Leaving pharmacy school forever

[tropicalstudent]

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Hello everyone

I am a rising PY2 seriously thinking about leaving pharmacy school. I am currently an intern for a retail chain and while i like the job i really dont see a lot of job opportunities the area I work in and its even losing population. I just wanted to ask if there was anyone that had left the field and had some tips and insight for someone leaving pharmacy school and the field in general.

 

[owlegrad]

Paging @PAtoPharm!

 

[confettiflyer]

Hope you don't have student loans


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[Z-Qualizer]

Hello everyone

I am a rising PY2 seriously thinking about leaving pharmacy school. I am currently an intern for a retail chain and while i like the job i really dont see a lot of job opportunities the area I work in and its even losing population. I just wanted to ask if there was anyone that had left the field and had some tips and insight for someone leaving pharmacy school and the field in general.

So is leaving your area after school not an option? And if you leave Pharmacy school, what's your Plan-B?

 

[hye345]

Hello everyone

I am a rising PY2 seriously thinking about leaving pharmacy school. I am currently an intern for a retail chain and while i like the job i really dont see a lot of job opportunities the area I work in and its even losing population. I just wanted to ask if there was anyone that had left the field and had some tips and insight for someone leaving pharmacy school and the field in general.

You realize you can move to a more in-demand area after graduation right? That's one of the (few) good things about working for chains: they have their tentacles everywhere!

 

[tropicalstudent]

Well answering the questions
A) i do have student loans but they are at a manageble level still.
B) i am considering the usual alternative routes such as PA or med school but they all involve more loans.

I like working in a retail pharmacy setting but if im just going to end up with ton of student loans and limited job opportunities then i was thinking of calling it quits now and changing fields now.

I just wanted to ask how other people have done the transition to ther fields within or outside pharmacy.

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

personally i think it's not a good idea. you already have loans, you're already in the debt. i would finish it, end what you started, get the degree, tolerate the job, pay off the bull**** that you owe. do some side hustle to make extra money and chase your dreams

 

[Z-Qualizer]

Well answering the questions
A) i do have student loans but they are at a manageble level still.
B) i am considering the usual alternative routes such as PA or med school but they all involve more loans.

I like working in a retail pharmacy setting but if im just going to end up with ton of student loans and limited job opportunities then i was thinking of calling it quits now and changing fields now.

I just wanted to ask how other people have done the transition to ther fields within or outside pharmacy.

How long would it take you to make yourself a viable candidate for Med School, or even PA programs (getting more and more competitive)?

Undergrad GPA? Have you taken all the pre-reqs? MCAT/GRE? Healthcare experience? Shadowed an MD/DO/PA? Volunteering?

By the time you do all this, you could probably be done (or close to being done) with pharmacy school. And what if you did all that and STILL didn't get in?? Then what would you do?

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

higher education in general just seems very bull ****ty. all these degrees, pre-reqs, tests, wasting time just watching professions, wasting time doing work for free (volunteering). all so wasteful. a 4 year degree at state college is all you need, then forge your own path in life. to be honest, you don't even need a college degree. you really don't. if you're smart, if you work hard, if you're driven, then you're gonna find a way to success. it's inevitable

 

[UGAZ]

If I had a choice to go back, I would not have done pharmacy. All my friends who are DDS and MDs are banking money with better respect and job security. I have 10 years experience and cannot even land a job at other hospital (considering leaving my current job now due to political reasons).

 

[Lnsean]

Well answering the questions
A) i do have student loans but they are at a manageble level still.
B) i am considering the usual alternative routes such as PA or med school but they all involve more loans.

I like working in a retail pharmacy setting but if im just going to end up with ton of student loans and limited job opportunities then i was thinking of calling it quits now and changing fields now.

I just wanted to ask how other people have done the transition to ther fields within or outside pharmacy.

definitely do PA (or even NP) if not med...that's the future.

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

if i had a choice to go back i would have gone to state college for 4 years, got a degree and some job that will pay me 40-50k then spend my free time side hustling and doing what i actually want

but then again if i did that i might not have grown to be the person i am today because i wouldn't have gotten the life&social experience of living on campus and being away from home during college

 

[Dred Pirate]

definitely do PA (or even NP) if not med...that's the future.

