Healthcare offers high-demand jobs

Many of you are inquiring about the kinds of jobs in the highest demand with a good salary opportunity. That is easy for me to answer. I have been working in healthcare recruitment for over 13 years ... and here is my best advice: Go into anything in healthcare.

Here are the top four areas:

Nursing. There is definitely a nursing shortage. You may have seen this on the news and in various articles. Nursing is a great field for anyone who enjoys people, computers, data, details, science and health. If you are a caring person who can handle any type of stressful situation, i.e. death, dying, very sick people and you realize that you can make a difference with them, then you should go into nursing.

Registered Nurses can make a nice income right out of nursing school. Nursing school is a 2-, 3- or 4-year program (diploma, associates or bachelors degree). There are wonderful nursing programs in the area (Salisbury University, Wor-Wic Community College, Delaware Technical & Community College and Beebe School of Nursing).

Radiology Tech. This is another great field that offers opportunities all over the area. Similar skills are needed. The education piece is not as lengthy. Jobs are available all over the area, but not as much as nursing.

Rad Techs have opportunities to expand their education and become specialized in fields such as Mammotech, MRI Tech and Ultrasound Tech. Many of the local schools also have radiology programs.

Then there is an additional competency level for Radiation Therapist who is the technician who work closely with oncologists administering radiation treatment. This is an additional certification program that is in great demand.

Pharmacist. You may think that pharmacists just count pills. Wrong. This is another important field to healthcare. Pharmacists distribute drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. They advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosages, interactions and side effects of medications. Most pharmacists work in a community setting, such as a retail drugstore, or in a health care facility, such as a hospital or nursing home.

Pharmacy degrees are a 4-year program following 2-year pre-requisite.

Physician. There are openings all over the country for doctors in every specialty. They have a very important role in our lives. They diagnose, prescribe and treat our illnesses. Again, we need more physicians. Physicians are in school for a minimum of seven years and, depending on the specialty selected, it could be much longer.

All of these healthcare careers are in high demand. If you are interested in any of these fields, no matter where you are in your career, go talk to someone in one of these positions. It is a great way to see if that is really for you. When I worked at a local hospital, I saw many who were entering nursing, radiology or other healthcare fields in their 50's which was their second or third career.

Source

Critical Shortage of Nurses, Pharmacists Plagues State

Illinois is experiencing a critical shortage of nurses and pharmacists in some regions of the state and experts believe that unless colleges create and expand programs, the situation will get worse before it gets better.

The main factors contributing to the nurse shortage are a lack of qualified nurse educators, and the current aging nurse workforce.

The pharmacist shortage, which is more complex, is caused by a scarcity of colleges that offer pharmacist programs, and a rise in the number of prescriptions.

And the aging U.S. population exacerbates both situations.

Majorie Maurer, vice-president and chief nurse executive at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, said that it’s taking much longer to fill certain nurse positions than it used to.

“We used to fill them in a couple weeks,” she said. “Now it’s taking a couple of months.”

Maurer said that by 2011, more nurses will be leaving the workforce than entering.

“We are already way behind the eight ball on this,” Maurer said. “The population is increasing and it’s aging. Because of the shortage of nurse educators in 2004, 33,000 qualified applicants to college nursing programs had to be turned away nationwide.”

Maurer believes that the stagnation in nursing education is due to the relatively poor salaries paid to nurse educators.

“The deans of nursing programs make less than the deans of other programs,” she said. “And that makes it unattractive for people to want to teach.”

According to state statistics, the shortage in nurses is expected to reach 21,000 by 2020. Because of this, Gov. Rod Blagojevich introduced a plan earlier this year to increase nursing program faculty, increase the number of students in nursing programs, and improve working conditions for existing nurses.

“As the baby boomers grow older, Illinois faces the challenge of providing for their growing demands on the healthcare systems while also making up for the retirement of a generation of nurses,” he said. “We have to find ways to fill the nursing shortage, and this new legislation will help us get there.”

Tom Renkes, executive director of the Illinois Nurses Association, said that the current shortage of acute care nurses in Illinois ranges from 2 percent to 15 percent, depending on the hospital.

He also believes that part of the problem is the increasing number of nurses that are middle-aged and older.

“The interesting thing is that there are enough nurses licensed,” he said. “It’s just a matter of age and who wants to work in different settings. The aging workforce doesn’t want to work the long hours.”

