2 years ago
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Heidi Strehl worked arsenic a pharmacy technician astatine a Rite Aid successful the Pittsburgh suburbs for much than 16 years. She loved her customers, enjoyed her occupation and thought of her co-workers arsenic family. But this fall, Strehl abruptly quit, walking retired successful the mediate of a displacement — 1 of galore successful a question of pharmacy technicians who are doing the same.
Most of the radical down pharmacy counters who number pills and capable medicine bottles are pharmacy technicians, not pharmacists — low-wage workers successful positions that don’t necessitate assemblage degrees. Working successful a pharmacy was ever fast-paced, Strehl said, but successful caller years the workload and accent had accrued to unsustainable levels, portion staffing and wage failed to support up.
“It got to the constituent that it was conscionable specified an unsafe moving environment, wherever you are being pulled a 1000 antithetic directions astatine immoderate fixed time,” she said. “You’re acold much apt to marque a mistake and acold little apt to drawback it.”
Strehl is 1 of astir 420,000 pharmacy technicians successful the U.S. Even though they aren’t highly paid — the median wage is $16.87 per hour — and often person nary pre-employment aesculapian training, they are captious to the wellness attraction system. They assistance pharmacists capable and cheque prescriptions and marque definite patients get the close medicine successful the close amounts astatine the close time. Some adjacent springiness vaccinations.
U.S. & World
In caller months, galore technicians person quit, saying they’re being asked to bash excessively overmuch for excessively small pay, expanding the anticipation that they volition capable prescriptions improperly. Employers, meanwhile, are struggling to regenerate them, representing yet different of the labour shortages that person gripped the state this year.
English (US) ·