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It really depends on the state she is intending on doing her internship in. I recently finished mine in NJ and it was not easy finding one. Tri-State (NJ, NY, PA) are a bit saturated in comparison to other "saturated" states. I did mine in an independent retail pharmacy. I tried contacting CVS/Target/Walgreens in the beginning but the chains that did get back to me told me they were not hiring foreign grads. Maybe I didnt search well enough.
I landed a paid one just because the independent Pharmacy happened to need someone anyway. I was getting paid close to $10/hour which was enough for just to pay my bills. It would have been a lot better to work in a chain because the salary is more (I think double what I was taking) and the chances of being hired as a pharmacist increase.
While I was searching for internships, I did find a lot of them that wanted me to volunteer though. That shouldn't be a problem if you could cover your fiancée's expenses for close to a year (or depending on how many hours are needed in your state). The ones that are hard to find are the paid ones.
I landed a paid one just because the independent Pharmacy happened to need someone anyway. I was getting paid close to $10/hour which was enough for just to pay my bills. It would have been a lot better to work in a chain because the salary is more (I think double what I was taking) and the chances of being hired as a pharmacist increase.
While I was searching for internships, I did find a lot of them that wanted me to volunteer though. That shouldn't be a problem if you could cover your fiancée's expenses for close to a year (or depending on how many hours are needed in your state). The ones that are hard to find are the paid ones.
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For the chain Pharmacies, they post these internship positions online & thats how I applied for them.
For independent pharmacies, it was more going online writing in google Pharmacies in (City) and making a long list. I started calling, stopping by, interviewing, talking to pharmacists and store managers. I even talked to friends to let them know I was looking for an internship. The one I landed at the end was actually through a friend. He was going to regularly pick up a medication and he mentioned me to the manager there. Luckily, the manager asked for an interview and it happened.
That being said, once you start looking around and seriously working hard to find what you want, you never know where you are going to get it from.
PM me if you have any questions about the details of the entire process. TOEFL should be a piece of cake for her.
For independent pharmacies, it was more going online writing in google Pharmacies in (City) and making a long list. I started calling, stopping by, interviewing, talking to pharmacists and store managers. I even talked to friends to let them know I was looking for an internship. The one I landed at the end was actually through a friend. He was going to regularly pick up a medication and he mentioned me to the manager there. Luckily, the manager asked for an interview and it happened.
That being said, once you start looking around and seriously working hard to find what you want, you never know where you are going to get it from.
PM me if you have any questions about the details of the entire process. TOEFL should be a piece of cake for her.
Make sure she leaves out her extra "U"s and doesn't throw in any cockney rhyming slang. I'd fail her for saying "I haven't seen my favourite film at the theatre in donkeys!"
Hey,
I know this is late but I'm from the UK too and am doing the whole conversion process in North Carolina. I don't know if your fiancee is still going to do the pre-reg year in England or not (I'm personally glad I did because I learned pretty much ALL my clinical knowledge in that year, and I can still be a pharmacist if I ever move back without re-taking the final exam), but if she isn't I'm not sure how that'll work since I had to provide proof that I was a registered pharmacist in another country before being approved to take the FPGEE.
Be aware that the FPGEE is only offered twice a year. I got my green card (also married an American!) in July and felt that I wouldn't be ready to take the FPGEE in September so ended up having to wait until April. I studied the whole APhA FPGEE study guide and only one question on the whole exam was from that book...everything else was just my memory from England I guess. But thankfully I passed. It then took a good 5 months until I got my certificate (in the mean time I took the TOEFL), so be prepared for the wait. I didn't look for an internship until I got my certificate. I really wanted a hospital pharmacy internship but I assumed it was as competitive as it was in England so I went for retail. I sent out my CV, called places, went there in person, and all the pharmacists at the stores wanted the help, but the upper management said they either didn't take foreign graduates or didn't want to spend the time verifying I was legitimately an intern. As a last resort I was offering unpaid but even then no-one took me up on the offer. I decided to just give hospital a try and said I was looking for an unpaid internship and all 3 hospitals called me back inviting me for interview, and all ended up offering me a paid position. It was great! I finished my hours in October, just took the Naplex and passed, and am going to take the MPJE NC in a week or so.
Let me know if you have any questions, I would have found it so useful to know someone who already did it recently.
I know this is late but I'm from the UK too and am doing the whole conversion process in North Carolina. I don't know if your fiancee is still going to do the pre-reg year in England or not (I'm personally glad I did because I learned pretty much ALL my clinical knowledge in that year, and I can still be a pharmacist if I ever move back without re-taking the final exam), but if she isn't I'm not sure how that'll work since I had to provide proof that I was a registered pharmacist in another country before being approved to take the FPGEE.
