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Volume 2012 Number 1

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Are we planning for future skill shortages?

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	Neil Johnston articles by this author...
Introducing current ideas, perspectives and issues, to the profession of pharmacy

National Seniors Agency have published a report indicating that Australia will have a shortfall of 1.4 million workers by 2025.
This shortage will also be reflected in the profession of pharmacy.
It is pointed out that a smart move would be to match an improved workplace to match specific requirements for mature-aged employees and thus retain them for longer periods..
APESMA has recently published an online survey in an endeavour to poll employed pharmacists on the issues that affect them specifically. Obviously, this is a move in the right direction, and much of what they are polling has a direct relationship to mature-aged employees.

So what is community pharmacy doing to retain their senior pharmacists?

Very little, it seems.

i2P asked Mark Coleman to comment and his commentary appears below the news item:

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"A new report predicts there will be a shortfall of 1.4 million workers by 2025 and further highlights the need for immediate action on the issue of mature age employment, according to National Seniors Australia (NSA).

NSA has welcomed the Workplace Futures report by the Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which provides yet more evidence that leadership is needed to plan for Australia's future.

NSA chief executive, Michael O'Neill, said mature age employment was the key to addressing the rapidly ageing population and looming skills shortage.

“One of the smartest things we can do as a nation is create a level playing field for our mature age workers by improving employment opportunities and addressing age discrimination in the workforce,” Mr O'Neill said.

“While all Australians have the right to decide when they retire, an increasing number are choosing to continue working past traditional retirement age. Half of all people aged 55+ currently working part-time want more work.”

Mr O'Neill said with the economy now starting to turn a corner, government and businesses must focus on utilising the skills and experience of older Australians who want to work.

“The elimination of age limits, such as those applying to superannuation and workers' compensation, should be central to any policy response- it is currently the case that the 9% employer superannuation contribution is no longer mandatory once a worker is over the age of 70.”

Over the last 12 months, NSA has driven the national debate on this issue through representations to government, business and union representatives."

  Mark Coleman

I have been asked to comment on the above news item and matters in the introduction to this Pharmedia column.

As I am an active senior pharmacist, I do think I have the credentials to comment.

As I progress through my senior years I have looked on in stunned amazement as I find myself continually "dumbed-down" into a repetitive and sometimes soul-destroying dispensing daily grind.
Although expected to answer any patient queries ranging from the sale of S3 products, specific questions relating to a dispensed drug etc. I am still expected to keep up with the production line.
The result is that I counsel a patient with one eye over my shoulder, watching the dispensing pile grow ever larger.
The result is an unsatisfactory transfer of information (by my standards and possibly those of the patient), a pressure-laden dispensary production line, with the capacity for error to occur at any point when focus is lost - even if it is only for a few seconds.

I do have the capacity to counsel patients on a range of topics and when given the opportunity I can form lasting and loyal professional relationships. Always I am able to value-add, but it does not necessarily follow that every single contact adds $ value - but it always does eventually.

When I have queried my employer as to why my talents are not being appropriately used, I have simply been told that "dispensing is where the money is".
No attempt to build up any form of professional service or even co-invest in that activity.

What particularly destroys my day is that the pharmacy technicians are given multiple tasks apart from straight dispensing input. This means they get to sit down at various points over the day.
But the pharmacist - no way!
You are expected to stand from the beginning of a shift until the end.
Your only defence sometimes is to simply work shorter working day to avoid the distress of overworked leg muscles.

So APESMA, I tick your survey box for ;
(i) Lack of rest breaks, and
(ii) Standing for long periods of time

Because you are not as fast as you used to be, you then begin to suffer the silent condemnation by the dispensing technician by way of body language, sighs and heavy breathing.
You also have to face authority issues because technicians are sometimes vested by the proprietor with a power base much larger than your own.
You have become a commodity and your value relates to the total number of hours you can churn out high rates of scripts dispensed, and how many of those hours you can actually sustain on a daily basis - it has nothing to do with the skills acquired over a lifetime.
Because you may be working less hours over a day, you are suddenly seen as "old" and become a second-class employee, even having days reduced in favour of a younger pharmacist, rather than match you to work that you are qualified to do.

There is active discrimination.

In peak periods, workloads can become excessive, so APESMA, I tick another of your boxes.

Workstations are not ergonomic (adjustable computer screens, desk chairs, keyboards etc) and there is inadequate workspace to move comfortably. Another two boxes ticked.

Bullying at all levels is actually quite common and is sytemic in most workplaces (although it can be very subtle). A lot of bullying comes from customers/patients fortified with adverse press comments relating to "rorts", "overpricing" and "rip-offs" often generated by colleagues exhorting "don't pay too much". Another box ticked.

Management by fear is often employed, and with a global economic crisis still producing after-effects, the opportunity to increase pressure and avoid paying fair hourly rates, has also increased.

I have tried to negotiate alliances in professional services for a fee. There is almost a universal disbelief among pharmacy proprietors that this is possible.
Even being willing to work as a contractor and bear any losses on my side has met with resistance.
Why?
Because to do the job properly involves redesigning the professional area of the pharmacy and that is a cost most pharmacy owners will not tackle. More than that, it requires a commitment from the proprietor and a belief that professional services can be viable.

With that attitude prevailing one has to question why the PGA insist on having all professional services tied to a pharmacy?
If prorietors are not interested and will not develop appropriate alliances with clinical pharmacists, why should they be involved at all?

Fortunately, pharmacies are not the only environment where clinical pharmacists can practice.
But there is a golden opportunity that has been squandered (and continues to be so) and it will now take enormous amount of time and effort to establish.
The stimulus to do so will only occur when someone like Colesworth gets stuck into pharmacy and generates the incentive.

So what is official pharmacy doing to avoid the future skill shortage?
Not a lot it seems apart from being negative and driving wages down and discouraging new pharmacists through a lack of career path (ecept in retail management and marketing).

As a senior pharmacist I believe that with support I could provide a valuable clinical service from a retail environment, and that I could mentor a number of new graduates to take over the various services.
I believe I could achieve this without all the "top down" protocols and accreditations that are currently in vogue.
What better accreditation is there than a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from an accredited university?

I believe that such services would be self sufficient with the ability to generate new jobs for pharmacists and with a research stream to identify and develop new pharmacy clinical services.

In a slightly different direction where are all the independent directors for all the newly formed company pharmacies? This is an excellent level to have experience and skills translated into policy and planning from a good working board of directors.

It does not appear to have happened and that is very disappointing - but it would be a useful position for a senior pharmacists at a level where corporate knowledge can be transferred, archived and actioned appropriately.

Unfortunately there is little to encourage me to stay on in pharmacy, yet the current crop of active "baby-boomers" would like to have that option. And believe me, in the not too distant future, today's community pharmacy proprietors and their governing body will rue the decision not to invest in senior pharmacists to provide clinical and mentoring services to those vanished graduate pharmacists who were only seen as cheap "sausage machine" dispensers.

And a final note - many of the patients in pharmacy over the next 30 years will look a little bit like me - on the grey (or no hair) side. They may just remain comfortable with talking to someone of a similar age and background and maybe trying to manage the same lifestyle disease.
That could be a confidence builder and an asset for any pharmacy.

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