NP doesn't make sense, he would have to go back to RN school, work for a few years, then apply to NP school. PA school makes much mor sense, that being said, they are going to be as or more saturated than RPh's soon. Plus the PA's are starting to get a LOT of pushback from the MD world. (they are pushing for autonomy) It could end very badly

 

[Lnsean]

NP doesn't make sense, he would have to go back to RN school, work for a few years, then apply to NP school. PA school makes much mor sense, that being said, they are going to be as or more saturated than RPh's soon. Plus the PA's are starting to get a LOT of pushback from the MD world. (they are pushing for autonomy) It could end very badly

I agree with the NP reasoning. However, how would it end badly for PA? Worst case scenario...PAs maintain their status quo and still making good bank.

 

[Dred Pirate]

I agree with the NP reasoning. However, how would it end badly for PA? Worst case scenario...PAs maintain their status quo and still making good bank.

I know in the ED world there is a lot of "you want autonomy, be careful what you ask for" stroll over to the Emergency department forum and find a very long thread. PA's are trying to break into becoming attending/primary care vs extenders - and that could backfire when it mistakes start happening. They should be surprised, a good PA is great, a bad PA scares the living hell out of me when they think they know more than they do.

 

[Lnsean]

I know in the ED world there is a lot of "you want autonomy, be careful what you ask for" stroll over to the Emergency department forum and find a very long thread. PA's are trying to break into becoming attending/primary care vs extenders - and that could backfire when it mistakes start happening. They should be surprised, a good PA is great, a bad PA scares the living hell out of me when they think they know more than they do.

I mean wasn't this how it all started with NP? I just don't see how you can go wrong picking PA....if they gain autonomy, that's great....if not...that's not bad either.

 

[Dred Pirate]

I mean wasn't this how it all started with NP? I just don't see how you can go wrong picking PA....if they gain autonomy, that's great....if not...that's not bad either.

difference of opinions - but from what I have read - they are facing their own significant saturation soon - as soon as MD's start losing jobs, they will fight back, just my two cents, I could be wrong, I am wrong a lot

 

[steveysmith54]

I think that pa and np will hit saturation in the next five years. However, at least they are not at risk to be eliminated by Amazon. I've said it in three other threads, biggest problem that I see is insurance and chains dictating what happens in our profession. Through my time in the profession, I've seen so much merger, consolidation, specialty/mail order requirements, indepnts being screwed over... the second biggest threat are money hungry so called "leaders" of the profession who start new school and mislead students. I think there are np schools that do not require u to work as rn, or at least there are in CA... I think if one has what it takes to go to pa/np schools, I'd recommend it over PHARMd

 

[Apples2Oranges]

Honestly, I wouldn't follow the PA/NP route if you're already thinking of medical school. For the most part, there's not much vagueness to the job prospects of an MD vs other fields. So if you really want to stay in your area and manage to keep the same job your entire life, definitely just become a doctor. But you also have to know that most MD residents move elsewhere for residency. Few stay with the university hospital they were taught in.

 

[MrBonita]

Hey Tropical. When I was in your shoes and doing retail, it really got me depressed as a pharmacy student. I know exactly how you feel. I recommend you get a pharmacy intern job at an inpatient pharmacy , closed door pharmacy, and mail order pharmacy and tell me what you think? Give those other areas of pharmacy a try before you leave.

 

[lord999]

I'm at the point in my career that I see burnt out physicians everywhere. It takes about a decade of practice post-training for it to show, but there is a continual set of signs that tend to cause that classical physician mid-life crisis. Life is not a bed of roses for them either, dentists (even those that do not take insurance) and physicians are having to become more accountable to government and other petty bureaucracies, being worked like slaves for the bottom line, and have increasingly less autonomy (and pharmacists are an aggravating factor). It happens to those who enjoy the work, but burnout is extremely pronounced in those who did not have working motives to practice in the first place. And the CPT grind is not going to get any easier on physicians, NPs, PAs, and anyone else dependent on that system.

