Clinical Hospital Pharmacist shifts

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Rattlergirl53

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Just curious do you guys have to rotate weekends, staff, take call?

Or do you some of you have a cushy Mon- Fri no weekends hours.

I'm a clinical pharmacist myself and I'm just trying to see if my shifts are the norm.
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Yep. I rotate, every 2nd-3rd weekend and it can be any shift, including graveyard by myself with no tech.
 
At my hospital all pharmacists are "clinical pharmacists" and most work every other weekend. We do 4 10s.

As a "clinical pharmacist specialist" per my contract I work every 3rd or 4th weekend (depends on staffing needs) but will occasionally do every other if it gets me the weekends I want off.

I don't mind working weekends all that much because a) no management (not that they're much of a bother to me, personally, but the vibe is better in the main pharmacy) and b) more weekdays off.
 
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Because I'm a specialist in the ED my usual hours are 12-2230, which has its own impact. Our icu specialist works 06-1630.

The specialists do 1-2 staffing shifts in the main pharmacy per month and have random project days scheduled in.

The way we do our schedule we never have a shift uncovered (vs friends who are specialists at academic centers where there is someone on call, but no one directly supervising their floor when they go on vacation) which has its pluses and minuses.
 
Same... all pharmacists are clinical pharmacists here, hybrid of staffing + clinical duties as decentralized. We do keep one pharmacist in the main pharmacy for legal reasons/to sign things. All shifts are rotated through (all pharmacists are equally able to rotate through intensive care, cardiac, other units, etc...). Therefore also all PM shifts are rotated through, as well as weekends (average 1 every 4 weeks only because we have tons of people to volunteer to work weekends).

We do have "focused" specialty pharmacists that usually work the ICU's and other focused areas, but they rotate around and rotate weekends....more infrequently than our new PGY-1 trained new hires (<5 years on the job), though. Only our overnight crew is fixed, and they want to stay there.

We also have a handful of clinical pharmacists that are attached to projects within the department, so we get project/admin days mixed in to work on those.

Differential is generous so no one really complains too much.

tl;dr = there's no such thing as "staffing vs. clinical" pharmacist where I'm at, everyone rotates.
 
njac said:
At my hospital all pharmacists are "clinical pharmacists" and most work every other weekend. We do 4 10s.

As a "clinical pharmacist specialist" per my contract I work every 3rd or 4th weekend (depends on staffing needs) but will occasionally do every other if it gets me the weekends I want off.

I don't mind working weekends all that much because a) no management (not that they're much of a bother to me, personally, but the vibe is better in the main pharmacy) and b) more weekdays off.
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njac said:
At my hospital all pharmacists are "clinical pharmacists" and most work every other weekend. We do 4 10s.

As a "clinical pharmacist specialist" per my contract I work every 3rd or 4th weekend (depends on staffing needs) but will occasionally do every other if it gets me the weekends I want off.

I don't mind working weekends all that much because a) no management (not that they're much of a bother to me, personally, but the vibe is better in the main pharmacy) and b) more weekdays off.
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My job clinical pharmacist work every other weekend and we do 8 hour shifts. I wish we did 10 hour shifts so we could have more days off.

Plus I really only get two days off in a row on my off weekend. The other two days are random days during the week and are rarely back to back.

I don't know our pharmacist staff is small I'm starting to think larger staff/ hospitals where there are more people to cover shifts is better. My hospital is about 300 beds.
 
Oh and I also don't mind the weekends as well because like you said no management so the environment is more chill.
 
Rattlergirl53 said:
My job clinical pharmacist work every other weekend and we do 8 hour shifts. I wish we did 10 hour shifts so we could have more days off.

Plus I really only get two days off in a row on my off weekend. The other two days are random days during the week and are rarely back to back.

I don't know our pharmacist staff is small I'm starting to think larger staff/ hospitals where there are more people to cover shifts is better. My hospital is about 300 beds.
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Not really a clinical pharmacist per se, but I used to have the exact same schedule and I thought it was tiring! I'm probably just a big baby, but only getting two days off in a row every other weekend really got old for me after awhile.
 
Rattlergirl53 said:
Oh and I also don't mind the weekends as well because like you said no management so the environment is more chill.
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Nice. Our weekends are super stressful, because we're on a "bare bones" staff, and still have to do everything that has to be done during weekdays.
 
again - we are all "clinical pharmacists" I hate that title. But some of us are more clinical than others in our staffing - such as myself. That being said, we all rotate every 4th weekend. Newer people work more second shifts / third shifts.
 
I work every other weekend with a random day off during the week. It's very exhausting.
 
The job I took is every 4th weekend with usual 8-4 hours M-F.
 
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For those that work every other weekend, do you get to make up those days during the week or do you only get 4 days off for the month? If the latter, that sucks! 🙁
 
Rattlergirl53 said:
Just curious do you guys have to rotate weekends, staff, take call?

Or do you some of you have a cushy Mon- Fri no weekends hours.

I'm a clinical pharmacist myself and I'm just trying to see if my shifts are the norm.
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I work in a hospital ( I don't know if that counts as a clinical pharmacist) I work 50% evenings and days and every other weekend.
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
For those that work every other weekend, do you get to make up those days during the week or do you only get 4 days off for the month? If the latter, that sucks! 🙁
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That's a ton of overtime.

I work 4 days a week. Sometimes on request they'll stitch my days to give me 8-on-6-off depending on other requests.
 
confettiflyer said:
That's a ton of overtime.

