optometry vs. pharmacy

[drgregory]

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Even worse than being a commercial OD. I am an employed commercial OD! 😱

you can do better than that. you've earned the degree. you shouldnt have to answer to corporate bosses, be them OD or some Lenscrafters store jockey. consider this - i know two ODs (who used to work corporate) and one OMD in my area who got together and set themselves up in a multispecialty office (the type with an urgent care, a small family physician practice, a couple of dentists, a couple of chiros) a couple of years ago. they pay a "rent for time spent", ie they have this office/staff/receptionist there for them, all bundled into this rent, which, i might add, is very reasonable. they are exam only providers, and have set their fees appropriately. naturally, they (all three) introduced themselves to the family physicians, and now see many referrals. they all chipped in on a lombart lane package and outsource their billing. the surgeon likes it because he can show up one day every other week and see any consults that the ODs send on to him, and then he gets the surguries (and all of the pure surgical revenue). one of the ODs works 3 days per week at this office and tells me its the greatest deal ever.
startup = little $
time sitting in an empty office twiddling your thumbs = little

 

[xmattODx]

you can do better than that.

This is what you private practice folks don't understand. By being a part-time employee, specifically an employee of a doc who leases 13 locations in the greater Atlanta area, I have freedom to take time off. I have been able to travel, I can go to school full time, I can pursue interests outside of optometry. Commercial optometry does not tie me to a specific community. I can quit tomorrow and start again elsewhere, and I will quit this job in the next year to move back west. The goal is buy a practice for my wife to work in. I'll probably keep doing commercial part-time so that I can continue to pursue other interests. Trust me, the patients I see for $39 CVEs will never darken your door. They have no insurance and have no hope for insurance. They don't have $150 for a comprehenisve exam especially when they just want refractive correction.

Do I love my job? No. Am I grateful commercial optometry exists? Yes. The private practitioners say that we commercial folk need to sacrafice pay for the "good of the profession". What are y'all sacraficing? Am I hurting the profession? Probably. Do I care? No. I don't agree with where the leadership of this profession is pushing optometry (and the $1400 I just paid to take CE to get orals in WA state because I took Boards 6 months too early to be grandfathered in is testament to that.)

 

[drgregory]

Am I hurting the profession? Probably. Do I care? No.

your soul is lost. i am giving up on you.

 

[xmattODx]

your soul is lost. i am giving up on you.

My soul? My dream of optometry is not the optometry that exists. I'll continue to strive to redeem my soul by helping to create optometry in developing countries. Thanks for worrying about my soul though.

 

[cpw]

My soul? My dream of optometry is not the optometry that exists. I'll continue to strive to redeem my soul by helping to create optometry in developing countries. Thanks for worrying about my soul though.

matt, are you getting an MPH ?

 

[xmattODx]

matt, are you getting an MPH ?

Yes. My thesis is near completion and I should graduate mid-May.

 

[cpw]

Yes. My thesis is near completion and I should graduate mid-May.

Congrats !! 😀 If you ever do set up a mission trip... let me know. I've always wanted to do one, but never had the money in OD school to go.

 

[xmattODx]

To further this tangent...

If you ever do set up a mission trip... let me know.

The crux of my thesis is that "missions" do very little for the receipient country and are discouraged by all major "blindness prevention" organizations and, therefore, should be discontinued. 😉

Now on with our regularly scheduled program. I think we were discussing the state of my soul...

 

[cpw]

To further this tangent...



The crux of my thesis is that "missions" do very little for the receipient country and are discouraged by all major "blindness prevention" organizations and, therefore, should be discontinued. 😉

Now on with our regularly scheduled program. I think we were discussing the state of my soul...

that sounds like a whole other thread

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Do I love my job? No. Am I grateful commercial optometry exists? Yes. The private practitioners say that we commercial folk need to sacrafice pay for the "good of the profession". What are y'all sacraficing? Am I hurting the profession? Probably. Do I care? No. I don't agree with where the leadership of this profession is pushing optometry (and the $1400 I just paid to take CE to get orals in WA state because I took Boards 6 months too early to be grandfathered in is testament to that.)

2 questions:
1) What is the current leadership doing that you disagree with?
2) Since you had to pay for those CE classes, I'm assuming that your employer doesn't pay for them. Is this correct?

 

[xmattODx]

In order to futher alienate myself from the more outspoken optometrists on this board and in our profession... here we go:

1) What is the current leadership doing that you disagree with?