What's kind of funny is that the initial wave of pharmacists from my generation who just would not or could not work are no longer in practice, and pharmacy is better for it by not having them around. I wish we kept professional statistics about career longevity, but just doing them for my alma mater, continual full-time practice out of my class is less than 50% (it's about 48/106 of us right now) and we counted any unknowns or the dead as full time. That's not quite as likely now due to the debt new grads hold now. Unlike pharmacists, physicians and dentists can't even think about it until 15 years (including postgrad training) due to debt and commitments and in which case, make it daunting to switch careers in their late 40s.

I'd echo others about trying different fields because that is possibly better. But I wish that the admissions process did you better by forcing you to confront whether or not you wanted to go in. Easy admissions for the uncommitted do no one, especially you due to the lost opportunity and time costs, any favors.

 

[PAtoPharm]

OP, I also just finished my P1 year and am leaving pharmacy school to go to either PA or AA (anesthesiology PA) school. My area is like yours -- absolutely zero jobs here, along with a job market saturation that has practically spread throughout the entire state. If you decide to leave pharmacy, I would just say to make sure that you have a concrete plan you can follow to set your plan B career goals in motion. For example, if you decide to apply to PA schools, research their application requirements/pre-requisites and begin fulfilling them now. Go ahead and get in touch with local PAs and ask about shadowing them. You'll also need to take the GRE (easy for most people who have the intellectual capacity to gain admission to a graduate health professions program -- even pharmacy). Also, you might want to consider applying only to PA schools that would accept your intern work experience as healthcare-specific work experience, although many PA schools these days are emphasizing applicants having competitive grades over HCE.

As my own rotation preceptors told me, if you really, really, really can't imagine doing anything else but pharmacy and are willing to go to some remote hellhole to find a job after you graduate, stay in pharmacy school... but if you can imagine being happy pursuing any other profession that has a better outlook than pharmacy, then you at least owe it to yourself to consider pursuing that other career instead. Also, if you do decide to go to PA school, don't waste time with applying and getting accepted so that you can have the opportunity to enter the job market before it gets saturated.

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

OP, I also just finished my P1 year and am leaving pharmacy school to go to either PA or AA (anesthesiology PA) school. My area is like yours -- absolutely zero jobs here, along with a job market saturation that has practically spread throughout the entire state. If you decide to leave pharmacy, I would just say to make sure that you have a concrete plan you can follow to set your plan B career goals in motion. For example, if you decide to apply to PA schools, research their application requirements/pre-requisites and begin fulfilling them now. Go ahead and get in touch with local PAs and ask about shadowing them. You'll also need to take the GRE (easy for most people who have the intellectual capacity to gain admission to a graduate health professions program -- even pharmacy). Also, you might want to consider applying only to PA schools that would accept your intern work experience as healthcare-specific work experience, although many PA schools these days are emphasizing applicants having competitive grades over HCE.

As my own rotation preceptors told me, if you really, really, really can't imagine doing anything else but pharmacy and are willing to go to some remote hellhole to find a job after you graduate, stay in pharmacy school... but if you can imagine being happy pursuing any other profession that has a better outlook than pharmacy, then you at least owe it to yourself to consider pursuing that other career instead. Also, if you do decide to go to PA school, don't waste time with applying and getting accepted so that you can have the opportunity to enter the job market before it gets saturated.

switching careers wastes so much time to be honest. i would just pick something from the very beginning and finish it out, no jumping around, it wastes too much time and too much money. you can still find a job as a pharmacist, even in saturated areas there's CVS. no one wants to work for CVS, so most of the time they have openings. that's the last resort, get a pharmd and become a cvs slave until something better comes along. the good thing is 1) you'll be making $100k+ 2) you won't go into more debt due to ****ty and wasteful years of higher education 3) you save time, instead of doing more nonsense schooling you'll be done sooner and able to work quicker

 

[Lnsean]

switching careers wastes so much time to be honest. i would just pick something from the very beginning and finish it out, no jumping around, it wastes too much time and too much money. you can still find a job as a pharmacist, even in saturated areas there's CVS. no one wants to work for CVS, so most of the time they have openings. that's the last resort, get a pharmd and become a cvs slave until something better comes along. the good thing is 1) you'll be making $100k+ 2) you won't go into more debt due to ****ty and wasteful years of higher education 3) you save time, instead of doing more nonsense schooling you'll be done sooner and able to work quicker

Depends on what you want in life. If you're going to be unhappy and miserable then 100k isn't going to change that. Time will pass any way.

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

Depends on what you want in life. If you're going to be unhappy and miserable then 100k isn't going to change that. Time will pass any way.

that sounds like a fair point. one way i like to think about it though is that a job is a job. maybe i'm different but i can see myself tolerating most pharmacy jobs. i won't fall in love and absolutely adore it, but i could do it and be fine with it. i wouldn't be miserable or unhappy, i would simply be going to work, do my job, and then for the rest of the day enjoy what i really want to do in life.

point i'd like to make: a job is a job, do it, make money, live your life the way you want

 

[quickpic007]

Hello everyone

I am a rising PY2 seriously thinking about leaving pharmacy school. I am currently an intern for a retail chain and while i like the job i really dont see a lot of job opportunities the area I work in and its even losing population. I just wanted to ask if there was anyone that had left the field and had some tips and insight for someone leaving pharmacy school and the field in general.

Unless you want to live in an area that favors RPH employment I'd probably walk. Different fields get hot and cool, but the HUGE drawback on RX is that the school is so long and tuition so high.
I paid 70K in tuition and took 7 years for degree to make 140k. If I did nursing it would take 4 yrs and 40K to make 100K so its neck and neck.

 

[PAtoPharm]

switching careers wastes so much time to be honest. i would just pick something from the very beginning and finish it out, no jumping around, it wastes too much time and too much money. you can still find a job as a pharmacist, even in saturated areas there's CVS. no one wants to work for CVS, so most of the time they have openings. that's the last resort, get a pharmd and become a cvs slave until something better comes along. the good thing is 1) you'll be making $100k+ 2) you won't go into more debt due to ****ty and wasteful years of higher education 3) you save time, instead of doing more nonsense schooling you'll be done sooner and able to work quicker

Here in GA, even CVS is full in practically in all areas except BFE (I know someone here will deny, deny, deny this point, so just do a job search on their website and then tell me they really do have jobs when the job search results show "0 jobs found"). You're right; in most cases, switching to pursue a different type of schooling/career usually does result in wasted time/money, but the unique thing about PA/AA school is that with the programs taking ~1/2 the time as pharmacy school to complete (or well under half the amount of time if you consider having to complete at least a PGY-1 to work as a hospital pharmacist), someone could drop out of pharmacy school after the P1 year, take a year to make themselves more competitive for PA/AA school and apply, and then matriculate into PA/AA school and graduate no later than when they'd be graduating from pharmacy school.

If the person's original plan was to complete a PGY-1 after pharmacy school, then they'd actually be graduating a year sooner than they would if they had stuck with pharmacy school, assuming it doesn't take more than a year to get accepted to PA/AA school. Hell, even if it takes them a second year to apply and get accepted, they're still likely to come out ahead financially because of the cheaper tuition of most PA/AA programs and the fact that so many hospitals (at least here in the southeast) are still offering tuition repayment in exchange for X years of employment.

 

[PAtoPharm]

Depends on what you want in life. If you're going to be unhappy and miserable then 100k isn't going to change that. Time will pass any way.

Exactly, and don't forget to consider that depending on what someone's plan B career actually is, taking a year off after withdrawing from pharmacy school to make themselves more competitive for the alternative career might actually put them ahead financially (see the example with PA school above). For many PA programs (even private schools), the total price of tuition for the ENTIRE PROGRAM costs only ~$20k-$30k more (sometimes less) than what a single year of classes at a private pharmacy school costs.

