So, can anyone tell me why it is so difficult to decide on whether to do a residency or not. I believe I would be more happy being a clinical pharmacist, but at the same time it is way to hard to turn down the awsome benefits, retirement, and salaries offered by retail companies. I think it makes it even more difficult being married. What do you guys think?
confused
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AAAAAaaaaaagggggghhhhhh.......who is giving you guys this idea that retail is NOT clinical. It is!!! Change your mindset because we need everyone who deals with medication & the public or a prescriber to think - clinical!
Whew....rant over - for now😳
Now...what was your question? Are you asking.....is it more difficult being a HOSPITAL pharmacist rather than a retail or community based pharmacist?
Or are you asking if you should do a residency....because residencies are offered in hospital practice, community & retail pharmacy practice, specialities, etc.... (all are clinical - you hone your clinical skills during a residency - eeek - I got that concept in again😛 ).
Residency puts off your career choice for 1-2 years. Your initial job probably (and probably should not) be your last job. A residency allows you the opportunity to broaden your knowledge, expand your concept of practice settings and allows you to see the possibilities within a specific area of pharmacy without the day-to-day responsibility of completing the routine tasks.
Marriage is a choice of personal committment with another individual. It will always be a balancing act. As soon as you think you have it perfect, your shift assignment changes, your SO's shift assignment changes, you find your expecting a child, a parent becomes sick & needs more of you or your SO....on and on and on.
Jobs change & most jobs understand folks get married, have children, get sick or dying parents...this is life. You'll work around it, we work around it as your colleagues - it just works. After a residency, you can decide your practice setting based on your needs - my pay is greater in retail than hospital, the benefits are the same. The pay, over the years, has bounced back & forth between one paying more than the other. The time committment, perhaps, is one you are referring to - it is sometimes difficult for us to take on the third shift when that guy goes on vacation. We all work every other weekend & most holidays (altho retail closes in some cases for Christmas & Thanksgiving).
I've done both - hospital (23 years) & retail (7 years) & currently do both part-time. Both are clinical😀 . I've been able to balance my marriage, my children & my ill parents in both situations. I'd advise anyone though in this day to do a residency.
(Yes - you are clinical😀 )
Whew....rant over - for now😳
Now...what was your question? Are you asking.....is it more difficult being a HOSPITAL pharmacist rather than a retail or community based pharmacist?
Or are you asking if you should do a residency....because residencies are offered in hospital practice, community & retail pharmacy practice, specialities, etc.... (all are clinical - you hone your clinical skills during a residency - eeek - I got that concept in again😛 ).
Residency puts off your career choice for 1-2 years. Your initial job probably (and probably should not) be your last job. A residency allows you the opportunity to broaden your knowledge, expand your concept of practice settings and allows you to see the possibilities within a specific area of pharmacy without the day-to-day responsibility of completing the routine tasks.
Marriage is a choice of personal committment with another individual. It will always be a balancing act. As soon as you think you have it perfect, your shift assignment changes, your SO's shift assignment changes, you find your expecting a child, a parent becomes sick & needs more of you or your SO....on and on and on.
Jobs change & most jobs understand folks get married, have children, get sick or dying parents...this is life. You'll work around it, we work around it as your colleagues - it just works. After a residency, you can decide your practice setting based on your needs - my pay is greater in retail than hospital, the benefits are the same. The pay, over the years, has bounced back & forth between one paying more than the other. The time committment, perhaps, is one you are referring to - it is sometimes difficult for us to take on the third shift when that guy goes on vacation. We all work every other weekend & most holidays (altho retail closes in some cases for Christmas & Thanksgiving).
I've done both - hospital (23 years) & retail (7 years) & currently do both part-time. Both are clinical😀 . I've been able to balance my marriage, my children & my ill parents in both situations. I'd advise anyone though in this day to do a residency.
