I just got assigned my first externship as a PharmD student. I will be spending 4 hours a week at Target pharmacy for the next 10 weeks. I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts and experiences are concerning Target. Is it a good place to be as far as retail goes? I know my friends who got CVS are freaking out about it, but I didn't know if I had reason to freak too. Anything you can share would be great! Thank you!

It's retail. Target is fine. It will depend more on your co-workers and site preceptor than the name on the building outside. I'm sure there are lots of awesome, willing to teach preceptors at CVS and Target.

Target has a slow pace, at least here in Florida. If you've never worked in a pharmacy before then you should have lots of time to learn different things. Otherwise, you'll probably be bored. My externship this semester is at a supermarket that does 150 scripts a week and I can't stand it.

I'm not sure slow pace equates to learning more. I have learned the most in busy stores. Plus training by fire seems to produce more well rounded pharmacists in my opinion. Most pharmacists who have worked in slow stores tend to look like a deer in headlights when a store hits 500+ scripts.

I did do six weeks interning at a Los Angeles area Target pharmacy. It was very slow. You would be lucky to break 80 scripts a day. You get to take your time learning how to use PDX, but you also get to take your time doing...nothing! The tech usually ended up bringing the latest gossip mags down to the pharmacy and everyone would end up reading them in between sporadic patient visits and phone calls. Not the best experience for a student...but I never saw a stressed out, unhappy pharmacist while I was there. They genuinely liked to go to work, they had time to get to know their patients, and they don't regret not being in a busier store. One of the pharmacists came from a high volume Rite Aid store...she believes Target to be "retail heaven". She did say that she believes the experience at a more hectic store made her a better pharmacist...and that it helped her appreciate her current position that much more.

I did 5 weeks of a rotation at Target as well. Coming from a 400/day Wags pharmacy that I paid interned at, the 90/day Target pharmacy was heaven. Don't get me wrong, there's Targets here in Mpls that do 800 Mondays, but they seem to be the exception. If I had gone retail after graduation, it would have been at Target.

Gravy is wise, however. It is the people you work with, not the sign on the door that makes it bearable to go to work every day.

I started my rotation at Target today. You guys are all correct. It is sooo slow. Everyone is really nice though. I think I will enjoy working with everyone. They were freaking out because they did 192 scripps today. I've worked places that do waaay more than that. If they had more than 3 to do at once they started to practically panic. At target, they are all about the wait time. They give a promise time for when the prescriptions must be finished. I've never seen a pharmacist check scrips so fast in my life. Even though they weren't busy, to get scrips to patients within 10-15 minutes, the checking went sooo fast. The pharmacist checked an Rx in like 30 sec on average. That doesn't seem right to me. Would people rather have it fast or safe? Although it's a nice setting, low Rx volume, and the pharmacists get a lunch break, I could never see myself working there as a pharmacist.

The more experienced you get doesn't mean you get faster. The more experienced you are more aware of when to be a cautious and slow and repetitive. For me, pediatrics and neonatals, comorbid conditions (cardiac and transplant), and the problem drugs (Zantac and Reglan liq, warfarin, Ortho-Tri and Ortho-Cyclen) force me to be a bit more careful.

Even when I echo scripts, it generally doesn't take me more than 45 s to read and repeat if I have no distractions.

Enjoy it while it lasts. Target's model does work and since you are there, the PIC gets balance sheets every day. LEARN THEM!!! It will make pharmacy management at any level much easier if you understand the raw financials of what is going on.

My rotation was at a supermarket that did an average of 30 scripts per day in a 10 hour period. I work at a CVS that does 550-600 scripts per day so of course I was bored. The things that made me upset was the fact that the rotation cost $1560 plus $35 insurance and I did nothing. My preceptor read 3 book the 4 weeks that I was there. Once he found out that I had 3 years experience at CVS, he didn't teach me anything. Also, he makes $84,000 per year for 200 scripts per week, while at CVS my pharmacist makes $91,000 per year for 4500 scripts per week. It took him 6.5 year to graduate from the 5 year BS program and he failed the NAPLEX twice before finally passing with a 75.06

Are you trying to say that the supermarket pharmacist deserves less money?

no, I was simply comparing the difference in pay and workload of the two settings. One of the benefits of being a pharmacist is the the fact that if you do one or one thousand prescriptions, you are going to get paid.

no, I was simply comparing the difference in pay and workload of the two settings. One of the benefits of being a pharmacist is the the fact that if you do one or one thousand prescriptions, you are going to get paid.
Thank you for the clarification! :)

Thank you for the clarification! :)Clarification...one of the underappreciated roles of a pharmacist. :laugh: