LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: New Mexico's pharmacists need workplace protections
New Mexico, the pioneer in allowing pharmacists to prescribe back in 1993, today offers a highly advanced scope of practice. Beyond the pharmacist-clinician role, local pharmacists offer point-of-care testing and treatment for conditions like flu and strep. They also exercise independent prescriptive authority for life-saving measures including pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis and hormonal birth control.
By many accounts, these expanded services allow for enhanced community support and health care access, as well as professional satisfaction for the frontline health care workers who provide them. What may not be visible, however, is the staggering legal and professional liability placed on the pharmacist鈥檚 shoulders. Without a serious focus on direly needed workplace protections such as safe staffing mandates, these role expansions put our livelihoods in danger. Many pharmacists may not fully grasp the weight of this risk until they are served with a career-ending malpractice lawsuit.
A look through the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy鈥檚 quarterly newsletters is revealing 鈥� and disheartening. The "Adverse Drug Events" section provides a stark inventory of errors, many clearly linked to corporate metric pressures and unsafe staffing. Yet, the "Rules Update" section remains silent on workplace wellness or staffing ratios. This suggests a state board that prioritizes the profession鈥檚 prestige over the professional鈥檚 safety.
It is imperative also to note that New Mexico currently ranks second-highest in the nation for pharmacy access shortages (second to Idaho). Our pharmacists are already drowning in excessively high workloads that are the reality for most community based professionals. The logical conclusion is that patient safety is likely to be further threatened as a thorough clinical assessment is impossible to conduct in such environments.
California鈥檚 State Board of Pharmacy passed landmark minimum staffing provisions in 2024. It can be done. I urge New Mexico鈥檚 legislators and the State Board of Pharmacy to follow suit, and I strongly urge my colleagues to remember that expanded scope should come with expanded legal and operational protections.
Neera Saxena is a pharmacist in Albuquerque.