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

Here in GA, even CVS is full in practically in all areas except BFE (I know someone here will deny, deny, deny this point, so just do a job search on their website and then tell me they really do have jobs when the job search results show "0 jobs found"). You're right; in most cases, switching to pursue a different type of schooling/career usually does result in wasted time/money, but the unique thing about PA/AA school is that with the programs taking ~1/2 the time as pharmacy school to complete (or well under half the amount of time if you consider having to complete at least a PGY-1 to work as a hospital pharmacist), someone could drop out of pharmacy school after the P1 year, take a year to make themselves more competitive for PA/AA school and apply, and then matriculate into PA/AA school and graduate no later than when they'd be graduating from pharmacy school.

If the person's original plan was to complete a PGY-1 after pharmacy school, then they'd actually be graduating a year sooner than they would if they had stuck with pharmacy school, assuming it doesn't take more than a year to get accepted to PA/AA school. Hell, even if it takes them a second year to apply and get accepted, they're still likely to come out ahead financially because of the cheaper tuition of most PA/AA programs and the fact that so many hospitals (at least here in the southeast) are still offering tuition repayment in exchange for X years of employment.

sorry but i have absolutely no idea what PA/AA school is. personally, i see no reason to pursue this PA/AA path unless you really wanted to do one of those professions. at the end of the day a job is still a job. pharmacy will provide a job, higher education in general is pretty dumb. this is a short rant but i really don't understand the obsession with these schooling and programs. why leave pharmacy and jump into another one of these higher education schools/programs/trainings/bs. it's all the same bs, you'll be doing the same busy work for years in these so called trainings. all leading up to the final big exam in which if you pass they put a little star next to your name and say you're now allowed to become hired as an xyz. so lame. pharmacy is the same exact thing. there's no reason to say PA/AA is better than pharmacy, because people who do PA/AA or pharmacy should be doing it because those are the professions they enjoy, are interested, and care about learning. a guy doing pharmacy and PGY-1 wouldn't care if they get out a year late because that's what they like and want to do. you said you left pharmacy to go to PA/AA school, the only viable reason i can see someone doing that is if they suddenly realized they very much are interested in this PA/AA profession and are very intrigued by it that they want to leave pharmacy and get involved

going back to the availability of jobs. it's always possible to find a job as a pharmacist, you'd just have to relocate or spend months applying to retail positions until you land something. if i'm half way into a program i'd rather finish it out then suddenly switch. spending 2-3 years studying crap and spending money only to throw it all out just don't appeal to me to be honest

 

[Seriously Serious]

OP, are you thinking about leaving because of job prospects in your town, or just because you are not ~passionate~ about pharmacy? -- I doubt anybody is particularly passionate about pharmacy; they are passionate about the salary and the flexibility to jump around to different niches, if the market permits.

OP, I also just finished my P1 year and am leaving pharmacy school to go to either PA or AA (anesthesiology PA) school. My area is like yours -- absolutely zero jobs here.

You switching your username to PharmtoPA? Didn't you fail out of AA school? I feel like CRNA's dominate the midlevel anesthesia market anyway -- and get significantly more $$$. Nursing is sounding like a good plan B right about now.

 

[Sparda29]

higher education in general just seems very bull ****ty. all these degrees, pre-reqs, tests, wasting time just watching professions, wasting time doing work for free (volunteering). all so wasteful. a 4 year degree at state college is all you need, then forge your own path in life. to be honest, you don't even need a college degree. you really don't. if you're smart, if you work hard, if you're driven, then you're gonna find a way to success. it's inevitable

Three of my friends taught themself Linux using LinuxAcademy (no education beyond high school degree), they all got hired as system admins at a IT firm here in NYC, starting salary 90k, now they are over 110k. They work 10am-6pm and are allowed 2 days a week to work from home. Their immediate boss has a 4 year degree in finance, gave up on the finance field, taught himself Linux as well and makes beyond 400k.)

 

[statepharmagent]

If I had a choice to go back, I would not have done pharmacy. All my friends who are DDS and MDs are banking money with better respect and job security. I have 10 years experience and cannot even land a job at other hospital (considering leaving my current job now due to political reasons).

