pharmacy technician as clinical experience?

Hello,
I have been a pharmacy technician for the last 2 1/2 years (since freshman year college). I was just wondering if medical schools count this as clinical experience? i would be willing to argue with anyone who says it is not. The disconect between what happens when a pt. leaves their docs office and come to the pharmacy is faw to large. MANY doctors have no idea/ dont care what happens to their patients after they leave the office (drug cost, lack of ins., drugs not covered, high copays when a lesser drug can be sub, ect... the list goes on). If it is not concidered clinical experience any ideas as to were i can get some this late in the game? also on a side note my freshman year was less then steller (2.7 gpa, two C's in general chem) i have since then been above 3.5 every semester. Should i retake general chem this late in the game to replace the 2 C's and increase my gpa? or will medical schools look past my freshman year and see my A's in uper level courses (A's in advanced organic, intro to pharma/toxicology, biochem ect...) I will retake if i have to.....
Thanks for ur time and help.......

djherse said:

Hello,
I have been a pharmacy technician for the last 2 1/2 years (since freshman year college). I was just wondering if medical schools count this as clinical experience? i would be willing to argue with anyone who says it is not. The disconect between what happens when a pt. leaves their docs office and come to the pharmacy is faw to large. MANY doctors have no idea/ dont care what happens to their patients after they leave the office (drug cost, lack of ins., drugs not covered, high copays when a lesser drug can be sub, ect... the list goes on). If it is not concidered clinical experience any ideas as to were i can get some this late in the game? also on a side note my freshman year was less then steller (2.7 gpa, two C's in general chem) i have since then been above 3.5 every semester. Should i retake general chem this late in the game to replace the 2 C's and increase my gpa? or will medical schools look past my freshman year and see my A's in uper level courses (A's in advanced organic, intro to pharma/toxicology, biochem ect...) I will retake if i have to.....
Thanks for ur time and help.......

Click to expand...

It will average, there is no replacement. Will your university let you retake the course now that your in either 300s or 400s?

They will let me retake them...... is it worth it tho? how much will it boost my chances

any extra As help, and it will show you did master the content after all.

as far as pharmacy tech experience, you're in the hospital and see medicine being practiced, I think it will help. unfortunately I hear that this really raises questions as to whether you're interested in medicine or pharmacy, so it might be an issue you'll have to address in the future.

Cross-posted in the pre-osteo forum:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=395983

Some more info... I have done organic synthesis for 1 1/2 years now as research we are just finishing up our paper and are going to publish i will be the first aurthor on the paper. Is re-taking general chem to make up for my freshman year immaturity really going to help? it will be obvious to anyone that i just retook it to boost my GPA. Or will it help my chances as it shows commitment to righting past wrongs and wanting to do my best to get in?

djherse said:

Some more info... I have done organic synthesis for 1 1/2 years now as research we are just finishing up our paper and are going to publish i will be the first aurthor on the paper. Is re-taking general chem to make up for my freshman year immaturity really going to help? it will be obvious to anyone that i just retook it to boost my GPA. Or will it help my chances as it shows commitment to righting past wrongs and wanting to do my best to get in?

Click to expand...

Well, retaking the class won't help you much when applying to allopathic medical schools, I think, since you already took and performed well in upper-level classes in similar subjects. Keep in mind, however, you do want to boost your UGPA. While adcoms do look at trends (yours are great), how you did in more advanced courses, and your extracurricular activities, in many schools, for an interview, you have to get past the cumulative UGPA and MCAT score screen first.

Edit: AMCAS averages in all of your post-secondary undergraduate grades into your undergraduate GPA, including the original grade and all of the subsequent repeats of a given undergraduate class.

djherse said:

Hello,
I have been a pharmacy technician for the last 2 1/2 years (since freshman year college). I was just wondering if medical schools count this as clinical experience? i would be willing to argue with anyone who says it is not. The disconect between what happens when a pt. leaves their docs office and come to the pharmacy is faw to large. MANY doctors have no idea/ dont care what happens to their patients after they leave the office (drug cost, lack of ins., drugs not covered, high copays when a lesser drug can be sub, ect... the list goes on). If it is not concidered clinical experience any ideas as to were i can get some this late in the game? also on a side note my freshman year was less then steller (2.7 gpa, two C's in general chem) i have since then been above 3.5 every semester. Should i retake general chem this late in the game to replace the 2 C's and increase my gpa? or will medical schools look past my freshman year and see my A's in uper level courses (A's in advanced organic, intro to pharma/toxicology, biochem ect...) I will retake if i have to.....
Thanks for ur time and help.......

Click to expand...

Clinical experience is pretty commonly defined (by Adcom members on this forum) as patient interaction in a clinical setting. Pharmacy techs do not get patient interaction, therefore it's not clinical experience.

ADeadLois said:

Clinical experience is pretty commonly defined (by Adcom members on this forum) as patient interaction in a clinical setting. Pharmacy techs do not get patient interaction, therefore it's not clinical experience.

Click to expand...

However, if he is volunteering in hospital, it counts as a clinical volunteering. My interviewers said it was cool.
You can put down PharmTech volunteering as a "clinical volunteering" on AMCAS though; but I don't think it would count as a clinical "experience" that med schools are looking for

djherse said:

Should i retake general chem this late in the game to replace the 2 C's and increase my gpa? or will medical schools look past my freshman year and see my A's in uper level courses (A's in advanced organic, intro to pharma/toxicology, biochem ect...) I will retake if i have to.....
Thanks for ur time and help.......

Click to expand...

One question per thread

Dude, it can count for whatever experience you want to make of it. Seriously. IMHO, it's all about how you can present the experience (and same applies to any experience you list on AMCAS) to the adcoms. If you want to emphasize the clinical element, then I think you're on solid ground - just be sure to address it properly and in some depth on your application.

I'm working as a lab tech now, of which 90% is boring lab work (think college physics labs - I work with electronics). But if you can dress it up and put some makeup on it (ie, "I wrote up studies and tested experimental defibrillator pads [I work for an electronics company] according to the specifications of the engineering department. The quantitative results of my work were examined, studied, and decisions about their effectiveness and implementation into the company's product line were derived from the experiments I performed"), it sounds like hot ****. At least, it sounds a lot better than "I listened to music while running some boring-ass tests that I've run a thousand times before while thinking the whole time about how drunk I was going to get this weekend at the bars," which in reality is basically what I do.

Having said all that, if you're that concerned about it and want to cover all the bases, go sign up for a couple hours a week of volunteering in the ICU or some other department in the hospital that will give you some standard clinical experience. But personally, I think you're okay if you can write it up well.

I am closing this since this is a cross post. Cross posting is a violation of SDN's TOS. Pick one forum and stick to it 🙂. Also I chose to close this one because the pre-osteo thread has more replies.