ndearwater said:
Is it required that you complete a residency in order to work as a consultant pharmacist (nursing home etc.)? A few years ago, before I knew much about the field at all, I worked with a pharmacist who did a "certificate program" on the weekend at Nova (when and where she obtained her Pharm.D.) and ended up leaving retail to take a consultant position.
It's been so long now... but she did not leave me with the impression that this was a residency but more like a weekend certification. Does this exist or am I all confused?
Thanks guys!
Nope you're not confused. Working as a consultant pharmacist typically does not require a residency. Consultant pharmacy basically evolved from retail pharmacists when they recognized nursing homes and similar facilities (i.e. chronic hospitals, assisted living facilities, etc) as potential sources for drug distribution. After that venue was noticed various laws were passed OBRA 90?? (it is one of the OBRAs I think it is OBRA 90) requiring drug regimen reviews every 30 days to ensure appropriate use of medication. This was largely due to the over use of antipsychotics as chemical tranquilizers in understaffed nursing homes. Basically when the nurse wanted to take a break he/she would dose everybody up on some IM haldol or whatever.
Anyways aside from the historical stuff it depends on the company but residency training is typically not required for consultant pharmacists. Most companies (many of which are now owned by Omnicare) tend to look for previous hospital experience as you need to be able to interpret appropriate labs when reviewing charts, but in reality since only have time to review each chart once a month, you start to get used to it and could probably find various ways to get a consultant job straight out of school w/o extra training (it depends on supply vs demand). Avg amount of charts to be reviewed on a daily basis is ~90chart/8hrs or ~11charts/hr or ~5-6min/chart so not a lot of time to go in depth and they (i.e. the company) typically have directives to look for and/or premade printous to help w/ recommendations (i.e. switching to a cheaper ACE inhibitor and/or minimizing fall risk due to benzo use, etc.).
Long Term Care/ home infusion is probably the slowest evolving sector of pharmacy from a standpoint of requiring clinical training so it may be a few yrs before they start requiring residency training (if they every do). Check out American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (
www.ascp.com) for more in depth information. The main office is in N. VA. in Alexandria and they are always into trying to start up new student chapters (I'm not sure if Shenandoah has one). Pay in consultant pharmacy is ok (depending on company), but will be largely depend on your ability to negotiate. Scheduling for consultant is very advantageous (as you kind of make up your own ours as long as work gets done, but many places are starting to require that you be at the facility by a certain time (~10am so still not too bad), but downside would be benefits (i.e. vacation time is more comparable to retail so once again may depend on negotiation ability) and your typically by yourself all day so if mingling is your thing then consultant pharmacy can get a little boring. Other downside would be that it is also a little redundant (i.e. same thing everyday) and pt contact is ideal as most pts are too often demented or debillitated. Not that there care isn't impt, but most of population is towards end of life care.
Other potential downside is job security, especially now since Omnicare is buying up everybody many of the smaller places (i.e. PharMerica, HomeCall, NeighborCare (now owned by Omnicare)) are having some problems surviving and are having to lay people off (this will depend on the area). Side note...I think New Jersey is one of the few states where you can still register as an independent consultant pharmacist. Most other states require facility to sign up w/ one of the companies for pharmacy services. Hope this helps.
