Any other pharmacy interns bored of hospital work?

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Nguyen

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Some background info:
I worked Walmart as a pharmacy tech for 2 1/2 years and when I was accepted into pharmacy school I left Walmart and went to work as an intern at a hospital. When the Rx manager interviewed me at the hospital she was telling me all sorts of great experiences I will have as a "clinical" intern, unfortunately those clinical experiences never happened and all I did was refill pyxis machines and make IVs all day long. Fast forward in time, I'm now working at a new hospital where I'm doing medication discharge counseling and medication histories, you could argue that this is "clinical" but even though this is also getting boring/repetitive and I've only been here for ~5 months.


My BEST experience was when I did my IPPE rotation at an independent pharmacy this past summer. Even though I was entering into my third year, my preceptor was allowing me to be "acting" pharmacist. I was performing all sorts of tasks from compounding creams, ointments, gels, capsules, etc. to verifying prescriptions, counseling all patients (including newly diabetics on their glucometers), giving vaccinations (Tdap, rabies, influenza), as well as INVEGA shots/Tb skin tests, and MUCH more. The patients highly expressed their gratitude for our services which made me felt wonderful.


At my current hospital, I shadowed a bunch of clinical pharmacists, from ambulatory care to infectious diseases to oncology to pain, etc. During those hours I was bored to death. I was constantly yawning, falling asleep, and wasn't curious one bit about anything they were doing. The inpatient pharmacists just verified orders all day long- sitting at least 8-12 hours (depending on shifts) per day.


The funny thing about all of this is I had more desire waking up and going to "work" at my IPPE rotation (independent pharmacy) even though I wasn't even getting paid at all vs. my actual job.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Just curious.

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I interned at a hospital for almost 3 years while in school. We also mostly stocked pyxes machines, make IV's, answer phones (95% of which were transferred over to pharmacists), package meds into unit-dose packaging, and general upkeep. Very little pressure compared to retail, but I didn't learn a thing about 'clinical' pharmacy itself. So yeah, pretty boring.
 
You've uncovered the secret: "clinical" hospital pharmacy is over hyped.
 
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We have techs do med reconciliation, discharge counseling is like 1% of my life. Your hospital doesn't sound very advanced, or does a poor job utilizing existing resources.


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I dunno why you guys are complaining, tech activities was like 100% of my internship and I loved it. Makes me a better hospital pharmacist knowing the grind my techs go through...and I can whip up an IV in no-time with my eyes closed, comes in handy in clutch moments and overnight.

Quit complaining, you're not snowflakes deserving "clinical" intern jobs. Grind it out and do your job, and learn as much clinical as you can doing it.


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Some background info:
I worked Walmart as a pharmacy tech for 2 1/2 years and when I was accepted into pharmacy school I left Walmart and went to work as an intern at a hospital. When the Rx manager interviewed me at the hospital she was telling me all sorts of great experiences I will have as a "clinical" intern, unfortunately those clinical experiences never happened and all I did was refill pyxis machines and make IVs all day long. Fast forward in time, I'm now working at a new hospital where I'm doing medication discharge counseling and medication histories, you could argue that this is "clinical" but even though this is also getting boring/repetitive and I've only been here for ~5 months.


My BEST experience was when I did my IPPE rotation at an independent pharmacy this past summer. Even though I was entering into my third year, my preceptor was allowing me to be "acting" pharmacist. I was performing all sorts of tasks from compounding creams, ointments, gels, capsules, etc. to verifying prescriptions, counseling all patients (including newly diabetics on their glucometers), giving vaccinations (Tdap, rabies, influenza), as well as INVEGA shots/Tb skin tests, and MUCH more. The patients highly expressed their gratitude for our services which made me felt wonderful.


At my current hospital, I shadowed a bunch of clinical pharmacists, from ambulatory care to infectious diseases to oncology to pain, etc. During those hours I was bored to death. I was constantly yawning, falling asleep, and wasn't curious one bit about anything they were doing. The inpatient pharmacists just verified orders all day long- sitting at least 8-12 hours (depending on shifts) per day.


