I regret it

[anonymous669]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

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[aurovon]

I regret clicking on this topic, reading it, and replying to it.

 

[bananaface]

No, I don't share that feeling.

 

[ucrsandstorm]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

My best advice to you is you should do what makes you happy. In my opinion the worst type of medical professionals are the ones who hate being at their jobs. Have you seen really bad nurses who hate their jobs. They provide really bad care to people. There are also very good nurses as well. My point is, your going to have to do this for the rest of your life, 9-5 or whatever your hours maybe.

I highly suggest you consider your options and make the best choice for you.

Good Luck.

 

[BMBiology]

I can understand your feeling. It can be tough in this profession especially when it is busy. I would work the cash register, then restock the meds, then dispense the meds while calling the doctor because there is no strength on the Rx. This disappoints me not because what I am doing has no value but because what I am doing requires no real education. I graduated with 2 majors but yet I am doing something pretty much anybody with no college education can do. That is the sad part.

But don't get me wrong. I do find some pleasure in what I am doing like counseling patients, compounding meds for peds, making piggy bags for cancer patients, etc. I know the profession is changing and pharmacists' knowledge is being more widely used but it is still an uphill battle. However, I think many in the profession are just fine with it. It is pretty much a 9 to 5 job with great salary, benefits, flexible hours and some respect.

One awesome thing about this profession is that there are numerous opportunities! You don't have to work in retails. You can do a residency, then work for a hospital without ever having to dispense any med for the rest of your life or work for a pharmaceutical company or work for an HMO! The opportunities are endless.

 

[twester]

It sounds like you've made a decision. What's to be hostile about?

Troy

 

[Caverject]

My best advice to you is you should do what makes you happy. In my opinion the worst type of medical professionals are the ones who hate being at their jobs. Have you seen really bad nurses who hate their jobs. They provide really bad care to people. There are also very good nurses as well. My point is, your going to have to do this for the rest of your life, 9-5 or whatever your hours maybe.

I highly suggest you consider your options and make the best choice for you.

Good Luck.

First hicp student to post outside a hicp thread. here here!

 

[gablet]

I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

I highly doubt that you will be a good one based on your opinion of pharmacists. If you do not find meaning in your work, you will not provide good patient care.

I am a former teacher. When I began to count the number of classes left in the day I knew that I needed to get out of that profession. It just was not fair to me or the kids that I was teaching.

Pharmacists are at the top of the "most trusted professionals" list, please don't ruin that reputation.

 

[Mr_Ritim]

You sound like my pharamcist who I work with that regrets being one himself. He said he should of done Medical and says Im crazy for wanting to become a pharmacist.

As you can see retail pharmacy is killing those pharmacist who worked hard to get where they are. Every walgreens or CVS has become pretty much like a McDonalds. And the customer no longer respects you as some Dr. anymore, they treat you the same way they would treat the guy working at the $1 store. This was his words.

 

[aubieRx]

meh. it sounds silly to think its not a meaningful job.

because it is! and i doubt it could be done safely by robots

but you can have regrets without saying the whole profession is meaningless.

 

[Tyler Derden]

meh. it sounds silly to think its not a meaningful job.

because it is! and i doubt it could be done safely by robots

but you can have regrets without saying the whole profession is meaningless.

meh. it sounds silly to think its not a meaningful job. because it is! and i doubt it could be done safely by robots
but you can have regrets without saying the whole profession is meaningless.

As someone who automates processes for a living I have to say that a robot can without a doubt fill a prescription much better with much higher quality than a human...however making sure what is prescribed is correct and all the nuances I imagine are involved with directly dealing with the patient will never be able to be automated (at least in the near future).

