Community residency with a chain

[willrocks]

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Hello,
I am interested in a community pharmacy residency with one of the chains, mainly CVS or Walgreens.

Questions:
Where can I find a listing of programs?

How much of a time commitment is it relative to a hospital residency? (ie hours/week)

Typical stipends?

I am looking to live in NYC or Chicago. How will a community residency increase my potential for employment? Do the chains typically hire all their residents, even into competitive areas?

Job market for RPh's with a residency, now and in the future, specifically in such metropolitan areas?

Day in the life of a community resident?

What appeals to me about the residency is the easier transition into the work of an RPh, the supposed increased employability, and long term job stability. I also want to work in the community setting outside of just dispensing functions (though I am happy to dispense as part of my job), and this seems like the most effective way to get such a position.

Thanks! If there are any current residents, a PM, would be most appreciated as well.

 

[deleted205891]

I don't see much of a point in these. Don't get me wrong, there are community residencies that have big "clinical" components to them, but doing a residency with a chain to stay with the same chain? The economy's not that bad. You could still be a retail pharmacist (or even a manager) without a residency, and there aren't that many clinical opportunities within chains, so I don't think it would be that valuable.

 

[pharm4312]

My concern was that I am limited geographically to a couple of highly saturated metropolitan markets and saw this as a way to get a foot in the door.

 

[Lnsean]

My concern was that I am limited geographically to a couple of highly saturated metropolitan markets and saw this as a way to get a foot in the door.

TBH...this is a complete waste of time. Please do not feed this anymore and give these companies more reasons to employ slave labor while paying 20-40cents on the dollar.

 

[BenJammin]

A community pharmacy residency: the ultimate scam. Let's convince licensed pharmacists to work for our chain for $40-50,000 for at least one year thus giving us a year of labor at half the cost. Wanna know why people think the profession is going down hill? Take a look in the mirror.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

A community pharmacy residency: the ultimate scam. Let's convince licensed pharmacists to work for our chain for $40-50,000 for at least one year thus giving us a year of labor at half the cost. Wanna know why people think the profession is going down hill? Take a look in the mirror.

You just hate all residencies because you didn't match. I'm pretty happy with the learning opportunities I took advantage of in my community residency. And I'm really happy with the direction my career has gone since then. Not everyone wants to work hospital pharmacy. And not all of community pharmacy = pharmacy chains. Very narrow-minded viewpoint, as per usual.

 

[BenJammin]

You just hate all residencies because you didn't match. I'm pretty happy with the learning opportunities I took advantage of in my community residency. And I'm really happy with the direction my career has gone since then. Not everyone wants to work hospital pharmacy. And not all of community pharmacy = pharmacy chains. Very narrow-minded viewpoint, as per usual.

That's like saying I hate drive by shooting because I didn't get killed. What is the retention rate of these community pharmacy residencies in your area? My class had 4 CP residents and all 4 are now your average retail pharmacist. If that isn't a scam then I don't know what is.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

That's like saying I hate drive by shooting because I didn't get killed. What is the retention rate of these community pharmacy residencies in your area? My class had 4 CP residents and all 4 are now your average retail pharmacist. If that isn't a scam then I don't know what is.

Your analogy fails because getting shot in the drive-by is not the DESIRED outcome. But matching to a residency is the desired outcome of applying for them and entering the match. You failed to do that, and ever since, you've been a certified residency hater. It's great that you got a job in rural Alaska or wherever you are, but you can't say you didn't want a residency...

Retention rate of local community pharmacy residencies? Do you mean how many residents drop out of community residencies? Or perhaps you mean what are the graduates doing now? My program has two graduates. One accepted a full time faculty position at a COP and I own my own business.

Since you just graduated, shouldn't your classmates still be doing their community residencies? Or are you implying that they have ALL dropped out of their residencies? 😕

 

[BidingMyTime]

That's like saying I hate drive by shooting because I didn't get killed. What is the retention rate of these community pharmacy residencies in your area? My class had 4 CP residents and all 4 are now your average retail pharmacist. If that isn't a scam then I don't know what is.

One could ask how many people have completed a hospital residency and then went on to a regular staff hospital job.

A community pharmacy residency: the ultimate scam. Let's convince licensed pharmacists to work for our chain for $40-50,000 for at least one year thus giving us a year of labor at half the cost. Wanna know why people think the profession is going down hill? Take a look in the mirror.