The funny thing about all of this is I had more desire waking up and going to "work" at my IPPE rotation (independent pharmacy) even though I wasn't even getting paid at all vs. my actual job.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Just curious.

It seems you desire clinical tasks and interacting with patients, so you only have a few choices: go into retail or outpatient pharmacies where you can make use of this enthusiasm to help impact patients directly. If you desire a purely clinical role, then pharmacy isn't the right path for you...you should be aiming to become a clinician. Locking yourself up in a basement all day at your current job isn't for everyone. Some people prefer that and don't want to be with patients. Some people like the interaction and knowing that they are at the forefront. It's your call. I can't stand being down in some hospital's basement all day either. The ideal job for me would be in a satellite pharmacy and rounding with the medical team or being on the floors where I can contribute directly.
 
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It seems you desire clinical tasks and interacting with patients, so you only have a few choices: go into retail or outpatient pharmacies where you can make use of this enthusiasm to help impact patients directly. If you desire a purely clinical role, then pharmacy isn't the right path for you...you should be aiming to become a clinician. Locking yourself up in a basement all day at your current job isn't for everyone. Some people prefer that and don't want to be with patients. Some people like the interaction and knowing that they are at the forefront. It's your call. I can't stand being down in some hospital's basement all day either. The ideal job for me would be in a satellite pharmacy and rounding with the medical team or being on the floors where I can contribute directly.

I like both, I like days when I sit in the central pharmacy, answer phones, field physician calls, and keep the hospital running with the proverbial life blood of medication. Medicine is the water and I am Poseidon. That's job #1 for any pharmacist -- procure and dispense drug.

Other days, I like roaming my critical care units, more or less untethered from dispensing activities.

You need to really like both to survive in hospital pharmacy -- even if your hospital is super backwards and old school, most of us here have careers that will span 20+ years, do you think you'll be doing the exact same thing over that entire span of time? Eventually a progressive director will pull you in one direction, eventually a budget cut will pull you in the opposite direction.
 
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I was a hospital pharmacy "intern" (really just a tech in reality) for 4 years and hated it. It's the reason I stayed away from hosp as a career
 
Yeah I find hospital pharmacy is for the most part incredibly boring, unsatisfying work. Same stuff day in, day out and generally limited formularies so you see the same meds over and over. To each his own, but personally, I find that there's much more variety and interesting things that come up in retail pharmacy, plus patient interactions are a never-ending source of either satisfaction (for the good patients) or entertainment (for the crazy ones, because honestly patients yelling doesn't bother me and I mostly just find it funny).

My experience in retail is much the same as yours (though I do wish for bathroom breaks and sometimes worry too much that I made a mistake during a hectic time). The patients for the most part are so nice and gracious and thankful for your help. You can really see how much they respect and like their pharmacists (much more than I can say for the majority of nurses/providers you have to interact with in a hospital). I find there's nothing more awesome for a pharmacist than for a patient to transfer their prescriptions to the new store you're working at; or tell you how happy they are that you're there today because their doctor told them something about their meds, but they want your opinion on it; or thank you profusely for helping them figure out what OTC meds to give to their sick kid at home. These things happen to me every single week in retail, and it feels great. Those things are the reason I became a pharmacist.

Anyway, academic professors love to bash on retail as not clinical or not intellectually stimulating, but I suspect most of them have never actually worked in a retail pharmacy if they think that. I recently had a discussion with a faculty member who said he considers OTC recommendations as one of the highest levels of clinical activity, since in a way, you are both diagnosing a problem and making a clinical recommendation, without any input from another healthcare provider. It was a refreshing viewpoint to hear.
 
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I dunno why you guys are complaining, tech activities was like 100% of my internship and I loved it. Makes me a better hospital pharmacist knowing the grind my techs go through...and I can whip up an IV in no-time with my eyes closed, comes in handy in clutch moments and overnight.