The pharmacist shortage is a little trickier.

Experts agree that there is currently a need for pharmacists. But because of new technology on the horizon, they aren’t sure if the need will persist. What they do know is that there is a shortage of minority pharmacists.

Right now there are only two pharmacy education programs in the Chicago area; Chicago State University plans to inaugurate the third in September 2008.

Dr. David Slatkin, dean of the CSU College of Pharmacy, said that the Walgreen Company will contribute $1 million to the program over the next five years.

“There is a real need for minority pharmacists,” Slatkin said. “Studies show that minority caregivers tend to provide better healthcare to other minorities. Right now there is not enough opportunity for students to go to pharmacy schools.”

According to Slatkin, only one in 10 applicants is admitted into the pharmacy programs at Midwestern University in Downers Grove and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

But even when the CSU program is at full capacity, Slatkin expects it will only have room for 100 students.

Michael Patton, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, acknowledged the shortage, but said that the implementation of new technology may reduce the need for pharmacists.

“What I’m concerned about is the proliferation of new technologies, such as computerized systems and robotics, that will have a significant impact on the need for pharmacists and the quality of care they provide,” he said.

“Technology has a consequence in individualized patient care. It diminishes some of the personal aspect and I’m concerned about some of the technology models that are on the table.”

Patton said that the technology has already been developed to further computerize pharmacies, but that it is not yet being utilized.

“Nobody knows for sure what the future holds,” he said.

Source

Small towns lose their only pharmacies

BY DENNIS NARTKER and SUE CARPENTER
news@fwbusiness.com (Created: Friday, December 15, 2006 6:08 AM CST)

The only pharmacies in Garrett, Avilla and Albion closed permanently Dec. 12.

Thomas Feichter, president and owner of Fischer Pharmacy & Home Medical in Albion, Fischer Pharmacy & Home Medical in Avilla and Garrett Pharmacy & Home Medical in Garrett announced the closings.

Insurance company practices, higher pharmacist wage demands, a shortage of pharmacists, price competition from stores such as Wal-Mart and Target and a growing mail-order business have combined to cause a bleak future for small-town pharmacies, Feichter said.

All patients' prescription files were transferred to CVS Pharmacies in Kendallville and Auburn. All employees of the three pharmacies are being hired by CVS, Feichter said.

Feichter's company, Pharmacy Holdings LLC, owned four pharmacies and two medical stores. The company will retain the Hicksville Pharmacy in Hicksville, Ohio. His Warsaw medical store is being sold this month, and Pharmacy Holdings LLC will keep its home medical store in Angola.

"I am saddened to hear that our pharmacy is closing," said Garrett Common Council member Tonya Hoeffel. "(Pharmacist) Tamara (Jauregui) and her staff have been a wonderful asset to our downtown. I truly appreciate the community support Garrett Pharmacare has given Garrett the past three years."

The Garrett store opened in December 2003 with retail merchandise, adding a pharmacy line in early 2004. It was housed in the former Garrett State Bank building at the corner of King and Randolph streets.

Feichter said the Garrett store and pharmacy never became profitable, especially with the emergence of mail-order drug companies.

"Customers need to watch their pocketbooks. I don't blame them for that," he said.

Prescription volumes of many small-town pharmacies are not large enough to offset the much higher pharmacist wages, combined with lower payments to pharmacies from the insurance companies, he said.

"We have no leverage with insurance companies," Feichter said. "If we want to sign up and be in network, they tell us, 'Here is the reimbursement you'll receive.' If we decline, then patients will be out of network and pay more for their prescriptions or travel to an in-network pharmacy miles away."

With the growing demand for pharmacists, small-town pharmacies cannot pay competitive wages, Feichter added. Prescription volumes are not large enough to offset the higher wages.

Many insurance plans also require patients with regular prescriptions to purchase the drugs through mail order, taking business away from local pharmacies, Feichter said.

And small-town pharmacies cannot compete on pricing with big stores like Wal-Mart and Target for over-the-counter and other nonprescription products, he said.

"This closing will be a big hit to downtown Albion," said Mitch Fiandt, Albion Town Council member. "I'm very disappointed CVS didn't step in to replace it."

Fiandt expressed concern for Albion's elderly residents, who will have to travel to get their prescriptions filled.

Fiandt said he would support giving a tax abatement to entice another pharmacy to open in Albion. The Northridge Village commercial development site just north of town would be a good location for a new pharmacy, he suggested.

