Anyone who has visited a chain retail pharmacy knows that we are understaffed. It becomes obvious as patients stand in a long line, watching one of the few technicians waiting for the pharmacist to finish verifying an order before they can help the next customer. That pharmacist has a phone to one ear and is helping another technician with an antibiotic to be mixed for a sick child at the drive-thru window. Another patient stands at the counter waiting for a consultation on a potential drug interaction as the phone rings, unanswered, with a doctor on the other end. The waiting room fills up as immunization appointments begin to run behind.

These working conditions have become so normal that all pharmacists like me can think is “it could be worse.” For us it has become just another Tuesday

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