Same here! I have friends who did caribbean med school and are easily making 2-3x my salary 2 yrs into their careers and continuing to get better job offers in good areas or working on their own with great hours. Meanwhile I am getting rejected left and right for graveyard shifts (wanting to move to more populated city). If you can do med go for it OP, I totally regret not doing it and it haunts me daily seeing friends who are MD/DO having it so great.

 

[BelowTheMean]

I'd leave in a heartbeat if given a chance to go back in time to p2 year.

 

[lord999]

Three of my friends taught themself Linux using LinuxAcademy (no education beyond high school degree), they all got hired as system admins at a IT firm here in NYC, starting salary 90k, now they are over 110k. They work 10am-6pm and are allowed 2 days a week to work from home. Their immediate boss has a 4 year degree in finance, gave up on the finance field, taught himself Linux as well and makes beyond 400k.)

That's always a great story, until they hit 40-50 and can't find any job due to the ageism in IT. That said, there aren't enough people who could competently learn Linux to that level.

 

[rph3664]

I'd recommend that the OP cut their losses and switch majors now. S/he has at least 4 years of school under their belt, and why not change to some kind of liberal arts major and possibly graduate next year, whether in May, August, or December?

 

[Sparda29]

That's always a great story, until they hit 40-50 and can't find any job due to the ageism in IT. That said, there aren't enough people who could competently learn Linux to that level.

I'm trying to learn it. It's ****ing harder than pharmacy school. The **** that pisses me off about it is how one simple missing "/" in 10 pages of code can be the reason why the website is broken.

 

[lord999]

I'm trying to learn it. It's ****ing harder than pharmacy school. The **** that pisses me off about it is how one simple missing "/" in 10 pages of code can be the reason why the website is broken.

Why you would write POSIX_ME_HARDER = 1; RegExp(/([a-z]|[0-9])\1\1\1/) to find those outside ones. Code validators are a PITA to program, and there are good commercial options, but it's worth figuring a couple of these out to figure these matters. I really find it funny when someone says "IT" as a solution to pharmacy because the skillsets don't translate and I consider someone who can do both to be a union intelligence rather than a translated skills issue. Most pharmacists and physicians, I would never want as IT personnel, and most IT personnel are uniquely unqualified for pharmacy or medicine.

 

[Sine Cura]

Ageism in IT? Think anyone currently in chain retail in their 30s will even last to 50? I'm not counting on a career past 40

 

[Sparda29]

Wanna know something ****ed up? I got rejected from Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi because of my religion and ancestry. They asked me during the telephone interview if I was Sunni Muslim or Shia Muslim and if I have any Iranian ancestry. When I answered Shia and yes to the Iranian ancestry (my great-great-great grandparents moved from Iran to India and then my grandparents moved to the USA), I was told I couldn't be hired.

 

[owlegrad]

Ageism in IT? Think anyone currently in chain retail in their 30s will even last to 50? I'm not counting on a career past 40

Give me a break. There are so many older pharmacists.

 

[lord999]

Ageism in IT? Think anyone currently in chain retail in their 30s will even last to 50? I'm not counting on a career past 40

Yes, I would agree for our generation, though that's more to economics than to social norms as this forum has a generally pessimistic opinion on chain pharmacies. That's different than IT, there are social norms in IT that force the elderly out even if they are productive. There are old pharmacists now in retail that retire just fine. Just smaller a percentage than we would think otherwise.

 

[Friendly1970]

Unless you want to live in an area that favors RPH employment I'd probably walk. Different fields get hot and cool, but the HUGE drawback on RX is that the school is so long and tuition so high.
I paid 70K in tuition and took 7 years for degree to make 140k. If I did nursing it would take 4 yrs and 40K to make 100K so its neck and neck.

