Worried 1st time locum @ ASDA

[NWpharmacist]

Hi all! I did my first ever locum for asda tonight, i was awful. I was left alone with two shop assistants, who didnt know how to dispense or label! The regular pharmacist gave me a quick 2 min very breif intro then left! I couldn't use the computer, and patients were waiting for hours and i had to make hand adjustments to the labels. I am a hsopital pharmacist and dont even label there! I was wondering is it a legal requirement to have a quailified tech on with a locum or is it OK to leave them with shop assistants?? The blind leading the blind. I am really worried ive made a daft error..I double checked myself but it was just so stressful

[Fleegle]

Welcome to the forum!

What you describe has probably happened to every hospital pharmacist who 'bridges' into the community sector in order to make a few quid. Your experience wasn't awful. What actually happened was that you agreed to take responsibility for running a community pharmacy with a complete lack of knowledge of how to do so. That is why you had such a hard time. There is no legal requirement for you to be accompanied by a qualified technician, because you are expected to know how to do the job you are being paid to do. The counter assistants will do their job, but cannot be expected to do yours as well.

May I respectfully suggest that either you familiarise yourself fully with the responsibilities of community pharmacy before you accept another assignment, or leave it to the full-time locums who know what they're doing. I don't wish to cause offence, but in my opinion what you have just done is unfair to patients, store staff, and not least the pharmacist who will be required to clear up your mess tomorrow morning.

Don't do it again until you're completely satisfied you're well able to cope. You'll sleep better that way.

Fleegle. (Community locum..24 years).

[johnep]

Gosh! What good advice. When my boss and I were made redundant from Roche in 1986, I walked straight into community as I had kept my hand in with locums. He had not worked in community for 20 years and after one session decided could not do it. He got a job with the PAGB.
johnep

[Defblade]

I'm with Fleegle on this one.

I've locummed just about everywhere (except Boots!) from the biggest to smallest shops (or corners of shops) for owners of everysize (multiples to single shop indies), can work every PMR system I've ever met and had everything from no staff at all to loads of brilliant ones.

BUT if at all possible, I still visit a new shop for maybe an hour with the regular staff/pharmacist (and in my own time) before I turn up to work there.

[dizzyb23]

I'm usually the qualified tech who has to baby sit all the new and very inexperienced locums that come through our store every week. It's beyond annoying and frustrating to have to do EVERYTHING for hours. I can't even have a full break as the newbies can't manage an hour on their own.....Running a busy community pharmacy with few staff is the norm these days. There are few around that have enough staff covering the many hours these stores are open. The fact that you said about the legal requirement of having a qualified tech with you speaks volumes!!!! If any other new would-be locums are reading this then running a community pharmacy is a very difficult job to take on without any prior knowledge or experience. You can never be guaranteed any help at all and usually the one person that does know everything is off on holiday or sick. It might be best to find a place with double pharmacy cover for a few sessions till you at least get some knowledge of the computer systems and each major pharmacy uses a different system!!!
Not much help but then i've just about had my fill of newbies thinking that a few years at uni makes them a pharmacy manager.....we had one once who'd just qualified and she was our temporary manager....the following three weeks were the worst of my career so far!!!!

[slocum]

I have to say, after several years experience as a community locum, Asda is my least favourite place to work. From my personal experience, the stores I have worked in are particularly understaffed (damn right dangerous at times). The staff, whilst friendly and welcoming are usually very inexperienced and not always the most "suitable" candidates for the job. I have cancelled my regular shifts as it was just too stressful working in crisis mode all the time, dreading my shift each week. Being left with no dispenser from 4pm on a bank holiday friday is challenging the first time, but irritating and stressful when you are left in the same situation repeatedly. It also gives you a great feeling of inadequacy when you are working a late shift and the only pharmacy colleague working with you disappears for their half an hour break, just before you end up with a crowd at the counter. Then you have to apologise because you dont have a code to use the till, so have to wait until the colleague at the customer service desk is free before you can serve anybody...that's after you have already made yourself look like an idiot for not having a clue where things are when people ask for them. All the while you are trying to concentrate on labelling and dispensing in the back, but how can you when there is nobody on the counter? Various PMRs and busy dispensaries as a locum I can cope with...but with repeatedly poor staffing levels this is very stressful and so the only way to put the smile of job satisfaction back on my face is to vote with my feet. This is by no means a personal attack on Asda, as I am sure like other multiples there is great variation in the working environment between individual branches.

[johnep]

Never worked for Asda, but what you describe quite routine in many pharmacies.
johnep

[Defblade]

Running a busy community pharmacy with few staff is the norm these days.

It has been said somewhere (probably the PrivateRx email list as I'm going back a good few years (and things haven't got better since)) that there are poor, average and exceptional pharmacists. There was a time when an average pharmacist could cope with an average pharmacy. But, as was said than, the average pharmacy was/is getting to require an exceptional pharmacist - and obviously there's not enough of those to go around.




(As an aside, this is clearly recognised by Society and multiples etc as ACTs have come to exsist to pretty much fill this gap without the cost of employing enough pharmacist capacity......)

[NWpharmacist]

Thanks for the synpathy guys!

I have worked for Tesco, that was fine, I was on with a tech, i checked and dispensed and she labelled. To be honest how can you familiarise yourself with all the different systems out there, they are all so different. Since community pharmacies are open for so many hours now it seems to me there is not enough pharmacists to go around. I thought by doing an evening it would be quieter! I am an exceptional pharmacist and dont expect anyone to do my job, least of all an unqualified person! However, i trained as a CLINICAL pharmacist, and i will complete the clinical diploma this September. I did not go to uni for 4 years to be a super fast labeller/ dispenser, hence why we have dispensing assistants? It is ridiculous, there should be a legal requirement for a tech to be on with inexperienced locums, or the society should stop inexperienced locums from doing locums! Your right its not fair on anyone, most of all ME

[DavidS]

When I worked for Lloyds occasionally, I used to tell them that I had no idea how to use their labelling system, and that they shouldn't book me unless such a staff member could be provided.

Didn't have a problem, although obviously I didn't get booked as much, particularly in off-peak hours when one would expect less staff to be on.