soulsurvivor316 said:
Hello All,
I have a question for the posters here. I'm in my third year of medical school and I don't think I would like to practice clinical medicine. I know its a little late for this realization, lol, but there's nothing I can do now. I'm in too much debt to just quit , so I was thinking of entering a field like pharmacy with my MD. Does anyone know what kind of job opportunities there are for MDs in the Pharmaceutical field and what the hrs/salary is like? Thanks a lot.
Hey man, this is funny, I am the other way. I went for my MD after finishing my Pharm D. I want to practice clinical medicine. But anyways, you would be great for pharmacy with an MD degree. You will have some opportunities for an MD solely based on MD, but not too much unless you do something extra like an MBA or MPH (they are popular), maybe a DJD. With a straight MD without a residency or at least an internship you don't have to many options except maybe working as a drug rep. But trust me doing Pharm D is a more appealing option. But you are specifically asking for pharmacy so I'll focus on that instead.
As a pharmacist with an MD, you will be very attractive for any hospital. You would be able to relate to physicians and what they go through and they would probably let you do more stuff clinically and consider you as one of their own. As well you could probably fall into a clinical specialist position in pharmacy, considering that you have an MD already oppose to doing a pharmacy residency like most Pharm D's who are specialists do.
Pharmacy is a great field, and you can make a very descent living, with a lot of spare time to boost. I think as an MD you would be somewhat of a rarity. I think Pharm D to MD is more common, but nonetheless. I think as an MD, and if you are sure you don't want to do clinical medicine, I would say go do Pharm D. If you seriously want to do Pharm D, I would suggest that you find a school with an accelerated program so you can finish in 3 years opposed to 4. Also find a school that would give you some credit for your MD courses.
p.s. I am assuming you would want to be a clinical pharmacist? If not you could always go work retail, but as an MD I would think you would wanna do at least some clinical work. Of course it wouldn't be nearly close to the intensity of a doctor. Also I forgot to tell you, I recall reading about a guy who not only finished medical school, but finished anesthesia and worked as a practicing anesthesiologist. He then quit after a year or so and got his Pharm D and worked as a clinical specialist. He loved it and found that his job much less stressfull but at the same time he was satisfied professionally. See if you can find some of his postings, I believe he posted on the pharmacy forum, but you would probably have to search a little bit. He might be able to help you even more since he would be in very similar situation to you.
Best of luck man. If you got any q ping me. Later.