I believe that optometry is pushing far too hard for the medicilization of the profession. I am grateful for those who laid the ground work to get us to where we are today but I think that optometry should be a refractive profession that can treat anterior segment disease and glaucoma - with topicals. I think that optometrists should remember their roots as a profession that looks at vision in a holistic fashion. Spectacle correction is a powerful tool and the medical model of prescribe what you find is flawed. We should stay out of all forms of surgery. We should leave prescribing orals to physicians and our desire to be seen as part of the medical community is silly. We are optometrists.

2) Since you had to pay for those CE classes, I'm assuming that your employer doesn't pay for them. Is this correct?

I don't think that my employer in GA would be thrilled about paying for me to get CE that is only valuable in WA state. 😉 If I were full-time (I am not) with my current employer I would be eligible for a reimbursment of $300 for CE a year. As a part-timer I get nada. I didn't even get the Christmas bonus (a gift certificate to a local steak place) that everyone else got. 😕 Maybe I should take that as a sign!

 

[drgregory]

I think that optometry should be a refractive profession

dear lucifer of optometry,
why? is it because you do 6 refractions/hour for $9 each? maybe you just dont get the chance to treat some eye disease while youre perched in the back of your "store". i wish you would have went for you MPH right away - we'd be less one refraction jockey calling themselves an optometrist. and no, we are not physicians, nor should we be surgeons. we are, however, eye doctors (at least most of us), which includes treating all non-surgical problems involving the eye - that is what our training included. i must have missed or entirely slept through "refraction jockey 101", which you seem to have excelled at.

 

[xmattODx]

dear lucifer of optometry,
why? is it because you do 6 refractions/hour for $9 each? maybe you just dont get the chance to treat some eye disease while youre perched in the back of your "store". i wish you would have went for you MPH right away - we'd be less one refraction jockey calling themselves an optometrist. and no, we are not physicians, nor should we be surgeons. we are, however, eye doctors (at least most of us), which includes treating all non-surgical problems involving the eye - that is what our training included. i must have missed or entirely slept through "refraction jockey 101", which you seem to have excelled at.

Dearest Dr. Gregory,
Please re-read my post. Thanks,
Lucifer

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I believe that optometry is pushing far too hard for the medicilization of the profession. I am grateful for those who laid the ground work to get us to where we are today but I think that optometry should be a refractive profession that can treat anterior segment disease and glaucoma - with topicals. I think that optometrists should remember their roots as a profession that looks at vision in a holistic fashion. Spectacle correction is a powerful tool and the medical model of prescribe what you find is flawed. We should stay out of all forms of surgery. We should leave prescribing orals to physicians and our desire to be seen as part of the medical community is silly. We are optometrists.

I don't mean this in a bad way, but you remind me of the WWII era optometrists (by this, I mean those who started practicing right after the way). Dealt with some medical (mainly topicals, once they got them), but focused more on helping people see cleary. Obviously, that means there is some medical involved but not near as much. Best pair of glasses I ever had (crisp as you can imagine and fit just perfectly) were done by an OD who was in his 70s. I think wanting to be excellent in the vision science part of optometry is a great goal. To my mind, that's the biggest advantage of seeing an OD over an MD for yearly checkups.
As to orals.... that's tricky. If you have a patient with a corneal abrasion that, while not deep enough to scar, if very painful.... what's wrong with a few days of lortab for them? Or the patient that presents with allergic conjunctivitis but no other allergies, would you object to putting them on some zyrtec? On the other hand, I can understand reluctance to get into things like prednisone.

I don't think that my employer in GA would be thrilled about paying for me to get CE that is only valuable in WA state. 😉 If I were full-time (I am not) with my current employer I would be eligible for a reimbursment of $300 for CE a year. As a part-timer I get nada. I didn't even get the Christmas bonus (a gift certificate to a local steak place) that everyone else got. 😕 Maybe I should take that as a sign!

The one thing you have to give private practice is the ability to take more money for CE and then write it off later. There's a good reason the AOA holds their meetings in Vegas, Orlando, and New Orleans.
As a side note, you should fight for that christmas bonus. CE reimbursement is one thing, but a good dinner is a whole new level.

 

[xmattODx]

I don't mean this in a bad way, but you remind me of the WWII era optometrists

I'm not sure I was entirely clear. It is, after all, very hot down here. I have nothing against treating ocular disease. A line has to be drawn somewhere though. If I were king of the world - wait, depending on your religious view I may already be - I would draw it at orals. This is mostly because of current optometric training.

