How many hours should I use to volunteer/shadow? What's the difference? Should I shadow or volunteer

[JakeSill]

To start off, I want to start doing some volunteer/shadowing work. Should I go to a hospital pharmacy or retail or both? What's the difference between shadowing and volunteering? Which one is better? Which one should I do? Should I just get a Pharm Tech job instead?

Also, how many hours a day and how many hours/times a week should I volunteer and shadow?

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[Giannag]

Honestly I think volunteering and shadowing are weighted the same, however with volunteering I feel as though you get more hands on experience. Shadowing is just when you follow around a pharmacist, see what they do day to day, and take notes . I feel as though it may be helpful to do that once or twice, just to see directly what it's like in the day of a pharmacist whether it be retail or hospital. I volunteer in a hospital pharmacy right now and they allowed me to shadow a pharmacist once. However during my volunteer hours I'm allowed to batch, package, put away stuff, and follow the techs to their respective floors. So i'm allowed to do supervised tech work and be involved in the daily runs etc. I would recommend volunteering over shadowing a pharmacist every day, BUT if you can actually get a job being a pharm tech, do that instead, you get all the experience AND you get paid and you don't have to be as supervised.

I volunteer one day a week for 4-5 hours because that is all my school schedule allows, do as much as you possibly can though.

 

[Amicable Angora]

To start off, I want to start doing some volunteer/shadowing work. Should I go to a hospital pharmacy or retail or both? What's the difference between shadowing and volunteering? Which one is better? Which one should I do? Should I just get a Pharm Tech job instead?

Also, how many hours a day and how many hours/times a week should I volunteer and shadow?

A tech position is superior to volunteering which is superior to shadowing.

It does not really matter whether or not you do this (at the prepharmacy level) at a hospital or via retail. The amount of hours you would want to do depends on how far in advance you are planning this out.

For example, if you did only 2 hours a week, but you started a year in advance, you would easily have 100 hours by one year.

 

[JakeSill]

Thanks for the response. I think I'll volunteer for now while I search for the rare pharm tech positions.

 

[Jeanine B]

I would definitely suggest looking for a Pharmacy Technician job. It looks good to put on your application that you have not only been "behind the scenes", but worked there as well. As mentioned before, even more so than volunteering and shadowing. I think it gives applicants a leg up on others if they are able to say they've actually worked in the field already.

 

[PhunwithPharm]

1. Get a pharm tech license and work. Almost every interview person I came across all had pharm tech experience. Also, it will be easier to get a pharmacist recommendation letter this way as well.
2. Volunteer in a variety of areas, not just pharmacy. Show that you authentically care for healthcare (hospital, hospice, shelters, Special Olympics, etc.).

 

[317935]

Definitely working as a tech if you can. If not, volunteer at a hospital or someplace. At the meantime, shadow pharmacists at different settings than where you work/volunteer. I recommend shadowing a compounding and a nuclear pharmacist, that's what I did. I learned a great deal and it didn't even take more than 3 hours to shadow each place.

 

[dangdangzuo]

Right,Thanks for the response. I think I'll volunteer for now while I search for the rare pharm tech positions.thanks