Night shift: Extra Compensation?

[PHARMD_Maybe?]

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I was curious if anyone in here knows how much extra compensation per hour a pharmacist would receive for working the 7 on / 7 off night shift at a Walgreens for example. I hear they get paid extra but the person I was speaking with was uncertain of the $/hr. Thanks to those that know.

 

[htyotispharm]

At CVS, pharmacists that work the night shift at 24hr stores don't get any extra pay. The benefit of working this shift is very little work and having 26 weeks per year off. At my local hospital, the pharmacists are paid a $2hr differential as well as the technicians.

 

[pinkyrx]

I'm not sure of the rate differential, but I've always heard its substantial if you work a backshift like that.

 

[jdpharmd?]

well, since you do nothing at night, I'd say the differential is about $46+/hr. 😀

 

[Lexian]

I think the advantage to working night shifts is the additional time off you receive.

 

[cognito]

As someone who has actually worked night shift at a hospital pharmacy for a few years, I've got to say that sometimes you can make alot more money ($5 an hour extra wasn't to bad when I was a tech). But sometimes you sit and do nothing(watch tv, read... for hours at a time) and sometimes you work like a dog. In general there only 2-3 people on duty at night and when things go down the crapper, they go quick, when the OR heats up and the phones are ringing you work harder then anyone on the day shift. Just my experience, you know, call it an educated opinion.

 

[baggywrinkle]

Walgreens night shift is paid the same as their daylight counterparts but
they only work 76 hours per pay period - all in one week.

As far as not doing anything, my night shift consisted of

filling between 70-130 scripts all by your lonesome & not counting walkins
restocking, cleaning and resetting (mopping up the blood from dayshift)
filing between 400 & 700 scripts daily
inventory control (reordering, quantities on hand, expired returns ect ect)
all compounding or anything else dayshift didn't want to deal with
Baker unit maintenance
putting away two orders a week- some as large as 26 totes

anything else dayshift dumped on us because "we don't do anything" like
moving shelves around or setting the baker units up

 

[Super Glue]

Walgreens night shift is paid the same as their daylight counterparts but
they only work 76 hours per pay period - all in one week.

As far as not doing anything, my night shift consisted of

filling between 70-130 scripts all by your lonesome & not counting walkins
restocking, cleaning and resetting (mopping up the blood from dayshift)
filing between 400 & 700 scripts daily
inventory control (reordering, quantities on hand, expired returns ect ect)
all compounding or anything else dayshift didn't want to deal with
Baker unit maintenance
putting away two orders a week- some as large as 26 totes

anything else dayshift dumped on us because "we don't do anything" like
moving shelves around or setting the baker units up

Close, but not quite (at least in my store).

The graveyard pharmacists typically work a 10PM-8AM shift. They work 1 extra hour on TWO shifts in a given week; making the total hours worked 72. Anything PAST 8 hours in a single shift is overtime.

To help you gauge the flow, my Walgreens fills ~400-500/day. We usually slow down close to 10PM and start clearing out the work que fast. I usually finish all of the morning's due prescriptions by 11PM, so after that, the night pharmacist is free.
Unless there are drugs to be put away (which is also usually taken care of before the graveyard shift), the pharmacist will sit around and fill maybe 5 ER scripts in a busy night. We have a very efficient staff; it is really amazing how well our techs are trained. 🙂

 

[baggywrinkle]

Close, but not quite (at least in my store).

The graveyard pharmacists typically work a 10PM-8AM shift. They work 1 extra hour on TWO shifts in a given week; making the total hours worked 72. Anything PAST 8 hours in a single shift is overtime.

To help you gauge the flow, my Walgreens fills ~400-500/day. We usually slow down close to 10PM and start clearing out the work que fast. I usually finish all of the morning's due prescriptions by 11PM, so after that, the night pharmacist is free.
Unless there are drugs to be put away (which is also usually taken care of before the graveyard shift), the pharmacist will sit around and fill maybe 5 ER scripts in a busy night. We have a very efficient staff; it is really amazing how well our techs are trained. 🙂

I can't add 😳

72 hours. None of that time is at B rate in Florida.

Count your blessings. I worked graveyard in the Daytona district for five
years. It was expected that the que be empty to midnight of the next day and the pharmacy be "pristine" by 8AM. My pharmacy served three local emergency rooms so you would typically run your butt from 10pm to 1am or later depending. Tech coverage went home at 11pm. First thing I would do walking in was dump the que, time permitting. Usually 1/2-1 inch of labels. I'd take a nap at 1AM (lunch) then start work at 1:30. Typically three hours of not looking up. My store started hopping at 6AM so it all had to be done filed and put away by then or it wasn't going to happen. The order was waiting for me when I arrived and what wasn't finished by 8am would be waiting for me the next night. Towards the end it got to where I could get 16 totes almost completely put way in four hours in between handling the morning crowd. We got two orders of that size a week. I hated holiday double orders. 26-30 totes. Literally running the isles throwing the crap up on the shelves. No grass grew under my feet.

I always thought myself fortunate. There were several stores in the Orlando district that had tech coverage to 2AM. That should tell you something about those stores. I called a Tampa store once at 3AM and waited for 10 minutes before a frazzled TECH answered the phone. It was another 5 minutes before I got the pharmacist. That was unnerving.