Don’t you just hate to hear those with “all the power” to say that they are being pushed to work faster.. If the Pharmacist makes a mistake.. no one at corporate will take any blame for the collateral damage. If Pharmacist collectively said NO… then the corporations have no business plan.. because they only have a permit to operate a pharmacy with a licensed Pharmacists in place.. they don’t have enough “shirts” that have a license to even begin to make more than a very minor number of stores to function…. and it has probably been so long that they have actually practice pharmacy.. that their proficiency in probably in the SINGLE DIGITS…
There was a story the other day about a grader schooler getting Singular 10mg instead of Singular 5 chewable and there was a extra 2 doses in the bottle.. Obviously there was no harm to the kid.. probably more harm to the store’s bottom line.. it has been reported that the Pharmacist was FIRED !
Filed under: General Problems
I am a 40 year old pharmacist working for a chain pharmacy. I am a professional who practices with honesty and integrity. My profession is a subject I feel strongly about. I have caring and hardworking pharmacists and technicians working with me. They try very hard to help me take care of the people and patients in our community. I love being a pharmacist and I love the ways that my profession allows me to help others and make a living doing it. But I am unable to work within the limits that the chain pharmacies seek to impose upon their employees. I cannot take care of my patients with the amount of pharmacy technician help that the company wants me to schedule. I do not feel comfortable shortening employee hours to try to save my company payroll money at the expense of my patients’ safety. I refuse to let them push their work time and payroll controlling policies and procedures on me. The stress levels in retail pharmacies are high enough as it is, and removing much needed help to make payroll bottom lines, is criminal and negligent on the part of the company. It is immoral and unethical to place our patients in danger in the hopes that chain pharmacies can save money on payroll by limiting pharmacy help. I am ultimately responsible to make the right decisions when it comes to helping my patients. And my decision is that of scheduling the correct amount of pharmacy technician help that I feel I need to keep my community safe. Any help I could receive to fight against this, would be welcome.
IMHO…even if there were ‘enough shirts’ being pumped out of the ‘for profit, teach for the NAPLEX only’ schools, seems the chains fire them almost as soon as they hire them. I’ve been looking for some time and the 3 letter chain has numerouse ads for ‘full time pharmacists’ constantly running in Careerbuilder, Indeed and other job boards in my area and all over my state, as well as ‘floater pharmacists’ We all know how they feel about us experienced pharmacists…we want to practice real pharmacy, not robodispensing.
Unfortunately, there are enough “shirts” being pumped out of the FOUR pharmacy schools in Georgia to keep all the chains bursting at the seams with pharmacists. Until we wake up and form a union or guild to help protect us, nothing will change and will probably get much worse. Of course, there is the option of owning your own pharmacy. Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually be professionals again?