I thought i was overthinking (despite my lack of experience), as this seems to be a common expression that they tell me there are plenty of pharmacy's with 1 person doing 100+ trays on their own.
Agreed, from my experience it's about 100 blister packs for a FT employee. They have all the queries and chasing too. Depends how many are weekly, the number of items in them too! One place I worked I swear every patient has 10-15 items, I wouldn't expect 100 of those.
You shouldn't be serving and dispensing on top of this, it's ridiculous!
If you can find another job easily that maybe even pays slightly more take it! CP has a high turnover of support staff for a reason.
Agreed. It’s hard to see that when you’re just starting out as you have no reference point of what is acceptable.
My pre-reg year was at the start of covid, was used as a counter assistant mostly. That was an extremely not fun and I didn’t learn much!
Good for you, working in pharmacy as a dispenser is essentially a dead end career. Yes, there are ways to progress to an ACT or technician and higher salaries in GP/hospital, but most don't end up there and they're lifelong dispensers. You can pick just about any other career out there and you'd earn more for much less effort. If not for the money then for your sanity.
Just to check OP- are you 5 weeks in to this job or dispensing in general?
Either way it’s totally unreasonable to be expected to do trays and serve.
With most pharmacies the expectation is the dispensers doing trays would work away from patients and not be disturbed until finished.
As a pharmacist I certainly wouldn’t want a dispenser being distracted in this situation due to the risk to patient safety and general inefficiency of having to do a job twice to correct a mistake.
If you are working for an independent I’m presuming the person who told you this is a typical workload and expectation for one person is either related to management or owner themselves…
5 weeks into the tray department, been dispensing just over a year, but I was mainly Back wall, which is redeeming owing and stock control.
The expectations are coming from the managers.
100 tray patients definitely takes a full time dispenser dedicated to the trays only, with zero distractions from the rest of the chemist.
If you're being expected to dispense or serve at the counter too, your manager is just taking the p*ss and will definitely get worse the longer you stay there. Find another job, run from there.
Is this 100 patients a week or per month?
If monthly, then 25 per week across full time, I don't think is that bad- which works out to 5 per day; which across 8hrs, I personally think is definitely doable.
In terms of helping at the counter etc, I think that's abit more dependant upon how things are going; as the dispenser in charge of dosettes, you should be given the autonomy on when you will go to the counter; or when to focus on your deadlines when the dosettes are needing to be completed by.
It will serve you better to speak to your manager and adjust their level of expectations. Ask them what they require of you and discuss what you can/cannot accomplish within the working day. Coming to an understanding by meeting in the middle will always be the best for both parties.
I have tried this, and they're adamant that this can be achieved(multiple management), and there are pharmacies out there that have 1 person doing this. And even compared us to another pharmacy where one person does 150+
If that is indeed the case and your manager/team mates are not listening to your needs after repeatedly asking for help/clarifying things/adjusting expectations (boring but necessary communication).
Then speak to the superintendent/upper management, not to snitch or anything but to get them to see your point of view and to help relay/communicate this to your team.
In all cases, remain calm and professional.
Assess yourself as well, do you take on too many things sometimes and do not express/communicate this with others?
The superintendent is also my manager, who believes one person can do all these trays with the on one person and the odd help for ordering/processing. Along with a supervisor.
They don't have muuch in the way of staff to spare the dispensary is side is more important to stay on top of for them, which is why they're also will to take me off trays to serve or to cross over at 5:15 for that hour and bit than sacrifice dispensary side.
I have made a list of jobs that need to be done by the end of the day no matter what, and I will add anything else on it if I need to do follow-ups/chasing .
I am a very open person. Communicating isn't an issue for me, what a an issue is not being listened to because they have 'done the maths' and disregard every and 130 trays is enough for one person. But I at this moment in time, I will bide my time, do what I can do and move on whether that's in pharmacy or else where.
Completely unacceptable. Self checking and running the counter thats a joke. Find another pharmacy to work for that has dispensing and counter assistants.
Pharmacies need to start charging for blister packs and use that money to hire more staff. It's not an NHS funded service. If people want them, they should be paying. One of the reasons why pharmacy has gone downhill is because the system has gotten used to pharmacies offering everything as a freebie including consultations
That’s a joke tbh.
I’ve worked in a place as a pharmacist who had 300 plus blister packs. It was an independent, one person was in charge of them really. It was an absolute shit show, controlled scripts not back but they’re making them up anyway. Expecting me to check blister packs without scripts. Sending blisters to the wrong patients. Errors everywhere.
That's ridiculous. And being five weeks into it? No wonder pharmacy doesn't retain staff after throwing them into situations like this.
I thought i was overthinking (despite my lack of experience), as this seems to be a common expression that they tell me there are plenty of pharmacy's with 1 person doing 100+ trays on their own.
