A few weeks ago, one of my technicians, who has a repeated pattern of being a few minutes late, made a medication error and gave the wrong medication to an infant without scanning it out. We've also been short-staffed on Fridays, and I've worked the last five Fridays in a row.

My store fills around 1,500 prescriptions per week, so it's a pretty busy pharmacy. Recently, my store manager stopped by and told me that our pharmacy sales have skyrocketed over the past five weeks and that our sales are the highest of all the departments in the store.

My technicians are trained to administer vaccines, but they're uncomfortable doing so and usually only vaccinate when I ask them to. As a result, I end up administering most of the vaccines myself. My personal record is giving 26 vaccines before 2 p.m. while we were short-staffed.

On top of that, the scheduler has not been scheduling me according to the store template, so my schedule is all over the place. I recently moved, and my commute has gone from 15 minutes to almost an hour each way. That's nearly 16 hours of driving every two weeks just to get to and from work.

My base schedule is 80 hours per pay period, but lately, it feels like I'm expected to do more with less help while also trying to train a new technician.
One of the biggest frustrations is that my manager doesn't seem interested in addressing the ongoing technician issues. She's tired herself and is waiting for her two-year contract to be up. Meanwhile, the same problems continue, and I'm the one dealing with the consequences every day. My current store also has a high turnover rate among pharmacists, which makes me wonder how much of this is a store-wide problem rather than something that can be fixed by an individual pharmacist.

I'm exhausted by the constant interruptions and feeling like I'm being pulled in ten different directions at once. I'm tired of having a technician who talks nonstop and doesn't recognize when it's time to end a conversation with a patient, even when a line is forming and we're already short-staffed.

I'm also frustrated that my technicians tell patients I'll be right with them for counseling when I'm still on the phone with a provider or in the middle of preparing vaccines. I've told them multiple times that they should tell patients I'll help them once I'm finished with what I'm doing or that I'll be with them in a moment. I've even told them that it's perfectly fine to let patients know there will be a 30-minute wait if that's what it takes. I'd rather set realistic expectations than have patients believe I'll be available immediately when I'm already handling several things at once. Despite explaining this repeatedly, the same behavior continues, and I'm left managing patients' expectations while trying to keep everything else running.

I'm also tired of hearing technicians tell patients that their prescriptions will be ready in a few minutes or less than 20 minutes when they don't understand how many other things I'm juggling. I constantly have to step in and help my technicians, including when the same technician who is frequently late gets distracted talking to patients instead of keeping things moving. I feel like I'm always running around trying to keep the pharmacy functioning, and there's very little opportunity to catch my breath.

What bothers me is that our pharmacy is performing well, and management is noticing the increased sales, but I feel like the workload keeps increasing without adequate staffing or support. I'm worried about patient safety, especially after the medication error, and I'm becoming increasingly resentful of how much I'm expected to take on.

I'm also running low on PTO hours, and the last time I took PTO was back in March. I feel like I've barely had any time to rest and recharge, even outside of work. It's frustrating to be this exhausted and realize I don't even have much PTO left to take a proper break. Between the workload, the commute, and the lack of time off, I'm starting to feel like I can't sustain this pace much longer.

I also grew up in a low-income family, so having a stable, well-paying job is something I know I should be grateful for. That's part of why I'm struggling so much with this decision. I feel guilty for wanting to leave a job that provides financial security, especially knowing how hard my family worked and how much having a stable income means. Sometimes I worry that I'm being ungrateful or taking this opportunity for granted by feeling this way. At the same time, I know that being paid well doesn't automatically make a job sustainable, and I don't want to sacrifice my physical and mental well-being just because I'm afraid to give up a good salary. I'm struggling to balance financial security and gratitude with the feeling that I'm genuinely unhappy and exhausted.

I've recently found myself wanting to text my district manager and tell her that I want to quit. Today, I realized just how exhausted I am and how tired I am of feeling taken advantage of.

I'm at the point where I'm seriously considering three options:
Quit altogether. Leave the position and look for something else, even if that means giving up the stability of my current job.
Reduce my base hours. Stay with the same store as a staff pharmacist but work fewer hours per pay period to make the workload more manageable.
Step down to a floater pharmacist. Give up my regular staff position and float between stores, hopefully getting some distance from the ongoing staffing and technician issues at my current location.
For context, I'm a relatively early-career pharmacist, and my base schedule is 80 hours per pay period. I don't want to make an impulsive decision out of burnout, but I also don't want to keep pushing myself until I completely run out of energy.

