Boredom in retail pharmacy

[ZakMeister]

1 month as a pharmacist in retail pharmacy and I am already starting to get bored with the same robotic schedule everyday. Being a clinical person, I always look for opportunities to counsel patients and enthusiastically take MD calls with medical queries. However, besides the obvious insurance rejections, DURs and complicated billing which the technicians deal with mostly, I am doing pretty much the same routine task everyday.

I know this is what I signed up for...but just wondering what y'all do to make it more interesting at work in a retail setting? Do you guys moonlight at a second pharmacy job? Do you guys recommend doing certifications courses like smoking cessation etc.?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[steveysmith54]

If you have time to be bored in retail, you have it made... enjoy it

 

[bulldog1123]

I will gladly trade you my retail location. I promise you wont be bored. But thats all I can promise.

 

[PangoPillPusher]

We're a 2 RPh pharmacy, there's no time to be bored, and you have to know how to play technician too.....without being salty about it. Wait until flu season, and ask every.single.patient if they want an EDV with their flu shot. 1+1! You have goals. Do some MTM too.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[PharmNewbie]

When I first started retail there was always something new to learn. Like e.g. what is this new herbal med that they saw on the news and etc..

 

[ZakMeister]

We're a 2 RPh pharmacy, there's no time to be bored, and you have to know how to play technician too.....without being salty about it. Wait until flu season, and ask every.single.patient if they want an EDV with their flu shot. 1+1! You have goals. Do some MTM too.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

Well there are Outcomes and Mirixa which keeps me busy. By boredom I mean repetitive tasks, not necessarily slow. We do about 500+ rx everyday with another rph on staff

 

[ZakMeister]

When I first started retail there was always something new to learn. Like e.g. what is this new herbal med that they saw on the news and etc..

Self learning on new therapies and OTCs are great ways to keep things interesting at work place...but it tends to work better in a middle class neighborhood or people who actuallly come ask for it.

 

[Sine Cura]

Why does work have to be not boring. Work pays the bills and you won't ever get anything out of going above and beyond in retail aside from from the "satisfaction" of minimizing problems

 

[PangoPillPusher]

Well there are Outcomes and Mirixa which keeps me busy. By boredom I mean repetitive tasks, not necessarily slow. We do about 500+ rx everyday with another rph on staff

Welcome to pharmacy. It is going to be repetitive one way or another.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[lord999]

Why does work have to be not boring. Work pays the bills and you won't ever get anything out of going above and beyond in retail aside from from the "satisfaction" of minimizing problems

Because without occupational enrichment, workers start stagnating and blowing their assignments. It's why military watch duty is the way it is to limit loss of focus. Unfortunately, there's two useful solutions to boredom, neither of which are very palatable:

1. Find someone less qualified for a position such that they are busy and not bored. They also put themselves in easily termination conditions such that when you as a supervisor get tired of them, you can take the given excuses to legally sack them. For pharmacists who express boredom, I usually advise RxS staff to rotate them to a more challenging store or hear that as an excuse to cut hours as you're obviously not working your people to their competency level. If they are bored in a "single pharmacist, whole shift store" situation, that's when the sandwich board (or some suitably ridiculous task) comes out.

2. Introduce drama in their life such that work is a refuge and they are happy for a little peace. Two kids will do it. More debt than they can stand will do it. (Sotto voce) Basically, if you find work boring, you should spice up your life a little and go without the birth control where every time is a roulette.

 

[BidingMyTime]

How do people get bored on their jobs? There is always something to do, repetitive or not, you should be too busy to think about being bored. If nothing else, don't you have CE you can do?

Also, FYI, the only reason people are paid to do jobs, is because people don't want to do them for free. That is usually because the job is not "fun", maybe even "boring." Excitement is for hobbies, not for paid jobs.

 

[RxPreceptor]

So bored you are mastering the metrics and how to beat bull**** corporate throws at you? I guess you're not having fun playing somehow "do more with less" (constantly).

