After pharmacy school?

[pharm B]

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Hi everybody. I just recently decided to look into pharmacy schools after working as a tech for a while.

I couldn't find this on the FAQ so I thought I would ask it here.

Are newly-graduated pharmD's required to do an internship or residency? Or do they just start looking for jobs?

 

[trailrider400]

No they aren't required and it largely depends on where in pharmacy you want to work. If you want to work retail a residency is not necessary. If you want to work in a hospital or specialize then a residency will make you more competitive but still not required. I think it also depends on where you live. At the hospital I work at as of a year ago their two new grads they hired did not have to do a residency. I'm sure someone who is farther along than me can shed some light on this as well.

 

[pharm B]

I'm also curious about pay in a clinical environment vs. retail environment. Retail pharmacists don't seem to be under an unbearable amount of stress and get paid quite well for what they really do.

 

[charfdorn]

Hi everybody. I just recently decided to look into pharmacy schools after working as a tech for a while.

I couldn't find this on the FAQ so I thought I would ask it here.

Are newly-graduated pharmD's required to do an internship or residency? Or do they just start looking for jobs?

I think this depends on the state, and whether you work in the same state you attended school. I know in Colorado you need a certain number of intern hours to get your licensure, but most get those hours during school. I guess if you came up short you would have to intern for a while to get there.

I think residency is pretty much a requirement for any kind of clinical or hospital pharmacy, or to get on the teaching faculty at a pharmacy school, but not usually needed for retail.

You'll learn all this, presumably, when you start pharmacy school.

 

[pharm B]

Thanks for the response. I was totally gung-ho medicine until I started working as a tech. Pharmacy is definitely attractive in that it doesn't seem to be as much of a family-breaker as I've heard medical school + internship + residency + whatever else can be.

I just didn't want to overwhelm my pharmacists with too many questions, so I figured I'd start here. Sorry

 

[rycetrix]

I'm also curious about pay in a clinical environment vs. retail environment. Retail pharmacists don't seem to be under an unbearable amount of stress and get paid quite well for what they really do.

Are you serious? I don't know what retail pharmacies you have been to but when patients are demanding their medications every single minute + you have to manage drive thru and you have a 24 hour pharmacy (like CVS or Walgreens), I would say it can get pretty busy. And when you are understaffed and worked to death (like Rite-Aid), you never have time to catch your breath. Retail pharmacy has shown me how some people just have no patience sometimes, thinking they are the most important person in the world and are always looking out for themselves. Despite all this, I still like pharmacy (though I am looking to go into clinical pharmacy...haha).

 

[MRSA Sucks]

I'm also curious about pay in a clinical environment vs. retail environment. Retail pharmacists don't seem to be under an unbearable amount of stress and get paid quite well for what they really do.

Quite the contrary, retail pharmacy is very stressful. I used to be a tech.

 

[pharm B]

Are you serious? I don't know what retail pharmacies you have been to but when patients are demanding their medications every single minute + you have to manage drive thru and you have a 24 hour pharmacy (like CVS or Walgreens), I would say it can get pretty busy. And when you are understaffed and worked to death (like Rite-Aid), you never have time to catch your breath. Retail pharmacy has shown me how some people just have no patience sometimes, thinking they are the most important person in the world and are always looking out for themselves. Despite all this, I still like pharmacy (though I am looking to go into clinical pharmacy...haha).

Don't get me wrong, I know they're under stress. As a tech, I've been the buffer, quite often, between ranting patient and busy pharmacist. I'm just saying that in retail, you work a shift that's less than a day long and you probably don't kill anyone in that time.

 

[aboveliquidice]

Stress in a job varies greatly - dependent upon many different factors (coworkers, amount of work, support from company, your own personality, etc).

As to Pay - Retail will be higher generally - there is however more room to grow as a clinical pharmacist.

You do not need a residency to get a job at a hospital - but you will likely never move beyond order entry without some form of post graduate education (PGYX, MBA, Fellowship, etc).

A great piece of advice that was offered to me was to not worry about pay - there will be enough no matter what path you choose. Focus on what you like to do - and the money / success will follow.

 

[xtsukiyox]

Call me a noob, but what kind of positions are you guys painting with the "clinical pharmacy" brush?

 

[trailrider400]

Call me a noob, but what kind of positions are you guys painting with the "clinical pharmacy" brush?

Yeah the term can be a little ambiguous. When most people use the term I'm assuming they are talking about working in a hospital. I've also heard it used to describe pharmaceutical care/mtm.

 

[pharm B]

I'm still learning the ins and outs of this field, so I just assumed there were two main branches of pharmacy: retail and clinical. Retail being the same thing every day until you die, and clinical being the one that involved working with patients in a more direct manner, such as in a hospital.

 

[Passion4Sci]

I'm still learning the ins and outs of this field, so I just assumed there were two main branches of pharmacy: retail and clinical. Retail being the same thing every day until you die, and clinical being the one that involved working with patients in a more direct manner, such as in a hospital.

Look into nuclear pharmacy, I think they have the best shot at avoiding the doldrums and redundant days... I work in both a retail (indy pharm) and a hospital setting in ambulatory care and both have elements of "the same thing until you die." They're just different tasks... The audience is definitely better in clinical pharm., though.

Go to the Pharmacy forums where the big boys hang out, (don't let them see you snooping about) and go to the "Day in a Life of a Nuclear Pharmacist" - That's an awesome thread.

 

[aboveliquidice]

Look into nuclear pharmacy, I think they have the best shot at avoiding the doldrums and redundant days... I work in both a retail (indy pharm) and a hospital setting in ambulatory care and both have elements of "the same thing until you die." They're just different tasks... The audience is definitely better in clinical pharm., though.

Go to the Pharmacy forums where the big boys hang out, (don't let them see you snooping about) and go to the "Day in a Life of a Nuclear Pharmacist" - That's an awesome thread.

Nuclear is definitely an interesting field... I am looking into it pretty seriously.

The term clinical is somewhat vague. Technically - any pharmacist willing to use their knowledge is a "clinical" pharmacist. However, the term is historically applied to the pharmacist in charge of developing hospital protocols. Each hospital is composed of staff pharmacists and clinical pharmacists. The clinical pharmacist works with physicians and other hospital personnel to meet unique demands of pharmacy. Once protocols are developed, they are periodically evaluated for accuracy (again, typically by clinical pharmacists). The protocols guide the manner by which staff pharmacists practice.

Example - Clinical pharmacist helps develop the order sheet from which pharmacy will dose vancomycin. Each staff pharmacist, when dosing vanco, will refer to the protocol.

A clinical pharmacist is clinical either because they are simply intelligent and worked their way into the position - or they went to a residency to learn special skills to be able to practice in a specialty.

Each practice setting is different of course - but that is a general overview (from my experience).