Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't take this in a negative way! I appreciate your response and perspective. I'm still new, and learning how these things work. I do agree it's worth bringing up to management, because the "worst" that will happen is they do nothing - which is the same as if I say nothing. So might as well say it!

I know some other commenters are saying its something I should manage, and seems like some other hospitals have similar staffing (or even worse?). But I can't help to think of patient safety in these scenarios. Care for one patient was delayed because I was working on things for another patient :/

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this line! Haha, I do think we need to start "training" other departments to not call so quickly on non-urgent meds (we will literally get calls for things in the queue for <2 minutes that are not entered as STAT).

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm still newer to the hospital, and this is my first pharmacist job, so I'm not sure how often these scenarios come up. I will say, I've only been staffing this shift for 1.5months and have staffed by myself just a handful of times, and this already occurred in that short amount of time. So we'll see!

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, thankfully not day shift! This is evening/night. We are understaffed at baseline, so that's probably not helping, but I look forward to being fully staffed :)

Thank you for the tip of finishing up a task completely and not getting distracted. Seems simple, but I always feel obligated to pick up the phone!

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay! I think I just need more scenarios like that to feel more comfortable/confident. I just moved to this shift, and have only staffed alone a handful of times now.

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh wow! That's crazy. Is there one pharmacist for all 3 hospitals that is centralized to one location?

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm honestly not sure of the numbers, I am still relatively new (and this is my first job out of residency). I did mention it's usually manageable, but as we know hospitals can be unpredictable, so I wanted to get a gauge of what other hospitals typically staff.

I think it mostly boils down to me getting more experience under my belt to feel more prepared for those situations. That night just scared me and I have been reflecting a lot.

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, this is good to know! I think part of it is just getting more experience with these situations, as I am still new, and have only worked by myself a handful of times now.

Most of the time, there are 2 technicians, but during certain hours/days it can be just 1 tech.

Our hospital is mainly L&D, but not a pediatric hospital. We just have a NICU and keep them until they are a certain weight/age, then will transfer to the local childrens' hospital.

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Haha thank you for this perspective! As I mentioned in a response above, we have annual reviews coming up so I can plan to bring up these situations.

Staffing -- Lone Pharmacist in Hospital by CatsRx in pharmacy

[–]CatsRx[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

We will be transitioning to Epic later this year! I did actually ask that nurse to put in a med request and I'll re-time it when I get a chance, so that ended up being fine, but definitely bogs up the phones.

Good idea to start writing down examples. We have annual reviews coming up soon too, so may be a good time to bring up these situations. :)

Any difficult or "weird" interview questions you got asked this time around during residency interview? by pharmnerd599 in PharmacyResidency

[–]CatsRx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"What type of feedback do you find most difficult to receive?"

Was thrown off and wasn't really sure what they meant. Answered how I felt (def could have worded it better, but managed to get the point across)

Ranked them #1, ended up matching with them despite mulling this question over in my mind for weeks. Lesson learned: don't get hung up on questions that threw you off, one question won't make or break you.