what shifts do hospital pharmacists work at your hospital? What are ALL the start times?

No, it's not obsolete. My hospital offers 8 hr and 12 hr shifts for just about all of the positions which require 24 hr coverage like pharmacy, lab, nursing, materials, etc. We run 0700-1530, 1500-2330, 2300-0730. The 12 hr folks are 0700-1930 and 1900-0730. There's always exceptions at places and slight variances. But 8 and 12 hr shifts are common with these general starting times, give or take an hour.

I can answer three. I graduated from medical school two years ago, and am now completing my psychiatric residency. I can tell you that being a doctor is extremely stressful. During your residency you will be on-call 24/7. You have to work many night floats too. You will end up working about 50-60 hours a week all whist studying to become board certified. Now, young doctors work more hours, but that means more money (sometimes). You have to bite the bullet and work the hours until you become a senior doctor ie, 5-7 years experience before you can choose what hours and schedules you want.

Many hospitals have 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week pharmacy services. As such, the hospital pharmacist may work day or night shifts, and may be on-call via phone or pager. Most hospital pharmacists who work shifts are paid by the hour. Pharmacy administrators and many specialized clinical pharmacists are salaried employees.

Before 2002, pharmacists worked 8-hour shifts, days, evenings, and weekends starting at various times and totaling 40 hours over seven days. During the recruitment process for an experienced pharmacist who previously worked nights, the applicant requested "seven on and seven off days." This led to the pharmacy's exploration and implementation of alternative work schedules.

Creative pharmacist work schedules and roles are now mainstays in the recruitment and retention of pharmacy staff. Over this six-year time period, four pharmacists moved out of state and four retired—they were not lost to "better" jobs. If any pharmacist has a personal scheduling need that does not affect staffing efficiency, patient safety, or the workload of his or her colleagues, the schedule is approved. The compliance of the proposed schedules are verified with the human resources and payroll departments and the union before implementation. This flexible scheduling concept is also offered to our technical staff on a more limited basis.

One night-shift pharmacist works every other week, seven days on and seven days off, 10 hours per night. Two other clinical pharmacists rotate one week per month on nights, one week off, with the other two weeks as 8-hour days in their clinics (anticoagulation, infectious diseases, pain management, and medication management). This solved a problem encountered when one of the night pharmacists moved to her home state, and the two clinical pharmacists enjoy having an entire week off each month.

One clinical pharmacist works four 10-hour days in the anticoagulation clinic or inpatient pharmacy, and the anticoagulation clinic pharmacy manager works less than full time, at 0.8 full-time equivalent (FTE). Two inpatient pharmacists work seven days on and seven days off, 11 hours per day. They provide more weekend coverage than the rest of the staff, and the schedule is a win-win for all pharmacists. These inpatient pharmacists also provide coverage for the early morning and during the transition from night to day shifts.

The hospital hires pharmacists at whatever FTE they would like to work, including working on call. As salaries and the desire for work-life balance have increased in the profession, many people prefer to work less than full-time. Depending on the hours worked per week, some pharmacists work in only one area in order to maintain their competency there.

Most clinical pharmacists also have an inpatient or outpatient staffing role. This is done to integrate the practices of the pharmacists. It may be perceived that clinical pharmacists prefer not to have staffing duties; however, they appreciate the hands-on knowledge they maintain when they work in one of the pharmacies, and the rest of their colleagues appreciate the expertise they provide.

Many pharmacists have VA computer access from home, which enables them to work on projects from their house. In addition, when the outpatient prescription queue is high, staff can work from the comfort and convenience of their homes to finish prescriptions. Minimum standards have been set for the prescription workload, and the accuracy of the work from home has been found to be much higher than in the facility, probably due to the lack of distractions at home. One former supervisory staff member moved to Michigan but finishes prescriptions 16 hours per week from home.

All of the pharmacy managers maintain a practice in some area of the hospital, so they can assist when needed and maintain hands-on knowledge of procedures. This is particularly important when procedures change, which can be frequent.

Challenges

Some staff have viewed the use of alternative scheduling as favoritism, but once the schedule has been in place for several months and is working successfully to meet the patient care needs of the service, the negativity evaporates.

Training new staff members who will work part-time can be challenging. They are usually asked to train more hours per week than they will be working long term in order to speed up the training process.

Maintaining competency is critical. For example, anticoagulation pharmacists are not expected to work in decentralized and centralized in-patient and outpatient pharmacies in addition to the anticoagulation clinic unless they are exceptional learners and enjoy such variety. Usually, they work in one or two clinical areas and one staffing area. Some pharmacists work in only the inpatient or outpatient pharmacy for consistency in those areas, but most staff like the variety of working in multiple areas.