for our annual stocking opening and goodies. I have pics of those too but not too many worth posting. Christmas was quite different as I had to work on the 25th so our main gift opening time was on the 26th. Next year will hopefully be back to normal.
Catnip is Our Drug of Choice
I gave Loomis and Coco each a toy, one with catnip the other without. Both cats LOVE catnip toys! The mainly lick them but occassionally when the spirit moves them, there is intense kicking of back legs at the toy or tossing it around.
Only a few days later did both toys disappear. And they're still gone. Huh...
Handcrafted Cards
I made these cards from a card 'workshop' in my Close to My Heart card design book. No Christmas cards were made, but rather generic year-round cards. I ended up giving these cards as a mexican gift exchange gift on Dec 22nd at the Vanderhoof pharmacy Christmas get-together. (I thought it was the best gift exchanged). They were fun to make but at that time I really didn't have much resources to really spice up the designs on them.
Now I have a Cricut Create (cartridge to still arrive), embossing heat gun with powders (7), and a sticker maker. I'm totally set up for full-on scrapbooking/crafting.
Eclairs anyone?
On Dec 6, 2010 my dad and I baked eclairs aka cream puffs. Let me tell you the whole story.
During Nov & Dec, when dad came home for a few days between trips, him and I picked out a dessert recipe and baked. I assisted while he attempted the majority of the baking. The first time we baked chocolate souffle. That was interesting. When the final product came out of the oven, it fell. The dish didn't fall, the souffle fell in the dish. We don't really know what the final product was supposed to feel/taste like but it was edible.
The second time we baked coffee cake. That turned out good. Who knew the batter would be sooooo thick that when dad was putting it into the pan, he was able to hold the spoon of batter about 24" above the pan and it wouldn't fall into it.....had to shake it a bit for it to let go of the spoon....super thick batter.
The third time was chocolate eclairs. They turned out scrumptious!! They were the most work. Before we attempted these, dad found a 'how to' video on YouTube which helped to understand the instructions better. I did the hard part of mixing the dough....ended up with a blister on my finger from the spoon too. Anyways, we added some green food colouring to the whip cream that we squirted into the puff. They were awesome!
During each baking session, a video was taken via my camera. We didn't take any pics (except for eclairs), just made videos. I tried to upload onto YouTube and Facebook but failed all times. Wonder why? Oh well...I enjoyed baking with my dad. Kinda like 'father-daughter' bonding time. Although there were no personal conversations involved, we baked together and my dad gained some new experience.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Killing Time
My first post of 2011. I'm at work, it's 3:35pm and I'm done work in 25 min (yay). On this computer I am able to post pics as the 'insert image' function works so I deduced that it's my computer that's having issues.
Since 2010 is done, I will start to put together my next blog book that will contain 2009 & 2010. I also expect to not have to pay for it as I have a credit to Picaboo still. A nice quiet day would be prime for starting the book.
I'd also like to put together a blog entry about "2010 in Review". It may contain stories from around the world as just Canadian stories aren't enough to describe 2010. Gonna need another day of quiet to research those stories.
I don't have any resolutions this year....then again I never made any in the past....I think they're made to be broken anyways. If I had one it would be to lose weight and continue on with making/taking adventures on a yearly basis.
I don't have an adventure planned for this year, but since bungee jumping didn't happen last year because of the 'job changes' maybe it will happen this year? We'll see. I would do it in Whistler and I would hope one or two of my 'southern' buds would join me. Any other adventures? Hmmmm.... Sky diving is done, river rafting is done, ziplining is done (2x).....IDEAS PLEASE!
Well that's the end of my first blog entry....18 more min till I'm done work.
Happy New Year
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