Tuesday 15 March 2011

Who am I?

Ok.  So I've been thinking a lot about this today.  What has really changed since I've started to get agitated at work?  I started out working in a pharmacy and in a hospital pharmacy during University as a Pharmacy Technician.  So when I became a Pharmacist I came into it with a different view.  Unlike the new grads that I've been seeing over the recent years that come into the profession as a licensed Pharmacist expecting 6 figures, a car, a bonus and thier entire tuition paid for by the company hiring them and just stand at the end of the counter waiting to be handed prescriptions to check and playing on the internet, I had a "tech's" background.

I came into work and WORKED.  I have always been the Pharmacist that did whatever it took to keep the pharmacy running smoothly so that our customers always came in and didn't have to wait for a thing.  I'd come in 1 hour early to put away the stock so that when the techs got to work they could just begin working on filling the prescriptions so that there wasn't a backlog and people waiting for thier medications.  I would file the hardcopies for the techs, pull and process the expired medications, heck, I would even vacuum and dust and do the dishes.  This, on top of my 12 hours shift and duties of Pharmacist or Pharmacy Manager or even Relief/Locum Pharmacist.

Now, for some reason I'm resenting it.  So I stopped doing all the things that us Pharmacists don't do.  I just checked prescriptions and focussed on my managerial duties for 1 whole month.  And guess what?  The store fell apart.  So now, I decided to go back to "pitching in" and resent it.  Why can I do my job AND everyone elses?

You may say, just hire better people.  Well, that's easier said than done.  You've got the union to consider as well as the fact that I live in a small town.  Good staff, let alone any kind of educated staff, is hard to come by.  Then there is headoffice giving you a very rigid alotment of hours for staffing the pharmacy.

So, I can't catch my breath.  I'm seeing it today...I just need to get back to seeing pharmacy the way I used to and "pitch in' but it's hard when you have all these other professional services that have been been added by headoffice and the college...services that I want the time to offer but have no time to offer since we have to keep the store running.

How do I get past this?

1 comment:

  1. Hello!

    I found your blog and was interested in reading some of your posts. I know its been a while, but have you had any success or updates regarding being a pharmacist in a small town? We have some interesting opportunities for pharmacists in small towns, check out our site and let us know if you want to discuss!

    www.telepharm.com

    Good luck,
    Greg

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