Retail pharmacists struggle with pandemic burden
Mean customers, panic attacks leading to major problems
Your local CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid or grocery store retail pharmacist wears many hats: filling prescriptions, answering questions about medications and COVID-19 over the phone and in person, and administering lots and lots of vaccines. Nearly two years into the pandemic, and many have cracked under the weight of the added burden.
One retail pharmacist in a grocery store on the South Shore who’d been in his role for almost 25 years has been on leave since September, too scarred by his experience to go back after a mental breakdown.
“I literally sat on the floor in the bathroom curled up with my arms around my legs, and I couldn’t stop crying,” he said. “It was just to the point where I just couldn’t deal with life. I never want to experience that ever again.”
He had been pushing through the warning signs of an impending mental health episode as he worked overtime through staffing issues, piling additional duties onto his plate.
“Besides filling prescriptions and answering questions for over-the-counter stuff, now I have to give all those COVID vaccines on top of shingles, pneumonia, tetanus,” he said, adding that he’d answer dozens of questions about the COVID vaccine daily. “I would work a shift during a pandemic, I would come home around 6, have dinner and by 7:30 I was dead to the world sleeping on the recliner.”
He now takes medications for anxiety, depression, sleep and mood stabilization, which he said he’s never taken before, as he looks for a new job outside retail. “Retail is such a bad place now,” he said. “There’s nothing nice to say about it.”
Another retail pharmacist in Bristol County said she’s retiring five years ahead of
schedule because she can’t handle the stress of the last two years. “My blood pressure has gone through the roof. I’ve had flare-ups of arthritis that I’ve never had before,” she said. “What the chains are asking the pharmacist to do, it’s really unbelievable.”
She recalled the stress of giving a vaccine every 15 minutes to about 40 people per day, or “vaccinating the world and not only once but twice and then three times,” as she called it, leaving her post each time to do so. ( One statistic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of last month, pharmacies have given out almost 200 million doses of the COVID vaccine in the U.S.)
As her work is interrupted with giving vaccine doses and answering 400 calls per day about COVID testing by one count, she worries about the safety and accuracy of her work.
“You’re talking about somebody’s medication … It’s horrifying,” she said. “On a busy day, I come home at night and think all night long, ‘Did I do that one right?”
Adding to that the stresses of understaffing, constant
COVID exposure and the patients in her small friendly town that have turned into “monsters,” she’s ready for retirement.
Another retail pharmacist technician said that short staffing issues were so severe, she had to go to work the afternoon following her courthouse wedding, still in her hair and makeup. Since then, she said the many hours of overtime she had to work strained her marriage.
She has since left to work in a cancer clinic.
Some pharmacists in urban areas with populations more distrustful of their doctors have become health hubs for their clientele, further stretching resources.
“They have a lot of needs, and they may not be able to afford to go to the doctor, or they may have a lot of other responsibilities and not be able to go to the doctor, so the pharmacy becomes their ‘one stop shop’ to answer questions,” said one retail pharmacist in an urban area near Boston. “It’s kind of like we’re a doctor’s office on top of being a pharmacy.”
He pointed out that pharmacies have noticed this and have turned this unofficial
function official — CVS announced in 2019 that it was turning over 1,000 stores into more integrated HealthHUBs, with less retail space and more health care functions.
In statements, both CVS and Walgreens said they’re working to aggressively hire. CVS said it’s working to create more regular schedules and breaks for its staff, while Walgreens is rolling out pay raises and bonuses for its staff.
To solve these growing pains, this pharmacist, as well as the National Association of Chain Drug Stores called for pharmacies to be better equipped, with more nurses, doctors, technicians or “whatever can help each community and their unique health needs,” he said.
He added that earlier in his 14-year pharmacy career under these conditions, he likely would’ve quit. But now, he feels he’s able to handle the stress with the help of exercise and a supportive pharmacist network and family.
“I have a more positive mindset that I’m helping the community,” he said. “And even if I had a bad day I go home and I let it out.”