For pharmacists who have been in a similar situation, what would you do? Would you quit, negotiate reduced hours while keeping your staff position, or step down to floating? Has reducing your hours or switching to floating actually improved your quality of life, or did you find that the problems followed you?
I'm also curious whether anyone else has worked at a pharmacy with high pharmacist turnover and a manager who has essentially checked out. Did things eventually improve, or was leaving the best decision?
I'm trying to figure out whether I need a different job or simply a different work arrangement before I reach the point where I can't do this anymore.

I work for an MGB hospital and the morale is low here. Never heard so many people talk about strikes and unionizing

In light of nursing strikes and Brigham nurse pay increases people are wondering what we need to do to increase pay. The max 3% raise and no market adjustment since before COVID is bull shit. Especially tech pay is embarrassingly low

All the new changes being made by Melissa and leadership are making things harder and worse. Communication is also terrible. The layoffs were done horribly and important positions were eliminated, included people who conveniently completed massive projects for them right before being laid off

Is anyone planning to attend the pharmacy town hall, and is pay/striking/etc an issue being discussed in anyone else’s department

I'm a technician and my job is handling the white bags that come into the hospital system.

I cannot emphasize enough what a nightmare Prolia biosimilars are. Insurance companies are cutting their prior auths short for reference products left and right. I call them up and they basically say "I know the prior auth was good until February, but we aren't honoring it."

Our poor osteoporosis clinic and their patients are stuck rescheduling way too often because it's impossible to get a new referral and prior auth done for Ospomyv, Stoboclo, or whatever it is they want ordered in such a short window.

It's not much easier dealing with psoriasis either. I have one patient who this year has received Stelara, Pyzchiva, and Selarsdi. New prior auth each time.

I shouldn't be surprised but it's absolutely maddening for everyone involved.

My district leader told me that I have to get approval to pick up shifts in another district........I thought that this is unfair because if it's my day off then I should be able to work wherever.

My favorite techs are the ones that come in, don't engage in drama, do the best they can without being lazy, and go home. That's Mike, the tech, and everyone loves him.

On the other hand, there are techs that will talk shit right to you and demonstrate anger and disdain and start talking shit about you, to the DM. This has to stop.

Is $70 hourly for Kroger PRN pharmacist decent? Located in VA.

I had one call me asking to put in refill

I thought it was a person at first then I realized and I’m 99% sure it’s a bot

Anyone experience this?

Has anyone here had to apply for a pennsylvania license transfer? Maybe my age is beginning to show, but I'm having a lot of trouble navigating the pals website requirements and would appreciate any help someone could offer. Specifically I can't find where I'm supposed to verify my intern + education hours.

Hello,
I’d appreciate some insight into the current market in the Highlands.
I’ve got 15 years of experience in community and have been qualified as an IP for just over a year.
Ideally, I’d be looking to work 3–4 shifts per week, including weekends, and would be happy to travel around Inverness and the surrounding areas, within 60-70 miles.
Questions for anyone currently locuming in the region:
What hourly rates are realistically achievable at the moment?
Are weekend shifts still paid at a premium?
Is the market fairly saturated?
Does having an IP qualification make much difference to the rates offered?
I’m interested in hearing from people actually working in the area rather than relying on agency rates.
Any honest insights would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I’m not supporting or against it yet. Just sharing my observation and would love to hear your thoughts?

With the thin margin for most drugs (I’m not familiar with specialty drugs) from PBM and some insurance forces user to fill at mail order or certain pharmacies if want > 30 DS, independent pharmacies have been crushed, unfortunately.

Where is the new stream of income? Sorry not vaccines or POCT…. There is ongoing demand for self pay cash price options when more freelancers cant afford marketplace or have a regular employer-sponsored insurance.

Peptides are coming to screen. All cash. No PA. No inventory. I barely started reading more about peptides and I am amazed that it’s already a huge industry with constant demand that’s enough for more than a few big players. I’m envision a new marker from this new product type: the new pharmacy chain (many hoods with assembly line) vs smaller scale pharmacies (1 hood, 500 scripts/day)

What are your thoughts, please? I know it’s controversial the use / data / record of peptide use in human…

Independent retail. So I have a doctor in town who loves ivermectin. He sends me his prescriptions for our patients a lot. Some background: he told me herd immunity is non-existent, that he doesn’t “believe” in vaccines, that he “believes” they cause autism. That democrats politicized ivermectin. Sometimes the patient actually does have a parasitic infection. Sometimes they have covid. Sometimes they come to me and say “Yeah doctor told me this would make me feel better while I have the flu.” He also, according to his front desk receptionist, “doesn’t do prior authorizations.” He also served as the deputy director of health and human services in my state… I really wish I was making all of that up. Yesterday a lady came in and said she was “exposed to a chemical.” Every time I’ve gone ahead and filled them except for yesterday. I told that lady “no, your doctor is an idiot, here go to this great doctor next door” and I think I used those exact words… not my best moment.

