Stepping Back from the edge... in Healthcare

Most people know about increased demand in healthcare fields, and the shortage of qualified workers.  Many healthcare fields have high turnover; Skilled workers are leaving in droves because it's just not worth it.  It's not that many of us don't love our jobs or are unwilling to spend the time and energy required. In fact, I would argue that many of us love our jobs so much we are unwilling to sacrifice quality of care and that is where we are falling apart.

I work for a chain store pharmacy in Canada as a licensed healthcare professional. A registered Pharmacy Technician (RPhT) to be precise.  I've been in this field for over 20 years, through university and marriage and children. It has changed so much in that time. 

My first job was in a pharmacy.  I worked part time in high school as a jill-of-all-trades in a small independent pharmacy. Back then, at least within our tight knit company family, job security meant something. As did job satisfaction. Management had time for our concerns and did everything they could to make sure we were satisfied and content in our job roles.

Fast forward to today. 

Maybe it is because I now work for a chain pharmacy with a larger parent company, but I find company culture to be completely different.  Concerns brought to my manager are most often brushed off. Often argued. Often excused. It is not uncommon for my manager to blame company inactivity on certain issues to not having the time to address them. We have had high turnover in all job positions. Employees are considered replaceable.  To the larger parent company we are a number and a wage.   

Over the seven years I've been employed here, we have seen ten pharmacists, two of which remain. We have seen 3x that many assistants. Currently, we have two full time pharmacists, two full time assistants and two part time. There are also two full-time RPhT's. When I started, there were 3 pharmacists, 2 techs, 3 part time assistants and 3 full time assistants. That's a total of 11 employees then compared to 7 now.

The lack of employees means that work is disorganized, rushed and prone to errors. We are not able to organize and complete tasks methodically. It is more of a chaos dump of tasks that is reactionary instead of proactive. We are unable to consistently move beyond the immediate. This leads to unfulfilled promises, hasty catch up and poor patient care.  It is crisis level working conditions. It leads to high turnover and management breakdown. 

To give an example of management breakdown, I have been fighting to get my name changed on my company benefits since I got married in July of last year. At this point, that's 9 months. My manager's position has been, and continues to be, that he does not have the time to complete the management tasks he is assigned and has no time for extra tasks.

I will not comment in this article on how much control I believe in store management has. Safe to say, I do not believe they are blameless in creating these working conditions. 

All of this back story is to set up my current circumstances. 

I am, in this world of over working just to survive, looking to reduce my hours. I have drawn up a professional letter to give to my manager this week, asking to go from 40+ hours per week down to 24. I've outlined the need to spend more time with my children as the reason and asked for reduction to start as soon as possible. I have given an ideal time line of three weeks from now, giving management time to adjust schedules. 

Wish me luck!