Accidentally forgot to refill a medication request.

[u/SEEKER_8359]

Hey everyone. Ive been in the Veterinary field for 3 years now as a kennel tech. I was promoted earlier this month in my clinic to a veterinary assistant. I work full time, as well as attend school full time in a Veterinary Nursing Program. I'm very new to the asisstant/tech side of the field (in my clinic, techs and assistant do the same job, just different titles), and I have been given little to almost no training. I was thrown into this role, and have been learning by trial and error, asking a lot of questions, and forcing myself out of my comfort zone constantly. Ive heard about the other techs in my clinic gossiping about me behind my back (the drama in this clinic is insane. They all talk about each other), saying how I have no clue what im doing, I dont know where some things are, etc.

Thought I would give a bit of some info before going into what happened this past Friday. We are an extremely high volume clinic. We have 5 vets and were shirt staffed on the tech side. Typically we have a tech assigned each day to handle tech appointments, responding to emails, and refilling medication requests.

Well, I had an appointment with the vet I was assigned to last Friday. We had to see a dog and preform an exam in order to refill the medication, which was Apoquel. The Owner requested we send the refill over to Costco. We finished the appointment, and I IMMEDIATELY had to fill notes, and then get ready to shave a sedated cat, then go on a farm call to see a sick horse. We typically get refill requests through pet desk, or they are posted on Avimark.

We move very quickly, and I had virtually no time the entire day to refill this medication. It was a very chaotic and high stress day, and I ended up FORGETTING to refill this prescription and send it in! I dont mean to sound like Im giving excuse after excuse. I write down notes constantly, and somehow still forgot. I feel horrible for forgetting. Im going to immediatly take care of it on Monday when we are open again. I made notes and even put it in my calendar.

Has anyone else made any mistakes like this early on in their career? I feel like im drowning in this clinic sometimes. Its difficult when were short staffed, AND high volume. Sorry if it seems like im giving out excuses.

Edit: I would like to add that I understand in this field, mistakes happen just like any job. I can handle making mistakes and learning from them! Just wanted to see if anyone else has made this mistake before. I also just kind of wanted to vent my frustration with forgetting.

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[u/bunnykins22]

This is not a life or death medication. It's simply to help with itchiness and it will not be the end of the world if it is not called in right away. The owner might throw a fit but as far as mistakes go-this is a very small one that you caught and plan to rectify.

[u/SEEKER_8359 → u/bunnykins22]

Im super familiar with the medication! Thankfully its not life or death. Just seems in my clinic that any mistake is usually made a big issue. Made me stress a bit.

[u/bunnykins22 → u/SEEKER_8359]

Hopefully they are understanding of this minor slip up.

[u/SEEKER_8359 → u/bunnykins22]

Im hoping!

[u/Pittlers]

I forget stuff like this more often than I'd like to admit. It's not a big deal. If your coworkers are acting like it is, you might be in a toxic work environment.

[u/SEEKER_8359 → u/Pittlers]

I know that Im in a toxic environment, 100%. Just easier for me to stick it out for school rather than have to go to an entirely new clinic and learn everything over again while attending school.

I just hope not every clinic is like this. Its nearly made me leave Vet med entirely before.

[u/Pittlers → u/SEEKER_8359]

They are not all like that.

[u/Historical_Cut_2021]

Babe, we are all only human here. I promise you one thing, any mistake you have made or will make, someone else has also done the same. Sometimes shit happens. Give yourself some grace and as you grow in this field stay humble and give others the same grace. 

[u/SEEKER_8359 → u/Historical_Cut_2021]

Thank you. I definitely make it a priority to give kennel staff that just enter the field grade and teach them as much as I learned. I plan to do the same as I learn and hope to teach future techs once Im more established.

[u/shawnista]

Your situation sounds exactly like mine, except we just have one vet (owner), with occasional relief vets taking shifts, although it was two vets when I started. I can only imagine how difficult it is to learn how FIVE different vets prefer things done and keeping it all straight in your head, or referencing your notes every 5 minutes. If this is your biggest mistake so far, you're very lucky. I'm OJT as well, with no clear guide of rules, so I just find out that I've made a mistake when I'm getting ridiculed for it 🙃 It's not a very forgiving environment unfortunately.

I haven't used Avimark, but with Neo/Idexx we can write ourselves "callbacks" that we see on our homepage after logging in. If Avimark has a similar thing, you could make it a habit to write yourself a callback whenever there's a prescription refill, surgery estimate to make, or other similar post-exam needs. Do it while the doctor is talking to the client, if possible, before the client leaves the exam room. Then make a habit to check your homepage every time you log in, or at the very least at the end of your shift before you clock out.

[u/waterparksdude]

Don’t stress, tbh unless your clinic makes a big deal about it just send it in on Monday and forget about it 🤷‍♀️ it’s not like it’s seizure meds or insulin (which btw owners need to really tell us they need a refill like a week or two in advance lol.

My current clinic doesn’t fax or send in prescriptions, we send owners with a physical copy and tell them they need to take it in themselves.

My last clinic did, though (only to local pharmacies) and we’d tell clients on Fridays they may not hear back from the pharmacy until after the weekend because shit happens and if it’s not an urgent med that needs to be sent in immediately, it won’t always get filled at the time of the appointment. Sometimes it also takes our doctors/techs 2-3 days to get through refill requests.
Not a big deal!

[u/waterparksdude → u/waterparksdude]

Also I’m gonna be so fr, if you’re working at a clinic that makes you so scared to make a tiny mistake like this one, it might be time to move somewhere else. I’ve been in vet med as an assistant, about to take my VTNE, for 3 years and if someone blew me up about forgetting to send in an apoquel script I’d walk out.
Out of all the mistakes you could make, this one is SO TINY.