locum pharmacist?

[nenah]

what is a locum pharmacist? all i know from the other forums is that they are well paid. why is that? is it at all interesting?

[Linnear]

A locum pharmacist is someone that comes in and covers for holidays/sickness/ days off.

A locum is usually self employed. A relief manager is like a locum but is employed by a company to cover h/s/do.


Being a locum has good points and bad.

Good point: You do the days work and then leave you don't have to worry about tomorrow.

Bad point: You foten have no idea what went on yesterday, last week, last month so you can be faced with questions that you have no idea how to answer e.g. Where are my special Atenolol tabs?

Bad point: Some locums see the above good point as an opportunity to leave work for the poor bastard working tomorrow. If that's you then you're not going to have a good day.

Good point: More say in where/when you work. As an employee it was always taken for granted that you would work all July/August and all December.

Very good point: No bloody planograms or stocktakes or cashing up problems to worry about. My last week as a manager I spent two hours going through 3 till rolls to try to find a £4.50 discrepancy!

Bad point: Very ahrd to build up a rpport with people unless you work at a shop regularly

[nenah]

so why the hell do they get so well paid if they only work during holidays and sick days?.

i dont think i'd like to do that, the only interesting advantage that would appeal to me would be the pay. the work load as a retail/community pharmacist is worth it as i would prefer to bond with patients, share jokes with them, etc

tru tho isnt it?

[Linnear]

Because with the number of pharmacies around every day is someone's sick day or day off or holiday time.

I could work 7 days a week if I wanted to.

[Zoggite]

Look at it this way Nenah:
an Employee Phcist is entitled to 5 weeks' holiday/year; so you need 11 full-time Phcists to cover 10 pharmacies, assuming the pharmacy isn't open for more than say 45 hours/week.
another bad point about being a self-employed locum: if you break your leg and can't work for a month, then you won't earn a penny unless you've taken out your own insurance, whereas most companies will pay you your normal wage for at least 3 weeks if you're their employee and can't work because of illness.
Locums don't get paid annual leave, either; so when they're on holiday for a month, they have no income...

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Linnear

Bad point: Very ahrd to build up a rpport with people unless you work at a shop regularly

You must become more eccentric.

Friday at a new shop - it took an hour before a customer mentioned my odd shoes - I remarked her how shy the staff must be as no-one had commented on them.
At this point a dispensing assistant came up and felt my head "to make sure I wasn't running a fever"
I said I only wore them "to encourage attractive young ladies to come up for a quick feel."

The rest of the day was fun - and the customer came back with her daughter after school to show her the eccentric pharmacist - daughter thought I was "cool" and gave me a high five.

Lady asked about possibility of a St Johns Wort interaction - so I phoned Leeds drug information - they want all sorts of details Pharmacy name, my name, patients name ( asked if I could provide it - same surname as me - "but no relation" ) patients age - "Would you accept early 30's or do you want me to ask?" ...."46" came the patients happy reply. (Of course I knew her age it was on the script in front of me)

Chatting with the addicts while waiting for the subutex to dissolve.

A Smart Roadster with a Pharmaceutical Journal on the front seat - parked just outside the shop usually brings in a couple of people who just want to talk about the car.

Pharmacy is usually fun.

Jeff