Image source: Dall-e
The Hive Learners asked if interns should be paid or not. I've had many interns work in the Pharmacy with me and I think this will be the shortest Hive Learner post I have ever written.
It comes down to a simple question. Are the interns students or workers? Unfortunately for interns that typically means being both at the same time. That's where the problem lies.
But how about when the are both?
Interns are very much there to learn the job of being a pharmacist. When they come in we make sure to give them opportunities to learn. We give them patient profiles to look into. We give them ethical decisions to look into. We give them time to figure things out and decide how they will work when they are pharmacists on their own. We provide insight, we provide instruction and guidance, we also make sure that they get hands on experience with the tasks that they will need to know when they graduate.
... and it eats up a fair amount of our time.
Typically it is faster for me to get things done on my own without teaching an intern at the same time. I can work faster when I'm not explaining the decision making processes and the laws involved in my everyday work. Still, someone has to teach the next generation how to do the job and I'm proud to take in interns and give them that opportunity.
Does it help the business? Not really. The interns are there to learn and while they are working they are actually slowing us down and not a net positive to the workflow.
I recently heard from someone who was doing an internship at a different pharmacy. They were given basic chores that the regular staff didn't have the time to get to. They were stuck doing medication reviews to make the pharmacy additional revenue. In short.. they were shuffled into actual work to help the pharmacy without improving the skills they really needed to know when they graduated.
They were being used as "free labour" for the Pharmacy.
The most galling thing? The intern informed their workplace that they needed a day off to take a necessary pharmacy licensing exam. The workplace got upset that they weren't going to be there for the day! Seriously? Interns are learners not workers. They are focusing on becoming a professional and why would a preceptor ever stand in the way of that?
It boggles my mind how the workplace could be so narrowminded.
At my workplace we understand 100% that the student is there to learn how to work in the pharmacy. We take time from our day and give them a space to learn in and guidance along the way. We don't charge but we also don't pay.
Other pharmacies where the students are treated as free labour? If they aren't learning then they are working. In those cases I feel bad that the student isn't paid. If they are expected to show up and work a shift, if they are given menial tasks that aren't helpful, or doing work to make profit for the workplace? It seems very wrong that they don't get remuneration.
And that's it... My thoughts on should interns get paid or not. I'm sure many will have different opinions or different viewpoints from different fields or point of view. I would love to hear from it in the comments and even if no comments thanks for reading, always appreciate someone taking the time to read.
Thank you.
