Pharmacists said that they were challenged to find the time to take on the expanded roles. Many pointed out that they felt their pharmacies were understaffed, which made it difficult to provide more services on top of their current duties.

A sample of what pharmacists said:
I would love to be able to provide more clinical services but the fact is that we are under a lot of pressure from corporate to meet certain deadlines and a lot of the time we are short staffed. It makes it difficult to do more with less.

When we are working alone it is very difficult to provide these services as we cannot ensure security of the pharmacy or be available to the rest of our patients.

All these expansions take time and effort, but staffing levels have decreased. We need minimum staffing levels established.

What the NSCP will do:
Direction 2 in the NSCP’s strategic plan is to Engage in Practice Environment Concerns.

The NSCP has three major initiatives under this direction that will help address the barrier of time and staffing:
1. Initiate continuing dialogue between the NSCP and pharmacy owners on workplace issues.
2. Establish minimum workplace requirements for a community pharmacy to provide safe and effective care.
3. Update the regulations regarding accountability for the workplace environment.