On a scale from 1-10, how stressful is your job?

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Chrish

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Self-explanatory.. What is your role and average stress-level.

Mine: retail pharmacist. 7 to 8/10.
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night shift hospital "clinical/ED" for what that is worth, pharmacist.
About a 2. We can get hectic and have some crazy cases come in (codes most nights) - but after having doing the job for so long, I can almost do it in my sleep.

No issues from mgmt bothering me, they truly just leave me alone.

I can't image a pharmacy job that would be any easier for me.
 
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I would say it's about a 4 in rural hospital. There are always codes and patient or physician issues that come up and can be stressful but most of the time it's pretty chill.
 
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Dred Pirate said:
night shift hospital "clinical/ED" for what that is worth, pharmacist.
About a 2. We can get hectic and have some crazy cases come in (codes most nights) - but after having doing the job for so long, I can almost do it in my sleep.

No issues from mgmt bothering me, they truly just leave me alone.

I can't image a pharmacy job that would be any easier for me.
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I'm a solid 1. I think we have an opening if you find that 2 too stressful.
 
Dred Pirate said:
night shift hospital "clinical/ED" for what that is worth, pharmacist.
About a 2. We can get hectic and have some crazy cases come in (codes most nights) - but after having doing the job for so long, I can almost do it in my sleep.

No issues from mgmt bothering me, they truly just leave me alone.

I can't image a pharmacy job that would be any easier for me.
Click to expand...
Same identical situation. Overnights in a large regional hospital, level 2 trauma ER. Location metro-Atlanta (suburbs)
Stress level 2ish most nights, maybe less some nights
the low number is due to certain factors:
ABSOLUTE AVOIDANCE of all MANAGEMENT types, what a true blessing!
7 OFF, every other week
nicely staffed overnight numbers: 3 Pharmacist, 2 techs ALL with good experience level
LAST, but definitely not LEAST:
-36 years of experience. there is not much I haven't seen or done in Pharmacy
not much that can rattle or phase me
 
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Is there such thing as stressful hospital job? Lol
 
I work evenings noon to 10pm.

The first half of my day is a 2. I'm not really responsible for anything the first half. I might work on a self-directed project or troubleshoot the occasional issue. Management's around but it's not like they're sitting and watching me "work".

The second half of my day is usually a 4. As staffing decreases, the workload increases. None of our evening techs have more than 6 months of experience. The other evening shift pharmacists at most have about 2 years of experience in our hospital. I end up having to train/troubleshoot a lot of the uncommon issues. But generally speaking it's okay.
 
Chrish said:
Is there such thing as stressful hospital job? Lol
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STRESS is a very personal, negative emotion. Stress level is based on personal tolerances! You can be stressed in the most mundane, simple job.
True story: a friend/coworker once confided in me that her husband was constantly and severely stressed at work on a daily basis. Well, he was a minimum wage sales person at a Used Books, book store!
Alrighty, then!
 
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Dred Pirate said:
night shift hospital "clinical/ED" for what that is worth, pharmacist.
About a 2. We can get hectic and have some crazy cases come in (codes most nights) - but after having doing the job for so long, I can almost do it in my sleep.

No issues from mgmt bothering me, they truly just leave me alone.

I can't image a pharmacy job that would be any easier for me.
Click to expand...
Not a good turn of phrase for us overnight people.
How about I can do it with one hand tied behind my back!
 
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Retail PIC - I'd say maybe 3-4 most days. My store is fully staffed with pretty well trained techs right now. I'm expecting to have about 70% of our pharmacy employees leave by the end of the summer so that may change over the next few weeks.

Then again, I'm part of that 70% and knowing that I have something better lined up takes a lot of pressure out of the job.
 
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7 at most and can be more....dealing with a store in which techs dont input, scan labels, and avoid fill...leaving the pharmacists to input and depending on the 1 or 2 that will fill....its leaving the store in a mess.
 
Retail currently, shift worker (nights and days, fair amount of rotation - multiple switches every 2 week interval)
overnights…yeah first 3-4 hours, 9/10 (Rush hour, post rush hour is just a **** show…seems pretty universal). After that, 2-4/10
daytime…pretty solid 6-7/10
 
njac said:
You get downtime!?

We’re in “suns out, guns out” season and I barely get to sit down anymore.
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I am probably one of the only people that will admit we are overstaffed. We have a 450 bed hospital + a 40 bed satellite hospital and have 4 rph's
 
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Dred Pirate said:
I am probably one of the only people that will admit we are overstaffed. We have a 450 bed hospital + a 40 bed satellite hospital and have 4 rph's
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Overnight!?!?
 