But that doesn't mean that retail pharmacy as it is today will remain so in the next ten years. Even though I am not a pharmacist I can't imagine that as the healthcare burden on society and the number of prescription drugs becomes greater we will continue to have $45/hr. monkeys filling bottles and printing stickers (humans suck at QC, here is where automation will take over). I imagine that the profession will change such that you will take on more of a consulting role with the patient and the prescribing physician thereby actually using the knowledge you have, there really is no alternative. I don't have a good idea of exactly how it will be, but for sure the days of Pharm D's filling pills in Wal-Mart is numbered IMO. It is a process with far too much waste and inefficiency to continue the way it is. Much as the squeeze was put on manufacturing 30 years ago and has changed how the game is played, so too will healthcare experience similar opportunities.

 

[RUN DMV]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

I like to know how you got into such a prestigious pharmacy school if you feel that pharmacy is such a useless profession. I have to question how schools are accepting students who don't seem to have any appreciation for the field of pharmacy.

 

[DownonthePharm]

Given enough time everyone's jobs will be able to be done by robots.

This doesnt mean they should.

While you are in school I encourage you to do some research. Find out what opportunities are available for pharmacists. Pharmacy is not all about filling scripts, there are many, many ways you can practice what you have learned, and if you dont see the job you want MAKE IT. Think outside the box. Get some role models who love their work. Be excited to see what the future has for this profession. Innovate and keep one step ahead of those robots!

 

[baggywrinkle]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

If you stay with it you might be very happy doing per diem work while you work towards something else. One of the great strengths of pharmacy is the flexibility of scheduling. Sure, Wallyworld is going to try and slam dunk you into a full time forty plus position. There are other options. RPH On the Go specializes in Federal contracts which can vary from a month to as long as you want. All expense paid travel. When I spoke to them they had a six month position in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Yeah, the work might suck, but that is why they call it work.

 

[uspcommuter]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

Ok...there is something wrong with that statement. You say you will be a Good pharmacist but you think pharmacy is not a useful or meaningful job. Does that mean you want to be good at being not useful or meaningful? B/c base on that statement thats what it sounds like.

However, being a fellow over achiever (@ random intervals). If you are an "overachiever", than make the profession become useful and meaningful. To make life worthwhile means to live life with meaning, and if it isnt really meaningful then "MAKE IT meaningful" Therefore, instead of posting about how bad the future is, post about how you can shape your destiny. Of cousre, I am not just saying that about pharmacy. But if there were more enthusiastic people in the field maybe it won't protrait the profession to be useless and not so meaningful.

 

[Mags]

i have to apologize first b/c i know i may be an extreme
but

i dont want you in our profession if you dont want to be here

its like those people who go to dentistry school or pharmacy school b/c "they didnt think they could get into medicine school"

if you have a passion, follow it.. i'm here b/c pharmacy is my passion and my career
and even on my bad days i get frustrated, so
you when you dont even like pharmacy, will get extremely frustrated

why did you apply if you thought it was a meaningless job???

consider your options
i certainly for one dont want you in our profession if you dont want to be here
sorry if thats harsh
but i want our profession to be made up of passionate people, who at the very least, want to be a pharmacist, and think its a meaningful job, and provides improved patient care

 

[aubieRx]

As someone who automates processes for a living I have to say that a robot can without a doubt fill a prescription much better with much higher quality than a human...however making sure what is prescribed is correct and all the nuances I imagine are involved with directly dealing with the patient will never be able to be automated (at least in the near future).

.

machines can screw up. And if they screw up (get names mxied up in teh database ,eetc_) they are much less likely to catch the error than a human being who might be on the lookout for such things and could identify something that was unusual more easily

you know , no computer equals a human's intelligence.

we can look at a dollar bill and recognize it as a dollar bill but a computer would have to be programmed to see the bill and understand what it was. And if the bill was folded up the programming might not recognize it while a person's brain would see it as "$" even if it was folded into a tiny chunk

 

[kellia]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

you really have nothing to regret as you haven't started the program yet... that being said, maybe you should look elsewhere to something more fulfilling. you are still in a position to not waste your time paying for and pursuing a degree in a profession that you'll feel worthless in. while i completely disagree with your assessment of the profession, i understand what it feels like to not be completely sold on a career path. i went through a few majors before finding a field that i did not feel that way about. good luck to you.

