BCPS Certification in retail?

[RealityRx]

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I will never claim to be the "brain" I am a team leader, yes, but we all work together, we all take the lead in certain topics/disease states and teach each other. That is what makes us work great as a team. Your situations sounds like some that I have heard of where you have layers in your hospital - you have the "clinical RPh's" and the "working bees" That doesn't fly here, everyone has to know how to do nearly everything in a pinch,

I work when the smart people go home, helping to get patients discharged from the hospital into a nursing home setting. Its why a lot of oddball questions come up, because there is a serious lack of streamlining from one setting to another. Logistics is the biggest hassle. It appears no one who can write a morphine script works from 5pm-8pm.

 

[RealityRx]

I was married to a pharmacist...

Kiss of death. I learned that after the initial hook up (and subsequent 12 hours spent bitching about how horrible it is to be a pharmacist), you walk away and never look back.

 

[njac]

This is the most ******ed thing I've read, you're contradicting yourself. If someone is actually smart, sure, they'll be able to pass BCPS...but they'll be smart enough to not take the damn thing in the first place unless there's a clear benefit.

Put it this way...there's barely a benefit for a PGY1/2 trained/highly experienced clinical unicorns to take/pass this test. Seriously, it's like a f*cking "my kid is in the honor roll" bumper sticker.

There are a few hospital systems that give a 5% raise to any pharmacist who gets it. So their entire staff is BCPS.

Examples like this are why at some of the "elite" academic programs you'll see no one on faculty with it.

I did it just because my peers were
- I'm an excellent standardized
Test taker, and it reminds me to keep up on a higher quality CE than I would be doing otherwise.

It's just a cash cow for BPS. $600 for the test, $100 annually to maintain, several hundred per year for the PSAPs.

I don't regret doing it, but I don't feel like it adds anything to my CV.

I might add on the critical care exam, but am undecided at this point.

 

[njac]

Stupid app ate my long thoughtful post on why it's to a patient's benefit that Dred and I did not go to med school.

Oh well.

 

[confettiflyer]

1, Why can 3 amps of bicarb be mixed in D5W but not NS?

Sure it can! Only if your pt is acidotic with an ICH, heh heh.

 

[confettiflyer]

There are a few hospital systems that give a 5% raise to any pharmacist who gets it. So their entire staff is BCPS.

Examples like this are why at some of the "elite" academic programs you'll see no one on faculty with it.

I did it just because my peers were
- I'm an excellent standardized
Test taker, and it reminds me to keep up on a higher quality CE than I would be doing otherwise.

It's just a cash cow for BPS. $600 for the test, $100 annually to maintain, several hundred per year for the PSAPs.

I don't regret doing it, but I don't feel like it adds anything to my CV.

I might add on the critical care exam, but am undecided at this point.

5% raise? Sign me up. I'll get around to it...eventually, when someone else pays for it completely and I get paid for doing it. A lot of my peers did it and half of them are underemployed.

Same above parameters for my future MBA.

 

[Dalteparin]

True, and I'm sorry if I came across hostile. I find it appalling that there are people that would discourage OP from trying for BCPS just because they felt entitled to that exclusively.

To clarify what I said earlier: I don't feel "entitled" to BCPS. I earned it, as did everybody else who has BCPS. It's not a country club, it's an an achievement. Anybody who passed the test had to study in order to do so, therefore they earned it too. I'm not sure if it has a lot of benefit for the OP - as someone above said, when you get 90 applicants for one spot, you have to have a quick way to cull the herd, and unfortunately for the OP, people without hospital experience are going to get culled first, regardless of what's after their name. I'd be in the same boat if I applied for a retail job, not having worked retail since pharm school.

On the other hand, maybe the OP isn't applying for a job in a saturated market. Maybe they live (or would like to live) in a small town. Maybe they are just taking the test to see if they can pass. Maybe a residency-trained friend bet them that they couldn't. 🙂

Ultimately, as long as the OP has a good reason for taking the exam and understand what it will and won't do for their career, there's no reason for them NOT to take it.

 

[Lnsean]

To clarify what I said earlier: I don't feel "entitled" to BCPS. I earned it, as did everybody else who has BCPS. It's not a country club, it's an an achievement. Anybody who passed the test had to study in order to do so, therefore they earned it too. I'm not sure if it has a lot of benefit for the OP - as someone above said, when you get 90 applicants for one spot, you have to have a quick way to cull the herd, and unfortunately for the OP, people without hospital experience are going to get culled first, regardless of what's after their name. I'd be in the same boat if I applied for a retail job, not having worked retail since pharm school.

On the other hand, maybe the OP isn't applying for a job in a saturated market. Maybe they live (or would like to live) in a small town. Maybe they are just taking the test to see if they can pass. Maybe a residency-trained friend bet them that they couldn't. 🙂

Ultimately, as long as the OP has a good reason for taking the exam and understand what it will and won't do for their career, there's no reason for them NOT to take it.

Well, OP never asked anyone if it was worthwhile or if she should/not take it. He only asked if he was able to sit for it. Many people here jumped the gun and tried to discourage him. If he wants to take it, that should be reason enough.

What I think is there are a bunch of people here who had done 1-2 years of residences and all they have got to show for it is a staff dispensing position and a BCPS designation. So, when they hear that someone else can sit for the exam and receive the same "coveted" title, they get upset. Everyone's got their panties in a bunch.

 

[Dred Pirate]

Sure it can! Only if your pt is acidotic with an ICH, heh heh.

ya - the hypertonicity of it will kick you in the butt

 

[pharmacy7424]

Interesting debate...

So...Is it possible to use a few years of plain-old big chain dispensing experience to qualify for sitting for the BCPS? I am confident I can pass and am not really interested in whether it will be useful for the career in the future.

 

[zelman]

Interesting debate...

So...Is it possible to use a few years of plain-old big chain dispensing experience to qualify for sitting for the BCPS? I am confident I can pass and am not really interested in whether it will be useful for the career in the future.

You qualify, but I know I need to review IV antibiotics and a few other topics before I take it.

 

[confettiflyer]

ya - the hypertonicity of it will kick you in the butt

i don't think you understood my post

 

[Dred Pirate]

i don't think you understood my post

I did

 

[luckyPharmD]

There are a few hospital systems that give a 5% raise to any pharmacist who gets it. So their entire staff is BCPS.

Examples like this are why at some of the "elite" academic programs you'll see no one on faculty with it.

I did it just because my peers were
- I'm an excellent standardized
Test taker, and it reminds me to keep up on a higher quality CE than I would be doing otherwise.

It's just a cash cow for BPS. $600 for the test, $100 annually to maintain, several hundred per year for the PSAPs.

I don't regret doing it, but I don't feel like it adds anything to my CV.

I might add on the critical care exam, but am undecided at this point.

Hi, Do you know which places give raise to BCPS certified pharmacist. I work in NY and I want to show some documents to my employer so BCPS Pharmacist can get raise.

Thank You