Dred Pirate said:
yup - I am not complaining one bit
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Wow. I thought we were over staffed, but it’s mostly limited to days. Our night pharmacist is alone (with a tech) for six hours. However, there are no routine responsibilities. I end up sleeping a good deal of the time every night I’ve to cover.

Did I say “I”? I meant, I’ve heard some people are able to sleep when covering overnights because they are less dedicated to their jobs than I am.
 
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sunnyandseventytwo said:
Wow. I thought we were over staffed, but it’s mostly limited to days. Our night pharmacist is alone (with a tech) for six hours. However, there are no routine responsibilities. I end up sleeping a good deal of the time every night I’ve to cover.

Did I say “I”? I meant, I’ve heard some people are able to sleep when covering overnights because they are less dedicated to their jobs than I am.
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well, I would never do that- I have seen our techs take naps thou. I am in the ED so I always have people to shoot the **** with
 
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is retail actually stressful or just on a scale of 1-10 it's at about 100 for being super f'ing annoying.

and i'm sorry i'm sick of these stupid covid vaccines. it may give us *job security* right now, but a ton of pharmacies around me closed down (yeah "great" for the job market) and my pharmacy is getting a lot more volume than before, and one vaccine is such a wrench in the gears. paperwork/cdc card, drawing up, getting them into the room, stupid chit chat, waiting for old people to dress and undress.....UGH!!! i could've put so many pills from a big bottle into a smaller bottle in that time frame!!!! I work my whole shift dreading the phrase "i'm here for my vaccine appointment" why why whyyyyy these people need to learn how to vaccinate themselves if we're all gonna be boosted every 4 months.
 
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grumpyRph said:
is retail actually stressful or just on a scale of 1-10 it's at about 100 for being super f'ing annoying.
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I tend to think the latter. Though I do have some constant low level stress that comes from being constantly watched. Either through security cameras or the fact that we work in a giant glass fishbowl.

My coworkers can get pretty worked up over deadlines so they do feel pretty stressed with waiters/overdue queues/etc.
grumpyRph said:
waiting for old people to dress and undress.....UGH!!
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The number of people who make appointments and come in for a shot and wearing multiple long sleeve layers... Like this was a planned event, you would think you could make some effort to facilitate things. Then the ones who roll up their sleeves to the elbow like we don't have the same conversation about that not being high enough every time 🙄
 
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Rockinacoustic said:
No wonder you get to use all your PTO!
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I have told my director on many occasions if the hospital doesn't give you a reasonable chance to use all of your PDO, that I will find a place that does. (reasonable being the key word- it isn't like I can just take 3 months off in the middle of summer when everybody else wants time off. In 16 years I have had PDO denies twice. Once was during a blackout period because of a new EMR adoption, and one was when COVID blew up and we weren't sure what was gonna happen, so all PDO was put on hold for 2 months,
 
Dred Pirate said:
I am probably one of the only people that will admit we are overstaffed. We have a 450 bed hospital + a 40 bed satellite hospital and have 4 rph's
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Okay, I confess! We are overstaffed too. Level 2 trauma regional hospital, inpatient census 290-310. We have 3 R.Ph. and 2 techs overnight.
7on-7off, we work 70, get paid for 80. With all diffs, right under $80/hr. Not bad for this market.
 
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WorthlessOxygen said:
The number of people who make appointments and come in for a shot and wearing multiple long sleeve layers... Like this was a planned event, you would think you could make some effort to facilitate things. Then the ones who roll up their sleeves to the elbow like we don't have the same conversation about that not being high enough every time 🙄
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I've had Karen who came in to get a vaccine but wearing a button down long sleeve.
She had the audacity to b!tch at me when I told her the injection goes into the shoulder area and she couldn't roll up the sleeves high enough.
 
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is control inventory done across the country today? ugh i have to do that tonight. might be the number 1 top annoying thing to do in retail. especially how we input it at the corner. can someone tell me the point of control inventory, if there is 1?
 
Dred Pirate said:
I have told my director on many occasions if the hospital doesn't give you a reasonable chance to use all of your PDO, that I will find a place that does. (reasonable being the key word- it isn't like I can just take 3 months off in the middle of summer when everybody else wants time off. In 16 years I have had PDO denies twice. Once was during a blackout period because of a new EMR adoption, and one was when COVID blew up and we weren't sure what was gonna happen, so all PDO was put on hold for 2 months,
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Who back-fills you when you're on PTO? Or are you other overnight staff cross-trained?
 