 

[Sara_J]

Okay, so I'll join the OP in the minority and agree fully. I just finished a PharmD program, and halfway into the second year I knew it wasn't for me. I guess I'm also an "overachiever" and in a way, I knew that I would never be satisfied as being "just a pharmacist." I've just started working in a busy retail pharmacy, and while it's enjoyable, it is in no way a good fit for many of the new PharmD graduates, many of whom will be sorely disappointed when they finish, after working so hard, and accomplishing so much in the rigorous pharmacy programs. There are alot of different avenues to pursue with a PharmD, which is why I'm still glad I have one. I'm taking the graduate school route...but there are other options out there. To the OP, if you're having these regrets now, trust me they won't go away. Finish the PharmD...it's a great degree, but keep your options wide open.

 

[Serenity Now!!!]

Okay, so I'll join the OP in the minority and agree fully. I just finished a PharmD program, and halfway into the second year I knew it wasn't for me. I guess I'm also an "overachiever" and in a way, I knew that I would never be satisfied as being "just a pharmacist." I've just started working in a busy retail pharmacy, and while it's enjoyable, it is in no way a good fit for many of the new PharmD graduates, many of whom will be sorely disappointed when they finish, after working so hard, and accomplishing so much in the rigorous pharmacy programs. There are alot of different avenues to pursue with a PharmD, which is why I'm still glad I have one. I'm taking the graduate school route...but there are other options out there. To the OP, if you're having these regrets now, trust me they won't go away. Finish the PharmD...it's a great degree, but keep your options wide open.

please elaborate on what you mean by being an overachiever??Im presuming that IF you are who you say you are, you had done the research on your prospective career, shadowed a pharmacist, spoken to other Pre-pharms and pharm students BEFORE your stint in pharm school...I dont get it. I think the OP was probably a pre-med flunkie who couldnt get into med school and decided to "do our profession a favor" and become"just a pharmacist" in Sara_J's own words...or with 0+ posts the OP could just be a troll, in which case...please get a more constructive hobby ... "prestigious pharmacy school"...my a$$!

 

[Sara_J]

please elaborate on what you mean by being an overachiever??Im presuming that IF you are who you say you are, you had done the research on your prospective career, shadowed a pharmacist, spoken to other Pre-pharms and pharm students BEFORE your stint in pharm school...I dont get it. I think the OP was probably a pre-med flunkie who couldnt get into med school and decided to "do our profession a favor" and become"just a pharmacist" in Sara_J's own words...or with 0+ posts the OP could just be a troll, in which case...please get a more constructive hobby ... "prestigious pharmacy"...my a$$!

Honestly, I'm not a troll, and I have posted before, albeit not in a long time. Don't know whether the OP was a troll or not...if he was, then hey, I guess I bit. However, I'm a long time lurker (very long time) and the OP's post really struck a chord with me, and I could honestly relate. Yes, I'm a new grad, and by overachiever, I can probably very accurately say that we all are. Pharmacy school is no walk in the park. I probably didn't have as much pharmacy exposure as I should have before starting, but there are an appreciable number of people in my class, and in the classes below me who share my view. Nothing wrong with getting a broad point of view on a subject in my opinion. Also, why the attack on me? I'm not the only person who tended to agree with the OP. It's not like this hasn't been discussed before.

 

[anonymous669]

I am not a troll, not really sure what that means anyway.

Well, thanks to most for the helpful advice.

I am not trying to be a pessimist. I will put 100 percent into what I do, as I always do, so I know I will be a "good pharmacist". I just don't like how many of those in this field are here because they were rejected by other health professional schools, such as dentistry or medicine. I know of pharmacists that are just really off the mark, none of you personally however.

