Hundreds of retail  pharmacists in Virginia are required to work more than 12 continuous hours (often up to 14 hours) per day and a large percentage of them are not allowed to leave the pharmacy for at least a 30 minute meal break.  The State Boards of Pharmacy in both West Virginia and North Carolina have regulations that limit shifts to 12 continuous hours and NC also requires that a pharmacist be allowed to take a 30 minute meal break after working more than 6 continuous hours.  These regulations have been adopted in WV and NC to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public and the health and welfare of their pharmacists.  I am aware of no other retail profession where an employer can require an employee to work 14 hours consecutive hours per day, without a break.  I support this proposed change to the Regulations Governing the Practice of Pharmacy in Virginia to establish a limitation on the number of hours a pharmacist  can work continuously to 12, and a requirement for breaks during a 12 hour shift.

Pharmacists need a break when required to work 12,13 & 14 hour shifts to rest and eat a meal without interruption. Often these long shifts require an hour to an hour and one-half travel to and from the store if covering a vacation or sickness extending the day to 16-17 hrs. This is dangerous for patients receiving medication as a tired pharmacist could possibly make a mistake that is harmful to the patient. Pharmacy is a professsion that requires a great deal of mental alertness and long hours with no break diminish this capability.Please consider regulations that improve this situation.  .

I support this proposed change to the Regulations Governing the Practice of Pharmacy in Virginia to establish a limitation on the number of hours a pharmacist  can work continuously to 12, and a requirement for breaks during a 12 hour shift.

As a pharmacist in the hospital setting, a 30 minute meal break is required for any employee working more than 6 continuous hours.  I fail to see why my retail counterparts are not covered by the same benefits we enjoy in health-systems.

I have practiced pharmacy in the state of Virginia for 21 year.  I have worked retail, hospital, and independant pharmacy.  In my hospital & independant practice, I was given a break for lunch which was 30 minutes.  This break was rather I worked an 8 hour shift or a 12 hour shift.  I have floated for a chain before and a 12 hour day was frequently 15 to 16 hours due to a commute but  in those cases I was fortunate to work for a company which did recognize our need for a time to relax, refresh & recharge ourselves both physically and metally.  It is a long day to stand for 12 hours.  If we are lucky, there is a semi-private place where we can stash a sandwhich a steal a bite or two on the run.  Or if there is an overlap of pharmacists or two on duty, they take turns letting the other get a break.  Our technicians have been known to get a 15 min break and a 30 min lunch.  While the propsed petion will definitely benefit the pharmacists of the state of Virginia, I do think the people we will help the most are our patients.  They have put their faith, trust, health and safety in our hands.  As the most respected profession, we need to continue to be able to deliver the best care to them.  It is my believe that a refreshed, alert, and  rested pharmacist can deliver better health care to our patients.  Errors, while infrequent, do occur and are more likely to occur when we are overworked, understaffed, and just plain exhausted mentally and physically.  I support this petition and respectfully ask for your deepest consideration. 

I am a health care professional, not a pharmacist.  While, 12 hours shift are the norm in many health care areas, the person who is working a 12 hour shift or even an 8 hour shift should not be expected to do so without a break.  Everyone, no matter how educated and professional they are need a break.  Errors are much more likely to happen if someone is tired, rushed or inattentive.  We cannot prevent every error that happens in health care but we can prevent some by taking common sense actions.  Giving a break is just common sense.  Allowing the workload to be appropriate for the staffing for any given shift, be it inpatient or out patient setting is also common sense.  Some tasks carry such a risk, that actions should be taken to make sure the person is focused on that one task and is not being asked to multi-task.  Despite people thinking that they can multi-task, the human brain can really only handle one task at a time and handle it well.  Medication errors while rare can kill or seriously injure a patient. Hopefully, this Board recognizes the need to protect the public.  (But sadly, my experiences with the DHP show that they lack common sense, judgment and integrity, just my opinoin based on my experiences. )

Thank you for this forum.