Quit complaining, you're not snowflakes deserving "clinical" intern jobs. Grind it out and do your job, and learn as much clinical as you can doing it.


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THIS...OP...hospital pharmacy is the best place to work in today's ultra-saturated pharmacy market...it's so much better than the retail system...if you want retail, go ahead, CVS will make you regret becoming a pharmacist...
Here where I live, the pharmacy market is saturated and new pharmacists are coming out every year ... and almost impossible for people to find hospital jobs and people are desperately trying to jump from retail to hospital. Before you complain how boring hospital's are, try to understand the alternative and how terrible it may be.
 
THIS...OP...hospital pharmacy is the best place to work in today's ultra-saturated pharmacy market...it's so much better than the retail system...if you want retail, go ahead, CVS will make you regret becoming a pharmacist...
Here where I live, the pharmacy market is saturated and new pharmacists are coming out every year ... and almost impossible for people to find hospital jobs and people are desperately trying to jump from retail to hospital. Before you complain how boring hospital's are, try to understand the alternative and how terrible it may be.
It's all subjective. I have friends who love CVS, others who hate it with a passion. Same goes for hospital. For the longest time, I wanted to go into hospital, but mainly to avoid retail. Not for any reason based on personal experience, but rather the horror stories that one is bound to hear. However, after 5 clinical rotations, where I rounded with the medical teams, made recommendations when necessary, and did patient cases with preceptors (basically, a clinical pharmacists wet dream), I realized that I find that work mind-numbingly boring; the days went by so slow. Retail might be hectic and chaotic, but one thing I do appreciate is that you blink, and half your shift is behind you.
 
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I dunno why you guys are complaining, tech activities was like 100% of my internship and I loved it. Makes me a better hospital pharmacist knowing the grind my techs go through...and I can whip up an IV in no-time with my eyes closed, comes in handy in clutch moments and overnight.

Quit complaining, you're not snowflakes deserving "clinical" intern jobs. Grind it out and do your job, and learn as much clinical as you can doing it.


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I guess you're right, instead of complaining about my job I'll do what I can to get the best out of it. Right now it's probably 40% clinical/60% technician work.

You've uncovered the secret: "clinical" hospital pharmacy is over hyped.

I mean we have over 70+++ pharmacists at our hospital and like 80% of them are clinical. Depending on their specialty-if you ever get a job like that you'll essentially be set for life. It's like a dream job that everybody wants with 0% dispensing activities and 100% patient care. Unfortunately, it requires a PGY-1 and those jobs generally aren't just sitting around being untaken <-- ??? Lol. In other words, it's hard to find a job like that.

Yeah I find hospital pharmacy is for the most part incredibly boring, unsatisfying work. Same stuff day in, day out and generally limited formularies so you see the same meds over and over. To each his own, but personally, I find that there's much more variety and interesting things that come up in retail pharmacy, plus patient interactions are a never-ending source of either satisfaction (for the good patients) or entertainment (for the crazy ones, because honestly patients yelling doesn't bother me and I mostly just find it funny).

My experience in retail is much the same as yours (though I do wish for bathroom breaks and sometimes worry too much that I made a mistake during a hectic time). The patients for the most part are so nice and gracious and thankful for your help. You can really see how much they respect and like their pharmacists (much more than I can say for the majority of nurses/providers you have to interact with in a hospital). I find there's nothing more awesome for a pharmacist than for a patient to transfer their prescriptions to the new store you're working at; or tell you how happy they are that you're there today because their doctor told them something about their meds, but they want your opinion on it; or thank you profusely for helping them figure out what OTC meds to give to their sick kid at home. These things happen to me every single week in retail, and it feels great. Those things are the reason I became a pharmacist.