My disabled dad was in hospital in Intensive Care Unit and this department at this hospital wanted him to NOT wearing diaper so all his defecations will be on bed and they will know instantly. The smell is the instant alarm and these Registered Nurses ladies, young (and old with 30 years of experience), cleaned by themselves, not assistants.
I stayed to watch my dad for 8 hours and when I left, the stench of feces was still stuck to my nose for a few more hours after the visit. I am a very down to earth person and have cleaned feces over 500 times in my life for family members, I am not that afraid of feces. For me, I fear the many unpredictable infections by working as first line responder in close contact with sick patients. Compared to the hard work of Registered Nurses, I am still thankful for working as retail chained pharmacist. The patients yell at retail has its down side but way way less infectious than the pneumonia droplets my dad was coughing and sending droplets throughout the room. Lots of respect to the nurses but I would not want to work as the nurse, sorry.

 

[Sine Cura]

The typical pharmacist is barely "productive" in chain retail, thus complaining about "terrible conditions" and "entitled customers," conditions that are in part due to being unproductive barring situations with >15-20 sold Rx per tech hr or 13-14 hr shifts, so would you rather go with a younger pharmacist with six-figure loans who will accept a lower wage or an older pharmacist who doesn't GAF?

 

[throw_away5122]

Finish pharmacy school unless they allow you to take a year of absence, so you can try out other field: med, dent or pod come into mind. But if you don't have other acceptance in hand, finish pharm school first. Leave half way is never a good idea and does not look good when you apply to other field.

 

[PAtoPharm]

Finish pharmacy school unless they allow you to take a year of absence, so you can try out other field: med, dent or pod come into mind. But if you don't have other acceptance in hand, finish pharm school first. Leave half way is never a good idea and does not look good when you apply to other field.

It depends on what the OP's alternative career choice is. If he's thinking about going to PA school, then he could start getting his application together now, apply for the upcoming admissions cycle, matriculate in 2018 and be on track to graduate in 2020 (I.e., the same year they'd otherwise be graduating from pharmacy school). If the OP's situation as a pharmacy student is even remotely similar to mine (or what mine *was*, I should say), they will not only not lose any time by pursuing this particular alternate career, but they could save a substantial amount of money as well. It's the rare paradoxical situation where cutting one's losses and starting over from scratch actually leads to a more financially desirable (and less financially burdensome) outcome.

Of course, there is the risk that dropping out of pharmacy school could make the OP look less desirable to PA school adcoms, but if they truly believe that they're capable of moving on to something that offers a more promising future, then it's a risk they'll be willing (and well-advised) to take.

 

[PharmtoCS]

When comparing pharmacy and IT/programming, just look at the difference in how workers are treated and the amount of "over"education that is required to remain competitive.

Many of the major software companies offer lavish perks such as catered gourmet meals, on-site gym and laundry, shuttle buses, nap pods, etc. Compare that to chain retail where even a 5-minute lunch or bathroom break is considered a luxury. Also, IT/programmers nowadays don't even need a degree to get hired, whereas we as pharmacists not only have to take out $200k+ in loans for a doctorate but also have to take a paycut to compete a PGY1 or PGY2 if we want to experience the IT-like work conditions that is not retail pharmacy.

 

[Abby Atwood]

When comparing pharmacy and IT/programming, just look at the difference in how workers are treated and the amount of "over"education that is required to remain competitive.

Many of the major software companies offer lavish perks such as catered gourmet meals, on-site gym and laundry, shuttle buses, nap pods, etc. Compare that to chain retail where even a 5-minute lunch or bathroom break is considered a luxury. Also, IT/programmers nowadays don't even need a degree to get hired, whereas we as pharmacists not only have to take out $200k+ in loans for a doctorate but also have to take a paycut to compete a PGY1 or PGY2 if we want to experience the IT-like work conditions that is not retail pharmacy.

I have a family member who is a computer programmer. It's not a bad career, but it's can be very stressful with a lot of job uncertainty. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that any good job is going to require some effort. In terms of the current state of pharmacy, there are not a lot of careers where an entire class of 150ish could exit school into residency programs or jobs in the upper 5 figures to lower 6 figures. Pharmacists are awesome, but I don't really think we are overeducated.