I see the optometric pendulum swinging too far to the medical side and we are forgetting refractive type things. By refractive I mean, VT, Low Vision, etc. I would also throw in neuro-rehab, etc. We will lose refraction to opticians and the rest to OTs as we pursue orals, and injectables. How many ODs actually use those things anyway? The majority of ODs I've seen in practice don't even use their DPAs.

I can already claim my CE on my taxes. I was an indepent contractor for Helen Keller International, and I'll be doing other things that ensure I don't lose out on over $5000 of travel, a silly course to allow me to prescribe orals, and hotel.

 

[nicnicinc]

I'll be 37 when I enter the Optometry program at UMSL this August. Never once has anyone told me that it's "too late" for me to do so...This is after 13.5 years working in IT as a software engineer/custom software developer.

Thanks for your answer. By the way, If the OAT exam difficult? How did you prepare for it? Did you go to Kaplan or somthing like this?

 

[drgregory]

If I were king of the world - wait, depending on your religious view I may already be

😀 even i laughed at that one.

 

[bobby116]

As, far as IT/MD/OD/PharmD is......IT is sure not a good choice as jobs are going overseas and more and more cheap Indian labor are coming so average IT salary will sure going down.

MD is a good choice of career but forget a family life and graduate around when you are 40 with a lot of student loan.

OD is a good choice if you want some family life and above average good salary. People call you Doctor........and you sit on a chair....most of the time.... you have a choice to work for Corp/own/VA etc...

PharmD is a choice if you want to work like an animal as all Pharms are just filling up prescriptions standing for hours sometimes without breaks...but yes right now good money but as more pharmD are graduating salary will go down

Good luck

 

[IndianaOD]

I think another problem is that currently MDs control medical insurance. Since there is no importance placed on non-medical/non-surgical services by MDs reimbursments keep going down. Its quicker and more lucrative to spend 10mins on a 99214 and get a good reimbursment than spend 20mins on a BV case and get paid less than half. This is really unfortunate because I think BV is very powerful and can greatly change lives. Insurances don't pay because MDs don't understand it. A lot of times it takes much more education and thought to solve a BV issue than manage glaucoma or other medical issue.

 

[RSLilly]

all Pharms are just filling up prescriptions standing for hours sometimes without breaks

Commercial work is only one of many options out there for graduating PharmDs.

 

[ttn003]

As, far as IT/MD/OD/PharmD is......IT is sure not a good choice as jobs are going overseas and more and more cheap Indian labor are coming so average IT salary will sure going down.

MD is a good choice of career but forget a family life and graduate around when you are 40 with a lot of student loan.

OD is a good choice if you want some family life and above average good salary. People call you Doctor........and you sit on a chair....most of the time.... you have a choice to work for Corp/own/VA etc...

PharmD is a choice if you want to work like an animal as all Pharms are just filling up prescriptions standing for hours sometimes without breaks...but yes right now good money but as more pharmD are graduating salary will go down

Good luck

Hahha...your job description on pharmacy is pretty funny...

 

[genie123]

After reading many of the posts on this forum, I can tell that people are more worried about what kind of car they are going to drive once they graduate than the people they will help. No wonder our healthcare system is in shambles. Physicians are way too greedy in America....evryone is too greedy in America......Most clinical staff are over-paid and think they are god

 

[docwatson]

I'm not sure I was entirely clear. It is, after all, very hot down here. I have nothing against treating ocular disease. A line has to be drawn somewhere though. If I were king of the world - wait, depending on your religious view I may already be - I would draw it at orals. This is mostly because of current optometric training.

I see the optometric pendulum swinging too far to the medical side and we are forgetting refractive type things. By refractive I mean, VT, Low Vision, etc. I would also throw in neuro-rehab, etc. We will lose refraction to opticians and the rest to OTs as we pursue orals, and injectables. How many ODs actually use those things anyway? The majority of ODs I've seen in practice don't even use their DPAs.

Very interesting...

But if you think about it... Where can we possibly go after this? What kinds of surgeries would be appropriate with the education that we have? If you ask me, we've pretty much used up all of our options for scope of practice unless something else comes along.

