Help! Retail pharmacist preparing for inpatient interview...tips?

[Kwinner]

I've been a retail pharmacist for a year and I'm preparing for an inpatient hospital position interview.

What are some thoughtful questions to ask during an interview? I will ask questions based on the flow of the interview, but I want to have a few other questions prepared.

Are there any other duties besides order entry and IV verification that an inpatient pharmacist does? This position doesn't have any clinical duties so that's out the door.

Are there any committees or projects that an inpatient pharmacist can usually take part in? I'd like to get more involved with pharmacy department but I'm not sure if inpatient RPh has that option.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Sparda29]

I've been a retail pharmacist for a year and I'm preparing for an inpatient hospital position interview.
Please review if my reasoning for the switch is correct:

I always wanted to work in a hospital because everybody says you utilize more of your knowledge. I guess it does make sense, because patients in the hospital have their home medications(what you normally dispense in retail), plus they have the additional medications ordered by the hospital MD to treat their acute/chronic condition. There is more variety, and additionally I would see a wide range of age groups from neonates to geriatrics. More stimulation and more challenging. That's the basic gist of it and that's what I would tell the interviewer. It seems that every candidate would state this, but it's is the genuine truth in my case.

What are some thoughtful questions to ask during an interview? I will ask questions based on the flow of the interview, but I want to have a few other questions prepared.

I was thinking of these so far:
What are your expectations for this position?
Do you want to see anything different or changed about this position?
Do you foresee any potential challenges in the department within the future?
Can you tell me more about your career path?

Are there any other duties besides order entry and IV verification that an inpatient pharmacist does? This position doesn't have any clinical duties so that's out the door.

Are there any committees or projects that an inpatient pharmacist can usually take part in? I'd like to get more involved with pharmacy department but I'm not sure if inpatient RPh has that option.

From my institutional rotation, they had their staff pharmacists rotate through a schedule of doing different things each day of the week, for example:

Monday - Order Verification (this place had Physician order entry) + Verify IVs
Tuesday - Prepare IVs + Check Narcotic Room
Wednesday - Order Verification + Prepare Chemo
Thursday - Prepare IVs + Order Verification
Friday - Prepare Chemo + Narco Room

- Preparing IVs

 

[lorain]

when i worked retail and interviewed for hospital position

i always struck out since you dont prepare IV in retail , oh well🙁

just be yourself and dont be overwhelmed by the moment....depending on if the place gives your tours or not, when given a choice, I always asked them to give those first to me so that I could calm my nerves down

 

[pillpush3r]

I work in a hospital and I would say the job depends on the size of the hospital and how welcome clinical services have become. For instance I work in a rural hospital, so you don't really just do IV's or something like that. However, the hospital is very very open to clinical services (not typical for smaller hospitals). A typical day: I'll do a custom TPN based on my assessment of the patient, renal dose a handful of drugs, talk to a couple doctors about Teflaro or some other new drug, talk to a couple more about recommending therapy for anything under the sun, dose and prepare a stat load of fosphenytoin for someone seizing in the ER, troubleshoot daily issues with nursing, and all the while inputting new orders in the downtime. I love my job.

 

[Kwinner]

I work in a hospital and I would say the job depends on the size of the hospital and how welcome clinical services have become. For instance I work in a rural hospital, so you don't really just do IV's or something like that. However, the hospital is very very open to clinical services (not typical for smaller hospitals). A typical day: I'll do a custom TPN based on my assessment of the patient, renal dose a handful of drugs, talk to a couple doctors about Teflaro or some other new drug, talk to a couple more about recommending therapy for anything under the sun, dose and prepare a stat load of fosphenytoin for someone seizing in the ER, troubleshoot daily issues with nursing, and all the while inputting new orders in the downtime. I love my job.

Sounds awesome. Although I'm sure my hospital is very open to new things since it's a teaching hospital....I doubt the pharmacy lets the inpatient rphs do that. Did you do a residency? I am considering residency within 1-2 years just to have that experience and increase my marketability.

Do you guys think the questions I posted are actually thoughtful? Any other insight as to what other questions I should ask?