Anyway, academic professors love to bash on retail as not clinical or not intellectually stimulating, but I suspect most of them have never actually worked in a retail pharmacy if they think that. I recently had a discussion with a faculty member who said he considers OTC recommendations as one of the highest levels of clinical activity, since in a way, you are both diagnosing a problem and making a clinical recommendation, without any input from another healthcare provider. It was a refreshing viewpoint to hear.

Same with the professors at my school. Every time they ask me about my future goals I'm like...I just want to be a pharmacist, then they're like what kind of pharmacist? I'm like you know...that pharmacist that works behind the counter dispensing meds. Oh retail? Bingo! They were probably expecting me to do a residency or something.

I'd say those 2 1/2 year experience at Walmart as a technician helped me prepare for pharmacotherapy exams much better than my current hospital job because we have to memorize all kinds of dosages.

I was a hospital pharmacy "intern" (really just a tech in reality) for 4 years and hated it. It's the reason I stayed away from hosp as a career

I don't blame ya. 4 years of refilling pyxis machines? That's harsh, the only good thing keeping me going is the pay. Pay is insanely high compared to my fellow retailers in my class which is why I'm still interning at hospitals.
 
I don't blame ya. 4 years of refilling pyxis machines? That's harsh, the only good thing keeping me going is the pay. Pay is insanely high compared to my fellow retailers in my class which is why I'm still interning at hospitals.

You're on a fine line here...there are some hard working people that will be refilling Pyxis machines for 40 years just so they can keep food on the table and the rent paid.

What's harsh to you is a necessary career decision to someone who does a majority of the grunt work behind your license.


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You're on a fine line here...there are some hard working people that will be refilling Pyxis machines for 40 years just so they can keep food on the table and the rent paid.

What's harsh to you is a necessary career decision to someone who does a majority of the grunt work behind your license.


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Good call down!
 
And it's no easier in what the ignorant consider be the most intellectually demanding compounding job, nuclear pharmacy. The way I describe it to pharmacy students, it's like working like a real airplane pilot. Complete with endless checklists, after action reports, lots and lots of mandatory inservices with the nuclear safety version of the Sexual Harassment Panda, mindless and rote kit use (think of having to assemble IKEA furniture all day, every day with the same 30 to 50 plans). Because of the extreme culture of safety (which is a good thing), you spend 15% compounding and 85% doing all the bureaucratic work or IKEA kit assembly work around compounding. Safety means "safe from you", which adds all sorts of burdens that don't allow anyone to cut corners alone.

I think the most intellectual demanding pharmacy job outside of retail (for reasons noted above, to be that good to dispense that much means that there is some intelligence behind it) is probably veterinary pharmacy Green Book stuff. All stupid complicated, the dosing and formulas make The Compleat Baker look like the 10 Minute Meals. The zoologists (or vets) shooting the (name your favorite vertebrate animal attraction) with your stuff seems fun, but you have the liability if that tranquilizer made by you is too effective. Too bad that the pay is lower than veterinarians (as in senior techs could possibly make more than you) and that you could have skipped every class but Pharmacology if that really does become your field.
 
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And it's no easier in what the ignorant consider be the most intellectually demanding compounding job, nuclear pharmacy. The way I describe it to pharmacy students, it's like working like a real airplane pilot. Complete with endless checklists, after action reports, lots and lots of mandatory inservices with the nuclear safety version of the Sexual Harassment Panda, mindless and rote kit use (think of having to assemble IKEA furniture all day, every day with the same 30 to 50 plans). Because of the extreme culture of safety (which is a good thing), you spend 15% compounding and 85% doing all the bureaucratic work or IKEA kit assembly work around compounding. Safety means "safe from you", which adds all sorts of burdens that don't allow anyone to cut corners alone.