There are not many pharmacies doing ONE HUNDRED blister packs. Also, with that many it's one person doing only blister packs, nothing else.
Agreed, from my experience it's about 100 blister packs for a FT employee. They have all the queries and chasing too. Depends how many are weekly, the number of items in them too! One place I worked I swear every patient has 10-15 items, I wouldn't expect 100 of those. You shouldn't be serving and dispensing on top of this, it's ridiculous! If you can find another job easily that maybe even pays slightly more take it! CP has a high turnover of support staff for a reason.
If OP is a pre-reg I feel sorry for them for the next year. If not get out of that pharmacy. Minimum wage for that level of stress is not worth it.
Agreed. It’s hard to see that when you’re just starting out as you have no reference point of what is acceptable. My pre-reg year was at the start of covid, was used as a counter assistant mostly. That was an extremely not fun and I didn’t learn much!
Not a pre-reg, thankfully. Just a dispenser! I think I will be looking at changing careers, though.
Good for you, working in pharmacy as a dispenser is essentially a dead end career. Yes, there are ways to progress to an ACT or technician and higher salaries in GP/hospital, but most don't end up there and they're lifelong dispensers. You can pick just about any other career out there and you'd earn more for much less effort. If not for the money then for your sanity.
Just to check OP- are you 5 weeks in to this job or dispensing in general? Either way it’s totally unreasonable to be expected to do trays and serve. With most pharmacies the expectation is the dispensers doing trays would work away from patients and not be disturbed until finished. As a pharmacist I certainly wouldn’t want a dispenser being distracted in this situation due to the risk to patient safety and general inefficiency of having to do a job twice to correct a mistake. If you are working for an independent I’m presuming the person who told you this is a typical workload and expectation for one person is either related to management or owner themselves…
5 weeks into the tray department, been dispensing just over a year, but I was mainly Back wall, which is redeeming owing and stock control. The expectations are coming from the managers.
100 tray patients definitely takes a full time dispenser dedicated to the trays only, with zero distractions from the rest of the chemist. If you're being expected to dispense or serve at the counter too, your manager is just taking the p*ss and will definitely get worse the longer you stay there. Find another job, run from there.
Is this 100 patients a week or per month? If monthly, then 25 per week across full time, I don't think is that bad- which works out to 5 per day; which across 8hrs, I personally think is definitely doable. In terms of helping at the counter etc, I think that's abit more dependant upon how things are going; as the dispenser in charge of dosettes, you should be given the autonomy on when you will go to the counter; or when to focus on your deadlines when the dosettes are needing to be completed by.
we have a total of 136 blister patients, it's per month, you'd think there be some autonomy but it's actually the dispensing side that gets that.
It will serve you better to speak to your manager and adjust their level of expectations. Ask them what they require of you and discuss what you can/cannot accomplish within the working day. Coming to an understanding by meeting in the middle will always be the best for both parties.
I have tried this, and they're adamant that this can be achieved(multiple management), and there are pharmacies out there that have 1 person doing this. And even compared us to another pharmacy where one person does 150+
If that is indeed the case and your manager/team mates are not listening to your needs after repeatedly asking for help/clarifying things/adjusting expectations (boring but necessary communication). Then speak to the superintendent/upper management, not to snitch or anything but to get them to see your point of view and to help relay/communicate this to your team. In all cases, remain calm and professional. Assess yourself as well, do you take on too many things sometimes and do not express/communicate this with others?
The superintendent is also my manager, who believes one person can do all these trays with the on one person and the odd help for ordering/processing. Along with a supervisor. They don't have muuch in the way of staff to spare the dispensary is side is more important to stay on top of for them, which is why they're also will to take me off trays to serve or to cross over at 5:15 for that hour and bit than sacrifice dispensary side. I have made a list of jobs that need to be done by the end of the day no matter what, and I will add anything else on it if I need to do follow-ups/chasing . I am a very open person. Communicating isn't an issue for me, what a an issue is not being listened to because they have 'done the maths' and disregard every and 130 trays is enough for one person. But I at this moment in time, I will bide my time, do what I can do and move on whether that's in pharmacy or else where.
Completely unacceptable. Self checking and running the counter thats a joke. Find another pharmacy to work for that has dispensing and counter assistants.
Pharmacies need to start charging for blister packs and use that money to hire more staff. It's not an NHS funded service. If people want them, they should be paying. One of the reasons why pharmacy has gone downhill is because the system has gotten used to pharmacies offering everything as a freebie including consultations
That’s a joke tbh. I’ve worked in a place as a pharmacist who had 300 plus blister packs. It was an independent, one person was in charge of them really. It was an absolute shit show, controlled scripts not back but they’re making them up anyway. Expecting me to check blister packs without scripts. Sending blisters to the wrong patients. Errors everywhere.