(Yes - you are clinical😀 )
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I keep going through the exact same thought process. Whenever I have a bad day at school, I say NO WAY I am not going through another year. I want out. But at the same time, my apathetic retail friends who forget a lot of the hard-earned knowledge they used to possess really discourage me from retail. Well, that and the rude, angry, demanding customers and dreams of becoming a robot whose sole purpose it to check rx.
I do know one pharmacist with her PharmD that does retail full-time and hospital part-time. She didn't do a residency, but they try to give her coumadin clinic and a full-time clinical position all the time.
So, let me add on to the OP question. How does everyone feel about PharmD in the hospital setting that did not do a residency? Does anyone else have instances where they can take on roles in the hospital (besides drug verification, order entry, etc) without a residency? It seems that schools and profs. push residency as the only way to not work retail. I don't think this is 100% true.
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I've had clinical pharmacists laugh at me when I asked if you need a residency to do their job.
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Your primary concern should be your ability to do the job. Your secondary concern should be your compensation for doing the job. If you are aiming at a residency and you will be paid less than $90,000.00 for a 40 hour work week, then stop aiming. In the end, only the amout of money that you have been able to put away will make your life different. Would it be great to have a job that you love and get paid for it? Yes, it sure would. You are a Pharmacist. Your objective is to serve your patients with the utmost integrity to the best of your ability with the most advanced knowledge base that you can access and get paid for it. There will be a time in the future during which we(Pharmacists) will all ask what happened to our profession. In the now, make as muck f*&king money as you possibly can and get out before you either lose your mind, or the government parntnered with the drug manufacturers kick us out of our profession by making back end deals which cut the reimbursment (that pays our salaries) to a number that no longer supports our jobs. Sorry for the run-ons, but I truly hate to see a Pharmacist misled. If you have any doubt that I am speaking the truth, look at decisions Congress has made with respect to Medicare Part D, Medicaid, and Pharmacy in general. Are we valuable? We certainly are. We save our nation millions of dollars in drug related health problems and lost work days every year. Do you doubt me? Look into it. Good luck and do not allow yourself to be short-changed in order to have a "better looking resume". Most of the successful people in our world are working for themselves.
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Does anyone on here actually know what a residency is? You all act as if it is this magical "thing" that makes you an all knowing pharmacist over night. Think of a residency as extended training for new pharmacists. Someone basically holds your hands for a year (your preceptor). Oh and you get the privledge of doing the same job as other pharmacists at half pay for a year.
Mountain....I often agree with you, but not here with this. There are many residencies which offer much more than "hand holding".
But...it wasn't for you or it didn't work for you - ok....but...why ruin someone's potential opportunity?
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I never even considered a residency. I worked as a hospital intern the entire time I was in school. I choose retail after I graduated so I could actually interact with patients and speak with people who generally care what I have to say.
Yes, a one year general hospital residency is esssentially slow extended one year training in hospital pharmacy at half pay. Great for someone coming out of school who has zero pharmacy work experience.
Yes, a one year general hospital residency is esssentially slow extended one year training in hospital pharmacy at half pay. Great for someone coming out of school who has zero pharmacy work experience.
I'd agree....a one year general hospital residency doesn't provide much for the individual who comes from a school with good clinical rotations at large enough hospitals and extensive elective opportunities.
However, I don't think that's the case everywhere....in which case - a general hospital residency would provide the experience & exposure the student might lack in clinical rotations.
But...there are many residency options....are you interested in specialized training? There are some fields & geographic locations you wouldn't even be a candidate unless you had a residency.
Good luck!
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go ahead and do a residency... your retail job with signon bonus will still be there for you when you finish the residency...
But the clinical job will be hard to come by once you've been retailing without a residency for a while.
But the clinical job will be hard to come by once you've been retailing without a residency for a while.
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Not only that, but a lot of "clinical" positions are closed to people who have not done residencies.
I'm on the fence about residency, but I have a few years to make the decision. The big things that would keep me from taking on a residency year or two are time and money. I'm a "non-traditional" pharmacy student and I want this to be my last and best career choice. I need to get a move on already. On the other hand, I might fall in love with some area of practice that will require a residency commitment.
