While enrolled in pharmacy school do most students do internships? What about after you finish pharmacy school? Do most people start working working or do they partake in residencies and/or fellowships? Just wondering which is best
What options are available while you're in pharmacy school and when you finish?
- Thread starter sdn24
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Most schools are like this: Once you are accepted into pharmacy school, all students apply for an intern license from the state's board of pharmacy. This allows you to work under a pharmacist doing most duties including counseling patients with supervision. The curriculum itself will have required, unpaid hours of interning in a pharmacy. These go towards a certain total of practical hours required for when a graduate applies for their full pharmacist license after graduation.
The interning during school is usually split like this:
In the first year or so, Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPEs) have students work as an unpaid intern in outpatient community and hospital settings. The schools usually assign these locations (e.g. a Walgreens and a Kaiser) but the process can vary.
Within the entire last year (usually the fourth year), Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) are done after all of the didactic (in-class) coursework is finished. These are referred to as being on "rotations". During this time a student is assigned to locations that could be somewhere else in the state and work in more advanced or specialized settings (e.g. Ambulatory Care, Internal Medicine). Again this varies.
Students can also work during school by finding a paid internship. The amount of students who do this varies by program and time committment. For the ones who do, I usually hear they only work about a day or two a week max. Some pharmacies can keep an intern on the payroll system working every other week or so too. Doing an internship can give someone more practical learning experience and connections to help find a job after graduation. This is especially true if you're attempting to work for the company you're an intern at. Once a pharmacist is graduated and licensed I haven't heard of them really doing an "internship" in the traditional sense for a company.
Most pharmacy graduates do not do residencies, and they can be competitive to get into. Although, for some programs like UCSF and UCSD the match rates are high and most students go on to pursue these. Residency is usually for if you would like to work in a hospital or other more specialized field. It is a 1-2 year commitment with less pay and long hours of work and projects. If you look at the profession as a whole most pharmacists work in retail and other outpatient settings, making this is the most common job right after graduation. I am not very familiar with fellowships as a pharmacist, but most fellow titles I've seen have to do with working for a pharmacy organization like APhA.
Which is "best" depends what you're looking for. Time, money, career goal, competitiveness etc. are all things to consider if you'd like to elaborate.
The interning during school is usually split like this:
In the first year or so, Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPEs) have students work as an unpaid intern in outpatient community and hospital settings. The schools usually assign these locations (e.g. a Walgreens and a Kaiser) but the process can vary.
Within the entire last year (usually the fourth year), Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) are done after all of the didactic (in-class) coursework is finished. These are referred to as being on "rotations". During this time a student is assigned to locations that could be somewhere else in the state and work in more advanced or specialized settings (e.g. Ambulatory Care, Internal Medicine). Again this varies.
Students can also work during school by finding a paid internship. The amount of students who do this varies by program and time committment. For the ones who do, I usually hear they only work about a day or two a week max. Some pharmacies can keep an intern on the payroll system working every other week or so too. Doing an internship can give someone more practical learning experience and connections to help find a job after graduation. This is especially true if you're attempting to work for the company you're an intern at. Once a pharmacist is graduated and licensed I haven't heard of them really doing an "internship" in the traditional sense for a company.
Most pharmacy graduates do not do residencies, and they can be competitive to get into. Although, for some programs like UCSF and UCSD the match rates are high and most students go on to pursue these. Residency is usually for if you would like to work in a hospital or other more specialized field. It is a 1-2 year commitment with less pay and long hours of work and projects. If you look at the profession as a whole most pharmacists work in retail and other outpatient settings, making this is the most common job right after graduation. I am not very familiar with fellowships as a pharmacist, but most fellow titles I've seen have to do with working for a pharmacy organization like APhA.
Which is "best" depends what you're looking for. Time, money, career goal, competitiveness etc. are all things to consider if you'd like to elaborate.