I never applied to any other professional school although I kept a 3.9+ GPA in college. I think pharmacy offers a great lifestyle to those of us who have families. I also appreciate the way various drug's functional groups interact with us biologically. I only wish the profession involved more than filling and counseling (ie verbally relaying information to people who decide not to read the provided literature etc). Maybe I am just overly cynical.

This will be my last post, and I post it sadly. Take care everyone. I am sure I will "grow into it", and I sincerely apologize if I offended anyone here, thanks.

 

[museabuse]

This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible.

I do feel sorry for you. If you are so smart and 3.9 grade point average then why didn't you think of working in a pharmacy first to see if you like it and can find meaning in it before you go through all the school. You think you regret your decision now wait until you graduate and then realize you made a mistake and now your 150,000 dollars in debt.

Let me give you an example, beacuase I regret to some degree some of my college education. I graduated high school and went right to school for computer science because I liked playing around with computers and was good at it. I graduated and got a good paying job working as a software engineer for a major computer company. Then I found out fast that I hate sitting in a cubical in front of a computer writing code that I did not WANT to write. Talk about a job with no meaning and value. The only value was to make the big corporation richer. Well then i got laid off because I had no job security(especially when you can pay people in india 1/10 of what I was making to do the same job). Instead of finding another job i decided to figure out my career.

I went to some career job planning classes(that my old company paid for... how nice of them) and really began to evaluate what I wanted to do for the REST OF MY LIFE. My first choice was to get paid to watch TV and travel around the world but since I couldn't find any jobs in that area, I found that health care was my second choice. I wanted a job that had more than just monetary value. I wanted a job that I can help people and my community. I know that sounds idealistic but I also wanted a job that can support my real passion and that is vacationing/traveling. I thought about being a nurse and doctor and realized I don't like the gross parts that go with it, so I thought about pharmacy and it sounded like a good idea.

Here is the part that I highly recommend. I decided to get a job as a pharmacy tech working full time while I took a couple of prereqs that I would need to get into a school. I found that while you probably don't need to be highly intelligent to fill rx's it was rewarding to have people come up to you and ask you for help for their sick child and you could help them. It was also rewarding to build a relationship with the customers that come in once or twice a week. It really did feel like I was working in a community and I was of some value at least to some people. Well I found that I could do this the rest of my life. It may not be my favorite thing and there are a lot of negatives, but at least I know I will not wake up day in and day out dreading going to work. I used to do that, I used to stair at the clock and wait for 5 o’clock so I could leave my little cubical. Oh and another good thing is that if you work in a busy store it may be hectic and stressful but time does go by fast that way.

So my point is that pharmacy is great because it is a career you can try before you buy. So please, anyone thinking about going into this profession, please try it before you buy it. Don't be miserable and 150,000 dollars in debt.

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

I do not feel sorry for you one second...i hope that you are going to be a pharmacist, get a job as a pharmacist and be miserable all your life because you will feel that your are a monkey or a robot.........

Let me tell you that your are not a overblabla..euh..overachiever..this is your way to tell us that your gpa is 4.9 over 4..
I am laughing because let me tell you that i have met overachievers in my life..and overacheiver like the word acheive in it...talk about people that set goals, ideals and achieve them...and you are not one of them..you got into the profession because of some grades, you lied about your passion for this profession to get into it...because nobody will make me believe that you can tell to a school that their profession sucks and they are going to accept you just because of your grades..so somewhere, somehow, somewhat you lied..to me this is pathetic...i am seing here an underachiever pattern..i do not know your age...maybe the years will teach you the importance of loving what you do for a living..because no matter the salary..down the road it is your life, your passion, you will have not fully developed or explore. There are many over professions out there that a "self proclamed overachiever" getting easily the AAAA will have no trouble getting into and still be happy.

your problem is not being a pharmacist or not, a physician or not, a cook or not,..you are an overachiever who do not know what he wants to achieve in his life.

good luck.

 

[Serenity Now!!!]

