I have posted before YOU ARE NOT ALONE in reading and hearing from RPH’s that many of the techs are being encouraged to being stool pigeons.. Collectively, are RPH’s so bad that the company has to have the store staffed with people who like to “report on” what the RPH says or does… Is this isolating us even further… it is intentional or unintentional?? Just focus on the Rx in front of you… don’t say the first word of socialization or try to get the Rx dept staff as a team that works together… rather than all the members of the team are paranoid about all the other members? I guess that we should just “bark out” orders or commands to be followed…
I have always been told… “leave your problems (emotional or otherwise) at home …” How constructive is it for the company to create a (bad) emotionally charged working environment? Especially in the healthcare industry where exactness and focus is extremely important.
Filed under: General Problems
Some states have a rule that may cover this particular area. I am licensed in MS and in their rules and regs there is a section that covers the responsiblities of a PIC. One section states “The PIC of the pharmacy shall be responsible for complete supervision, management and compliance with all federal and state pharmacy laws and regulations pertaining to the practice of pharmacy in the entire prescription department. He/She shall have the cooperation and support of all pharmacy staff in carrying out these responsibilities.” IMO this also covers the area of technicians trying to undermind the authority of the PIC by spying and sabotaging said PIC from complying with rules and regs rather than keeping up with metrics. I wonder how the state board would react to a pharmacist bringing a complaint to the board about such a matter.
I think you answered your own question in an earlier post. You see technicians as not as good as you. Not everyone working in the pharmacy can be an RPH. However, as unpleasant it is to accept, techs and clerks are human. People sense when they are condescended to and will have no qualms in ratting out someone who considers them as some sort of untermensch that must be tolerated. My fave pharmacist was a floater who drove 3 hours from San Francisco. It wasn’t the little box of dimsum he would bring as a gift. It was the fact he went to Princeton and never lorded it over the clerk he was stuck with. He was kind, patient and treated me with sincere respect as a human. I became a CPhT. My current pharmacist states she would rather quit than work with a new technician. A little kindness goes a long way.
@Tekken.. I think that you mis-understood my words.. I love techs, they are indispensable in today’s environment.. Especially for temps/floaters…One thing of major difference between techs & RPH’s is the liability that the RPH has for what the tech does/says.. I will use a tech and their abilities to their fullest utilization… BUT.. a few times, I have worked with techs that have “crossed the line” of what is totally my responsibility and my liability. Some don’t seem to know where that line is.. or don’t care that there is a line. I am a MACRO manager.. I don’t have to know what everyone is doing every minute. They have a job to do and I expect that they do it.. if they have a question, I am always happy to clarify what is going on.. PDM’s that pit staff against one another.. IMO.. have neither the staff, pt/customer or store’s best interest.. If they did have the best interest of all of the above.. they wouldn’t manage the way they do. Having worked for a indy – which I owned one for 20 yrs.. the pts’ trust is more important than the money they spend today in the store.
@PharmacistSteve
I prefer having the lines drawn neatly. I work with two clerks who have had to be told it’s not their place to tell people to eat yogurt with their antibiotics. So I understand your feelings about techs stepping out of place. About using techs as spies. I fully believe corporations would do that. I haven’t experienced it but aren’t most corporations schizophrenic in their management of human resources? I’d still spread the sugar myself. Most techs I know would probably go on your side with little effort. My current pharmacist, well. She helped me through the loss of my youngest son. I kid you not when I say I would give my life for hers. We watch out for each other in and out of the pharmacy.
I cannot imagine working at a pharmacy like that. Where I work everyone gets along well with everyone else. And, I think all the pharmacists and techs enjoy working with one another. There is certainly no ‘tattling’.