NY Times Article

[solzont]

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A brief article about one pharmacist's experience working night shift.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/jobs/03pre.html?_r=1&8dpc

 

[alterpharm]

I check the orders and pass them to the technicians to fill. If an order doesn’t look right, I’ll page the doctor who requested it and ask about it. When the technicians are done filling an order, they pass it to me to check their work. After I approve it, they insert the medication into our vacuum tube system for delivery to the medical floors.

An emergency gets our adrenaline going. If a patient has possibly suffered a stroke, we’ll get a page to be on alert while the doctor confirms it. If it is a stroke, we’ll get a second page. Then we have 10 minutes to get the necessary medication to the patient for the best outcome.

The only 2 difficulties that I see with her job are:
1.] The night shift screwing up your sleep schedule and seriously affecting your health because there has been some serious evidence to show this.
2.] Standing on your feet, which can be cured with a backstrap and work shoes.

Other than these 2 things, I really don't see how her job is so hard...pardon me if I sound insulting, but I do appreciate that she does some (but very little) intellectual work.

And I know that no one cares about my opinion, but seriously the techs are doing most of the strenuous labor.

 

[bigpharmD]

The only 2 difficulties that I see with her job are:
1.] The night shift screwing up your sleep schedule and seriously affecting your health because there has been some serious evidence to show this.
2.] Standing on your feet, which can be cured with a backstrap and work shoes.

Other than these 2 things, I really don't see how her job is so hard...pardon me if I sound insulting, but I do appreciate that she does some (but very little) intellectual work.

And I know that no one cares about my opinion, but seriously the techs are doing most of the strenuous labor.

And your basis for this is what? How many night shifts you pulled as a pharmacist? In fact how many night shifts you pulled period? I have done a few and I know WVU has done a few. I did mine in a 300 bed teaching hospital with 3 ICUs and a BMT unit. I was the only pharmacist in the hospital. You wanna talk about adrenaline rush? Man it was nuts some nights. ICUs and many floors do not shut down at night. Residents feel like they have to write orders all night. If it wasnt for not seeing anyone for a week I would have done it full time. This post is complete BS...techs doing most of the work my a$^. I had to pull them off the internet and their cell phone.

 

[type b pharmD]

The only 2 difficulties that I see with her job are:
1.] The night shift screwing up your sleep schedule and seriously affecting your health because there has been some serious evidence to show this.
2.] Standing on your feet, which can be cured with a backstrap and work shoes.

Other than these 2 things, I really don't see how her job is so hard...pardon me if I sound insulting, but I do appreciate that she does some (but very little) intellectual work.

And I know that no one cares about my opinion, but seriously the techs are doing most of the strenuous labor.

there is some evidence that melatonin reduces or eliminates health problems due to night shift work

2.. how is this different from any other pharmacist job?? since when did people become so lazy?

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Nights can be easy...but if one thing goes wrong, it very easily snowballs into a mess. You don't know stress until you have multiple (legit) emergent cases happening at the same time on multiple floors...and you are all alone...nobody to call for help...just you and every dang patient in the hospital.