Clinical Pharmacist

[tompharm]

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what exactly is a clinical Pharmacist. I was under the impression a clinical pharmacist did up to a pgy2 residency and worked in a hospital making monitoring and clinical interventions. Or is a clinical pharmacist just another name for hospital staff pharmacist.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

There isn't an official definition. I was "50:50" clinical/staff back in my day.

 

[Sparda29]

The clinical pharmacist at my hospital goes on rounds, talks to doctors about non-formulary issues, looks into DI questions, goes to meetings, antimicrobial stewardship, trains new employees, trains pharmacy students, and helps out with staffing during lunch breaks.

For me, I'm primarily a staff pharmacist but when I asked the director how clinical the job is, he told me "it's as clinical as you make it". There's plenty of clinical stuff to do here. I do a lot of renal dose adjustments, IV-->PO, warfarin monitoring, vancomycin monitoring, antibiotic duplication monitoring. Or you could just sit there and verify orders, check completed orders, print labels and answer phones all day too if you want to do that.

 

[Its Z]

Every pharmacist is a clinical pharmacist.

 

[opinionfree]

It really depends on the person, the depth of their self-aggrandizement and need for additional descriptive nomenclature.

If a professional that can be 50% one thing and 50% another thing or is left to determine "it's as clinical as you make it", I'm sure you can figure out it's really just another way of saying, just a pharmacist. Professionals are always 100% vested in being their profession, not half of the time. I can tell you how many physicians I know, that spend 1/2 of their time 'doctoring' and the other 1/2 of the time cleaning their examination room. NONE. I'm also not familiar with many MDs, that only perform partial examinations because they can make less of the job that is expected of them.

A pharmacist, is a pharmacist, is a pharmacist. The law and licensing makes no distinction between them.

 

[tompharm]

Every pharmacist is a clinical pharmacist.

So when a job is asking for a clinical pharmacist vs. a staff pharmacist there is no distinction?

 

[StellargalS]

As you can see it is a somewhat subjective terminology. If you wish to perceived and employed in the clinical capacity, opportunities are more readily extended to those who meet and exceed the current professional training standards. These that you have mentioned, PGYs, are the current professional training standard after achieving the Pharm D degree. There are some dinosaurs out there that paved the way to the current standard. The lack the alphabet soup but not the knowledge. For your purposes though PGY is the clear way to go.

 

[Its Z]

So when a job is asking for a clinical pharmacist vs. a staff pharmacist there is no distinction?

I don't have that distinction with my staff. Everyone does everything. There's me, Supervisor/Residency Director, then 30 pharmacists. Everyone does everything.....and rotate shifts.

 

[PharmEcon]

So when a job is asking for a clinical pharmacist vs. a staff pharmacist there is no distinction?

Depends on the hospital. Some hospitals have "staff" pharmacists who are just in the central pharmacy checking and verifying and then they have "clinical" pharmacists who are working on the floors with docs, etc.

 

[Klueril]

how about an "infectious disease pharmacist"? <--Do these actually exist?? Are there jobs?

 

[PharMed2016]

how about an "infectious disease pharmacist"? <--Do these actually exist?? Are there jobs?

I know quite a few ID pharmacists. There are a few ways that you can approach this but I think doing a PGY1+2 or a ID fellowship is how most do it. There was one ID pharmacist that I met during my last rotation as a student who was grandfathered into the system without formal ID training. But by in large the former is most common.

PS. I have seen some job posting for ID pharmacist but nothing recent.

 

[Carboxide]

OP: Why do you keep making all these dumb threads? Aren't you a P4? Seriously, you need help.

 

[opinionfree]

Really carboxide, you can't differentiate between my registering views on a subject versus initiating a thread. I'm left to ponder how low the admission standards for your pharmacy school are?
If you need to redirect your repressed rage, because school is hard for you and you need to justify the time and expense of your education, by becoming some kind of 'pretend' physician, so be it. When you allow yourself the time and maturity to process your $100,00+ in tuition and 6+ years of time and accept you are a pharmacist and not some kind of fantasy practitioner, the more balanced an individual you will become. The level of career rationalization and dissatisfaction for the profession (your not even part of yet) can't be corrected by venting your frustrations at me. If it helps you sleep at night or motivates you through the obvious intellectual challenges you must be experiencing in your education, so be it. I'm a big boy.
You can't be honest with your own predicament. It's easier to express your anger towards a stranger. Talk about someone needing help.

 

[Digsbe]

Any pharmacist that interacts with patients is "clinical" in my view. Counselling a patients on medications, doing immunizations and the process of verifying a prescription is clinical in nature and are basic functions of retail/community pharmacy.

