Pharmacist laments midlevel mistakes

Originally posted on Reddit. Lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

After working in inpatient pharmacy for a couple of weeks, I’ve barely found any errors with physician orders. Most of the time, they’re just small timing errors that I can fix without contacting the physician. Sure, residents/attendings make mistakes, but they’re usually so minor. Also, residents are there to LEARN, whereas midlevels are already “practicing medicine”.

The amount of errors I found on orders entered by midlevels is absurd. I contact at least three to five midlevels per day about how their orders are not good. Like prescribing oral quinolones for a urinary tract infection in a 97-year-old female with a QTc around 625. The patient was growing E. coli that was susceptible to Keflex...

I had a friend in undergrad who went on to become a chiropractor. He told me that their anatomy and physiology courses are harder than in medical school and that he knows more about musculoskeletal conditions than physicians do; it took a lot of self control to not laugh in his face.

I love all the support for pharmacists I’ve read on here! As a new grad, it really helps me feel welcomed and appreciated. Keep up the fight against midlevels and their scope creep.

Also, I promise that I will NEVER introduce myself as Dr. So-and-so, unlike the “D”NPs.