Source

3 towns’ drugstores announce closures

By Angela Mapes and Michael Schroeder

The Journal Gazette

Between dispensing medications, Paula Graden fielded questions Thursday afternoon from longtime customers who wondered why their prescription information would be sent to CVS.

“Really, a lot of them (customers) feel like CVS is the bad guy,” said Graden, pharmacy manager at Fischer Pharmacy and Home Medical in Avilla.

But the community pharmacy’s owner and president, Thomas J. Feichter, said the large drugstore chain – which he approached seeking a buyer for the drugstore’s inventory, patient lists and to salvage the jobs of his workers – has been nothing but helpful.

On Wednesday, Feichter, the owner and president, officially announced that the community pharmacy and two others like it in Albion and Garrett will close Tuesday.

All prescription patient files will be transferred to CVS locations in Kendallville and Auburn on Dec. 13 – in a manner that is fully compliant with privacy laws, Feichter said.

The 15 affected employees are being offered jobs by CVS, he said.

The pharmacy in Avilla, Fischer Pharmacy & Home Medical in Albion and Garrett Pharmacy & Home Medical in Garrett are the only drugstores in each of those towns.

But being the only game in town wasn’t enough to overcome continued pressure from mail-order drug sales, reduced insurance payments and a severe pharmacist shortage, Feichter said.

“It’s been difficult for months,” he said of wrestling with the decision to close the drugstores. Ultimately, Feichter said the pharmacies weren’t filling enough prescriptions to cover costs of doing business.

And Feichter said that was despite the fact that he was getting free rent at his Garrett drugstore – housed in the former Garrett State Bank building – and has never taken a salary on any of his pharmacy operations. He’s covered personal expenses with money earned through other business ventures.

Feitcher also owns a medical supply store in Angola and another in Warsaw that he is in the process of selling.

He didn’t disclose particulars of that deal, except to say the one employee at Brennan’s Home Medical in Warsaw will stay on under new ownership.

Feichter opened the Garrett pharmacy in late 2003, selling retail products, and after receiving necessary licensing began stocking a pharmacy line in early 2004. He bought the Albion and Avilla locations in 2000.

Avilla, with a population of about 2,400, and Albion, population 2,300, are both in Noble County. Garrett, population 5,800, is in southern DeKalb County.

Graden has worked for the Fischer pharmacies in Avilla and Kendallville for more than 30 years.

The Avilla pharmacy started in 1972 below a physician’s office, she said.

Some customers are angry about the planned closure, and others are just “really, really disappointed,” she said.

More than anything, Graden believes customers are upset because they have come to appreciate the small-town feel of the pharmacy, where many customers are greeted by name.

“It’s going to be really emotional next Tuesday,” Graden said. “We’ve become family.”

Graden learned of the closing on Saturday, but the other Avilla employees were told only late Tuesday, she said. In some ways, the writing has been on the wall for years.

“Clearly, the smaller pharmacies in the smaller towns don’t enjoy the economies of scale that the larger pharmacies enjoy,” said Zoher Shipchandler, a professor of marketing at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

The smaller pharmacies have less buying power and see less foot traffic, Shipchandler said.

The latter is especially true in towns without a hospital, said Feichter, who owns another pharmacy in Hicksville, Ohio. With a hospital nearby, the number of prescriptions filled typically equals that of Avilla and Albion pharmacies combined, he said.

While that business remains viable, the level of competition community pharmacies face can be stifling.

“It’s kind of an attack coming from two different fronts,” Shipchandler said, referring to large pharmacy chains and big-box stores such as Wal-Mart, which recently rolled out its $4 generic prescription drug program nationwide.

A third front is mail-order drug companies, something insurance companies push clients to use to save money, he said.

In an era where large chains rule, news of the pharmacy closings had other small-business owners in Avilla worried Thursday afternoon.

“It’s just one more small store,” said Jody Nasca, an employee at the Mid-Town Market in downtown Avilla.

Customers all morning, especially elderly ones, had been buzzing about the announcement, Nasca said.

“They’re bothered that they have to go to Kendallville,” she said.

Mid-Town Market owner John Johnson, Nasca’s brother, worried that customers who go to Wal-Mart in Kendallville for their prescriptions might decide to do their grocery shopping there, too.

“It’s one-stop shopping,” he said. “You’ve got to give people a reason to stay in the town and do their shopping. That’s what I’ve tried to do here.”