I think the most intellectual demanding pharmacy job outside of retail (for reasons noted above, to be that good to dispense that much means that there is some intelligence behind it) is probably veterinary pharmacy Green Book stuff. All stupid complicated, the dosing and formulas make The Compleat Baker look like the 10 Minute Meals. The zoologists (or vets) shooting the (name your favorite vertebrate animal attraction) with your stuff seems fun, but you have the liability if that tranquilizer made by you is too effective. Too bad that the pay is lower than veterinarians (as in senior techs could possibly make more than you) and that you could have skipped every class but Pharmacology if that really does become your field.

I actually skipped pharmacology class as well. All of my professors just read the contents directly from the slides word for word. I mean I could do that in my own time, but just have to do it before the exam date of course.

You're on a fine line here...there are some hard working people that will be refilling Pyxis machines for 40 years just so they can keep food on the table and the rent paid.

What's harsh to you is a necessary career decision to someone who does a majority of the grunt work behind your license.


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Yep, they are some of the hardest workers too. There's an individual that has been here for >30 years and will be retiring soon.

I meant no disrespect to those individuals. When I said "harsh" what I really meant was boring, and what's boring to me might not be boring to someone else. I'm just saying refilling pyxis machines for 4 years straight must've been rough considering we're interns in the process of becoming a pharmacist.

When I made this thread I just wanted to get a general idea if people were in the same boat as me, which would be missing the retail atmosphere. Since all the hype has been around how you should work in a hospital as an intern when you're accepted into pharmacy school, and so far there hasn't been much excitement. My typical day would include- clock in, pull meds from carousel, deliver, make IVs, rinse repeat. There's not much I can really learn from that as a student. I mean of course I'll be able to perform all of those tasks when my technicians aren't around, aside from that I'm just a mindless individual performing labor intensive tasks.

Again, I would quit but the pay is just too darn good and don't feel like re-applying elsewhere in the middle of the semester.
 
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I actually skipped pharmacology class as well. All of my professors just read the contents directly from the slides word for word. I mean I could do that in my own time, but just have to do it before the exam date of course.



Yep, they are some of the hardest workers too. There's an individual that has been here for >30 years and will be retiring soon.

I meant no disrespect to those individuals. When I said "harsh" what I really meant was boring, and what's boring to me might not be boring to someone else. I'm just saying refilling pyxis machines for 4 years straight must've been rough considering we're interns in the process of becoming a pharmacist.
.

I didn't sense any malice in your tone of wording, just wanted to throw it out there. I've had some students, with the best of intent and without realizing it, say some pretty offensive things.

Side story: I have a coworker that had a child at 16, and I think during the course of a conversation, I hear my student exclaim, "WOW, that's WAY TOO young to have a kid!!"

Really? Someone just told you a personal anecdote about being a teen mom, and that's what you have to say??

I was so pissed off, I sent the student to the medical library the rest of the day. Out out out.


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You're just putting in your time, getting experience and learning the workflow of the pharmacy. If this is a paid internship you should consider it a job and not an educational experience, although the knowledge you pick up will make you much more marketable upon graduation.

My internship was full of preparing batches and refilling Pyxis machines. I worked mostly the IV room, where the state board allowed interns to prepare more complex products while techs were limited to single vial transfers. While I learned a lot about hospital pharmacy workflow, it was first and foremost a job and I completed the tasks I was assigned. I'd ask the pharmacists questions and have them explain things to me, but it was nothing like a rotation.

The sad thing is that you will likely end up bored at whichever job you eventually land. There is only so much to learn before it becomes routine. I try to vary it by volunteering for new projects and helping implement new practices, but at the end of the day the majority of your tasks will be related to dispensing medications.

You have to ask yourself if you are going to be the kind of person that draws their self-worth from their job or from other aspects of life. When I first started I was definitely in the first camp and was very unhappy. If I didn't have the most prestigious position I felt slighted and inferior. Luckily I grew out of that phase and treat pharmacy as a job, not my life. Ultimately you should find a job that you can enjoy working. Do you really think it's worth the pressure and stress of CVS just to have more excitement? Maybe you do, but that was absolutely not the case for me.
 
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