There's always reference books and databases to read through if you're bored. Not enough time in college for professors to teach everything thoroughly. I would make up topics/drug classes to systematically go through; whatever interests you most at the time or seasonal stuff

 

[PangoPillPusher]

1 month as a pharmacist in retail pharmacy and I am already starting to get bored with the same robotic schedule everyday. Being a clinical person, I always look for opportunities to counsel patients and enthusiastically take MD calls with medical queries. However, besides the obvious insurance rejections, DURs and complicated billing which the technicians deal with mostly, I am doing pretty much the same routine task everyday.

I know this is what I signed up for...but just wondering what y'all do to make it more interesting at work in a retail setting? Do you guys moonlight at a second pharmacy job? Do you guys recommend doing certifications courses like smoking cessation etc.?

I was thinking about your post today while at work, enjoying the "calm before the flu shot storm". Have you ever thought about becoming more accomplished at the other stations? Particularly RTP when it gets stupid busy.

What about Medicare DME? If you get audited are your patient files going to come out the other side looking good? Find a pet project that you might enjoy and adopt it, especially if no one else really likes doing it. I'm crazy about the inventory and DME paperwork. Find your crazy and let 'er rip, tater chip.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[PangoPillPusher]

Oh yeah and watch Dr Oz and bone up on his current drug dujour. You know someone will come up and say..."Dr. Oz said....." some of it is pretty interesting.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[quickpic007]

1 month as a pharmacist in retail pharmacy and I am already starting to get bored with the same robotic schedule everyday. Being a clinical person, I always look for opportunities to counsel patients and enthusiastically take MD calls with medical queries. However, besides the obvious insurance rejections, DURs and complicated billing which the technicians deal with mostly, I am doing pretty much the same routine task everyday.

I know this is what I signed up for...but just wondering what y'all do to make it more interesting at work in a retail setting? Do you guys moonlight at a second pharmacy job? Do you guys recommend doing certifications courses like smoking cessation etc.?

take up daydreaming and delusions of grandeur.

 

[Lnsean]

Pretend play with your techs...maybe become a knight and ride a dragon or something...or shoot lasers with your fingers and go "pew pew pew"

 

[hye345]

Pretend play with your techs...maybe become a knight and ride a dragon or something...or shoot lasers with your fingers and go "pew pew pew"

I legit laughed at this. Well done sir!

 

[mustang sally]

Welcome to pharmacy. It is going to be repetitive one way or another.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

This! I mean, how many acetaminophen orders have I verified now?

With many more to come before retirement.

 

[Sparda29]

1 month as a pharmacist in retail pharmacy and I am already starting to get bored with the same robotic schedule everyday. Being a clinical person, I always look for opportunities to counsel patients and enthusiastically take MD calls with medical queries. However, besides the obvious insurance rejections, DURs and complicated billing which the technicians deal with mostly, I am doing pretty much the same routine task everyday.

I know this is what I signed up for...but just wondering what y'all do to make it more interesting at work in a retail setting? Do you guys moonlight at a second pharmacy job? Do you guys recommend doing certifications courses like smoking cessation etc.?

When I'm bored, I watch Netflix, go on Youtube, maybe play some Counter-Strike 1.6 on the computer.

 

[Sparda29]

This! I mean, how many acetaminophen orders have I verified now?

With many more to come before retirement.

This is the thing about hospital practice I don't understand. I'd have thought that OTC orders wouldn't have to be verified by pharmacy or that pharmacy wouldn't send up OTC orders (instead they would be kept as floor stock).

 

[BidingMyTime]

This is the thing about hospital practice I don't understand. I'd have thought that OTC orders wouldn't have to be verified by pharmacy or that pharmacy wouldn't send up OTC orders (instead they would be kept as floor stock).

It's a legal issue. Policies have to be consistent. OTC's used to be kept as floor stock, even though pharmacists still had to verify the orders, but now with pyxis/omnicell, everything is in them.