Avoid Pharmacy School

[alpha12]

yall dentists need to stop killing lions

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[RedROSE]

I’d like to add a few points about pharmacy from an inpatient pharmacy perspective for those considering entering the profession. I have worked at a few different hospitals throughout my career. Older pharmacists approaching retirement age are not thinking about leaving. They tend to stay on as full time employees and keep postponing their retirement. The same is true for pharmacists in their 40s and 50s- they are not looking for new opportunities, they are comfortable with their job duties, pay check, seniority, benefit package etc.
We hire many P1s and P2s, but offer per diem positions to one or two of them at the end. The rest of new graduates are going into retail and often times start per diem or part time floating between different stores.
Residencies help applicants stand out more, no doubt. It is not easy to get one. And there is no guarantee that residency trained pharmacist will get a clinical position anymore.
I have to say I like my job and highly respect all medical professionals. Its just very unfortunate that pharmacy has changed tremendously in the last 10 years. We are facing an oversaturated market, lower salaries, unjustified terminations ( esp in retail) and very poor future job outlook.

 

[rxkrafted]

I’d like to add a few points about pharmacy from an inpatient pharmacy perspective for those considering entering the profession. I have worked at a few different hospitals throughout my career. Older pharmacists approaching retirement age are not thinking about leaving. They tend to stay on as full time employees and keep postponing their retirement. The same is true for pharmacists in their 40s and 50s- they are not looking for new opportunities, they are comfortable with their job duties, pay check, seniority, benefit package etc.
We hire many P1s and P2s, but offer per diem positions to one or two of them at the end. The rest of new graduates are going into retail and often times start per diem or part time floating between different stores.
Residencies help applicants stand out more, no doubt. It is not easy to get one. And there is no guarantee that residency trained pharmacist will get a clinical position anymore.
I have to say I like my job and highly respect all medical professionals. Its just very unfortunate that pharmacy has changed tremendously in the last 10 years. We are facing an oversaturated market, lower salaries, unjustified terminations ( esp in retail) and very poor future job outlook.

If you can convince any of these pre-pharms nowadays, hats off to you... They just care about flaunting their "doctor" status after they graduate and share their status all over social media.

 

[alpha12]

Stats are convincing, thanks for sharing. I highly doubt that some people choose dentistry because their stats are not competitive enough for a medical school. Dentists I know love what they do, have a good life work balance, and make decent money. On the contrary, some choose pharmacy if medicine and dentistry is out of reach.

When i was in school most premeds had dentristry, podiatry, optemetry or a carribean md as there backup. There were very few that started out as "predent" if that's even a thing. I doubt most med school failures would consider pharmacy. Completely different than the other ones that I mentioned. There is little patient interaction and nobody calls you a doctor.

 

[Judgment Dragon]

There are ways to boost your gpa if med school was your first priority, post Bach, or SMP for a year

What does SMP mean?

 

[Whysoez]

What does SMP mean?

Special Master Program

 

[Gns1h]

When i was in school most premeds had dentristry, podiatry, optemetry or a carribean md as there backup. There were very few that started out as "predent" if that's even a thing. I doubt most med school failures would consider pharmacy. Completely different than the other ones that I mentioned. There is little patient interaction and nobody calls you a doctor.

Lot of pre-meds nowadays have pharmacy as a backup now unfortunately. You won't believe how many kids I've seen who were premed that are going into pharmacy. It's either Caribbean or pharmacy and frankly I don't know whats worse...

 

[BidingMyTime]

When i was in school most premeds had dentristry, podiatry, optemetry or a carribean md as there backup. There were very few that started out as "predent" if that's even a thing. I doubt most med school failures would consider pharmacy. Completely different than the other ones that I mentioned. There is little patient interaction and nobody calls you a doctor.

Stats might have something to do with it, but I suspect most people who choose dentistry over MD/DO, do so because they don't want to have to do a 3 - 4 yr residency. Even back in the late 80's/early 90's, while it wasn't my main reason, it was certainly a selling point for pharmacy over MD/DO, no residency.

Lot of pre-meds nowadays have pharmacy as a backup now unfortunately. You won't believe how many kids I've seen who were premed that are going into pharmacy. It's either Caribbean or pharmacy and frankly I don't know whats worse...

Caribbean is worst, living in a 3rd world country while going to med school. At least pharmacy students get to live it up in a first world country for 3 - 4 years, before reality hits.