Source

Albion, Avilla, Garrett to lose local drug stores

By Michael Schroeder

The Journal Gazette

Citing continued pressure from mail-order drug sales, reduced insurance payments and a severe pharmacist shortage, the owner and president of three area small town pharmacies announced Wednesday the drug stores are closing.

Fischer Pharmacy & Home Medical in Albion, Fischer Pharmacy & Home Medical in Avilla, and Garrett Pharmacy & Home Medical in Garrett – the only drug stores in each of those towns – will officially close their doors Tuesday, Thomas J. Feichter said.

All prescription patient files will be transferred to CVS locations in Kendallville and Auburn on Dec. 13 and all employees are being hired by CVS, he said.

Feichter bought the Albion and Avilla locations in 2000. He opened the Garrett store in late 2003 selling retail products – and after receiving necessary licensing – began stocking a pharmacy line in early 2004.

Source

Health board provides incentives

Noel Thompson works in the hospital pharmacy at the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre. Her days are busy with packaging prescriptions for patients in the hospital.

Trying to retain, attract pharmacists

By JENNIFER PELLEY
nor'wester

Last week, hospital administrators at Central Health announced they would be offering its pharmacists the same incentives announced by the largest health board in the province the previous week.

Hospital pharmacists in central have been offered a temporary annual bonus of $12,000 which will be paid out to them in lump sum payments every six months with the expectation the pharmacists will remain working in the hospital for the next six months. This happened after the provincial government turned pharmacists down for an increase in pay. It is a short-term solution that will last for 18 months until the end of the current contract.

“The first feeling we had was relief that the pressure was taken off,” said Denise O’Brien, clinical pharmacist II at the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre. “Then it was pleasure that there was some reward for loyalty and experience, which is often not the case with government. They’ll recruit instead of retaining.”

Administrators came up with the proposal in order to address the rising concern with shortages in hospital pharmacies. Central Health currently has three vacancies that it has not been able to fill for a number of months.

“We have posted the vacancies and have had no applicants,” said Trudy Stuckless, vice-president of professional standards. “The idea of the $12,000 is to retain those we have and to help recruit into the vacant positions.”

Ms. O’Brien said several of these positions have been posted for a couple of years without any response. She pointed out there is one position in St. John’s that has been on offer for 70 months without any applications.

Hospital pharmacy services operate out of the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre in Grand Falls-Windsor, where there are currently eight pharmacists, and the James Paton Memorial Hospital in Gander, where there are currently five. The three vacancies are at the Gander hospital.

Hospital pharmacists service the whole region, including nursing homes, providing an essential service.

But the private sector is more attractive to pharmacists because of the substantially higher wages (often about $30,000 a year higher) and the often better benefits packages. About 85 per cent of the province’s pharmacists work in the private sector.

And now with hospitals in the other three Atlantic provinces offering wages and benefits to pharmacists that are comparable to the private sector, Newfoundland hospital pharmacists who are committed to hospital work are realizing they do not even have to leave Atlantic Canada to receive better pay.

Eastern Health’s announcement that it would pay an extra $12,000 for pharmacists who agree to not leave their jobs raised an issue with the Association of Allied Health Professionals (which represents pharmacists) regarding the potential for a drain on other health boards across the province.

Sharon King, executive director of the association, spoke out last week and said other boards would probably be concerned because they were at a higher risk of losing their pharmacists to the Eastern board because of the new incentive.

But Ms. Stuckless said Central Health’s decision was not spurred by Eastern Health’s announcement and a fear of losing its pharmacists. She said the four health boards in the province had discussed how to address the shortage and maintain services together prior to Eastern Health’s announcement, but timing played a factor in when the boards could make their own individual announcements.

“Each health authority had to have discussions with their executive team and with the board of trustees, because this was a significant decision and a unique situation,” she said. “Each health authority needed to go through the process of having those discussions and I think it was just a matter of scheduling.”

Ms. Stuckless also said the health authorities were trying to be consistent in their approach to deal with this concern so a problem does not arise with pharmacists opting to leave one health board for another.

Ms. O’Brien confirmed this was indeed an issue for Central Health pharmacists once Eastern Health made its announcement.

“There were almost immediate discussions about it that said if we don’t get the same, Clarenville (which falls under Eastern Health) has openings,” she said. “People were willing to live in Clarenville. People who don’t particularly want to live in St. John’s could easily have moved there.