 

[owlegrad]

I have a family member who is a computer programmer. It's not a bad career, but it's can be very stressful with a lot of job uncertainty. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that any good job is going to require some effort. In terms of the current state of pharmacy, there are not a lot of careers where an entire class of 150ish could exit school into residency programs or jobs in the upper 5 figures to lower 6 figures. Pharmacists are awesome, but I don't really think we are overeducated.

Hahaha. Not overeducated? You think it takes a doctorate to match pills in a bottle or review a computer generated DUR? We are ridiculously overeducated for most of the jobs on the market.

 

[Abby Atwood]

Hahaha. Not overeducated? You think it takes a doctorate to match pills in a bottle or review a computer generated DUR? We are ridiculously overeducated for most of the jobs on the market.

If I didn't have my current education, I'm not sure I would be talking with providers about script issues. I would probably miss a bunch of them, and I would not have a clear idea about what's an issue and what's not. In some independent settings, the computer doesn't generate DUR messages.

Additionally, your license qualifies you to work in areas with even higher levels of responsibility. Either a board of pharmacy would have to start issuing different level licenses for pharmacists or they have to hold everyone to a fairly high standard when it comes to education. Despite being someone who, through no choice of my own, didn't complete a residency, I would support mandatory residency for pharmacists.

Addendum: I just wanted to point out that community pharmacists actually have a huge responsibility to their patients as the last line of defense between them and a bad script. They also have a lot of power to change therapy. I have definitely called about weird scripts and gone over labs (often susceptibility results) with providers to find better therapy options.

 

[lord999]

If I didn't have my current education, I'm not sure I would be talking with providers about script issues. I would probably miss a bunch of them, and I would not have a clear idea about what's an issue and what's not. In some independent settings, the computer doesn't generate DUR messages.

Additionally, your license qualifies you to work in areas with even higher levels of responsibility. Either a board of pharmacy would have to start issuing different level licenses for pharmacists or they have to hold everyone to a fairly high standard when it comes to education. Despite being someone who, through no choice of my own, didn't complete a residency, I would support mandatory residency for pharmacists.

Addendum: I just wanted to point out that community pharmacists actually have a huge responsibility to their patients as the last line of defense between them and a bad script. They also have a lot of power to change therapy. I have definitely called about weird scripts and gone over labs (often susceptibility results) with providers to find better therapy options.

Sigh, I wish it were the case, but all of what we do now except for straight out rounding and such, were pioneered and done by pharmacists who had no degree whatsoever. The hospital pharmacist used to be only a supply manager and the current practice initially emerged because nurses screwed up sterile and injectables so often because of the math and technique (see the early ASHP talks about such basic things as having a hood). Until the late 60s, pharmacists could just apprentice and get the RPh (in Minnesota, the last apprenticing RPh got his license in 76 and is still in practice), and as the years went on, apprentice some and then go to increasingly longer schooling periods as the complexity of the number of drugs on the market went up. The only reason you went to school was like going to school as a cook. Almost everyone who went to pharmacy school had done the apprenticeship hours, and what pharmacy school did was make sure you had exposure to the "running a pharmacy" issues such as ownership or management and verify that your master had you make enough stuff that you were to standard. It was only made mandatory after long arguments about the sorts of pharmacists we could become with better education. Frankly, I'm sure if we had this argument again, the answer would be decisively in the negative. The apprenticeship model guarantees some form of supply and quality control, because a master would never take an apprentice without a need for help, and having a bad reputation for training often forced a master to either go without or be ejected from the profession. It also meant that by the time the apprentice went to pharmacy school, they already had enough sweat equity in the business to not be the problem children we see nowadays.

I still wish there was the BS Pharmacy as that's really what you need for the vast majority of all the work involved in the profession (and I really wish the number of hours needed prior to full practice was upped to 3,000-4,000 as it was in the old days to practice under supervision). It's always been title inflation that has gotten us to this point. The problem now is that pharmacy schools can get away with training substandard graduates hoping that the residency will act as a finishing school, whereas even a decade ago, a pharmacist who could not practice straight from school was considered to be incompetent as well as a judgment against the school.

Oh yeah, we are vastly overeducated for what we do. There should have been more discrimination applied to what sorts of practices were allowable, but we chose the easy route as always.