Euphemisms for Staff Pharmacist

Started by John Detter
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John Detter

John Detter

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10+ Year Member
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It seems that hospitals are avoiding the term "staff pharmacist" like the plague in their job listings, which I have to say makes it incredibly time consuming when trying to go through job listings to find out what the expectations really are. What are some unusual ones you guys have encountered?

I've seen Patient Care pharmacist, Point-of-Care pharmacist, and then of course those hospitals that decide to call all their pharmacists clinical pharmacists, or ones that do the Pharmacist I, II, III, IV thing.
 
Oh I hear ya. Even the job responsibilities and details are not usually accurate in the job post. I've gone on interviews thinking the job was how it was described in the post, only to find out it was completely different.
 
PharmD500 said:
Oh I hear ya. Even the job responsibilities and details are not usually accurate in the job post. I've gone on interviews thinking the job was how it was described in the post, only to find out it was completely different.
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This one is frustrating. Job description sounds like some exciting, cutting edge clinical dream job. Then you get there and its 90% checking Pyxis carts.
 
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gwarm01 said:
This one is frustrating. Job description sounds like some exciting, cutting edge clinical dream job. Then you get there and its 90% checking Pyxis carts.
Click to expand...
It's especially frustrating when you are applying out of state. You fly out on your own dime only to find out the job post was not an honest reflection of what you would be doing. For the local jobs, I knew people who worked at various places, so sometimes I would ask them about the jobs. Again, a lot of times they would say it was nothing like the job posting. Isn't that false advertising?

There was one place that had job posting as Critical Care pharmacist, but the responsibilities consisted of med rec, albeit med rec on ICU patients. Those patients are usually sedated so you have to try to get the info from family or call the outpatient pharmacy.
 
PharmD500 said:
It's especially frustrating when you are applying out of state. You fly out on your own dime only to find out the job post was not an honest reflection of what you would be doing.
Click to expand...

I've had this happen. It was listed as a critical care/emergency medicine position, but when I got there it was basically staffing the whole house. Then they had the nerve to ask me why I applied since they thought I was overqualified.
 
Sparda29 said:
I don't understand why hospitals still fill carts for medications. Why not just have a Pyxis machine on every floor?
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Because the machines only have a certain amount of space and you can't fit every single drug in there. That is why you fill them with the most commonly used medications and send as needed for uncommon drugs.
 
Sparda29 said:
Yes, send as needed but why the cart? Why not just have those meds stored in the patient room?
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Centralized storage is convenient for med delivery and storage considerations like refrigeration.

I agree that Pyxis machines tend to be underutilized. My PRN job loads almost everything into the Pyxis, and if a new med is ordered the techs will load it. Things go very smoothly there.
 
John Detter said:
I've had this happen. It was listed as a critical care/emergency medicine position, but when I got there it was basically staffing the whole house. Then they had the nerve to ask me why I applied since they thought I was overqualified.
Click to expand...
we interviewed a guy who was the "transplant pharmacist" - only to find out he basically dispensed meds from a satellite pharmacy and only did very rudimentary order entry. He didn't even know anything other than "you have to draw levels on some drugs" - didn't know appropriate levels, etc.

There is nothing wrong with a "staff pharmacist" I would much rather the title actually reflect what you do to avoid confusion. And I have one of those titles that I need to explain what my job is when I interview.
 
farmadiazepine said:
I agree with the above poster. WTF is this is Pharmacist Level I, Level II, Level III BS?

If you are a looking for someone to staff your pharmacy, the job description is Staff Pharmacist. Plain and simple.
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That sounds like Mount Sinai in NYC. I used to just apply to any of their jobs, then I realized that Level 2 requires a residency, and Level 3 is a residency with years of experience.
 
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Dred Pirate said:
we interviewed a guy who was the "transplant pharmacist" - only to find out he basically dispensed meds from a satellite pharmacy and only did very rudimentary order entry. He didn't even know anything other than "you have to draw levels on some drugs" - didn't know appropriate levels, etc.

There is nothing wrong with a "staff pharmacist" I would much rather the title actually reflect what you do to avoid confusion. And I have one of those titles that I need to explain what my job is when I interview.
Click to expand...

This is a frustrating problem in pharmacy. Standards of practice vary wildly from institution to institution or region to region. You can't really do an apples to apples comparison between pharmacists and jobs.

farmadiazepine said:
I agree with the above poster. WTF is this is Pharmacist Level I, Level II, Level III BS?

If you are a looking for someone to staff your pharmacy, the job description is Staff Pharmacist. Plain and simple.
Click to expand...

The local university here follows that nomenclature. I saw a posting for pharmacist III which sounded like a supervisor. It's kind of confusing.
 
gwarm01 said:
This is a frustrating problem in pharmacy. Standards of practice vary wildly from institution to institution or region to region. You can't really do an apples to apples comparison between pharmacists and jobs.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right- my job sounds way "fancier" on paper than it actually is...
 
PharmD500 said:
Oh I hear ya. Even the job responsibilities and details are not usually accurate in the job post. I've gone on interviews thinking the job was how it was described in the post, only to find out it was completely different.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've been disappointed enough by job listings, to expect absolutely anything going in. But it does waste people's times, when a job is made to sound far more spectacularly grand than it actually is.
 
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