“And then there were also some discussions where if the offer was so much better in St. John’s, people could consider that.”

Ms. O’Brien said now that the offer is there, it provides more of an incentive for Central Health pharmacists to stay where they are.

But she pointed out that in 18 months, there will be many eyes on government, watching how it will manage the pharmacist shortage.

“So in 18 months, we are either going to be adopting the same situation again, or government could take these 18 months to come up with some kind of creative solution to resolve this for the long term,” she said.

Source

Eastern Health dealing with impact of pharmacy shortage

KIRK SQUIRES
The Packet

Eastern Health is walking a fine line between finding a solution to the pharmacist shortage while also trying to address the concerns of nurses.

In an effort to retain the pharmacists it has and attract new ones, the health board is offering pharmacists a temporary $12,000 market differential allowance.

But that won’t solve the immediate problem at the G.B. Cross Memorial Hospital in Clarenville.

Thanks to the pharmacists shortage there is no full-time pharmacist covering the Saturday and Sunday shifts. As a result, nurses have been charged with the duty of retrieving medications for patients on weekends.

That has raised concerns around patient safety in the event there is an interaction between two prescribed medications. Nurses also wonder who will be liable in event there is a serious drug interaction.

"Patient safety is our main priority," says Pat Coish-Snow, Chief Operating Officer for Peninsulas Area-Eastern Health.

As part of the contingency planning to deal with the pharmacy shortage Coish-Snow says a team — with representatives from nursing, pharmacy and physicians — meets weekly meetings to discuss issues arising from the vacancy at G.B. Cross.

"Nurses have identified, through the union, a representative for that group. They meet weekly to talk about issues and concerns and . . . other solutions to help relieve this problem," says Coish-Snow.

One of the impacts has been the increase in nurses’ workload.

The most recent solution has been to add nursing staff on Saturday and Sunday.

"What we have tried to do is work with nurses to add an extra nurse in the building on Saturday and Sunday so they have someone else to call upon," says Coish-Snow.

Coish-Snow says that additional nurse would not only be responsible for medication retrieval but would also offset any additional workload in the building.

"If it is really busy in Emergency and they need a medication for a patient, rather than take them away from the bedside they can call on another nurse in the building to get that medication for them. This is how we have seen an interim solution to a vacancy in the pharmacy.

"I understand there are some concerns from the nurses union about that and we need to work through on what those concerns are."

She says the administration is working with nurses on understanding what their concerns are. She stresses they are not asking nurses to work as pharmacists

"Nurses are not replacing pharmacists," she says of the decision to add the additional nurse on weekends.

"What we are asking nurses to do, because we have a vacancy, is what they would normally do when we don’t have a pharmacist in the building."

She explains pharmacists prepare the medications and dispense them into a single dose system. They are then stored in the "electronic night cupboard."

Nurses retrieve that medication from the cupboard.

"That’s what a nurse would do in our organization . . . when a pharmacist is not in the building at night or in the evening. That is not an unusual thing," she says.

Coish-Snow explains the physician writes the medication order for the patient and the physician is available for consultation if the nurse feels the medication is not appropriate or there is some concern about giving that medication. She adds the pharmacist is also on call 24-hours to provide clinical advice.

"What nurses are saying is they would like pharmacy to review those orders like they always do. What we have put in place is a mechanism where they can telephone a pharmacist to review the order if they have a concern. We are also looking at ways, electronically, to send a copy of that order to another pharmacist at another site."



Contingency

The addition of extra nuses on weekends is inteneded to be a short-term solution.

But will there be other ramifications if Eastern Health is unable to recruit more pharmacists in the near future?

"That’s the hard question to answer," says Coish-Snow.

"They (pharmacists) are integral part of the team. When you don’t have all the partners in the room you have to improvise and create some contingency plans, all the while maintaining patient safety and ensuring professionals only do what is allowed within their professional scope of practice.

"We have not gone beyond that in this case. It does place added stress on each of the other players in the system and we have to work with them . . . and find solutions to how we can reduce that stress."

Meetings between Eastern health and the union were planned for Friday afternoon.

Coish-Snow says Eastern Health wants to work collaboratively with the union and the professional association to provide safe patient care.

"We always like to have strong relationships with the union.

"What we want to hear from the nurses’ union is what are the options they are suggesting that can work, that are also acceptable for the global picture."

