I transferred directly from retail. My only LTC experience was 20 years ago. when I started out of school. Most LTC places don't care about experience. We just hired a guy here who had only ever been a retail floater. A lot of what you learn is so specific to the facilities you service that on the job training is pretty much a must anyway. Our new pharmacists here train for up to a year before working alone or having any real responsibility placed on them. But their "training"- so to speak- is mostly through osmosis. We sit you down, you enter orders and sink or swim otherwise. Most pharmacists simply can't teach or train in any effective manner, so we don't really even try.
Yeah- the fact that people aspire to this says a lot about the state of the profession. I always describe LTC as the bastard son of retail and hospital. There is some clinical stuff (unlike retail). So if that turns you on it's a plus and a reason to choose LTC over retail (which is largely running a cash register and pretending to care about your patients). But there is also some concern about pricing/billing/insurance like in retail. So experience in insurance cards is also helpful to try to get meds covered. We do have billing people to do most of that, but night shift has to do a lot of it solo. You typically work in a windowless pharmacy. ****ty XM music plays over the speakers, the songs repeated so often that if feels like the same one over and over. The pharmacy itself is filthy top to bottom, as no one ever cleans and the owner is too cheap to hire someone else to do it. There is little guidance or input from management. Pretty much the only feedback you get is if you screw something up (so in that way it's a LOT like retail). I don't find the night nurses a problem. Approach everything with humor and realize their jobs are fairly ****ty too. Misery loves company. Very little contact with physicians at night- only occasionally to get auth for stat narcotics. You'll quickly be amazed how many active, enthusiastic narc prescribers have no concept of any laws regarding controlled substances. If you service bottom of the barrel facilities (as we do), you might be surprised how little nursing/physicians (and eventually yourself) care for patients wellbeing. Almost as if they already consider the patients written off. You'll develop a cynical attitude and a thick skin quickly if you don't already have one to start.
That- in a nutshell- is LTC. Our slogan is "we're still better than retail". Is it the best you can do as a pharmacy career? Probably not. But you could do a lot worse. Therein lies the true horror of the profession.