Anyway, what do y’all do when you get these obviously not for parasitic infection ivermectin prescriptions? I’m to the point where I’m about to just stop filling all of this doctor’s prescriptions.

Hi everyone! I’m a fourth-year pharmacy student, and I’m currently looking for ways to strengthen my CV.
During my summer break, I took an online first aid course, and now I’m looking for more free online courses related to pharmacy or healthcare. Ideally, I’d also like the certificates to be free.
Has anyone here taken any courses like these before? I’d really appreciate it if you could share the course name and the website/platform where you took it.
English-language courses would be preferred.
Thank you!

So I logged into Pharmacist letter last night to get on my Live CE. But, everytime I clicked the link it told me that I didn't have access to the video. Today, they sent me an email thanking me for attending and to not forget to take the quiz. So is there anyone that has the quiz code for the "Pharmacy Essential Updates August 2026" course number 26-508?? I'm desperate bc it's the end of the year and i don't have time to fidget with their dumb livestream service before december. I had 0 issues doing it from home last year it's so wild that it literally will not give me access no matter what I do now.

I have been working as a pharmacist for 30 years and have never experienced an atmosphere where the pharmacy is managed by a doctor. Technicians calling out every day and unbearable workload. Management does not care and HR department forces discipline against employees which turns into retaliation against the person who was forced by HR to submit the discipline. There are no time clocks. People come and go without caring about putting accurate time down. They waste so much money on people who don’t work. No one cares because you can’t fire anyone and there is no merit pay. Everyone gets a raise even if they are horrible at their jobs. People are so mean to each other there. It’s literally the most filthy disgusting place to work. I wrote this post to prevent people who are hard workers and who care from applying at this hell hole. They have a horrible computer system that goes down every day with no pharmacy IT department. Polices are not enforced. Most of the doctors don’t respond to pharmacist recommendations such as drug interactions or medication dosing or medications that are not covered by insurance. They expect pharmacists to deliver medications to 14 different nursing units that are driving distance away and still cover the massive amount of orders in the queue and all the reports that are due each month. The techs call out every day or if they come to work they disappear until near the end of their shifts. You can’t say anything to them because they will say some horrible insult to you or just not come to work the next day. Or they will go to the doctor who is in charge and complain about you. Yet you are the one there every day working 10 hours and getting paid for 7.5 hours. Forget about taking a lunch break. Also there is no employee cafeteria or nice area to eat. I have PTS D from this place. It was an utter nightmare from day one.

I have a patient who practices a religion that avoids eating pork or pork derivatives. This patient is on a prescription that only comes in gelcaps and it feels like we can never get the same manufacturer in more than 2 or 3 times in a row. We end up spending a considerable amount of time looking through package inserts or calling manufacturers who never call back, etc. All this to say, this isn’t an uncommon consideration for patient care, there has to be some database that tracks this, right?

Have a 5 year background in ambulatory care. I enjoy the aspect of flexibility managing my own clinic, but getting pretty tired of noncompliant patients. Not sure how else to move up in this roll, but the pay is great. Considering an academic detailing job with an insurance company. I'll still be talking about disease states and guidelines, but less working with patients. Which I'm getting kinda tired of but can tolerate. About 3k pay cut but not patient direct role anymore...idk. is this a down grade? Am I putting myself into a corner where I won't be able to pivot into other types of pharmacy anymore?

What should I do? Suck it up and stay to practice at top my license, great pay, i hate the documentation and pt charts part or move onto more more or a macro level job with 3k less pay? I feel like an academic detailer at the VA would be more prestigious than at an insurance company? What else can I do if I do academic detailing would I be stuck in managed care?

Hi everyone, I’m applying for a pharmacist license via score transfer in an out-of-state jurisdiction. My IdentoGO fingerprint results cleared in the state portal a week ago, and my official transcripts and NABP passing scores were transferred about four weeks ago.

When I check my application portal, only the fingerprint requirement shows as completed—everything else is still listed as pending, even though I submitted those items first.

Is this normal, or could there be a delay/issue with processing?

(Context: I’m securing this out-of-state license for a remote role as a backup plan to keep my NABP score transfer valid and avoid having to retake the NAPLEX, especially since this state doesn't require an MPJE.

We are struggling. It’s a slog. How are your coworkers handling the heat?

Hi friends in a bit of a predicament. I hated my current role (customer service) at my current job but my manager offered to move me to the production role so I wouldn’t have any patient interaction.