Source.

McKesson Expands Mobile Cabinet Solution Line

N ew Configuration Flexibility in CarePoint-RN Personal Workstations Designed to Accelerate Adoption of Patient Safety Technology at the Bedside

ANAHEIM, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 04, 2006 -- McKesson, the world's largest healthcare services, automation and information technology company, today announced several new versions of its breakthrough CarePoint-RN™ solution, a single, mobile cabinet that combines secure medication management and integrated wireless access to clinical patient care systems. The announcement comes in conjunction with the opening day of the 41st American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition, Dec. 3-7, in Anaheim, Calif. The expanded CarePoint-RN solution line features a new, robust software package that can interface with a hospital's existing clinical systems, regardless of vendor. The products also give hospitals a choice in onboard computing and power systems designed to support customer-supplied technology such as laptop computers, thin client and blade computing solutions. In combination, the new offerings provide hospitals greater flexibility to implement patient safety at the bedside -- where it's most effective -- and strengthen McKesson's commitment to help care providers improve patient safety and quality of care.

"From an asset management point of view, the expanded CarePoint-RN product line gives hospitals optimal flexibility in choosing solutions to fit within their IT structure and budget -- regardless of where they are in deploying bedside scanning initiatives," said David Souerwine, president of McKesson's automation unit. "From an end-user perspective, the software upgrades are designed to save nurses even more time and improve their ability to deliver safer, more efficient care."

The CarePoint-RN product line integrates the best of medication cabinet security and advanced clinical information and moves them to the bedside where they are most effective. Quantitative studies at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, Spartanburg, S.C., show that the CarePoint-RN workstation can save nurses considerable time, returning up to 2 1/2 hours per nurse per shift.

CarePoint-RN is part of the McKesson CarePoint system, an integrated suite of world-class clinical software and automation solutions that drive clinical activities closer to the patient. From the bedside back to the loading dock, the CarePoint system promotes medication safety, reduces the burden on nursing and pharmacy labor, and lowers the cost of care. Only McKesson offers this complete, end-to-end system.

The new CarePoint-RN software package, installed on all CarePoint-RN models, includes powerful functionality that no other mobile nurse workstation offers, including:

--  Patient-profile dispensing capabilities - gives nurses the same user
  interface and control they are accustomed to using with AcuDose-Rx®
  medication cabinets.
--  Centralized PIN management - controls user access from a single,
  remote location, preventing unauthorized users from accessing the patient-
  specific medication drawers.
--  Medication tracking capability - enables pharmacy to know exactly
  where each patient-specific medication container and CarePoint-RN unit is
  for easy location and restocking.
  

Hardware options include purchasing CarePoint-RN units with or without embedded PC, LCD monitor, bar-code imager, keyboard, and mouse, and the power scaled to the required components.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 16th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. Over the course of its 173-year history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare, and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information: www.mckesson.com.

Source, McKesson's Press Release.

Nurses impacted by pharmacist shortage

KIRK SQUIRES
The Packet

Nurses at G.B. Cross Hospital say they are no longer willing to fill the gap left by the pharmacist’s shortage.

"We understand the pharmacy profession is dealing with challenges, however downloading the responsibilities to frontline nurses is an unacceptable solution," said Nurses’ Union president Debbie Forward in a release last week.

Eastern Health plans to add a new nursing position as a short-term solution to the pharmacist shortage. One of the duties of that nurse will be retrieval of medication on weekends.

"Hiring nursing staff to specifically fulfill this role on weekends for up to one year is even more unacceptable. While nurses have some pharmaceutical education and experience, they certainly cannot replace a pharmacist," says Forward.

G.B. Cross normally has a contingent of three full-time pharmacists. With a full compliment a pharmacist would be on duty for the day shift on Saturday and Sunday. Several months ago one of the pharmacists left the area. Because of the added workload on the remaining pharmacists the decision was made to close the pharmacy on weekends. Pharmacists would only be available on an on-call basis during that time. That has since been reduced to pharmacists being available by phone only for questions and clarifications. In the absence of a pharmacist during the weekend shifts, nurses have been assigned to retrieve medications for in-patients.



Concerns

Forward says while nurses do have knowledge around medication, they are concerned about liability and quality of care in this situation.

"I don’t want to minimize the nurses’ role or our capacity to look at contraindications, allergies and interactions between drugs. That is part of our responsibility," stresses the Union boss, "But we don’t have the knowledge of a pharmacist.

