challenges and opportuntieis for hospital pharmacists?

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Hi everyone,

I'm just inquiring about the challenges and opportunities for hospital pharmacists and the main similarities and differences in the role of the pharmacist in hospital vs community setting?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by tygacil5

Hi everyone,

I'm just inquiring about the challenges and opportunities for hospital pharmacists and the main similarities and differences in the role of the pharmacist in hospital vs community setting?

Thanks!

The pfizer guide to careers in pharmacy. http://www.pharmacy.ohio-state.edu/a...areerGuide.pdf

Hospital pharmacists pretend they are practicing clinical pharmacy by memorizing and following protocols and guidelines. Community pharmacists count by 5's all day and get bitched at a lot by customers. Community pharmacists make more money but hospital pharmacists get to say that they are practicing real pharmacy and advancing the profession.

Originally Posted by Unchained

Hospital pharmacists pretend they are practicing clinical pharmacy by memorizing and following protocols and guidelines. Community pharmacists count by 5's all day and get bitched at a lot by customers. Community pharmacists make more money but hospital pharmacists get to say that they are practicing real pharmacy and advancing the profession.

Hospital is better and you get to sit

from what i have observed over the years:

Hospital pharmacist rarely does tech work
get to sit on chair as previously mentioned
talks mostly with docs and nurses
Has to learn a lot on the job since memorization in school did not teach real life scenarios
attends different kinds of meetings regularly


Retail pharmacist often work as tech
gets to sit rarely (on tall stools)
talks mostly with techs, docs, customers, and weirdos
can do Ok with knowledge from pharmacy education
attends DM meetings once in a while


To conclude- Hospital pharmacist thinks his/her job is way better than retail
Retail pharmacist does not have time or energy to think about these issues

Reality is you should not compare apples to oranges.

Originally Posted by Unchained

Hospital pharmacists pretend they are practicing clinical pharmacy by memorizing and following protocols and guidelines. Community pharmacists count by 5's all day and get bitched at a lot by customers. Community pharmacists make more money but hospital pharmacists get to say that they are practicing real pharmacy and advancing the profession.

Not always true. I got a $10+ dollar raise when I left WAG to work hospital. Then a couple years later I switched to another hospital and got another $10+ on top of that. Now it's been 4 years from WAG and I am $24/hr more than my last check from WAG.

Retail pharmacists have to know way more than hospital. That is a fact. Hospital is run on politics and medicine changes slowly. In outpatient, things are very fluid and change rapidly (in comparison). To be a good retail pharmacist you have to know things and recognize things very quickly.

I can run a code, I am ACLS certified, I attend stroke codes, I have run an ICU satelite, I adjust TPNs, dose meds, order labs, make recommendations, etc. I have relationships with docs that give me more autonomy than the law dictates as I just have some docs cosign my orders. I suppose I have the "ideal" job, but at the end of the day, it's just another job.

Do I feel like I have any more job security than retail RPhs? Nope. Do I get job satisfaction because I "serve" patients? Nope. I don't care about profession, people are ruining it anyway. I go for the $. When the $ is gone, I will have to move on to something else.

Originally Posted by angryrx

Not always true. I got a $10+ dollar raise when I left WAG to work hospital. Then a couple years later I switched to another hospital and got another $10+ on top of that. Now it's been 4 years from WAG and I am $24/hr more than my last check from WAG.

Retail pharmacists have to know way more than hospital. That is a fact. Hospital is run on politics and medicine changes slowly. In outpatient, things are very fluid and change rapidly (in comparison). To be a good retail pharmacist you have to know things and recognize things very quickly.

I can run a code, I am ACLS certified, I attend stroke codes, I have run an ICU satelite, I adjust TPNs, dose meds, order labs, make recommendations, etc. I have relationships with docs that give me more autonomy than the law dictates as I just have some docs cosign my orders. I suppose I have the "ideal" job, but at the end of the day, it's just another job.

Do I feel like I have any more job security than retail RPhs? Nope. Do I get job satisfaction because I "serve" patients? Nope. I don't care about profession, people are ruining it anyway. I go for the $. When the $ is gone, I will have to move on to something else.

I'd say your third paragraph contradicts the second.

It's different knowledge bases, depending on what you do. Hospital jobs are very heterogeneous compared to retail, so you can't really make a comparison between that and retail at all. It all depends on what kind of hospital job you're talking about.

I should have noted that despite my responsibilities in hospital, I felt I knew much more when I worked retail. We have a narrow formulary in hospital, and there are just so many options in hospital. We probably carry 1/4 of the variety I used to see at WAG.

Outpatient pharmacy at a government hospital = best job ever, just barely beats 7on/7off retail since job security at the government is guaranteed and PSLF.

No weekends, no holidays, 26 days off a year to start plus 11 federal holidays. Slightly less pay, but lots of OT available if needed. Solid benefits.

Originally Posted by BuffaloPills

Outpatient pharmacy at a government hospital = best job ever, just barely beats 7on/7off retail since job security at the government is guaranteed and PSLF.

No weekends, no holidays, 26 days off a year to start plus 11 federal holidays. Slightly less pay, but lots of OT available if needed. Solid benefits.

Our gov't is broke. I wouldn't count on job security there either. Eventually the hatchet will drop. Enjoy the good times while they last.

Originally Posted by Unchained

Our gov't is broke. I wouldn't count on job security there either. Eventually the hatchet will drop. Enjoy the good times while they last.

Depends. VA for example. Do you really think that they would cut benefits after 10+ years of combat on foreign soil? Hiring freeze? Sure. Cut back on benefits? Political suicide. When I was a resident, we hit the debt ceiling. They shut down a bunch of services, but VA was exempt based on moral and political grounds.