I am a clinical pharmacist at a local regional hospital in Harrisonburg, VA. I have not spent much time in the retail side of pharmacy so I will not be able to make comments in that regard. I would like to speak on behalf of all hospital pharmacists. I can not stress the importance of PATIENT SAFETY! I try to take a step back on all my decisions and think, will the patient be harmed? We do not intend to harm our patients, but we are all human and can make serious mistakes if we are tired without a standard break or long hours. However, when pharmacist are overworked and unable to take a break due to volume issues, mistakes can be made. We belong to a profession that requires perfection and continued alertness so that we can make sure all our T's are crossed and I's are dotted before sending that medication out to the patient.

As a patient, and now as a mother, I want to be confident that the person filling prescriptions is alert, attentive, and capable of catching mistakes, whether made by the pharmacy or the prescribing health care provider.  I support common sense limits on working hours and standards for taking breaks during long shifts such as those adopted by our neighbors, MD and WV.  For the health and safety of all Virginians who use their services, please take this opportunity to review and revise your regulations governing working hours for pharmicists.

In my short time as a Pharmacist I have worked in WV and VA as a retail Pharmacist.  I have worked 14 hour shifts at a chain pharmacy and 9 hour shifts at an independent pharmacy.  I cannot express how completely exhausting it is both mentally and physically to stand for 14hours without getting a lunch break.  When working at the independent I have always received a lunch break and I feel this improves my accuracy.  Getting time to put your brain in neutral gives you the break you need in a profession where perfection is the standard.  Working such long hours without a lunch is extremely dangerous for patient safety.  In a profession where there is no room for error, it should be without question that we should receive a lunch break.  I appreciate that discussion has been opened to help shed light on this issue. 

I support this proposed change to the Regulations Governing the Practice of Pharmacy in Virginia to establish a limitation on the number of hours a pharmacist can work continuously to 12 hours, and a requirement for breaks during a 12 hour shift. In an intensly stressful environment where the smallest mistake can create the worst kind of outcome, it is imperative that this change be implemented.  Please protect not only your pharmacists but your citizens as well!  

Pharmacists are extremely important partners in the good health of Americans.  Being a pharmacist requires attention to details, verifying dosages, handling of extremely potent medications, and working with patients on a one to one basis.  They need to be on top of their game at all times.  In order to carry out this important healthcare work, pharmacists need to care for themselves.  It's imperative that our retailers employing pharmacists and making pharmacy services available to their customers be required to provide ample meal times and work days of reasonable length for our pharmacists.  Errors made my exhausted pharmacists could be disastrous for patients.  Give pharmacists a break.

It always surprises me that it is necessary to legislate breaks in schedules to facilitate safer working conditions for health professionals. I am assuming this is about safer working conditions and not just eating habits of pharmacists. I fully support safer working conditions, which as we all know, translates to less mistakes and thus better care for our patients. I'm also a realist in the sense that if some of the pharmacists are required to take a break, then the work will be that much more/harder when they return since extra personnel will not be provided to fill in while they are on this supposed break. I think more appropriate legislation would be to require more help based on acuity of care and number of presriptions being filled.

I went to Walmart over the weekend to pick up a prescription.  Clearly posted is a sign that states if there is only one pharmacist on duty the pharmacy will be closed for 1/2 hour at lunch time.  Clearly Walmart understands the importance of giving a worker a lunch break.  Allowing a pharmacist to take a real break for a half hour will help them to function better and make fewer errors.  Hopefully, the DPH will be as enlightened as the evil giant Walmart.  Thanks.

I support mandatory breaks for retail pharmacists working 12 hour shifts, and the elimination of 14 hour shifts. I have worked 14 hour shifts in the past, and after hour eleven it became very difficult to focus. What other health care provider works  12 hours...even 8...without a lunch or bathroom break.  Pharmacy should be mentally, not physically demanding.   Pharmacists are well compensated, however that does not make them superhuman and able to go without meals or bathrooms breaks.  The bottom line is that the patients health is at stake.  It is time for change.. 

