I’m playing a bit of a waiting game today for something that may not actually happen…some may call this “wasting” rather than waiting but if things turn out as hoped it will make it all worthwhile. If not, it’s miserable outside and there’s not much more I would have been doing anyway other than rocking in a corner whispering “sun…sun…” over and over again.

As I wai(s)t(e)  out the day, I couldn’t help but think back to the most asked question in a community pharmacy  – how long will this take?  Perhaps second only to  – will my insurance cover this?  Questions I grew loathe to even hear let alone answer, seeing as how the most common answers were 1. two to 45 minutes and 2. I have no  f***ing idea.

A couple months ago there was a  Press Release from the UK Office of Trading that said that partial liberalisation of the pharmacies market has brought significant benefits for consumers, including shorter waiting times, a greater choice of pharmacies and extended opening hours…and has improved access to lower-priced over-the-counter medicines. Turns out, more pharmacies in the UK are resulting in a perceived improvement in patient care, rather than the downturn of establishments as feared from increased competition.

A couple of years ago there was an article that I came across (and found again online here)  that said patients/customers choose pharmacies based first on location and then on their experience with waiting times. From a pharmacist’s perspective, let me just ask WTF?? and go on to rant a little bit, firstly prefacing said rant with an admittance of being as equally annoyed as anyone else at having to wait for anything.

To me, what this is saying though is that patients are basing their inverse value on a pharmacy by how many others go there, not by the service the receive there. I say this because what these surveys fail to make clear is that waiting for a prescription is the result of OTHER people waiting for a prescription, NOT because the pharmacist is just sitting around Googling the latest spring fashions or because they are in someway purposely causing this wait. On the CONTRARY! The basic philosophy behind any pharmacy counter is to get these people OUTTA here ASAP, especially the ones with screaming crying small humans (and maybe with the exception of the hot hunky lifeguard who has come in to get some after sun lotion and needs help getting at the “hard to reach” spots on his back…because THAT happens all the time…)

I think  a wise addition to these surveys is to ask people WHY they think they’re waiting for “so long” at a pharmacy.  Sadly, I think the answer would rank up there with why people have to wait for someone to bring them fries at McDonalds rather than an understanding of professional services.

Hmm well, this took 15 minutes…another quarter of an hour down.

I’m feeling a little  over-worked lately and as such haven’t been POQing as much, in more ways than one (did I type that out loud? Filter…filter…).   I find it funny how feeling over-worked can take on so many variations of tired-ness.  At the moment I seem to wake up looking at my Outlook, check my mail to and from the office and am still staring at one project or another by the time 10pm rolls around. This is not only leaving me tired but tired of  all things work-ish, including several colleagues I’d like to squish down on the copy machine just for kicks.

Anyyyhoooo…I’ve just spent the last paragraph complaining and yet when I look back at what it meant to be BUSY and  TIRED in my community pharmacy days, I would not trade what I have now for anything. Back lo’ those many years I spent a whole year working relief in some of City X’s most busy pharmacies, ranging from the most-posh to the most-not neighbourhoods. The Pharmacy Chain that I worked for had a system of “urgent”, “soon” and “later” prescriptions and there were some 8 and 12 hour shifts that I could not get my head far enough above the “urgents” to even make a dash to the powder room. In TWELVE HOURS. Of course I hadn’t  ingested any liquids during that time either so it didn’t really matter.  In one heroic instance there was a sea of patients waiting for their “urgents” and one Grumpy Mc Grumpy pants was getting a little testy – after all, he HAD been waiting for 5 minutes, tsk tsk on me the lone pharmacist and my 2 tech rangers.  Then, a lovely women who can best yet still inadequately be described as “angelic”  snapped back – THEY ARE GOING AS FAST AS THEY CAN. I wanted to hug her. And did her script first – BOO YAH!

But in various circles that I lean in to every now and again there is a lot of attention on the pharmacy workforce situation, both in the homeland and abroad. Years ago there truly seemed to be a pharmacist shortage – we named our price and got it, DAMMIT! Our price, our place, our benefits, you name it. Now, however, the tables seem to be turning – jobs seem not to be so plentiful and the utopia has all but disappeared.

This of course is a far cry from what has come to be known as the global health workforce crisis, a situation that claims to need thousands of skilled health workforce in any manner of country. The World Health Organization has even developed a Global Health Workforce Alliance to deal with such issues.  While I do not deny that skilled and trained healthcare professionals are pinnacle to the health of communities, regardless of socio-economic development, I can’t help but wonder how increasing pharmacists in countries that have no water and food will make the most efficient difference to people in need.

I’m just sayin’, is all.

In the meantime I would rather work 24 hours on a paper than ever, EVER fight with the mo’fo’ insurance-problem-label-making-3rd-party-reimbursement computer system again.

In an attempt at  increasing my professional satisfaction (I am not fool enough to use the word “happiness”) I applied for a couple jobs today, in far away lands, lands that hold the promise of, if not happiness, then at the very least, WARMTH.

In keeping with my tendency to move as far away as possible from my place and core profession of origin, the jobs in question are very much indeed a variation on a theme of what I am currently doing. Some may in fact say they are a step back…but I will refrain from arguing the details lest I give away too much (I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…).

This sort of goes hand in hand with several discussions at Current Job lately. Where are we going? I know I’ve mentioned this before, or CHALLENGED this before, but what is the real future of our profession? (Myself not withstanding).

Some of the most interesting conversations I’ve had about have come amidst non-pharmacists, solidifying my nagging hunch that we ourselves can perhaps not see our path to the future.  But I am sure I can safely say for all that there are some aspects that definitely have to go, like the constant battles with insurance companies and other such ill-tolerated parts of the job. (I encourage you to take a read at what our friend the Angry Pharmacist has to say about them…). We do not like them day by day, we do not like them work or play.  And we don’t like green eggs and ham either, dammit.

What I have come to realise is that as a profession, we can go as far reaching as possible…provided we take with us an utmost awareness of what is going on around us. How will patient counseling change in the future – what elements of natural medicines, moral conditioning and ethical responsibility will shape our interaction? (see a great blogpost  on that at T. Scott here). How will technology – information access, pharmacy functioning and yet unfathomable advances in nanomedicine and biotechnology – change our functioning? (The first World Congress on Nanotechnology is happening in just two weeks, a testament in itself to its upcoming prominence).

Regardless of all the factors,  with regards to all my pharmacist/scientist friends, I could not agree more with a very wise author who once said:

“Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brain and footsy as you
And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too!
Oh, the places you’ll go!“