But... Getting oral privileges and even injectables may be extremely important if more advanced drugs come along to treat glaucoma, dry macular degeneration, etc. What will happen if we cure glaucoma with an oral med and your state doesn't have any oral privileges? Yeah, more fighting for the right to prescribe obviously, but it helps to already have the right. Right now, oral and injectable privileges are really not necessary. I would like injectables and minor lid surgeries because I think it would be fun and I wouldn't have to refer out to the surgical techs (i.e. OMDs )

It would be nice if we got paid well for vision therapy, binocular vision, and low vision. I think we all know it's all about where the money is. SHOW ME THE MONEY! And it's one reason why we've tried so hard to expand our scope of practice and why so many ODs are promoting optometric/medical treatment.

I think it is sad that so many people are not treated properly but it is difficult when the treatments cannot be paid for. You know how people are when they don't have insurance or it won't pay for the procedure/treatment...

 

[xmattODx]

Very interesting...

Its funny that this thread has been brought back. It is well over a year old. The neat thing about the internet is that it allows for instant communication. The bad thing is that it holds onto that instant communication forever. I haven't gone back to read what I wrote a year and a half ago but I can tell you that when it was written I was working quite possibly the worst optometry job available to mankind. I had also just paid a small fortune (which I didn't have) X 2 (for my wife as well) to take the same classes from the same professors as I did in Optometry school. All for the privilege of maintaining my WA license (need to be certified for Orals). So anything I said is tainted by my mindset at that time.

Since then I left clinical optometry for 9 months and have just (much to my chagrin) returned to seeing patients. Both in a commercial setting and a private practice (in both places as an independent contractor).

Bottom line for those who go back and read old threads. Don't listen to anything I have to say outside of something that sounds public health related.

Don't really enjoy optometry (not because its not challenging, or fun, or doesn't pay well but because I really hate seeing patients).

Hopefully, fingers crossed, this will be the last year I have to see said patients...

...but it probably won't be. 🙄

 

[docwatson]

Its funny that this thread has been brought back. It is well over a year old. The neat thing about the internet is that it allows for instant communication. The bad thing is that it holds onto that instant communication forever. I haven't gone back to read what I wrote a year and a half ago but I can tell you that when it was written I was working quite possibly the worst optometry job available to mankind. I had also just paid a small fortune (which I didn't have) X 2 (for my wife as well) to take the same classes from the same professors as I did in Optometry school. All for the privilege of maintaining my WA license (need to be certified for Orals). So anything I said is tainted by my mindset at that time.

Since then I left clinical optometry for 9 months and have just (much to my chagrin) returned to seeing patients. Both in a commercial setting and a private practice (in both places as an independent contractor).

Bottom line for those who go back and read old threads. Don't listen to anything I have to say outside of something that sounds public health related.

Don't really enjoy optometry (not because its not challenging, or fun, or doesn't pay well but because I really hate seeing patients).

Hopefully, fingers crossed, this will be the last year I have to see said patients...

...but it probably won't be. 🙄

It's funny that I didn't even notice the dates. All I saw was that there was a post as of yesterday so I responded to the thread. Haven't been to the site in over a year.

Turns out this thread is even more interesting...

You really hate seeing patients? Maybe optometry isn't for everyone or you just haven't found your true calling in the profession.

What is the 9 month thing? Do you mean you were in clinical optometry for 9 months or you've been away from optometry altogether for 9 months? I'll have to check in from time to time to see how you are doing. I'd like to see what your attitude is like as you go through life. As I said in other posts, my first 4 years as an OD was a nightmare...

 

[xmattODx]

What is the 9 month thing? Do you mean you were in clinical optometry for 9 months or you've been away from optometry altogether for 9 months?

I was out of clinical optometry for 9 months.

I'll have to check in from time to time to see how you are doing. I'd like to see what your attitude is like as you go through life. As I said in other posts, my first 4 years as an OD was a nightmare...

I graduated five years ago.

 

[docwatson]

I was out of clinical optometry for 9 months.

I still don't know what that means. What were you doing for 9 months then? It's one thing to say, "I was out of optometry for 9 months" vs "I was out of clinical optometry for 9 months".

 

[xmattODx]

I still don't know what that means. What were you doing for 9 months then? It's one thing to say, "I was out of optometry for 9 months" vs "I was out of clinical optometry for 9 months".

Teaching optometry overseas.

 

[docwatson]

Teaching optometry overseas.

Apparently didn't cut it for you and you wanted out? Or was your assignment up and you couldn't do anything about it?

So why don't you like seeing patients? Is it that you aren't in the right environment, you don't like people, or you just plain don't like your profession?

