Pressure of being a RPH

[rxglasshalffull]

Hi All,
After a few really bad weeks at work (several mistakes were found, made by yours truly), I just feel like getting out of the profession. I want to, I won't, not yet anyway. I just feel really down.

There is A LOT of pressure on us, especially retail pharmacists, I am sure. You have to do 10 things at once while ensuring that you do not make mistakes, and I forget to mention, some pharmacists are not even getting meal breaks.

How do you all cope with this pressure?

I need a vacation, too bad I just came back from a mini one.

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[xiphoid2010]

Hi All,
After a few really bad weeks at work (several mistakes were found, made by yours truly), I just feel like getting out of the profession. I want to, I won't, not yet anyway. I just feel really down.

There is A LOT of pressure on us, especially retail pharmacists, I am sure. You have to do 10 things at once while ensuring that you do not make mistakes, and I forget to mention, some pharmacists are not even getting meal breaks.

How do you all cope with this pressure?

I need a vacation, too bad I just came back from a mini one.

Get out of retail? lol.

But seriously though, med errors should be taken seriously, similar mistakes in an inpatient setting can be much more deadly. So do an RCA on why those errors occurred first and act accordingly, instead of a knee jerk response before you did your homework.

 

[SELDANE]

Hi All,
After a few really bad weeks at work (several mistakes were found, made by yours truly), I just feel like getting out of the profession. I want to, I won't, not yet anyway. I just feel really down.

There is A LOT of pressure on us, especially retail pharmacists, I am sure. You have to do 10 things at once while ensuring that you do not make mistakes, and I forget to mention, some pharmacists are not even getting meal breaks.

How do you all cope with this pressure?

I need a vacation, too bad I just came back from a mini one.

This is truly an instance where you need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off. After having done that do what one of the previous responders just said, find out why you made these errors and focus on how you can prevent such occurrences from happening again. As a retail pharmacist I'm sure you have to do 10 different things at a time, you just need to prioritize which tasks are most important.

 

[trailerpark]

Which retail chain are you with?

 

[Estrace]

I agree with Seldane....... pick yourself up and dust yourself off. You are going to have some good and bad weeks no matter where you work, that's life. Focus your energy on making sure that these errors don't occur anymore. I know that's the hard part especially when you still work under the same stressful conditions.
I just got 2 years probation from the state board yesterday for failure to counsel an undercover investigator and for allowing a tech to perform a pharmacist duty because he had video evidence that my tech told him to take the med twice daily with food. My license is less than 3 years old and I'm still in shock that this happened to me but I'm not going to dwell on it. I just have to work extra hard to stay out of trouble for the next 2 years.

 

[rxglasshalffull]

I agree with Seldane....... pick yourself up and dust yourself off. You are going to have some good and bad weeks no matter where you work, that's life. Focus your energy on making sure that these errors don't occur anymore. I know that's the hard part especially when you still work under the same stressful conditions.
I just got 2 years probation from the state board yesterday for failure to counsel an undercover investigator and for allowing a tech to perform a pharmacist duty because he had video evidence that my tech told him to take the med twice daily with food. My license is less than 3 years old and I'm still in shock that this happened to me but I'm not going to dwell on it. I just have to work extra hard to stay out of trouble for the next 2 years.

at my previous company, a chain, a lot of stores in the district were fined for not counseling on new scripts. i dont know if pharmacists were put on probation though, im assuming definitely some of them. that is why, i counsel, at least personally offer, every single person with a new script. so many undercover investigators out there. and your tech counseling someone....well...you can tell them not to, but sometimes you just cant control that.

 

[Estrace]

I didn't even know he did that until we were at the informal hearing and they produced video evidence. My store is a very busy store and sometimes we are short staffed so counseling on every new script is almost impossible but I have no choice now. I love my job for the most part but for the first time since I started working retail, I considered looking for a non retail job after the state board visit.

 

[rxglasshalffull]

i understand that you are at fault (according to the laws and policies) for your tech counseling, but come on! seriously? there is NOTHING you could have done. like you said, you didnt even know that he counseled. he shouldve been told not to perform pharmacist duties before he started working, and thats it.

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

I didn't even know he did that until we were at the informal hearing and they produced video evidence. My store is a very busy store and sometimes we are short staffed so counseling on every new script is almost impossible but I have no choice now. I love my job for the most part but for the first time since I started working retail, I considered looking for a non retail job after the state board visit.

I would pull that tech aside and make sure he understands the consequences of his actions. How would he like it if he got in trouble for something that he had no knowledge about?

And that's pretty harsh on the state board...you got in serious trouble for something you didn't even know about. What state is this? I'll try to avoid it...

 

[Sunshine98]

You learn real quick the only person who is going to care about you is YOU! Find out what caused the error and put new checks n balances in place for you.

 

[M0df]

Is this TX? Just checked their disciplinary actions page and oh my. That is one place to avoid.

 

[Sunshine98]

Is this TX? Just checked their disciplinary actions page and oh my. That is one place to avoid.

I know a few years back their state board made it mandatory and required either software/proof upon inspection. Usually when 1 state does it, doesn't take long for others to follow. Don't get me wrong, I counsel and the offer is always there, but if you know someone has already got a zpak or been on something for well over a year and nothing has changed, its just going to tie us up even more.