"That is their expertise. A pharmacist has the required knowledge and education to ensure that medications dispensed to a patient do not conflict or react with other medications.

"Removing pharmacists from this process increases the potential risk for error," she says.

The Board has advised that nurses assigned to retrieve medications on the weekend shift are not responsible for checking for allergies, contraindications and compatibility with other medications that a patient may be prescribed, or for creating or reviewing medication profiles of patients.

That makes them wonder, who is responsible?

"Nurses are fearful it is going to lie with them," says Forward. "It will also lie somewhat with the physician but it will fall on the shoulders of the nurse who is going to administer that medication."



Options

Forward says adding nursing staff is not a solution to the pharmacist problem.

"The issue is we need pharmacists desperately," but she adds, "Nurses have put forward solutions to the employer."

One of those solutions is to have managers do medication retrieval.

"Have the responsibility fall on management, not on the front line nurses."

She points out, "If we were in . . . a job action and pharmacists weren’t working, the responsibility would fall back on management to make sure that role was being carried out."

Forward warns the impact on nurses in this situation could worsen if a solution is not found soon.

"A spin off issue, which is a real issue for nurses in the Clarenville area, which I don’t think even the employer can ignore, is that nurses have been working a lot of overtime in the last couple of months because of lack of relief.

"The employer is telling us there is no shortage of nurses, yet there were many times over the summer when nurses had been mandated to work overtime because there hasn’t been a replacement when a nurse is off."

Forward wonders if the hospital will be able to recruit nurses to go into that position, given the responsibility that is being placed on them.

She adds nurses are also fearful that, as result of the decision, their workload and their requirements to do overtime are going to be increased again which is going to increase their job related stress.

"I have said publicly that I think this is indicative of government and employers attitude of reacting to issues versus being proactive. This is a symptom of a bigger problem. I don’t think this is going to be an isolated to one site . . . or one group of professionals.

"There will be instances where we are going to have acute shortages of health professionals in this province and employers and government are going to be scrambling looking for solutions that are short-term."

Forward says short-term solutions only put stress and responsibility on those that are left which only exacerbates the problem.

"I place the blame squarely at government’s feet because they have ignored the problem for years but also at the employers feet because they have seen it coming as well.

"Now they are trying to put in short-term solutions to try to fix the gap. They are focusing on the pharmacists but the nurses now are saying you are putting unrealistic expectations on us and we are not willing to fill those gaps forever."

Forward was in Clarenville Friday to meet with officials at G.B. Cross.

"We look forward to having some productive discussion with them and looking for some solution here that is acceptable for nurses.

"We want to make sure nurses are protected in this situation and it doesn’t snowball so that the next thing they are going to be talking about in Clarenville is having enough nurses because of the responsibility being placed on them," says Forward.

As of press time on Friday there was no indication if the union and management had reached an alternative solution.

Source

Auburn, USA agreement will help address pharmacist shortage

Sunday, December 03, 2006

By ED RICHARDSON and GORDON MOULTON

Special to the Press-Register

M ost of Alabama as well as the United States is facing a serious shortage of pharmacists.

Fortunately for the people of our state and the Gulf Coast, an exciting new collaboration has been created between Auburn University and the University of South Alabama to alleviate this shortage by increasing the number of pharmacy school graduates and enhancing the availability of trained pharmacists.

If you live in Mobile or Baldwin counties, the shortage of pharmacists may have

touched you when you noticed an unusually long wait to have a prescription filled. Or perhaps your favorite pharmacy has had to reduce its hours because of a lack of staff.

Maybe you felt the shortage when, due to a hectic pace in your drugstore, you weren't able to adequately discuss your medications with your pharmacist.

If you live in a small town or rural area in Alabama, your likelihood of having experienced one or more of these scenarios is dramatically higher. Your local pharmacy may have even gone out of business due to an inability to hire a licensed pharmacist.

The U.S. Bureau of Health Professions puts it plainly: "There has been an unprecedented demand for pharmacists which has not been met by current supply."

Why is there a shortage of pharmacists? The good news is that many of the reasons reflect positive trends.

--Pharmaceutical research is bringing new and better medications to the market, and people have unprecedented health care options.

--We are living longer and our quality of life is improving.

--Health care is more convenient. Community pharmacies and drugstore chains are expanding their hours to meet the needs of the modern consumer.

