need some advice should I pursue pharmacy or???

[oreo333]

i'm debating between pursing a career as a pharmacist or a physician assistant. I've worked as a pharm technician and didn't like it. From my experience working there, the pharmacist just felt like the middle man between the doctors and insurance companies....and I just felt like the retail pharmacy industry is the "fast food of healthcare" (no offense). I'm thinking if I chose to go into pharmacy I want to be a hospital pharmacist. I heard that it's more hands on you get to interact with doctors/nurses and give dosage information, make IVs, etc..but I heard these jobs are rare to come across??

On the other hand, I have been researching more about PA's and am really intrigued by the fact they can switch between multiple specialities for example you can do internal medicine, surgery, etc... plus the schooling is only 2 years, you start making money faster, and the job market looks brighter. The pay is less than a pharmacists, but it's still pretty good and I think I would enjoy it a lot more. The problem is If I switch to PA I will most likely have to take a gap year since I don't have the shadowing/ and job experience they require so am thinking to just stick with pharmacy but i'm not sure if that's a good enough reason to purse it.

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[BC_89]

i'm debating between pursing a career as a pharmacist or a physician assistant. I've worked as a pharm technician and didn't like it.

You answered your own question concerning your desire to work as a pharmacist or not. I say with experience and observing how you feel the role of a pharmacist is (whether right or wrong) is the upmost important thing for you to see and conclude. I will reaffirm that the majority will indeed go into retail while some (not all of course) will join as a hospital pharmacist. You may not know, but in the near future those with a pharmD are being pushed to be mandated to do a PGY-1 whether its retail or not. Supposedly this was suppose to be put into work by 2021 but some "problems" are occurring.

You sound like you want more 1 on 1 patient exposure in a variety of settings. I agree that even though PAs have a collaborative agreement with MD/DOs, the autonomy to do work is still their as a PA. As you did with pharmacy, get with a PA and shadow. Some of the requirements is to have so many hours of healthcare experience (some may or may not count tech work as healthcare experience) along with your prerequisites. Look into this and I think you'll be happy with your choice.

 

[mentos]

I would go with ???