Get into residency without hospital experience?

[bacillus1]

As pharmacy students we get exposed to a lot of hospital pharmacy through IPPEs and APPEs. So I'm just wondering, will residencies really frown upon not having other hospital intern experience? I'm thinking that I would like to do something am care related with my life, so I'm mainly thinking about VA residencies.
The reason I'm asking is because it's hard to find a hospital intern position now in my city. I am also looking at some interesting summer non-hospital internships (for example a public health internship) than I would rather spend the summer doing than being inside a hospital or really anywhere indoors in one place for my last free summer ever. This would basically annihilate my chances of getting a hospital job during the school year (they all want you to work the whole summer before working for them during the year). I've never been a hospital intern before and I currently work for a chain.

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[MyTalon4U2NV]

I am currently in my last year of pharmacy school and applying to residencies etc. heres my background...

never had a job in a hospital.
shadowed rph's in high school (for whatever thats worth)
and two months in appe for my internal med rotation
my ambulatory rotations were two months at a big VA clinic

they ask me in all the interviews so far, how do u feel you will be ok in a residency with not much hospital experience. i tell them my exposure that ive had so far at hospitals to me at least, have been sufficient to show me that thats what i want to pursue.

im not sure if that helped or not

 

[KARM12]

Hospital practice is much different than retail. From my experience, those with hospital experience catch on a bit quicker, but everyone else catches up after a few months.

 

[bacillus1]

Hospital practice is much different than retail. From my experience, those with hospital experience catch on a bit quicker, but everyone else catches up after a few months.

So from your experience, do residencies that are rather competitive accept students with no hospital intern experience as long as they can show that they weren't lazy and did something with their lives the 4 years that they were in pharmacy school?

 

[MustLoveDrugs]

I think having work experience of some kind is important... Whether that experience should be hospital-based is difficult to say. Depending on how residency sites determine who to invite for interviews, having some paid or unpaid hospital experience may help. Once you get the interview though, things like whether you worked hospital or retail will matter less and your personality and thirst for learning will matter more.

I worked in a local hospital the summer after high school, but the rest of my work experience actually comes from summers spent in retail during pharmacy school. I was honest during my residency interviews and told interviewers that I didn't realize clinical pharmacy interested me until I was almost halfway through rotations. One of my PGY-1 co-residents had worked in a hospital throughout college while the other, like me, only had retail experience. The resident with hospital experience was a whiz in the IV room, but otherwise we all started on an even playing field.

 

[KARM12]

So from your experience, do residencies that are rather competitive accept students with no hospital intern experience as long as they can show that they weren't lazy and did something with their lives the 4 years that they were in pharmacy school?

My program prefers hospital experience. This is probably different at other places.

That being said, I don't 100% agree that hospital experience is a must have. I know when I was a student, it was easier to find a job in retail because there were more places that were hiring and the schedules were much more flexible. I think work experience in general is important regardless of the setting. Retail interns may be better counseling patients and hospital interns understand the operations a little better.

 

[lazydazy]

The residency programs that I interviewed at most if not all of the residents did NOT have hospital experience. Most residency programs will be OK with it. I do believe that if you have hospital experience it's advantageous because you'll be able to handle staffing easier.