I'll keep you guys posted. 🙂
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All of them, to my knowledge do offer a stipend. They normally pay, for PGY-1, in the low to mid 30k.
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I felt I should offer some perspective on the "Should I do a residency?" issue as I am one of the small minority of pharmacists that left retail to switch to hospital pharmacy and do a residency after 5 years of working.
I worked in retail for about 3 years and then decided to switch to an outpatient pharmacy at a major academic teaching institution. I was able to get involved with a number of clinical activities offered there as a part of my work experience. But, (and this is a big BUT), the only clinical activities I could be involved with were opportunities that did not require a residency, (or "equivalent training/work experience") in the job description. I was able to do a "residency only" job only once and that was only to cover an extended leave for one of our pharmacists (6 months). It was great experience but not in an area of clinical interest to me. I took the opportunity because it was better than dispensing and I learned a great deal. But I ultimately became frustrated by the lack of opportunities available to ambitious, motivated people WITHOUT A RESIDENCY!
So my point is this - if you are currently work or aspire to work at a major teaching institution, you will need a residency in this day and age. No matter how smart you are, there are 10 other residency trained pharmacists applying for the same positions that you are. Most these days are doing 2 residencies...it used to be only critical care and ambulatory care required 2 years but now we have internal medicine/cardiology residencies, Infectious Disease residencies, drug-info residencies/fellowships. If you choose not to do these residencies, you have to be prepared that someone else (YOUR competitor) is choosing to do them. Who would you pick if you were the employer looking for a candidate?
Now that I am a general resident, I feel I am learning a great deal. They say a year of residency is worth 5 years of work experience. Would I have learned this through work experience at my hospital? Definitely not - for 2 reasons:
1) While working you are exposed to a limited clinical area...in residency you get to rotate through a number of different areas.
2) While working, you are getting paid big bucks to do a job - not facilitate your own learning curve!!! And preceptors (or your co-workers in that case) are not required to sit down with you for teaching time. A residency allows you time to learn while you are working and if you choose a good program, allows your preceptors to share skills/experience/knowledge built from years of hard work.
Just 2 cents from a poor pharmacy practice resident. Good luck with your decision making. 😉
I worked in retail for about 3 years and then decided to switch to an outpatient pharmacy at a major academic teaching institution. I was able to get involved with a number of clinical activities offered there as a part of my work experience. But, (and this is a big BUT), the only clinical activities I could be involved with were opportunities that did not require a residency, (or "equivalent training/work experience") in the job description. I was able to do a "residency only" job only once and that was only to cover an extended leave for one of our pharmacists (6 months). It was great experience but not in an area of clinical interest to me. I took the opportunity because it was better than dispensing and I learned a great deal. But I ultimately became frustrated by the lack of opportunities available to ambitious, motivated people WITHOUT A RESIDENCY!
So my point is this - if you are currently work or aspire to work at a major teaching institution, you will need a residency in this day and age. No matter how smart you are, there are 10 other residency trained pharmacists applying for the same positions that you are. Most these days are doing 2 residencies...it used to be only critical care and ambulatory care required 2 years but now we have internal medicine/cardiology residencies, Infectious Disease residencies, drug-info residencies/fellowships. If you choose not to do these residencies, you have to be prepared that someone else (YOUR competitor) is choosing to do them. Who would you pick if you were the employer looking for a candidate?
Now that I am a general resident, I feel I am learning a great deal. They say a year of residency is worth 5 years of work experience. Would I have learned this through work experience at my hospital? Definitely not - for 2 reasons:
1) While working you are exposed to a limited clinical area...in residency you get to rotate through a number of different areas.
2) While working, you are getting paid big bucks to do a job - not facilitate your own learning curve!!! And preceptors (or your co-workers in that case) are not required to sit down with you for teaching time. A residency allows you time to learn while you are working and if you choose a good program, allows your preceptors to share skills/experience/knowledge built from years of hard work.
Just 2 cents from a poor pharmacy practice resident. Good luck with your decision making. 😉
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