Wondered where you worked where it is all rose petals and lollipops. How many hours you worked there in your life and how many other pharmacists were there with you. In retail you may get respect from SOME of the customers. Flexible and low stress- would really like to know where that job is. Maybe if you were the extra person and were given some assignments to do etc and not where everything going on was your responsibility. Not to be disrespectful but as a student with virtually little time on the bench or in a hospital setting you really have no idea. I would like to have you repost your opinion after 10, 20 and 30 years of practicing and working alone. I bet it will be alot different.
As far as staying in the profession- If you like pharmacy as far as what you are learning and feeling like you are helping someone stay in it. If you are going for the money and think when you get our of school you will be instantly respected and can walk on water( I have seen many new grads that thought that and watched them sink within a year)- do something else.
I've worked with about 10 pharmacists.. probably have about 1500 hours of hospital experience, nuclear experience accumulating, and a handful of retail hours. All the pharmacists i've worked with have gotten to take as long of a lunch break as they want (usually around an hour, sometimes including going out to a restaurant), two (hospital) were more or less able to set their own hours each day as long as the work got done, in retail (independent), the pharmacists i worked with knew a large percentage of their patients by name and had time to have relatively lengthy conversations about health status and family life with all of the patients they knew. In my hospital job, pharmacists i worked with spent at least some of their time during the day surfing the net doing personal things, went to a lot of meetings, were called by docs for recommendations frequently. In nuke, my pharmacists know all the customers' names and their families and have time to spend catching up on the phone with them, take multiple breaks per day, and still have a decent amount of time to teach. Did i mention the pharmacists at the independent and in nuclear also have the ability to have flexible hours ? Their hours are whatever they want to work out with their partners.
I am so happy to say ive never met a pharmacist as bitter as some of the people on here. Of course, working in settings where everyone gets downtime, has time for positive social interactions with coworkers, patients, students, and doctors, and is not overworked, probably has gone a long way toward my positive viewpoint.
If i had worked only in a retail chain, i would not have attended pharmacy school if they had paid for it.
Ah, i forgot to add in, bringing your ipod to work was pretty much a job requirement at the hospital, optional at my current job.
With this type of experience, you can see why I am excited about pharmacy as a career.
I suppose I should mention, the pharmacists at my current company (hopefully where i work until i retire) as well as all the pharmacists i have met in real life, have been very supportive and encouraging of my choice to pursue pharmacy -- they are for the most part happy and excited! Why? I'd like to think most people wouldnt be happy to send someone to their professional "doom", so Id have to say it's probably because they liked and enjoyed their own jobs.