Honestly, I'm not a troll, and I have posted before, albeit not in a long time. Don't know whether the OP was a troll or not...if he was, then hey, I guess I bit. However, I'm a long time lurker (very long time) and the OP's post really struck a chord with me, and I could honestly relate. Yes, I'm a new grad, and by overachiever, I can probably very accurately say that we all are. Pharmacy school is no walk in the park. I probably didn't have as much pharmacy exposure as I should have before starting, but there are an appreciable number of people in my class, and in the classes below me who share my view. Nothing wrong with getting a broad point of view on a subject in my opinion. Also, why the attack on me? I'm not the only person who tended to agree with the OP. It's not like this hasn't been discussed before.

Sorry Sara_J I wasnt launching an attack on you or the OP...being a 'lurker' you must be aware of the infestation of trolls and the like on these forums that would make incendiary comments just for kicks...and youre absolutely right in giving 'undecideds' a broader POV.

 

[DownonthePharm]

My first choice was to get paid to watch TV and travel around the world but since I couldn't find any jobs in that area, I found that health care was my second choice.

What do ya know. That was my first choice too. Very very tough field to break into.

To the OP: Is it possible for you to defer for a year while you figure out some things?

 

[Tyler Derden]

machines can screw up. And if they screw up (get names mxied up in teh database ,eetc_) they are much less likely to catch the error than a human being who might be on the lookout for such things and could identify something that was unusual more easily

Ummm no but the person that created the process can screw up. People get tired, they make mistakes, they are inconsistant.

you know , no computer equals a human's intelligence.

100% true, but you really think you can't automate error proofing and bottle filling? I have automated things that are much more complex than this. I have read countless posts on this forum complaining about all the monkey work pharmacists do in the retail sector. Monkey work is ideal for automation.

we can look at a dollar bill and recognize it as a dollar bill but a computer would have to be programmed to see the bill and understand what it was. And if the bill was folded up the programming might not recognize it while a person's brain would see it as "$" even if it was folded into a tiny chunk

Again as someone who has implemented various vision inspection systems and automated gauging systems, I can guarantee you that a machine can be designed to look for fake dollars much better than any human, and certainly an average human could ever do.

Just to clarify, I am not saying that "robots" will replace pharmacists as another poster eluded to (FWIW automation doesn't mean robots BTW). I am saying that there will have to be fundamental changes in the entire system to rid some of its waste. This means that the role of a Pharm D. will be utilized better to increase value added rather than be the "keeper of the pills" (IOW use the human intelligence you are referring to). Just from my point of view as a consumer and educated business/engineering manager, there is no way you can justify any other option. It is funny to me as an outsider to see much of the Health Care industry trying to do more with less by basically working harder rather than smarter. Eventually working smarter and more efficiently will be the only option. If it is hard to get your arms around, don't worry you are in good company. Most people don't see (or don't want to see) changes coming, and when they do they fight it as hard as they can. Change is very hard for most humans. It won't happen overnight, but it will most assuredly happen.

 

[jdpharmd?]

I hope this doesn't get a lot of hostile reaction, but I will write my feelings anyway. I have been accepted to a prestigious pharmacy state school, but deep within my heart, I already have regrets. This is because deep within me, I feel like pharmacy is not really a useful, meaningful job. I am an overacheiver but I choose the profession because the pay is good, and the hours are flexible. Honestly, does anyone else have this nagging feeling deep deep inside that either robots or technicians along with a computer could do the job just the same as a pharmacist? I honestly do not mean to offend anyone, and I will go on to be a pharmacist myself (and a good one), but I needed to get this off my chest.

I would do what any other "overachiever" would do in this situation; find something else. We have a "I'm too good for pharmacy" student in our class, and let me tell you that she's hated by all, liked by none. Then again, we have several MS and PhD's in basic sciences also enrolled in our class, and they aren't searching for any hidden meaning.. just a steady job and a paycheck.