Just curious...

 

[gochi]

.

 

[xmattODx]

Apparently didn't cut it for you and you wanted out? Or was your assignment up and you couldn't do anything about it?

So why don't you like seeing patients? Is it that you aren't in the right environment, you don't like people, or you just plain don't like your profession?

Just curious...

We cut it just fine. My wife couldn't cut it for another semester, though. The isolation of two westerners in Palestine is nothing to scoff at. The money was barely meeting my student loan payments as well. It was well worth it and we miss it every day. 🙁

I like optometry. I like the idea of people. I don't like the reality of people. My patients don't realize this about me, however. I think I could grow to like seeing patients in the right environment but having worked a lot of commercial in the past number of years you get some doozies .

I regret nothing and would change nothing about my educational experiences.

 

[cpw]

I like optometry. I like the idea of people. I don't like the reality of people.

I think this is true in a lot of situations. Comparing what you've seen in Palestine to coming home to "I want my 10 yo son to wear colored contacts so he has blue eyes like me" would make me a little mad at humanity as well. I truly envy the experiences you've had, Matt !

 

[docwatson]

We cut it just fine. My wife couldn't cut it for another semester, though. The isolation of two westerners in Palestine is nothing to scoff at. The money was barely meeting my student loan payments as well. It was well worth it and we miss it every day. 🙁

I like optometry. I like the idea of people. I don't like the reality of people. My patients don't realize this about me, however. I think I could grow to like seeing patients in the right environment but having worked a lot of commercial in the past number of years you get some doozies .

I regret nothing and would change nothing about my educational experiences.

Ahhhhhhh... I see... There are plenty of docs who hate what they are doing so I thought I would ask. Good that you like what you are doing but maybe yo just don't have the right environment for you.

Private practice definitely has its rewards. You get the best of the best patients typically. People that truly care about their health. Well, not all of them do, and there are exceptions in commercial optometry. It's just a different environment as you know. That's all I'm saying.

Work on getting your own practice and you will love optometry a lot more. I realize you like the freedom of specifying your hours but I can do myself as well. Depends on the practice I suppose. I only work 3.5 days per week. My associate works 4.5 days. I could cut back even more but at this point it wouldn't be advisable. Anyway... You could have a practice where you can pick and choose the days you work and get someone else to make up the hours. I'm planning on cutting back as I get older until I'm down to one day per week or every other week.

 

[ddown]

XmattodX,

How does one go about getting involved with teaching optometry overseas? I will finish my residency this next year and would love to spend a semester or so overseas teaching if I could swing it. Thanks.

 

[JAZZEYE]

delete

 

[xmattODx]

XmattodX,

How does one go about getting involved with teaching optometry overseas? I will finish my residency this next year and would love to spend a semester or so overseas teaching if I could swing it. Thanks.

Hey,
Feel free to call me Matt. I hope that you find your residency year rewarding.

I can think of three reasons why someone would want to teach optometry overseas:

1) Looking for adventure/travel
2) A desire to break into academia
3) Interest in developing optometry in under served countries.

If your interest is in 1) you might want to consider New Zealand. I've met a couple of people that did a stint down there. I think you need to stay for a minimum of a year. They start accepting applications in January. University of Auckland for more information.

If your interest is in 2) you might want to contact PCO. My understanding is that they have a few optometrists who teach part-time in Scandinavian countries, maybe Israel, and possibly other places. I'm not entirely familiar with the program but it's through the Center for International Studies

If your interest is in 3) you have a few more options. An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine is desperate for help. DESPERATE. If you were to contact them I'm sure the first question they will ask after learning you're an OD would be: "When can you get here?". The students are great over there. We felt very safe and they have a need. An-Najah click on Faculties to find a contact email.

I've also met a couple of people who have done short-term stints in Nigeria. I can put you in contact with one of them if this interests you.

You should also consider contacting the World Council of Optometry and inquiring about their fellowship program. You fill out a form expressing interest and they try to find you a place to go and do something. WCO Fellowship.

One problem with public health optometry is that it is an incestuous field. Its more about who you know rather than what you know. If you're really interested I'm sure you'll find something somewhere.

Let me know if I can be of any further help.

 

[ddown]

Matt,

Thanks for the info! My wife and I have always wanted to spend some time overseas. I'll check those organizations out. Now to figure out what to do about those darn mortgage-sized loans! Ah, optometry.......