I work 4 days a week. Sometimes on request they'll stitch my days to give me 8-on-6-off depending on other requests.
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That's pretty nice! I get 2 days off to make up for working the weekend, so hopefully lots of 4 day vacations in my future.
 
again - we are all "clinical pharmacists" I hate that title. But some of us are more clinical than others in our staffing - such as myself. That being said, we all rotate every 4th weekend. Newer people work more second shifts / thur
Sparda29 said:
Where do you guys all live? I don't see any of this in NYC/Long Island hospitals (in terms of shifts, rotating schedules).
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southest - but other hospitals in thea area have less rotations, but that means less flexibility in using my 7 weeks vacation.

In the midwest where I went to school you were either all frist or all second
 
Dred Pirate said:
again - we are all "clinical pharmacists" I hate that title. But some of us are more clinical than others in our staffing - such as myself. That being said, we all rotate every 4th weekend. Newer people work more second shifts / thur

southest - but other hospitals in thea area have less rotations, but that means less flexibility in using my 7 weeks vacation.

In the midwest where I went to school you were either all frist or all second
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One clinical pharmacist to rule them all!
 
Special snowflake here....M-F 8-4, no evenings, no weekends, no holidays.

The rest of the pharms rotate shifts every other weekend.
 
Same as karm12. Pediatric clinical pharmacist. M-F, 6am -330 pm. Off all weekends and holidays
 
I actually would rather work weekends. Ever try to _________ on a Saturday?

Maybe I'll change my mind in 5 years, but if I ever have to show up to the demolition derby that is Costco on a Saturday afternoon again, I just might run my cart into a bulk pile of artificial cheese and try to drown myself.
 
confettiflyer said:
I actually would rather work weekends. Ever try to _________ on a Saturday?

Maybe I'll change my mind in 5 years, but if I ever have to show up to the demolition derby that is Costco on a Saturday afternoon again, I just might run my cart into a bulk pile of artificial cheese and try to drown myself.
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For half the year I totally agree. I would rather work the weekend and have days off during the week. Try going to see a new release movie on Friday night versus the following Wednesday. Place is a ghost town. Now, once football season starts I change my mind.
 
Sparda29 said:
Ugh, I don't know how you guys can work that early.
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The day just drags when I start late... and I can never get anything done because I'll sleep in and wake up in time to go to work, and by the time I get off nothing's open except 24hr fitness.

I'm not a morning person, either. But...I'd rather just push through and leave work early.

But you're Sparda...in NYC...so that's like the perfect schedule for you, hahah.
 
confettiflyer said:
That's a ton of overtime.

I work 4 days a week. Sometimes on request they'll stitch my days to give me 8-on-6-off depending on other requests.
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I work 8 on 6 off, all the other pharmacists rotate based on needs and availability. We do 4 10 hour days per week except for the midnight crew.
 
I'm a Monday through Friday guy, normally 830 to 6ish, but no defined "shift". I'm on a consultant service, so I don't work weekends, but my colleagues who are specialists on primary services rotate through weekends. They fill the roles traditionally covered by mid levels / housestaff, so all clinics and rounding services have to be covered every day.
 
I agree it is nice to have a weekday off to get things done but I still dislike working weekends.

Amb care clinical pharmacist: M-F 8-4, salaried though so sometimes I stay late and sometimes I get out early. Overall I probably work 40-45hrs/week. No holidays, weekends or nights, the clinic is closed so I couldn't work those shifts even if I wanted to. Will eventually reduce to 0.6-0.8 FTE as to have 1-2 weekdays off per week: 3 8hr days then 4 days off, now that is my kind of schedule!
 
I can't remember what thread it was from, but I'm at my per diem job and on my 84949584th Union mandated break for the day.

Seems unnecessary, but I use them to walk stairs so I don't have to waste time at the gym later.
 
njac said:
I can't remember what thread it was from, but I'm at my per diem job and on my 84949584th Union mandated break for the day.

Seems unnecessary, but I use them to walk stairs so I don't have to waste time at the gym later.
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How do your supervisors enforce that you take breaks? We have mandated breaks, but no one takes them because they don't want want to fall behind and stay late (also illegal).
 
bacillus1 said:
How do your supervisors enforce that you take breaks? We have mandated breaks, but no one takes them because they don't want want to fall behind and stay late (also illegal).
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I just took 1 hour and 20 minute dinner break and came back to all my work caught up. 🙂
 
Found out today that I'm only working M-F, no weekends. :banana:

Did kind of want those comp days to have a 4 day weekend though.
 
Mixed bag here

7 on 7 off ED evenings means every other weekend
ICU/NICU people do weekdays only, rare holidays
Rest split between central and upstairs decentralized and do a mix between 8s,10s and all do every 4th weekend

As we grow its hard to decide who gets hired for the princess shifts that dont take weekends. Theyre becoming rarer.

I job share but even my evening part time shift has its pros and cons. Shopping on a tuesday morning > * Plus if the kids are sick Ive got time to get it handled before work. But I saw my 3 year old for a whole five minutes this morning before dad took him to "school." You cant win.
 
msweph said:
My ideal job is a good mix of evenings and day shifts with the occasional weekendthrowwn in the mix
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I interviewed for one of those. I think it would be tough to start your day at 6:45AM half of your days and end at 11PM the other half.
 
bacillus1 said:
I interviewed for one of those. I think it would be tough to start your day at 6:45AM half of your days and end at 11PM the other half.
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I finish at my real job at 2230 and then have an hour commute home. I often start at my per diem job at 0700.

The 5 hours of sleep is totally worth being off work at 1530 for what essentially feels like a day off.


There's benefits to both. I am not a morning person so a 5 day a week 0700 job would kill me not so slowly. But working until 2230 4 days a week is tough on the social life.
 
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