Be aware that the FPGEE is only offered twice a year. I got my green card (also married an American!) in July and felt that I wouldn't be ready to take the FPGEE in September so ended up having to wait until April. I studied the whole APhA FPGEE study guide and only one question on the whole exam was from that book...everything else was just my memory from England I guess. But thankfully I passed. It then took a good 5 months until I got my certificate (in the mean time I took the TOEFL), so be prepared for the wait. I didn't look for an internship until I got my certificate. I really wanted a hospital pharmacy internship but I assumed it was as competitive as it was in England so I went for retail. I sent out my CV, called places, went there in person, and all the pharmacists at the stores wanted the help, but the upper management said they either didn't take foreign graduates or didn't want to spend the time verifying I was legitimately an intern. As a last resort I was offering unpaid but even then no-one took me up on the offer. I decided to just give hospital a try and said I was looking for an unpaid internship and all 3 hospitals called me back inviting me for interview, and all ended up offering me a paid position. It was great! I finished my hours in October, just took the Naplex and passed, and am going to take the MPJE NC in a week or so.
Let me know if you have any questions, I would have found it so useful to know someone who already did it recently.
Isn't English technically a foreign language here and the native language in England?
Hey
I know this is late too, I am also from the UK and doing the whole conversion process in NY. To the original poster, your fiancé will need to have done the pre-reg year in the UK too, as she will have to show the board here that she is a fully qualified Pharmacist from the UK. I hope everything is working out for you guys!
Kezhub, your experience has given me confidence in finding an intern place. In NY you have to pass the NAPLEX before completing the intern hours. However it seems most of the intern positions are for students that are currently studying at pharmacy school. I would prefer a paid internship but I guess unpaid will have to do if I cannot find anywhere. I would also prefer a hospital position as I was a hospital Pharmacist back in the UK, but they are hard to come by. So far I have done online applications, would you recommend just ringing the hospitals to see if they have positions too?
I know this is late too, I am also from the UK and doing the whole conversion process in NY. To the original poster, your fiancé will need to have done the pre-reg year in the UK too, as she will have to show the board here that she is a fully qualified Pharmacist from the UK. I hope everything is working out for you guys!
Kezhub, your experience has given me confidence in finding an intern place. In NY you have to pass the NAPLEX before completing the intern hours. However it seems most of the intern positions are for students that are currently studying at pharmacy school. I would prefer a paid internship but I guess unpaid will have to do if I cannot find anywhere. I would also prefer a hospital position as I was a hospital Pharmacist back in the UK, but they are hard to come by. So far I have done online applications, would you recommend just ringing the hospitals to see if they have positions too?
I found the contact name for the hospital pharmacist that was in charge of students/residents. I just gave them a call (all 3 hospitals went to voicemail so I left a message) and they all called me back. I would say that I was initially going unpaid because no-one was taking me on as an intern. However, the hospitals seemed to really want me and so all of them ended up offering me a paid position. The hospital I went with said they would pay me and hire me as a technician, but I would get intern training as well. I know usually the state board doesn't want you to just be a technician for your internship, but I haven't had any problems with my board. I think the incentive for the hospital to pay me as a technician was that they'd be able to pay someone as a tech, but have someone who was much more qualified and would theoretically be more of an asset for them. Plus, they really want to offer me a job when I become licensed because they've kind of already got a lot of my pharmacist training done. So it was a benefit for them through the whole process. They got to have a pharmacist's knowledge for the price of a technician, and then they get a new pharmacist that already knows the hospital system and staff well.
I really hope you get an internship Zara00! If nothing else I'd say go for unpaid and see what happens. I think even if they hired you unpaid, once you showed what you could do, they would at least want to pay you as a tech. Plus with the large hospitals, turnover of staff is so high that a technician position usually opens up fairly regularly. Good luck!
I really hope you get an internship Zara00! If nothing else I'd say go for unpaid and see what happens. I think even if they hired you unpaid, once you showed what you could do, they would at least want to pay you as a tech. Plus with the large hospitals, turnover of staff is so high that a technician position usually opens up fairly regularly. Good luck!
Oh, and when I rang the hospitals I just explained exactly what the situation was with being a foreign pharmacist, that I was legally an intern and I could provide the certificate, and that I needed 1500 hours. I added that I was a hospital pharmacist in England and I was going unpaid.
can a MSpharm get licensed in the US - don't you have to have a PharmD if coming from a foreign country?
T
torontopharm
You don't IF you graduated from a curriculum that was equivalent to a 5 year Pharmacy degree (all UK/Canadian schools and many others around the world) + and you're licensed in your country of graduation.
Given you meet the above requirement.. you just have to pass the relevant exams, get your intern hours and you can be a licensed US pharmacist.
I know quite a few people that have done this. Essentially the only hiccup in the process is convincing a chain/hospital to take you on as an intern. Another negative is the amount of time it can take to go through the process. Regardless, could be an option for someone trying to get their PharmD without the 150-200k+ price tag.