I strongly support the petition against long work hours for pharmacists without a meal break. I work for a large retail which gives us a break even when we work 8 hour shifts, I cannot imagine working straight 12 hours without a break. I really feel sorry for my friends who have to work for such a long shifts without a break.  As retail pharmacists standing all the day on feet try to help constantly each patient who visit pharmacies with prescriptions and in the OTC isles helping them find right medications which makes us physically exhausted after certain number of hours.  By profession itself a pharmacist needs to be mentally alert to dispense right medications and brain needs energy to stay alert which is not possible without a meal. I would like to strongly say that pharmacists, as a human being, just because he/she is being paid cannot be expected to work like machines which do not need a meal break. This kind of work environment is not only detrimental to the pharmacists’ health in long run but also directly affecting the safety of patients getting medications from a less productive pharmacist who would otherwise be with a little 30 minutes meal break. So, please help patients and pharmacists to be in safe pharmacy environment.

I have several concerns about this possible change

1. You will still have to fill the same number of rx's a day you will just have less time to do it , Everyone seems to worry about mistakes, filling more rxs per hour seems to me to make that more likely not less

2. Cutting back hours will result in less hours pharmacy's will be open and reduce demand for pharmacists in a already tight market

3. Do not relish the idea that the State can limit my right to work.

4. I do support lunch break idea

Although the safety issues associated with long and consecutive hours has been documented by other healthcare industries, there seems to be little research related to the pharmacy industry.  However, I believe that it is important that we listen to our colleges in WV and NC and evaluate our work conditions…not only for the safety concerns for our patients, but for our own health. 

I have been involved in a number of patient safety reviews in my career, and a common response to the cause of the error has been worker fatigue or mental lapse of judgement.  It has been shown that jobs that require multitasking and prioritization are more susceptible to fatigue.  As a pharmacist; we must manage prescription queue,  the telephone, the MD line, the fax, the e-prescriptions, the drop-off window, the drive-up window, the counseling window, the operations or  work-arounds of the technology, the technician staff, immunizations, fill 300+ prescriptions a day and get all of this done in 15 minutes or less per prescription.  In a hospital setting; we have to manage medication reconciliation issues, complex drug regimens, IV compatibilities, distribution functions, clinical monitoring, drugs that increase fall risks, meds that impact renal function, discharge counseling and issues that impact readmissions, as well as order verification and clarification.  The demands are high, as well as the expectation for near perfect processing.  Long shifts, various shifts and multiple days on duty impact our ability to perform at a near perfect level. 

As the industry has focused on pharmacist’s satisfaction, 12 hour shifts with multiple consecutive days have become the norm.  However, these shifts increase the opportunity for fatigue and adverse effects on worker health.  Working more than 40 hours per week or more than hours per day has shown to impact:

• Neck and musculoskeletal discomfort
• Increased risk for hypertension
• Increased incidence of cardiovascular disease
• Higher risk for diabetes
• Increased risk for pre-term birth
• More work place accidents

How many pharmacists do you know that suffer from a chronic disease or physical discomfort that could be related to their work shifts?  In addition, it has been proven that the older we get, the more fatigue impacts our performance.  As we all get older and are more susceptible to chronic diseases, we must do all we can to protect our own health…for ourselves, our families and our patients.

We owe it to ourselves and our patients to do better…I agree that we must improve pharmacist work conditions. I applaud the Virginia Board of Pharmacy for addressing this concern.

I have worked in retail pharmacy over the past 5 years and have worked multiple shifts over 12 hours.  Pharmacy is a profession, like many others in the medical field, that requires intense concentration and multi-tasking on a daily basis.  I feel it is risky to have pharmacists perform this sort of work over such long periods of time, especially without a break.  In many retail locations, we as pharmacists are torn between not only verifying prescriptions and counseling patients, but also answering the phones, supervising technicians, administering immunizations, etc.  Pharmacists are stretched thin in many situations and having to maintain this for shifts greater than 12 hours without a break is potentially dangerous.  Our profession demands perfection.  Our patients deserve to always have quality medical care.  We owe it to our patients to be able to perform at our best, but fatigue and lack of concentration undoubtedly happen over the course of such long shifts. Our colleagues in West Virginia and North Carolina have taken action to ensure the safety of their citizens and well-being of their pharmacists.  I urge the Virginia BOP to do the same.