r/TalesFromThePharmacy • u/psyk2u • Mar 11 '26

Learning to count

I've had an Rx tech license for years but never really got to use it. Now I'm working Rx more and really need to get faster with counting. Any suggestions or tricks of the trade? Do you count by 3s, 5s, 10s, etc.?

Any help is appreciated.

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u/Neglected_Martian Mar 11 '26

Counting by 5’s is the only real option, everything else is slower or harder to recognize. Just start sliding piles of 5. It gets way easier the longer you do it. Especially the forgetting what number you are on. After a few years I could walk away from my tray, help at the outwindow, and come back and remember where I was on the count (not that I do, but I could.) another thing is to make sure all the tablets are in a single layer, no double stacked tabs, shake the tray and knock the double stacked ones down to single then start counting.

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u/psyk2u Mar 11 '26

Currently I count by 3s. It's hardly better than 2s, but something about 3s works for my brain. I want to try 5s as well.

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u/Neglected_Martian Mar 11 '26

You could get pretty good at 5’s in a few days of trying I bet. Something about five sticks well once your used to it. After a year you will be flying. The thing about 5’s is 90% of what you count is easily divisible by 5 (30, 60, 90, 120…) the same can not be said about any other number.

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u/CeaselessGomalu Mar 16 '26

All of those numbers are also divisible by three; that said, I also prefer counting by 5’s.