Does Everyone Hate Retail???

[Me_Gusta_Drugs]

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From what Ive read and seen, it seems everyone interested in pharmacy, and especially those who have briefly experienced the retail side, hates retail and wants to go to pharmacy school and become a clinical pharmacist. It looks like 70% of the potential pharmacists want to go into clinical pharmacy, but in reality 70% of pharmacy jobs are in retail and not clinical pharmacy. I too can sympathize from my experience in a retail pharmacy that its quite repetitive and mind numbing, and stressful where I work as a clerk. So much so that Im questioning pursuing pharmacy school, and the only thing keeping me going might be the huge commitment and investment Ive put into this career. I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

 

[imkim01]

From what Ive read and seen, it seems everyone interested in pharmacy, and especially those who have briefly experienced the retail side, hates retail and wants to go to pharmacy school and become a clinical pharmacist. It looks like 70% of the potential pharmacists want to go into clinical pharmacy, but in reality 70% of pharmacy jobs are in retail and not clinical pharmacy. I too can sympathize from my experience in a retail pharmacy that its quite repetitive and mind numbing, and stressful where I work as a clerk. So much so that Im questioning pursuing pharmacy school, and the only thing keeping me going might be the huge commitment and investment Ive put into this career. I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

I have been working at Walgreens for a year and start pharmacy school this august. After the graduation, I plan to continue working at Walgreens. My store is the busiest one in the district. Since we are very busy, I have experienced almost everything that can possibly occur in retail setting in a very short period of time. But I still want to work at retail and I know a quite few people here also want to work at retail. The nature of retail job entails the repetitive process but I am sure it is more up to pharmacist.

Retail pharmacy has some advantages as well...
1) Pay is good.
2) Endless overtime opportunity..
3) Free food... sometimes patients bring food... very nice...
4) Employee discount~
5) ...

As a career changer, retail pharmacy setting satisfies my needs 100%. So I will be a retail pharmacist.

 

[imprecious]

From what Ive read and seen, it seems everyone interested in pharmacy, and especially those who have briefly experienced the retail side, hates retail and wants to go to pharmacy school and become a clinical pharmacist. It looks like 70% of the potential pharmacists want to go into clinical pharmacy, but in reality 70% of pharmacy jobs are in retail and not clinical pharmacy. I too can sympathize from my experience in a retail pharmacy that its quite repetitive and mind numbing, and stressful where I work as a clerk. So much so that Im questioning pursuing pharmacy school, and the only thing keeping me going might be the huge commitment and investment Ive put into this career. I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

I think it is very much a personal preference. A PharmD allows us to have a vast amount of opportunities to practice in any setting of our choosing. This is why I am choosing to go into pharmacy. Whether it's clinical or retail pharmacy that we get into, it's the one career that we must look forward to going to each morning and to hope that we'll be able to make a difference in the life of at least one patient that day. 🙂

 

[dgroulx]

I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

I think a lot of people choose retail because they want something mind numbing after four years of pharmacy school. They also want to start earning money and clinical requires a residency. Not everyone wants another year of training. You also may not get a residency, then what?

 

[Sosumi]

Not everyone hates retail. I work every Saturday at Rite-Aid and Sundays at a hospital while going to pharmacy school. I much prefer retail for the patient interaction, even though everyone in my class along with my professors are assuming I'll be doing a residency and clinical pharmacy.

We get a lot of strange people at our store, but a lot of strange cases too that keep things from being repetitive. Most of the people really are appreciative of what you do for them.

There are plenty of negatives, but hospital isn't heavenly neither. The nurses can drive me crazy -- even moreso than the patients in retail. I really miss the patient interaction in hospital. The only real interaction that I get is occasionally with the clinical pharmacists who see AC clinic patients Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and weekly pain rounds. AC clinic is somewhat repetitive in my opinion. Then you have to deal with actual deaths (especially when you're running code blues) and more chances for fatal medication errors in the hospital.

 

[crossjb]

Some of the pharmacists I work for hate it, but they have valid reason to due to poor management. With that said, every job has its positives and negatives and the pay is definitely good. Working in a busy retail store with a competent pharmacist running the show can actually be heaven. It's enjoyable and hours go by in a snap. I plan on working serious overtime in a retail pharmacy upon obtaining my PharmD to pay off any debt I incur.