Rockinacoustic said:
Who back-fills you when you're on PTO? Or are you other overnight staff cross-trained?
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Day shift rotates through. We are not cross trained (day ops team and clinical team cover respective overnight Rph)
 
Depends on the day and the shift - ranges anywhere between 5/10 to 9/10. Evening hours are typically more stressful. I think it would only be 10/10 if a person's life is clearly in immediate danger, which I haven't had happen yet...and hopefully never will...
 
ValeRx said:
No, I resigned. I have no intention of returning to the VA.
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(Sigh). No, not the point. If you end up going civilian in DoD, the continuity of time never is broken.

Ah well, it won’t be too big a PITA but you’re in a better place…until you all get RIF’ed. I expect a huge RIF and no replacement billet wind down shortly.
 
lord999 said:
(Sigh). No, not the point. If you end up going civilian in DoD, the continuity of time never is broken.

Ah well, it won’t be too big a PITA but you’re in a better place…until you all get RIF’ed. I expect a huge RIF and no replacement billet wind down shortly.
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It was my understanding that if I were to simply go on a hold, I would be taking up a job slot that would not be able to be filled behind me.
 
lord999 said:
(Sigh). No, not the point. If you end up going civilian in DoD, the continuity of time never is broken.

Ah well, it won’t be too big a PITA but you’re in a better place…until you all get RIF’ed. I expect a huge RIF and no replacement billet wind down shortly.
Click to expand...
 
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Saiyo said:
I thought that has been the plan for a while, to reduce the number of AD billets and replace them with civilians.
Well, I thought there would be replacement, but instead we are just all being worked to the bone which has resulted in a brain drain spiral
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the DHA transition is why I left DoD
 
With fully staffed on a busy day:
Retail: maybe 7 or 8
Home infusion: 4~5
Hemophilia: ~ 2 or 3

9 or 10 is reserved for nursing when you have code brown or busted colostomy bag or when your pt is dead !
 
Dred Pirate said:
night shift hospital "clinical/ED" for what that is worth, pharmacist.
About a 2. We can get hectic and have some crazy cases come in (codes most nights) - but after having doing the job for so long, I can almost do it in my sleep.

No issues from mgmt bothering me, they truly just leave me alone.

I can't image a pharmacy job that would be any easier for me.
Click to expand...

Just curious, what is pharmacist’s role during codes?
 
Chrish said:
Just curious, what is pharmacist’s role during codes?
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Running the crash cart - although this is unbelievably easy to do (prepping abbojects) - now that there is an epi shortage we limit to 3 abbojects- so we prepare our own epi from a 30/30 vial and a flush.
Getting other meds - think hyperkalemia cocktail - knowing where everything is and how to get it (pyxis, etc). Around ROSC/peri-arrest - knowing how to get pressor drips, RSI meds, sedation, etc.


Getting the bag, priming the line, setting the pump for the RN, titrating the rate - just being an extra set of hands for the nurses to speed delivery and administration of the meds.

On rare occasion I am the first ACLS person to respond to a floor code, so I will "run the code" for a short time, give epi, de-fibrillate when appropriate.

Also - give advice based on the H's and T's - one time I recommended a mag push because I saw the pt was on home tikosyn, their were not in torsades (might have been, but now in v-fib so couldn't tell) - pushed it, and got ROSC- was it due to my rec? who knows, but it didn't hurt.
 
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RN2RPh said:
9 or 10 is reserved for nursing when you have code brown or busted colostomy bag or when your pt is dead !
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I'd have to respectfully disagree.

Close your eyes and imagine this situation:
You're a pharmacist working at one of the big chains with a skeleton crew.
You administer a flu shot for a minor and the child experiences anaphylaxis.
You call 911, administer epinephrine, and perform CPR.
Meanwhile, Karen gives zero **** about a child in anaphylaxis and screams why her Adderall RX that she dropped off 5 minutes ago isn't ready yet; she'll be late for her nail appointment and demands that she speaks to your manager.
For the past 15 minutes, Johnny over here has been waiting for his Oxycontin #180 to be filled with no questions asked through GoodRx; now your queue is red and the time-delay safe expired.
A dentist down the street is on the line calling in 3 RX including Tylenol #3 for a minor while the other big chain across the street is on the other line calling for verbal transfer.
All that while making $45/h, 32h/week, barely making a dent in your 300K loan, while your idiot roommate from undergrad is now a CS bro and making $500k/year + stock-based compensation working from home and unlimited vacation time because he went to a coding boot camp with minimal to no debt bro.

That is a solid 10, and I'm not referring to my attractiveness ;)
 
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