They don't give us enough hours in the pharmacy. We have the staff to work, but are constantly understaffed due to the tight budget. I work just enough hours to maintain full-time status most of the time, and this subject is very important to me so that I can pay my bills and keep my benefits. I worry that I will fall below the minimum in my 12-week average because there have been times where I couldn't be scheduled a full 30 hours in a week.
All of us are extremely overworked and burnt out, and have been since the Covid-19 outbreak. Horrrible outcomes for patient care, since vaccines were made the only priority. We stayed late many times since we'd only have 1 h and 30 mins to properly fill prescriptions otherwise. It did not help that patients were extremely cruel during this time. I made a huge stink about it and got it reduced to max 60 appointments per day from 80+; better than nothing. They tried to increase again but our RXM at the time sent an angry email about it. They finally picked up the call last year. I mention this because it defined our attitudes, wellbeing, and the way we operate presently.
Now we have microfullfillment locations that fill our maintainence medications. It's not a perfect system, but it helps. I've also seen many situations where it is more burdensome to the patient, because they will make several trips. We do have a system called Save A Trip Refills, but it does not work in practice. I've personally tried my best to make it work, but the biggest barrier is insurance. You can put in all the overrides you want and most won't take it.
Additionally, our volume has significantly increased, with no increase in hours. Plus, they want us to worry about our revenue. That is not a store level employee problem. We can only do what we've always been doing: Our best. We can't just drag people in or forcibly give them vaccines.
Then we are nagged about the 10 mile long to-do list not being done when all we have time to do is take care of our patients. We prioritize and do what we can off of there, even a little during patient interactions and at any free moment.
