Magic White Coat

 

   The shyest girl at my high school in 1986 was me. You'll have to take my word for it. The picture that was taken to mark to occasion is not in my possession.

   It occurred to me as I marked the milestone 30th anniversary of being a licensed pharmacist in Minnesota that it is rather weird for a person so shy to end up in a profession that requires a lot of talking to people. As an rock solid introvert, my choice also seems very odd. 

   I did my hospital internship in a small hospital 60 miles away from Fargo. It wasn't bad but I spent most of my time in the basement of the hospital filling cartridges with medications for patients and practicing putting medications into IV bags. The highlight of my day was going up on the floor to check the IV bags of patients to make sure they were not running out. It was a good experience, but I was bored. I had spent the previous three months in a busy retail pharmacy in Moorhead and liked it a lot. I quickly decided that retail, now called community pharmacy, was where I wanted to go.

   It doesn't make sense, I know. If I had chosen hospital pharmacy or even clinical, that was just getting started then, it would have made more sense. I would not have had to interact with the public that much. I would have needed a couple extra years of schooling in order to go into clinical pharmacy and hospital pharmacy, as I said before, bored me. So I got a job as a community pharmacist.

   I also discovered the secret to why I was able to handle dealing with people and talking to strangers even being very shy and introverted. It's the white coat. The magic white coat.

   In pharmacy school you are given a white coat. These days there is a special ceremony where pharmacy students are given their coats. (I admit I'm a bit envious, that wasn't done when I was in pharmacy school.) In my day, you were simply given your coat, your nametag and your internship assignments.

   When I started my first rotation in the busy community pharmacy, I found out something I didn't know about the white coat. I never realized that the white coat is magic. When I had my white coat on I could do things that I never did before. I could talk to strangers without fear. I could call doctors and ask when questions without getting nervous. I could deal with all sorts of people and be just fine. I expected to be nervous and scared during my community rotation. Instead, I had a very good time and I found what I believe I was called to do.

   I discovered to my delight that the magic is not only in the first white coat. Every white coat I have ever owned it magical, even the ones I bought that do not look like the white coat of a medical professional. I've been grateful for the power of my coat especially when I've had to counsel men on certain medications and have difficult conversations with customers.

   There is another benefit to the white coat. I'm unrecognizable without it. There have been many times when I have seen a customer someplace outside of the pharmacy and have not been recognized. They may give me the "I know you but I don't know how" look but they do not know exactly who am. That was a great benefit to me when I worked in smaller towns and ran into customers frequently. 

   I no longer depend on the magic of my white coat. In fact I have had two jobs where I've been asked not to wear it. (It can intimidate people and hinder communication.) When I work on Sundays I do not wear my white coat. I'm still able to talk to people and do my job just fine. I've been doing this long enough that it is no longer hard. Still, I'm grateful I discovered the magic of the white coat when I first started out. I'm not sure what the last 30 years would have been like without it.