No relief in ‘relief pharmacist?’

We’ve all worked with a relief pharmacist at some point or another. Sometimes it’s a great experience and the day flies by. Others end up making you cringe at the possibility that they may return. A few of the ones that stand out in my mind are probably good for a laugh. Retrospectively. There was the one that refused to do anything. And I mean anything! No answering the phone. No helping out at cash when all staff were busy. No acknowledging customers who were waiting. And he wouldn’t even glance at the stack of prescriptions that were waiting to be processed. Read: Overcoming imposter syndromeAlthough I have encountered all of these “qualities” in other relief pharmacists, this guy takes the cake. I put through a patient’s prescription for methadone, confirmed his last dose with another pharmacy and showed the pharmacist where and how we dispensed the methadone. Silly me for thinking that’s where my role ended! This pharmacist measured out the dose, walked back out to the front and then promptly tried to hand me the patient’s methadone, while resuming his seat in front of the YouTube video he was watching. At the time I was not even a registered technician. I had no business monitoring someone’s witnessed dose. I declined the handoff and continued what I had been doing but boy, was I ever shocked at such a lack of willingness to perform even the smallest of tasks that this man displayed!Read: Techs chosen to serve as council membersAnother ribbon winner was a pharmacist who insisted on opening every single vial in front of every single patient in an effort to prove that he was dispensing the correct drug. Even when the patients insisted it wasn’t necessary. After one patient asked him not to open her vial, he proceeded to spill the tablets all over the front counter, sweep them back into the vial with his hands and then hand her the bag—in the height of COVID. I strongly suspect he had recently made a dispensing error and was trying to avoid a repeat, but the horror on the patient’s face is still burned into my brain. The most recent honourable mention is what prompted me to discuss relief pharmacists as a blog topic. I was working on a Friday afternoon with a relief that I had never worked with before. About an hour before closing we received a prescription for a two-year-old child for an antiepileptic from the paediatric department at McMaster Hospital. The prescription was processed and packaged and being checked by the pharmacist when the parents and child walked in. While performing the clinical check the pharmacist realized that the medication was not recommended in children under six years of age. She became even more concerned when she saw that the prescriber was a nurse and not a doctor, despite the fact that it came from a specialty department at the hospital. After no luck in getting in touch with the hospital to confirm that the nurse was aware of the age recommendation and a mere 20 minutes until close, the pharmacist wanted to dispense only a three-day supply to cover the weekend. Upon learning that the drug is not stable outside of its original packaging, she then suggested the unthinkable. She wanted to dispense the prescription to the patient but leave it in the clinical verification status in our pharmacy software for the pharmacist on Monday to deal with, since she wasn’t comfortable signing off on the prescription. Now I don’t think for even a second that I know better than the pharmacist. Or that I have any authority over the decision to either dispense or withhold medication as they see fit. But I do believe that I have the responsibility to hold a pharmacist accountable for their actions. As a technician I am aware of what my scope of practice entails and I am self aware and confident enough to speak up if I do not feel comfortable with a task I am performing. I seek the guidance of others when the situation calls for it and I expect everyone else to do the same, especially the pharmacist on duty. Although I was polite to the pharmacist, I made it clear that handing out a medication to a patient, especially a child, and leaving the clinical check to become someone else’s responsibility was not an option. If she was not comfortable signing off on the prescription, that was totally within her rights. But handing it out and passing the liability to whoever happened to be working a few days later was unacceptable. Luckily for everyone involved, the nurse called just in the nick of time and the patient received the medication. But this may have not been the caseTechnicians, you are smart, educated and have worked hard to get where you are. Although we may not have the education of pharmacists, we still have the same integrity and duty to protect our patients. Whether your pharmacist is there for a one-time shift or it is someone you work with regularly, don’t hesitate to stand up for what is right and speak up for those who may not be able to speak for themselves. It is our duty, pharmacists and technicians alike, to take responsibility and accountability for every decision we make.

No relief in ‘relief pharmacist?’

Register for free access or login.

More Blog Posts in This Series

Tips from a tech for a better flu season

Central fill frustrations

Overlooking ourselves

Blog Author

ALICIA LEVMAN

Related Topics