Did anyone wait to work as a pharmacist after being licensed?

[fancy_]

I'm licensed fully now but I have yet to do my pharmacist training and I don't want to do a shift by myself yet.

I have tech hours still scheduled that I am planning on working because otherwise the store would struggle finding someone to replace me (I'm covering for someone's vacation)
but should I just let my scheduler know that I still need training? Or should I just go about and train myself with the RPh on duty during any slow time (haha...unlikely)

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[Corpseman]

You spent 4 years in pharmacy school, countless hours on rotation, obviously worked while in school....and you can't work as a pharmacist yet? Pretty sure in four years you should not have to train yourself as a tech with the pharmacist.

 

[ineeddrug]

i understand how you feel.. you worked as intern so far, not as a pharmacist.
I remember my first day as a pharmacist. took forever QAing warfarin or digoxin because I felt like ..' There might be some fatal DDI with other med.. I might kill this pt!!'

But don't worry.. You will be fine. Just start working!

 

[sosoo]

the sooner u start the pharmacist training, the sooner you'll feel ready. as a tech, u are always replaceable. ppl are waiting to fill your spot. move on. make money. and start repaying those student loans.

 

[gwarm01]

as a tech, u are always replaceable. ppl are waiting to fill your spot.

That's true for pharmacists these days as well.

If you are licensed as a pharmacist, work as a pharmacist. It's going to be scary to start, but that holds true for anything in life.

Your situation reminds me of a resident at my hospital a few years ago. He was finishing his PGY1, and felt like he still wasn't ready to practice. He was sitting with a pharmacist, watching them do their staffing duties. Simple stuff, standard post-op orders. Pain meds, antibiotics etc. He felt so intimidated and thought he should do a PGY2 to get ready. This is simple, easy stuff. You just have to sit down and do it a few times to figure it out. It's the same with you. Until you get a little practice, you are never going to be comfortable doing it. Just go for it! You're a pharmacist. Get paid as a pharmacist.

Follow up on the resident: still can't find a good job, contemplating PGY2 to get a job staffing at my hospital. I feel sorry for the guy.

 

[Lnsean]

no one has the money or time to train you...these corporations are going to throw you to the wolves the instant you get licensed. just learn as you go. clinically, you should be well versed by now.

 

[NateRobinson]

I'm licensed fully now but I have yet to do my pharmacist training and I don't want to do a shift by myself yet.

I have tech hours still scheduled that I am planning on working because otherwise the store would struggle finding someone to replace me (I'm covering for someone's vacation)
but should I just let my scheduler know that I still need training? Or should I just go about and train myself with the RPh on duty during any slow time (haha...unlikely)

I don't know what you're asking. I THINK you're asking us if you should continue working as a tech because you're scared to work as a pharmacist even though you're licensed.

Not only is this probably against policy, but it is one of the stupidest things I've ever read in my entire life. You spent 6 years in school, paid tuition, and yet you still want to make $10 an hour instead of $55 because you're.....scared?

Nobody is fully ready in life. You have to throw yourself into the fire. That's how you learn. Plus, what have you been doing the past 6 years? I've been training my interns from day 1 on how to be a pharmacist. They know how to verify (They don't unless I'm staring them down), they counsel, etc. Did your pharmacist not help you in these matters?

Grow some grapefruits, and start working as a pharmacist. Nobody is ever fully ready. You learn how to be a pharmacist by working as one. And if your issue is that you're scared your old store will suffer because they don't have anyone to replace you, you're crazier than I thought. Who cares? They knew this day was coming YEARS in advance and should have planned for it and should have hired someone and had you train them to do your job. If they didn't, that's their fault, not yours. Stop putting others above you, only worry about what furthers your career.

 

[Sparda29]

Yeah, I started the day I got my license.

 

[fancy_]

I definitely can work as a pharmacist, but it's just figuring out the system that is making me wary.

My retail rotations were at a different company which was much easier to do verification/dur/insurance issues. My system is much harder even though I've worked with them for ~2ish years during school.

I haven't been able to do much pharmacist specific duties at my job that's outside of my intern duties -- primarily verifying and looking at DURs.
I can do pretty much everything else but I feel like if I have a half-day just watching/doing it myself with my pharmacist being okay I can do it fine. I just want to be more "up to speed" with doing things (of course this will take time) but I don't want to be super fresh to that stuff.

And I'm making half the pharmacist's pay so I'm definitely okay with that for a week, and yeah it is easy to replace a tech but I'm only working this week and I'm planning on working as a pharmacist afterwards once I get my schedule in. It's hard where I live to find a technician to cover for you in general especially last minute and I wasn't planning on being licensed so quickly since I had heard it takes a couple days to get your license so that's what I was expecting.


And yeah I do have the tendency to put others before me, but I just hope that one day karma will be good to me and when I have a tech call in or need extra help someone would help me.

 

[fancy_]

And thanks for the responses.
Definitely will get my **** together and move forward

 

[SELDANE]

I definitely can work as a pharmacist, but it's just figuring out the system that is making me wary.

My retail rotations were at a different company which was much easier to do verification/dur/insurance issues. My system is much harder even though I've worked with them for ~2ish years during school.

I haven't been able to do much pharmacist specific duties at my job that's outside of my intern duties -- primarily verifying and looking at DURs.
I can do pretty much everything else but I feel like if I have a half-day just watching/doing it myself with my pharmacist being okay I can do it fine. I just want to be more "up to speed" with doing things (of course this will take time) but I don't want to be super fresh to that stuff.

And I'm making half the pharmacist's pay so I'm definitely okay with that for a week, and yeah it is easy to replace a tech but I'm only working this week and I'm planning on working as a pharmacist afterwards once I get my schedule in. It's hard where I live to find a technician to cover for you in general especially last minute and I wasn't planning on being licensed so quickly since I had heard it takes a couple days to get your license so that's what I was expecting.


And yeah I do have the tendency to put others before me, but I just hope that one day karma will be good to me and when I have a tech call in or need extra help someone would help me.

Living by karma does not mean hiding behind it.