Has this happened to any other graduate interns to be?

I came in to pick up a check from my job the other day. One of the pharmacists said the director told her to tell me and all the other P4 interns to call him. So apparently, all of the P4 (graduating) interns are being let go because they want to cycle in P1s and P2s who have been applying to the place.

P1-P4 makes $14.50/hour, but graduate interns make $29/hour. I guess it's cheaper to hire 3 new P1s instead of doubling the pay of 3 interns. Seriously WTF, is any hospital or retail pharmacy going to hire someone to be an intern/tech for only 2-3 months because once they are licensed we'd be pharmacists.

Graduate intern is a different position than pharmacy intern. Depending on the state you're no longer an intern once you graduate. You're a pharmacist, unlicensed albeit.

So unless there are grad intern positions availanle (and quite frankly why have grad interns for 3 months) you no longer qualify for the position.

This should not have been a surprise unless you were promised a pharmacist position then you should have been retained to train as a pharmacist while as a grad intern.

He's in NY, in NY your are an intern until you permit expires or you get licensed. So grad interns are just like every other intern expect they demand higher pay.

Maybe they just didn't like the bunch of grad interns they had on staff and rebooted hoping for better

Anywhere I have worked people get the "grad intern" title when they have been offered and accepted a pharmacist position with the company. If they aren't planning on keeping you around, it doesn't make sense for them to increase your pay.

Originally Posted by npage148

He's in NY, in NY your are an intern until you permit expires or you get licensed. So grad interns are just like every other intern expect they demand higher pay.

Maybe they just didn't like the bunch of grad interns they had on staff and rebooted hoping for better

Nah, I'm pretty sure its the VP aka the DOP's boss cutting pharmacy budget. They fired a few pharmacists a while back also. Herr Direktor told me he'll write whatever recommendations I want and the last 2 years have been great.

Right, as the others have said, you are not being allowed to progress to the grad intern level because they do not have any pharmacist positions for you.

You're welcome to join the doom and gloom club however...

yeah welcome to the real world, sounds like every other pharmacy i've heard of. grad intern is reserved for those who have a position waiting for them at the other end. otherwise, total waste of money for the institution. my hospital loves me but since i'm taking a position elsewhere grad intern is not available for me.

Originally Posted by Ackj

Obviously I'm not making these decisions, but I can see hiring as a grad intern so you're only paying 29/hr, rather than full salary, to train somebody and get them up to speed on your system, workflow, etc. By the time they're licensed, you've trained them and they're ready to work.

I guess the hook is that they may not pass exams and get licensed, which would be a big gamble for the institution.

Whoops, I should add at the end to clarify:

Originally Posted by pezdispenser

Look at it this way: why else would they pay you a pretty high rate ($29/hr) if all you're going to do is intern work and can't verify orders as a pharmacist "and never will for that institution"

Yes the grad intern position is usually used as a pharmacist-in-training position, and the employer does benefit by paying lower than RPh rate.

This makes me feel lucky. I am starting a residency July 1st, but my hospital is allowing me to stay on and work until then. However, I am also not asking for more pay, content with my low 20s/hour versus 0/hour.

If Sparda had to work construction like the Mexicans, he'd cry. No facebook, bro.

Two words: truck driving

Do they have health screening companies in New York? I'm thinking about doing that while I look for a real job. It's all the stuff they taught us to do in pharmacy school anyway. Not sure how much it pays but any $$$ is better than none.

I'm working as a plain ol' bare-bones P4 intern at $18/hr until I start my residency a few days a week, I don't see why you can't do the same w/out demanding they pay you grad intern pay.

Unless your institution really just wants you out and would rather spend those budgeted tech hours on fresh blood so they're up to speed by the end of summer. Even so, I'm training the new interns before I leave.

Originally Posted by Sparda29

Don't you need to go to bartending school? I can mix drinks pretty well, but I'm not a female, thus I won't get the $$$.

You could work at a gay bar but I don't know if you'd make the cut

P4's get paid almost the same as P1-3. Just because you're a 4th year student doesn't warrant a double in salary.

How is a P4 working anyway if it isn't part time?

Originally Posted by BenJammin

P4's get paid almost the same as P1-3. Just because you're a 4th year student doesn't warrant a double in salary.

How is a P4 working anyway if it isn't part time?

P4 and grad intern are two different things, but have been used interchangeably in this thread.

Originally Posted by BenJammin

P4's get paid almost the same as P1-3. Just because you're a 4th year student doesn't warrant a double in salary.

How is a P4 working anyway if it isn't part time?

After graduation, but before boards is "graduate intern." Since graduation is days to weeks away, it makes sense to be thinking about that transition between intern and pharmacist.

I was let go as of graduation, rehired as a temp, worked for two weeks, then moved. Apparently it was a new policy at USC that P4's were to be canned as of graduation day. The previous years, the interns were able to stay on at P4 pay until they moved on (started residency, PhD program, etc) or until fall semester started.

My intern job didn't acknowledge "graduate Interns". You could interview and change into a pharmacist position, but you didn't get any automatic change in pay just because you were done rotations.

Originally Posted by njac

My intern job didn't acknowledge "graduate Interns". You could interview and change into a pharmacist position, but you didn't get any automatic change in pay just because you were done rotations.

yeah it's institution dependent. grad intern is a wholly separate category and has a different job description vs. P1-P4 intern. Whereas the latter is more technician based, grad interns are trained extensively by the pharmacist staff in verifying orders, navigating the system, code training, etc....

In an ideal world, these would be phased in throughout P3-P4 year as students gain more experience, but functionally this is not the case everywhere due to operational issues.

Yeah, I've always seen "grad intern" being used when someone is hiring the person as a pharmacist, but they are not yet licensed. It was commonly done back in the days of the pharmacist shortage. Even before then, my first job out of pharmacy school, I had taken my boards & was awaiting the results (this was back in the ancient days before instant grading & results), so I was hired as a pharmacist, but received grad intern pay until I was licensed & could work on my own. As a grad intern, I was pretty much doing pharmacist work, but was only scheduled to overlap another pharmacist's shift.