When I graduated years and years ago, hospital residencies were a new thing, at least in my area, and a lot of people in my class thought they were scams. Over time, the hospital residencies became better structured and a better value, and I would assume the same would be true of community residencies. Obviously, if the community residency was just about getting cheap labor, they would be all over the place. But there aren't a lot of community residencies, because it really is about a teaching/learning opportunity, and not just about cheap labor.

 

[pharmasaur]

We had a chain pharmacy resident come to my P1 class and give lectures on disease-state management so there is a teaching component to it for sure.

I also met other pharmacists who have community pharmacy residencies done and they work in amb care or specialized outpatient/retail pharmacies where there is more clinical stuff going on compared to your average chain.

Also, it seems like some stores (very few though) of some chains have more clinical services than other stores so that's a potential job right there.

It would probably be easier to move into management or development/research for a chain if you did a residency with them.

If MTM takes off in the future and if pharmacists ever get reimbursed for counseling services then I think community residencies will be super valuable...the hospital pharmacists doing entry order all day might be too rusty to do patient counseling, or maybe they never experienced retail and went straight into hospital and didn't develop good customer service skills

 

[MountainPharmD]

If MTM takes off in the future and if pharmacists ever get reimbursed for counseling services then I think community residencies will be super valuable...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ahhh you newbies kil me. You betcha MTM is goona save pharmacy. Yeah right! The APhA has been pushing that pipe dream for 20 years. It is not going to happen. Since you are obviously new to the party let tell you a little secret......Reimbursement in pharmacy is going down. The sad things is we haven't seen the worst of it. There damn sure isn't any money any insurance company is going to pay for MTM.

 

[EBT12]

.

 

[deleted205891]

I'm located in a small town in Ohio, and we have almost 1000 patients eligible for MTM services where the various insurance companies are paying the full cost. That's just the company I work for - other companies have patients as well. CareSource, the largest managed Medicaid in Ohio and second largest in the country recently added MTM services for ALL of its members in Ohio (~900,000 across the state). I'm not saying that MTM will save pharmacy, because I don't think it will. However, there are individuals/ companies that are capitalizing off of MTM services.

You and Mountain are both right.

Retail chains do MTM now. However, in the words of management, they aim for "low hanging fruit", or things that will take the least amount of time and make the most money. Mostly this is just going over the patient's med list with the patient, not really looking for any clinical issues.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ahhh you newbies kil me. You betcha MTM is goona save pharmacy. Yeah right! The APhA has been pushing that pipe dream for 20 years. It is not going to happen. Since you are obviously new to the party let tell you a little secret......Reimbursement in pharmacy is going down. The sad things is we haven't seen the worst of it. There damn sure isn't any money any insurance company is going to pay for MTM.

Well... I have my own consultant pharmacist business and have over 1100 MTM patients... but I guess you COULD be right that no insurance company pays for MTM. 🙄

 

[EBT12]

.

 

[pharmasaur]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ahhh you newbies kil me. You betcha MTM is goona save pharmacy. Yeah right! The APhA has been pushing that pipe dream for 20 years. It is not going to happen. Since you are obviously new to the party let tell you a little secret......Reimbursement in pharmacy is going down. The sad things is we haven't seen the worst of it. There damn sure isn't any money any insurance company is going to pay for MTM.

http://pharmacyschool.usc.edu/news/...innovation-grant-from-federal-government.html

My professor got a $12 million grant for Medicare to incorporate pharmacists into low-income population health clinics and see if the patients are more adherent to meds/improve their health (the control group is similar health clinic, with no pharmacists in the health team and no MTM). The hope/goal is that the patients who receive pharmacists care will do better than the patients who don't. If this project is successful, it's a stepping stone in the right direction....I don't think Medicare has money to throw around to cutsie research projects...and we all know if Medicare adopts something usually private companies follow suite.

Mountain, I know you're an old guy and been in pharmacy for a long time. The profession has changed A LOT in the past 50 yrs (as all the old people tell me). As someone who is new to the field, and will work for 40 or so years to come, it really benefits me (and other new students) to just prepare for the future, take a yr pay cut, and do a residency...who knows what it will mean for the future. Maybe it will be a waste of time, maybe APhA will mandate in 10 yrs that all pharmacy students do residency and I won't be ****ting my pants like the non-residency trained pharmacists who are now like the RPhs vs PharmDs. You can't nickel and dime your way into the future. It's best to take advantage of opportunities now at a cost and maybe (or most likely) down the road it will be useful.