It's wonderful that we're doing this, and this is our duty. "Like, it's 1 o'clock, and I've done 14 Covid vaccines this morning, in between filling prescriptions.
"Right now, it's just so crazy," she said during a shift break on her third day vaccinating. Pharmacies have already begun to vaccinate around the country, but many pharmacists said they're worried about how much additional staffing they'll get to give vaccinations. In stores that don't, the company will provide additional staff support and limit the numbers of appointments. They and the trade group representing all chain drugstores also said technology improvements have freed pharmacists from many routine tasks in recent years, allowing them to focus on the safety and health of patients - their top priority.ĬVS said the majority of stores giving Covid-19 vaccinations will do so through a dedicated team of pharmacists working only on vaccinations. In statements to NBC News, they said that they are grateful for the work their pharmacy staffs have done during the pandemic and that they are hiring thousands of additional staff members to ensure that pharmacies have the support and resources to administer Covid-19 vaccine shots and provide the best care for patients. Walgreens and CVS, the country's largest pharmacy chains, were early government partners in the vaccine rollout. Working conditions and workplace pressures have led to "growing concerns from many state boards of pharmacy" about prescription errors, Carter said. Pharmacy errors can range from smaller mistakes, like miscounting the number of pills in a bottle, to potentially deadly ones, like missing a dangerous drug interaction. The more overworked they are, the more likely they are to make errors, he said. "That's a huge concern for pharmacists' well-being but also, more importantly, for patient safety." "Pharmacists are being asked to do additional tasks and aren't necessarily receiving the assistance that they need from their employer," said Al Carter, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, a nonprofit that represents state pharmacy regulators. But they've worsened during the pandemic, pharmacists said, with new duties like Covid-19 testing, deep cleaning and now vaccinations stretching them even further. The pressure and understaffing issues aren't new, as The New York Times reported last year. Declining profit margins for pharmacies, corporate consolidation and an influx of new pharmacy school graduates in the past decade have led to stagnant or falling wages and fewer employment options, according to pharmacists, experts and recent studies. Most pharmacists spoke anonymously out of fear of losing their jobs. From 12-hour shifts so busy they don't have time to go to the bathroom or eat to crying in their cars every day after work or lying awake at night worrying about mistakes they might have made while rushing, they described an industry of health care professionals at the breaking point.
NBC News spoke to 31 retail pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in 15 states. Now Covid-19 vaccinations are raising new concerns about what will happen if they aren't given enough additional support for yet another responsibility. They're working faster, filling more orders and juggling a wider range of tasks with fewer staff members at a pace that many say is unsustainable and jeopardizes patient safety. Jerominski is one of an estimated 155,000 pharmacists working at chain drugstores who, over the past decade, have found themselves pushed to do more with less.
These days, she is exhausted and often overwhelmed, worried about making a mistake when someone's health is on the line. There were more staff members and more time to counsel patients about their medications. When she began working as a pharmacist 13 years ago, it was a very different environment, Jerominski said.
0 kommentar(er)