 

[rxlynn]

From what Ive read and seen, it seems everyone interested in pharmacy, and especially those who have briefly experienced the retail side, hates retail and wants to go to pharmacy school and become a clinical pharmacist. It looks like 70% of the potential pharmacists want to go into clinical pharmacy, but in reality 70% of pharmacy jobs are in retail and not clinical pharmacy. I too can sympathize from my experience in a retail pharmacy that its quite repetitive and mind numbing, and stressful where I work as a clerk. So much so that Im questioning pursuing pharmacy school, and the only thing keeping me going might be the huge commitment and investment Ive put into this career. I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

My thoughts - Well, there are certainly going to be more total jobs in the retail side, especially with Walgreen's claiming that they will open 2,500 more stores by 2010 or whatever their current incredible figure is. But, I do think there are a lot of pharmacy students who really like retail. I had a student interviewer at one of my interviews this cycle who told me that he was "retail all the way" and had no intention of doing clinical. As I'm sure you are already aware from working retail, there are vastly different retail experiences depending on what the store is like, what the clientale of the area is like, what the staff is like, etc. I do think that pharmacy schools today are more likely to "encourage" students to pursue the clinical/residency side. That doesn't seem very different to me than when I was in grad school (chemistry) before. There, the professors tended to encourage students (especially the better students) to be like them. There wasn't nearly so much support for just going to get an industry job when you were done.

 

[RxGirlie]

I agree with most people, it's about individual choice and what you want. I'm planning onstarting to work in hospital pharmacy next week. But i want to combine pharmD and MPH and work for CDC, United Nations, WHO, UNICEF etc. I want to travel and work outside U.S and make a difference out there to the needy people..

 

[sdn1977]

I agree with most people, it's about individual choice and what you want. I'm planning onstarting to work in hospital pharmacy next week. But i want to combine pharmD and MPH and work for CDC, United Nations, WHO, UNICEF etc. I want to travel and work outside U.S and make a difference out there to the needy people..

RxGirlie - an admirable goal!!!! For those folks who want to do similar work, but don't want to travel outside the US - investigate the Medical Reserve Corps. These are the people who respond to national disasters - like 9/11 & Hurricaine Katrina. Usually, you are deployed for 1-2 weeks - 1 month at a time...employers are very understanding...and you get extreme gratification (altho no pay...whatever...). But...an ability to use our skills when there is no one else to do it!

 

[dpari]

The reason I like working as a certified pharmacy technician for the VA health system is that they will work with my schedule, and when I am a Pharmacist they will more than likely offer a full time position...

What is a full time position with the VA you ask?

8-4:30pm no weekends, no call, no nights...yada...yada...yada...

P.S... Did I forget to mention the benefits of working for the Government?

By the way...The direction the United is headed, you best give working for the Government serious consideration, they may be the last one standing in the not too distant future if you know what I mean...

Good Luck all... 👍

-Tavit

 

[Abilify]

From what Ive read and seen, it seems everyone interested in pharmacy, and especially those who have briefly experienced the retail side, hates retail and wants to go to pharmacy school and become a clinical pharmacist. It looks like 70% of the potential pharmacists want to go into clinical pharmacy, but in reality 70% of pharmacy jobs are in retail and not clinical pharmacy. I too can sympathize from my experience in a retail pharmacy that its quite repetitive and mind numbing, and stressful where I work as a clerk. So much so that Im questioning pursuing pharmacy school, and the only thing keeping me going might be the huge commitment and investment Ive put into this career. I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

yeah, everyone hates retail. If they tell you otherwise, they are lying. Don't believe them for one second! Retail = BAD!!!!

Maybe truck driving school is more your thing....check it out 😎

 

[thaliagoo]

I think everyone that is saying "yea im going to pharmacy school to be a clinical pharmacist" is blind and should expect to work in retail pharmacy. Any thoughts?

Hey Gusta Drugs, maybe not everyone is a money-grubbing worker like yourself. Maybe some of us choose to go into a profession we like, in a career that we find satisfying.

I may not be 100% sure of what I'm going to do, retail or not, but if I choose not to go retail, there is no way anyone is going to force me.

 

[Robinbird]

I actually like retail. I've only worked in a grocery store pharmacy, but I love it. What I do hate is being a cashier on the front end (ya know, scanning people's groceries).

 

[DownonthePharm]

Id like to open my own pharmacy one day. So I guess Im going into retail too. 🙂

 

[Me_Gusta_Drugs]

Hey Gusta Drugs, maybe not everyone is a money-grubbing worker like yourself. Maybe some of us choose to go into a profession we like, in a career that we find satisfying.

I may not be 100% sure of what I'm going to do, retail or not, but if I choose not to go retail, there is no way anyone is going to force me.

I love how theres always some "know it all" that likes to blame others greed. Alot of people get caught up in this ideal dream of what a pharmacist should do as opposed to how pharmacy actually is in real life. Wake up people, money is a factor. And before you misinterpret again, its not THE factor, but A factor.