--Our hospitals and health care institutions are increasingly involving pharmacists in total patient care.

These are all positive developments, but they pose a challenge. If we are to adequately support continued improvement in our nation's health care, we must educate far more pharmacists than we educate at present.

While retail pharmacists are often the most visible to the consumer, there is much more to the equation. Professional pharmacists are vital members of the medical team in our nation's hospitals and community clinics.

These staff pharmacists are critical in the delivery of medication and for providing consultation, expertise and quality control. And as our hospitals get more sophisticated and more adept at saving and improving lives, the demand for pharmacists expands as well.

Pharmacists are also needed in universities and research laboratories where students are being taught and tomorrow's miracle drugs are being developed and tested.

When you combine the expanding demand for pharmacists with the need for pharmacy professionals in hospitals, other health care institutions, education and the research field, you have a much clearer picture of our national shortage of professional pharmacists.

Nationally, every type of organization or business that depends on pharmacy professionals is having difficulty filling vacancies. The number of pharmacy jobs open today is among the highest in history.

Salaries for new doctor of pharmacy graduates are in the $90,000-per-year range and above.

In fact, nationally there is one pharmacist for every 1,050 people, a ratio that has been widely described as a "shortage." Looking more closely at Alabama reveals the true picture in our state.

In Mobile and Baldwin counties, there is one pharmacist for every 1,200 people. And if you look at Alabama's rural areas, you have one pharmacist for every 1,500 people, a ratio 40 percent below the national average.

The U.S. Bureau of Health Professions sees no end to this trend and envisions even greater demand for pharmacists in the future. The only real solution, according to the bureau, is to expand the number of pharmacy professionals.

This is where the new program between Auburn University and the University of South Alabama comes in.

For many years, Auburn University has served as the only public university in Alabama offering the doctor of pharmacy degree required for professional licensure. Over the years, Auburn graduates have taken their place in the pharmacy profession in the state and well beyond.

The University of South Alabama, through its academic programs in medicine, nursing and allied health professions, has educated numerous physicians and health care professionals. It also has served as one of the largest providers of health care on the upper Gulf Coast through its physicians, hospitals and the Mitchell Cancer Institute.

Playing on the strengths of both institutions, Auburn and USA have joined forces to create a doctor of pharmacy degree program on the USA campus in Mobile. The program begins in fall 2007.

Graduates of the program in Mobile will receive their degrees from the Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy at the University of South Alabama.

Students are eligible to apply for this four-year graduate program upon completing undergraduate studies in an appropriate pre-pharmacy or related health professions field, which are already offered at both institutions.

In a nutshell, we believe this agreement between Auburn and USA is the right thing to do for the people of Alabama. Both of our institutions are committed to working together to improve pharmacy care, especially in the southern part of the state, while making efficient use of state funds.

Student pharmacists will receive the same high-quality education in Mobile as at Auburn, and residents of Mobile will soon see an increase in the number of well-educated, highly competent pharmacy graduates serving all of South Alabama.

Under the new arrangement between the two universities, Auburn's pharmacy school will establish a satellite program in facilities at the USA Health Services Building. It will staff and administer the program with AU faculty, and establish the same admission requirements and academic criteria as the Harrison School of Pharmacy on the Auburn campus.

AU will administer the admission process to the pharmacy program, and a USA faculty member is expected to serve on the AU Harrison School's admission committee.

In some cases, AU pharmacy faculty will teach USA medical students and USA medical faculty will teach AU pharmacy students. USA will extend clinical pharmacy appointments to AU pharmacy faculty involved in education programs for student physicians, medical residents and other health care students.

Auburn, in turn, will extend affiliate faculty appointments to USA faculty who participate in the Harrison School of Pharmacy program.

Students in all of these health-related programs will benefit from "real world" experience gained at USA's hospitals and other medical facilities.

The new program's goal is to quickly move to help reduce the shortage of well-trained, licensed pharmacists throughout the state, but particularly in the Mobile area and along the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to the Biloxi area and beyond.

By immediately increasing the number of qualified students accepted into the doctor of pharmacy program, as well as making this program more geographically accessible to bright young men and women in the region, we will help alleviate the shortage of professional pharmacists serving the public.

This exciting partnership between Auburn University and the University of South Alabama will result in improved health care and longer, healthier lives for the people of Alabama and the Gulf Coast.

Source.