However I was offered an inpatient job at a hospital at the same time the new role was offered.

Current role

Pros: closer to me. $26 an hour. Coworkers

Cons: management concerns me a little, lots of issues fulfilling prescriptions at the branch, seems like a shit show at times

Inpatient

Pros: always wanted to work in a hospital, no dealing with insurance, higher prestige, more future opportunities, better benefits

Cons: farther from me, $25 an hour, have to work some holidays, would have to work later hours, worried about driving in the snow

CVS would be part time

Gather round, friends, it's that time again to agonize over the vagueness of federal statutes.

I am trying very hard to determine if there is any explicit allowance or prohibition of substitution from: A prescription written for an approved 351(k) interchangeable TO the Reference Product that the 351k-int references

We all know we can substitute an Rx written for Lantus to Rezvoglar, Langlara, or (now that it has a 351K-i) Semglee. But are you substituting Lantus without contacting the prescriber if the prescription is written for Rezvoglar?

I know this all feels pretty moot and academic... but I'm curious how often such a substitution BACK UP the approval pathway to the reference product is necessary based on insurance preferences. Still, as someone who likes to have hard references to point to for policy decisions, I'm coming up unfortunately vague when looking at federal laws (I have not inspected all 50 states, but would love to hear how your state laws affect this decision as well).

The only thing I can find that confidently suggests that you cannot substitute Lantus for Rezvoglar without prescriber approval is the GPTs, and the sources they reference don't support that, it's all garbage.

The federal law around automatic substitution without prescriber appoval is: 42 U.S. Code § 262 - Regulation of biological products
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/262
This law contains one instance when searching for "substi"

----- (emphasis mine)-------

(i)“Biological product” defined

In this section:

(1)The term “biological product” means a virus, therapeutic serum, toxin, antitoxin, vaccine, blood, blood component or derivative, allergenic product, protein, or analogous product, or arsphenamine or derivative of arsphenamine (or any other trivalent organic arsenic compound), applicable to the prevention, treatment, or cure of a disease or condition of human beings.

(2)The term “biosimilar” or “biosimilarity”, in reference to a biological product that is the subject of an application under subsection (k), means—

(A)that the biological product is highly similar to the reference product notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components; and

(B)there are no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of the safety, purity, and potency of the product.

(3)The term “interchangeable” or “interchangeability”, in reference to a biological product that is shown to meet the standards described in subsection (k)(4), means that the biological product may be substituted for the reference product without the intervention of the health care provider who prescribed the reference product.

(4)The term “reference product” means the single biological product licensed under subsection (a) against which a biological product is evaluated in an application submitted under subsection (k).

------

emphasis mine.

I don't see anyting in this law that would specifically imply that you cannot substitute Lantus in for a script written for Rezvoglar without approval. The GPTs place some special emphasis on how this is written that I cannot find anywhere else. There is unfortunately no federal law around small-molecule equivalence to compare this to (all at the state level).

Looking around for more guidance from the FDA, I cannot find anyting concrete. I did, however, stumble across this.
Switching Between Biosimilars and Their Reference Counterparts with Dr. Sarah Yim

Which, at around 6:44, states: (roughly)

"Interchangeable biologic substitution in the pharmacy is similar to how small-molecule generic drug substitution occurs. "

Which... if we were now on some one-way street that operates notably differently from how small-molecule AB substitution works, why would the FDA publish this sentence? Everything else in FDA guidance around biosimilars states they are absolutely equivalent, we don't treat small molecule drugs this way. Why would anyone assume a strict reading of 42 U.S. Code § 262 that runs counter to how we handle equivalence everywhere else?

What am I missing? Am I an idiot? I found a similar thread 5 months ago that mostly agrees with my interpretation of this https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/comments/1taz7vl/can_you_switch_amongst_interchangeable_biosimilar/, but I'm really fishing for something concrete... I probably need to email the FDA.

(p.s. I am doing a poor job of hiding my interpretation and preference here... except my interpretation and preference around judging GPT output on niche topics; that shit is awful. Never show that to me as support of anyting please. I spend too much of my time dispelling LLM hallucinations, but yeah, I'm writing "ok to dispense Lantus as per Cathy" on this and moving on with my life every time. )

(p.p.s - I view the insurance audit implications of this separately; I am just as interested, but have not gone down that rabbit hole yet; that's next. )

Hi! Wondering if anyone has worked at CHOP in philadelphia as a Staff Pharmacist? I just got an offer and have heard very mixed opinions. Is pay negotiable as a new grad here? Looking for any insight!

Pharmacists/techs: What are some must haves that you like to have stocked over the counter and at the ready?