Hospital pharmacist dinosaurs

[ethyl]

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It seems most hospitals have them. A pharmacist that has been there ~15-20+ years. Their productivity is low and error rate is higher than the other pharmacists. As a result, the other pharmacists pick up a larger portion of the workload. Sometimes these dinosaur pharmacists' have low morale or they're indifferent towards gaining a mastery of their job. How does your hospital pharmacy manager handle these pharmacists? From the trends I've seen, they seem to stay for another decade or more until retirement and the younger pharmacists always get fed up and leave. 😕

 

[rxlea]

Institution specific. I love my dinosaur pharmacists. They know their ****.

 

[Ackj]

It seems most hospitals have them. A pharmacist that has been there ~15-20+ years. Their productivity is low and error rate is higher than the other pharmacists. As a result, the other pharmacists pick up a larger portion of the workload. Sometimes these dinosaur pharmacists' have low morale or they're indifferent towards gaining a mastery of their job. How does your hospital pharmacy manager handle these pharmacists? From the trends I've seen, they seem to stay for another decade or more until retirement and the younger pharmacists always get fed up and leave. 😕

And if there's a union, seniority makes them untouchable too. Fortunately I haven't run into that situation, but I've heard complaints from my peers. I've been lucky enough that the dinosaurs had a combo of technical knowledge and experience, without being slow and complacent.

 

[Sparda29]

My hospital has a lot of dinosaur pharmacists but I love them. They know their stuff and work pretty fast, I like having them on the same shift as me as opposed to having another new hire with me. If you take me and the clinical pharmacist out of the picture, the lowest age is 35 and the highest age is 70 with an average age in the 50s (I'm 25 and yay officially youngest in the pharmacy,, clinical pharmacist is 28). We have pharmacists who have been here 20+ years. Job is unionized also so they are pretty much untouchable.

 

[rph3664]

I'll take a dinosaur any day over a (relatively) new graduate who management decides to crown their Little Golden Boy/Girl, and they are therefore exempt from routine work duties AND disciplinary action. Ask me how I know about that.

 

[winter32842]

It is individual based. Some young Pharmacists are bad and some dinosaur Pharmacists are bad. From my experience, the younger Pharmacist tends to question the doctor more than older Pharmacists. Younger pharmacist has better clinical knowledge than older pharmacist but the older pharmacists have more knowledge about on formulations and compounding.

 

[bw6]

My hospital has a lot of dinosaur pharmacists but I love them. They know their stuff and work pretty fast, I like having them on the same shift as me as opposed to having another new hire with me. If you take me and the clinical pharmacist out of the picture, the lowest age is 35 and the highest age is 70 with an average age in the 50s (I'm 25 and yay officially youngest in the pharmacy,, clinical pharmacist is 28). We have pharmacists who have been here 20+ years. Job is unionized also so they are pretty much untouchable.

Whew.. I read this as un-ionized the first time through.

Medicinal chemistry is taking over my life. 😱

 

[rph3664]

Whew.. I read this as un-ionized the first time through.

Medicinal chemistry is taking over my life. 😱

I took med chem over 20 years ago, and I STILL read the word that way.

When I was taking organic, I saw a reference to the movie "Psycho" and read it as p-s-y and an aldehyde group. 😛

 

[Sparda29]

Director also said that he's trying to hire new grads because that is more likely to promote longevity with the hospital. Hire a 25 year old, and they might be there for 40 years. Hire a 50 year old, and they might only stay around for 15 years.

 

[confettiflyer]

Director also said that he's trying to hire new grads because that is more likely to promote longevity with the hospital. Hire a 25 year old, and they might be there for 40 years. Hire a 50 year old, and they might only stay around for 15 years.

bwahahhahaha

who the hell in Gen Y stays at a job > 5 years?!

 

[Sparda29]

bwahahhahaha

who the hell in Gen Y stays at a job > 5 years?!

Well, when you have multiple people at the pharmacy that have been there since the late 80s who make a lot of money and have crazy benefits and vacation time, it does provide quite an incentive for you to stay there forever.

I love it so far at this place. Only thing that I don't like are the nurses here, but that's pretty much the same at every hospital. Nurses work either 7AM-7PM or 7PM-7AM. We send something at 9PM, they call at 1030PM saying it's not there, when in fact they have already given the 10PM dose and want us to give them the 6AM dose early so they don't have to walk to the pharmacy. (They are supposed to come to the pharmacy for the 6AM dose, they just want it so that they can give it at 4AM-5AM, so they can just leave once the clock strikes 7AM.)

 

[rxlea]

bwahahhahaha

who the hell in Gen Y stays at a job > 5 years?!

Me

 

[hereticmnk]

bwahahhahaha

who the hell in Gen Y stays at a job > 5 years?!

6 yrs.. quit cuz I had to move..