Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A calming environment

We have a yellow lab as our family pet. He's about ten years old. He started as an indoor pet, but my wife and one of my sons started having allergy symptoms so the dog was moved outside.

He remained outside for the past seven years, but a couple weeks ago we decided to bring him back inside. Actually, our daughter cried and cried until we caved in. A trip to the groomer to get a haircut and the dog is back inside.

When he was younger, he was rambunctious. Now he just lays around. When I'm sitting in my chair, he will come over and put his head on my lap. After petting him for a little bit, he will lay down again. The kids will go over and use him as a pillow and watch the television.

He likes it. He's getting the attention that he has missed over the last several years. Since he has come back into the house, he has been a calming influence. The boys aren't arguing as much. I find that I'm not yelling at the kids as much either. It's like the dog is our family tranquilizer.



Makes me wonder if having animals around the pharmacy department would have the same type of calming effect.



Maybe not dogs.




Maybe some fish.



A couple larger fish tanks. Some color schemes that bring tranquility to the pharmacy instead of the bright white paint with fluorescent lights that gives the pharmacy a bleak appearance. I see blues and greens around the fish.

Perhaps a Tuscan color scheme could be brought to the pharmacy. Canned lighting. Maybe artwork on the walls that has some accent lighting.



Anybody works in a place like this? What's it like?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

My 10 year-old Eskie that started out in our home as a frisky yapper has 'tamed' and developed her own nanny influences over the years. She is an expert judge of character, very sweet and loyal and smarter every day.

My husband asks me each morning before I leave if I think anyone would mind if she were my assistant for the day. She would love to be there in the thick of things, bringing order to the chaos, I'm sure. All of us in the dept. have dogs and we love to share stories about our loyal companions.

pharmacy chick said...

thanks for bringing your dog in! I think all dogs should be inside dogs. Once I did a quick relief at one of ourstores. I was shocked when I went inside to see a giant fish tank. Good grief. totally against company policy but it was very cool. dunno how he got away with it, but it was a shock!

Morgan Parker said...

There is a pharmacy in Boise, Idaho. One of my classmates works there. I'll get back on the name...

It looks awesome. I was jealous of it's interior design.

Morgan Parker, Pharm.D.
rockmorg@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

i have a small,rural, independent pharmacy and a wonderful ten year old black lab. he comes to work with me on the occasional saturday and all the patients and especially the children love to be greeted by him and his wagging tail! it really is a calming influence!

Mike, RPh said...

Like anon @ 3:34, I work at a rural independent, we have fish tanks as well. One of the technicians brings her dog to work (especially on the weekends) and I bring mine a few times a week. The patients love it. We all dress casual every day of the week, and we have enough help that we can chew the fat w/ patients about sports, politics, local happenings, etc. I have never seen a patient base so at ease and so comfortable -- and I really think the "dress code" and the animals have a lot to do with it!

Anonymous said...

Our state does not permit us to have any animals in the pharmacy area itself. :(

bulldog said...

I used to have a bulldog that I brought to my store regularly, folks loved him and all he wanted was to sit near people. We called him the drug dog, just strolling around the aisles, laying in the floor of the pharmacy sleeping, snoring, it was the greatest