J
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Very little shot at working the floors unless you do a residency. Almost zero in most places. A year of pharmacy practice residency increases your chances quite a bit. A specialty residency after a year of general practice will improve chances exponentially.
What do u mean by "floors"? if u mean clinical pharmacy then u have to do a residency. But staff pharmacists also work on floors. It's called decentralized pharmacy.
J
july
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In my experience, I've found that very large hospitals have staff and clincial pharmacists. In smaller places (around 50-150 beds), the pharmacist does it all with no distinction between clinical and staff titles.
Even if you're doing order entry, you're going to come across problems that require using your clinical knowledge. You'll need to call the MD and discuss the problem, or call nursing to check with the patient on an allergy.
Every hospital I've been at during rotations has been a little different with regards to exact duties of the pharmacist.
In CA - all the pharmacists have clinical duties since things like aminoglycoside dosing, renal dose adjustments, heparin protocols are all very routine.
Our "clinical" positions (which is an aborrent term to me!!!) are usually isolated to specific practice areas - NICU, oncology, transplant, ICU, etc.....areas in which it is difficult for the general acute care pharmacist to "keep current".
So....if you have the skills, experience & background, you won't have any trouble finding an acute hospital job here. Most pharmacists are decentralized here, but there is always one in the main pharmacy (rarely in the basement anymore) on all shifts to supervise technicians. All the pharmacists - staff & clinical have to rotate thru this position here (with some exceptions) since they couldn't hire anyone for just this one position.
Our "clinical" positions (which is an aborrent term to me!!!) are usually isolated to specific practice areas - NICU, oncology, transplant, ICU, etc.....areas in which it is difficult for the general acute care pharmacist to "keep current".
So....if you have the skills, experience & background, you won't have any trouble finding an acute hospital job here. Most pharmacists are decentralized here, but there is always one in the main pharmacy (rarely in the basement anymore) on all shifts to supervise technicians. All the pharmacists - staff & clinical have to rotate thru this position here (with some exceptions) since they couldn't hire anyone for just this one position.
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EVERY pharmacist should be fluent in AG dosing, Scr and dosage adjustments, etc....not just the "clinical" people....ANY pharmacist who is worth their salt had better be "clinical" if you want to work in a hospital
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Yup. Everyone thinks there's such a huuuge difference between staff and clinical. Every pharmacist in all settings need to be clinical.
The only difference I see is that the shifts are just geared differently (dispensing functions). Pharmacy school students love the words "clinical pharmacist" for some reason; they feel they are superior pharmacists if they're title says they're clinical. Lame.
and pre-pharmacy students too. They (everyone not a Registered Pharmacist) love tooting their horn w/ "I want to be a Clinical Pharmacist." And when I ask them "why?" or "what do you mean by a Clinical Pharmacist" half of them couldn't even tell you what a "Clinical" pharmacist does. Lame.
Whatever boosts the ego, I guess 
That's one of the main reasons why the majority of the innocent people you talk to (before they actually work in a "clinical" place during rotations) will respond with "hospital" or "clinical" when asked what field of pharmacy they want to go into and one of the reasons why the very same people do not want to go into retail (not the only, I know, don't hound me w/ insurance issues! hahaha), such as mentioned in ths person's class. Prestige. I must admit, I, too, was once in their boat until I got to taste a little bit of both worlds. Ain't worth the prestige if you don't enjoy the job, I say. Hospital isn't for everyone. Retail isn't for everyone. Academia isn't for everyone. Don't try to be like everyone else. Until then, I just smile when an innocent person tells me they want to be a "Clinical Pharmacist." It's like all those pre-meds from undergrad--saying "I'm pre-med" probably gave them some sort of fictitious boost (even though they probably have no idea of the rigors medical school involves) like saying "I want to be a Clinical Pharmacist" is; I just smile and think to myself "I'll believe you are going to be a doctor when you inform me of an acceptance a few years down the road."