 

[Estrace]

You learn real quick the only person who is going to care about you is YOU! Find out what caused the error and put new checks n balances in place for you.

This is the biggest lesson I learned from all of this. I am the only one responsible for protecting my license. I haven't been able to go back to work since but I'm going back tomorrow. It's time to get up, dust it off and keep moving. It's not the end of the world. Both the tech and the store also got 2 years probation with fine.
This is Texas by the way.

 

[trailerpark]

A tech can't read the directions from a label?

 

[Deja]

A tech can't read the directions from a label?

they can, but counseling is more than just reading from a bottle, although some pharmacist just read from label too... also, counseling is supposed to be another point of check to see if there had being any mistakes, such as when you think the direction doesn't make sense in relation to the drug dispensed, in which case you would go back and double check... I have personally found like 2 mistakes while counseling on medications and took them back to change

 

[molyhelp]

...counseling is supposed to be another point of check to see if there had being any mistakes....

Agree, Reading the label helped.
I rescued a fellow pharmacist when I read the label at selling time and found this instruction:
"Verify with doctor about dosing take 3 tablets a day"

Thank goodness, I never showed it to patient, took back the bottle and papers, verified and fixed everything to be correct before selling again.

I heard of pharmacist not checking instruction line and did not believe such story until I saw that line. I hope my friend is more careful now.
So yeah, at counseling, actually reading the instruction label may help you someday.

 

[atgat1323]

I agree with Seldane....... pick yourself up and dust yourself off. You are going to have some good and bad weeks no matter where you work, that's life. Focus your energy on making sure that these errors don't occur anymore. I know that's the hard part especially when you still work under the same stressful conditions.
I just got 2 years probation from the state board yesterday for failure to counsel an undercover investigator and for allowing a tech to perform a pharmacist duty because he had video evidence that my tech told him to take the med twice daily with food. My license is less than 3 years old and I'm still in shock that this happened to me but I'm not going to dwell on it. I just have to work extra hard to stay out of trouble for the next 2 years.

Jeez. What state are you in? Are you at a major corporation or an independent? I had no idea the boards sent undercover investigators.

 

[Pharmpills]

Hi All,
After a few really bad weeks at work (several mistakes were found, made by yours truly), I just feel like getting out of the profession. I want to, I won't, not yet anyway. I just feel really down.

There is A LOT of pressure on us, especially retail pharmacists, I am sure. You have to do 10 things at once while ensuring that you do not make mistakes, and I forget to mention, some pharmacists are not even getting meal breaks.

How do you all cope with this pressure?

I need a vacation, too bad I just came back from a mini one.

Your story doesn't add up based on your previous post because you have stated that you are out of retail and that you don't deal with stress anymore, etc. I find your posts to be "fishy" to be frank.

 

[winnguyen]

Has this happened to anyone else, an undercover investigator? Disciplinary action from the state board for not counseling? What state? Being secretly filmed? Has anyone else had an experience like this? Holy chit

 

[zelman]

Has this happened to anyone else, an undercover investigator? Disciplinary action from the state board for not counseling? What state? Being secretly filmed? Has anyone else had an experience like this? Holy chit

I'm blatantly filmed all day at work.

 

[BenJammin]

We had a TSBP inspector come to our inpatient pharmacy and he pretty much said that techs can't even ask "do you have any questions about the medication" on new medications. The pharmacist is just supposed to automatically counsel unless the patient refuses.

 

[Estrace]

We had a TSBP inspector come to our inpatient pharmacy and he pretty much said that techs can't even ask "do you have any questions about the medication" on new medications. The pharmacist is just supposed to automatically counsel unless the patient refuses.

Yep, that's what we were told at the informal hearing. For those of you asking, this is in Texas and I work for Walgreens. The day he came to our store, he also went to another Walgreens and both stores got in trouble. Work is 10 times more stressful now because I have to personally walk to every register to scan my barcode throughout the day. Days are gone when I can counsel someone at the drive tru standing at my station. Walgreens has even made it compulsory for every pharmacist to have their barcode in their pocket and your tech can't ask the patient any question. There was a compass on this last week.

 

[rxglasshalffull]

Yep, that's what we were told at the informal hearing. For those of you asking, this is in Texas and I work for Walgreens. The day he came to our store, he also went to another Walgreens and both stores got in trouble. Work is 10 times more stressful now because I have to personally walk to every register to scan my barcode throughout the day. Days are gone when I can counsel someone at the drive tru standing at my station. Walgreens has even made it compulsory for every pharmacist to have their barcode in their pocket and your tech can't ask the patient any question. There was a compass on this last week.

wow thats pretty crazy. walgreens is already so understaffed, i cant imagine you having to do all of that now. thats way too much walking back and forth from register 1 to 2 back to station then to drive through, consultation window and repeat all day every day, while trying to make sure youre not making mistakes AND that techs are not saying certain things they shouldnt say.

 

[M0df]

I don't see the point of having cashiers anymore in places where you have to do this. I guess to say hi and pull rx out of the waiting bin and hand it to the pharmacist. That pharmacist will still need to verify all that needs to be verified at the register.