?

Started by Pharmingforlove21
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
Pharmingforlove21 said:
I am in my last year of pharmacy school, and going through rotations really opened my eyes to how much I hate clinical pharmacy.
As the time draws closer and closer to residency applications, I dread thinking about having to do clinical pharmacy work for the next year of my life before moving on to the unknown.
I got pretty down on my last rotation, waking up every single morning way too early and being forced to do things that I hate so much. I am now burned out, and I have never hated pharmacy this much in my life before.
Am I seriously the only person who's ever felt this way or is going through these feelings?
I just want to know if I am the odd one out. Does anybody else feel or has ever felt this way before?
If you did, what did you do? I am so lost. I thought I wanted the residency life, but just thinking about having to go through it for a whole year makes me want to drive away and never come back.
Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

You are hardly the only one that doesn't like clinical pharmacy. Remember that there are many different types of clinical pharmacy and you might enjoy one over the other. I personally did not enjoy inpatient clinical work very much. But I like ambulatory (transplant, cardiology, rheumatology, diabetes), and transitions of care. For me, the interaction with people made all the difference. Plus, many of your preceptors can totally ruin a rotation. I had some preceptors that were so miserable to work that they ruined their specialty of pharmacy for me. However, you still have to try to envision if you would like that type of pharmacy if you had a better team.
I have really enjoyed ambulatory and outpatient hospital pharmacy and that is where I work now. However, without a residency you will have a hard time getting in some of these specialty areas. Plus, retail can be an extremely limited career path. Finally, being burned out can negatively impact all your experiences. You have to reflect on whether it is your mental/physical exhaustion that is tainting your experiences or the actual experience itself that is the problem.
 
If you hate it, then you shouldn't do a traditional pharmacy residency, since the point of such a residency is to be a clinical pharmacist. You could always do community or managed care residency if that floats your boat.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I wouldn't say I hated it, but I had very similar feelings when I was going through APPEs. I also didn't think of it in terms of doing an additional year of this type of work, I questioned whether I could do it for the rest of my life. My answer was no. I think MatCauthon makes an important point though, certain preceptors can completely ruin your experience and that was certainly the case for me - among other things.

More importantly, 'clinical pharmacy' can mean a lot of things. I currently practice clinical pharmacy informatics.....I love it. My days are always different, never repetitive, and I get to impact a ton of patients. Point is, I think you may have found what area you don't want to get into - which is part of the purpose of APPEs. I'd suggest trying to stay as positive as you can and search for other areas, maybe even swap out your 'clinical pharmacy' rotations for other areas you may be interested in. Best of luck!
 
Pharmingforlove21 said:
I am in my last year of pharmacy school, and going through rotations really opened my eyes to how much I hate clinical pharmacy.
As the time draws closer and closer to residency applications, I dread thinking about having to do clinical pharmacy work for the next year of my life before moving on to the unknown.
I got pretty down on my last rotation, waking up every single morning way too early and being forced to do things that I hate so much. I am now burned out, and I have never hated pharmacy this much in my life before.
Am I seriously the only person who's ever felt this way or is going through these feelings?
I just want to know if I am the odd one out. Does anybody else feel or has ever felt this way before?
If you did, what did you do? I am so lost. I thought I wanted the residency life, but just thinking about having to go through it for a whole year makes me want to drive away and never come back.
Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

What are your alternatives? Career path?
 
I like office work, not dealing with the day to day business of patient care. I got my PharmD intending to use that knowledge and expertise for research and business management.

There are MANY things you can do with a PharmD that involves ZERO to minimal patient interaction. In some positions, you don't even need to think clinical at all (although I encourage you to try and retain a little bit of that knowledge no matter what you do).

Moves you can make after school to avoid doing clinical work

- Managed Care Residency
- Industry Fellowship
- Admin Residency/Position (warning: may be pretty clinical too)
- Entry level job (difficult but not impossible) within an office or corporate setting.
* Medical information jobs are not impossible for new grads within a pharma company
- Look into investing or starting a business
- Leave Pharmacy and go into another field
 
Pharmingforlove21- Like your user name says, pharm for love! A pharmacist once told me finding out what you DON’T like is far more important than finding out what you like.

I graduated last May and I felt the same way as you during my rotations a year ago! I think there was 1 in particular that ruined it for me... I dreaded it like no other! After much dilemma, I ended up taking a job as a Pharmacy Manager at a critical access hospital and I enjoy it! I’m happier than I was working in retail (during school). My job is easier than what I went thru in rotations. I enjoy the variety in what I do. There is clinical, staffing, P&T, QA, policies, etc. We are getting Meditech this year, so I’m also involved in a lot of projects building the Pharmacy / ordering system. If you are unsure about working in retail, look into rural hospitals. I feel that I’ve learned a lot of practical, useful things here- clinical and non clinical.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.