Some institutions will label the pharmacists that go on rounds up on the floors or provide services like dosage changes, medication monitoring, discharge counselling, anticoag management and other things as "clinical" duties versus "staff" duties like verifying prescriptions in the central pharmacy and answering questions or providing consultations with other providers. Technically, being a licensed pharmacist is enough to be a "clinical" pharmacist. To my knowledge in most states there aren't enhanced scopes given to pharmacists because they got a certification or did a residency in a specialty area. However, in some states like NC where they have pharmacist practitioners and (soon to be) California I believe you have to get specified credentials to be labeled as an "advance practice pharmacist" or something along those lines. In most states though if you want to be hired as a clinical pharmacist you should do a residency.

 

[Transformer]

I don't have that distinction with my staff. Everyone does everything. There's me, Supervisor/Residency Director, then 30 pharmacists. Everyone does everything.....and rotate shifts.

This is the hospital pharmacist model every hospital pharmacy department should follow.

 

[Carboxide]

Really carboxide, you can't differentiate between my registering views on a subject versus initiating a thread. I'm left to ponder how low the admission standards for your pharmacy school are?
If you need to redirect your repressed rage, because school is hard for you and you need to justify the time and expense of your education, by becoming some kind of 'pretend' physician, so be it. When you allow yourself the time and maturity to process your $100,00+ in tuition and 6+ years of time and accept you are a pharmacist and not some kind of fantasy practitioner, the more balanced an individual you will become. The level of career rationalization and dissatisfaction for the profession (your not even part of yet) can't be corrected by venting your frustrations at me. If it helps you sleep at night or motivates you through the obvious intellectual challenges you must be experiencing in your education, so be it. I'm a big boy.
You can't be honest with your own predicament. It's easier to express your anger towards a stranger. Talk about someone needing help.

Lol...you are not the OP...so it was clearly not directed at you. Read this guy's old threads from the last couple months.

 

[Sparda29]

I don't have that distinction with my staff. Everyone does everything. There's me, Supervisor/Residency Director, then 30 pharmacists. Everyone does everything.....and rotate shifts.

Everyone goes on rounds? What if someone is only available day shifts or only available evening shifts or only available overnight shift?

 

[STLclinical16]

what exactly is a clinical Pharmacist. I was under the impression a clinical pharmacist did up to a pgy2 residency and worked in a hospital making monitoring and clinical interventions. Or is a clinical pharmacist just another name for hospital staff pharmacist.

At my hospital (small-medium, midwest) a clinical pharmacist and staff pharmacist are the same exact thing. Sometimes we have a pharmD BCPS residency trained pharmacist rounding with physicians, writing TPNS, doing home med rec, veryifing up on the floors where RNs may have questions; sometimes its an RPh.

in big city teaching hospitals clinical pharmacists are a pretty big deal and do some really exciting work, in more rural areas no one knows what they're really there for except to train more clinical pharmacists lol.

 

[rxlea]

At my hospital (small-medium, midwest) a clinical pharmacist and staff pharmacist are the same exact thing. Sometimes we have a pharmD BCPS residency trained pharmacist rounding with physicians, writing TPNS, doing home med rec, veryifing up on the floors where RNs may have questions; sometimes its an RPh.

in big city teaching hospitals clinical pharmacists are a pretty big deal and do some really exciting work, in more rural areas no one knows what they're really there for except to train more clinical pharmacists lol.

I disagree with your statement regarding rural practice. I've found that pharmacists in a rural practice setting have a great deal of autonomy/responsibility, sometimes more than at large teaching institutions.

The rural sites I've rotated at or shadowed at are very collegial and the pharmacist is an integral part of the team. They have pretty free reign on a lot of things once they establish rapport with the team. I've seen some pretty exciting stuff in rural practice- like bubonic plague scares, horrible skin infections of unknown origin, and improvising when it comes to ODs.

 

[BKpharm]

U r a residency director? Nice... In all honesty frm your opinion.. Is residency worth it?

 

[STLclinical16]

I disagree with your statement regarding rural practice. I've found that pharmacists in a rural practice setting have a great deal of autonomy/responsibility, sometimes more than at large teaching institutions.

The rural sites I've rotated at or shadowed at are very collegial and the pharmacist is an integral part of the team. They have pretty free reign on a lot of things once they establish rapport with the team. I've seen some pretty exciting stuff in rural practice- like bubonic plague scares, horrible skin infections of unknown origin, and improvising when it comes to ODs.

Oh well i totally agree . Where I am, the pharmacist definitely does get that autonomy and an increased scope of practice, there is just no distinction between clinical and staff, they are both considered drug experts and provide the exact same functions.

 

[rxlea]

Oh well i totally agree . Where I am, the pharmacist definitely does get that autonomy and an increased scope of practice, there is just no distinction between clinical and staff, they are both considered drug experts and provide the exact same functions.

I'm referring to your statement about big city versus rural and them being a "big deal" that do "exciting work". You said in rural no one knows what they are there for. That's false. Big city or rural doesn't matter.