Turbulance in the pharmacy job market, It's the economy stupid!

There is a press release from the APHA regarding a study of how the current economic crisis in this country is affecting all pharmacy practice settings. In general most pharmacies are finding that they are having to cut thier budgets which means cutting full time staff and hiring less, which in turn leads to asking pharmacists to do more work with less incentive to do so. And as we have also found out in the past, mistakes happen in pharmacy more often when people are put under pressure to fill scripts without much oversite and under extreme stress which is what happens when you have to cut staff and those remaining pharmacists have to the work of two people instead of one. There is a bright spot in the midst of the storm some pharmacists are being asked to take on leadership roles which may been out of reach before and some are going back to school for more education to help them in the future become more specialized.

Double Jeopardy

It seems that according to a study and report by KOCO oklahoma city news that 80% of hospital bills have errors. Most of the billing errors seem to be double billing or mismatched billing where drugs have been charged for that were never given. It seems like a really serious problem and one that could be easily prevented.

The Vaccinators

It is official 49 states have passed laws allowing pharmacists to administer vaccinations. All except the lonely state of Maine more and more pharmacists are taking the Apha immunization certification. So what does this mean for pharmacists across the country?

Is administering vaccinations something pharmacists would like added to their pharmacy collective pharmacy plate. Well, I guess the answer is yes since as many as 60,000 pharmacists have become certified in the administration of these vaccines. I don't know and really did not know about this till today so please leave some feedback.

I can't get no satisfaction or maybe I can?

I have just read a survey study on the pharmacy profession and job satisfaction. I think it is important to remember that satisfaction with your job is the number one most important factor in taking and staying at your job. If you are not satisfied with your job you tend to be less productive and make mistakes and as we all know mistakes are unacceptable in general but are really unacceptable when you have peoples lives in your hands. Job satisfaction invariably seems to be tied to the "perceived" pharmacist shortage and I say perceived because I get slammed for saying there is a shortage of pharmacists though we do get our numbers right from uncle Sam and other sources. We are finding in some states and specific areas there is a pharmacist glut in the market for example in New Jersey there seems a population of pharmacists who are starving for work. This can be attributed to the fact that 22 hospitals in the state of New Jersey have closed in the past ten years and the fact that a lot of their pharmacy students tend to stay in state. It is an interesting survey study to read please take the time to read and see if you agree with the conclusions.

To be transported to the survey study please click on the post title.