And back to the topic at hand.... after all the years, hard-work, and gigantic loans required of this profession, I do sometimes really wonder if it's going to be worth it as I look ahead at the all real issues facing optometry. If I knew what I know now just going into school, I would think long and hard about my decision to be an optometrist. Just some food for thought for all you prospective or 1st year students out there.

 

[nampa1]

Matt,

Thanks for the info! My wife and I have always wanted to spend some time overseas. I'll check those organizations out. Now to figure out what to do about those darn mortgage-sized loans! Ah, optometry.......

And back to the topic at hand.... after all the years, hard-work, and gigantic loans required of this profession, I do sometimes really wonder if it's going to be worth it as I look ahead at the all real issues facing optometry. If I knew what I know now just going into school, I would think long and hard about my decision to be an optometrist. Just some food for thought for all you prospective or 1st year students out there.

Could you clarify about "issues" facing optometry? It is hard to find opt info.

 

[JAZZEYE]

After reading many of the posts on this forum, I can tell that people are more worried about what kind of car they are going to drive once they graduate than the people they will help. No wonder our healthcare system is in shambles. Physicians are way too greedy in America....evryone is too greedy in America......Most clinical staff are over-paid and think they are god

WOW !

 

[IndianaOD]

Could you clarify about "issues" facing optometry? It is hard to find opt info.

Spend some time in the "Naive OD students" thread and you will be well educated.

 

[seminolefish]

I think I've finally decided to make a switch from optometry to pharmacy. There are many reasons pharmacy is more appealing to me but I overlooked that for awhile because of the appeal of optometry school. The idea of owning my own business was swell until I started working for a solo practice and realizing how much work is involved. With the issue of oversupply and less and less of these private practices becoming a reality, the future does seem hazzy. I'm really considering pharmD now also because of tuition and I would really rather inform people about medications over looking at their eyes. I just never really thought about it until now as I'm applying for opto school which is completely my fault and I'll most llikely have to wait a year to apply for pharm school. :-( BUT im doing what makes me happy and thats what matters!!

 

[blazenmadison]

I think I've finally decided to make a switch from optometry to pharmacy. There are many reasons pharmacy is more appealing to me but I overlooked that for awhile because of the appeal of optometry school. The idea of owning my own business was swell until I started working for a solo practice and realizing how much work is involved. With the issue of oversupply and less and less of these private practices becoming a reality, the future does seem hazzy. I'm really considering pharmD now also because of tuition and I would really rather inform people about medications over looking at their eyes. I just never really thought about it until now as I'm applying for opto school which is completely my fault and I'll most llikely have to wait a year to apply for pharm school. :-( BUT im doing what makes me happy and thats what matters!!

Hmmm have you interned with a pharmD? many pharmacy students were pharm techs to get experience.
hope it makes u happy!

 

[seminolefish]

im in the process of shadowing one and then hopefully working for one. i need to see everything they do before i really make a decision. was your "hope it makes you happy!" comment sarcastic? just wondering. do you yourself enjoy optometry?

 

[gochi]

I'm still considering optometry and pharmacy, but there's one thing that I really like about optometry that pharmacy can offer but usually doesn't. As an optometrist, eventually I would probably be able to have my own practice and be my own boss. It seems anymore that most pharmacists work for a retail chain and don't own their own pharmacy. Even if I could make more money working for someone else, there's just something really attractive about having my own practice and being my own boss.

Does or did anyone else think of that when they were deciding a career to pursue?

Is it possible for a pharmacist to net 55k ?

 

[thanotoriousfob]

Is it possible for a pharmacist to net 55k ?

lol still at it?

 

[gochi]

lol still at it?

😕

 

[FishPharm]

As, far as IT/MD/OD/PharmD is......IT is sure not a good choice as jobs are going overseas and more and more cheap Indian labor are coming so average IT salary will sure going down.

MD is a good choice of career but forget a family life and graduate around when you are 40 with a lot of student loan.

OD is a good choice if you want some family life and above average good salary. People call you Doctor........and you sit on a chair....most of the time.... you have a choice to work for Corp/own/VA etc...

PharmD is a choice if you want to work like an animal as all Pharms are just filling up prescriptions standing for hours sometimes without breaks...but yes right now good money but as more pharmD are graduating salary will go down

Good luck

I love how people who know nothing about pharmacy always say that all pharmacist do is stand on their feet all day and count pills....lol. And these same optometrists want to prescrible oral medications...LOL...thats even more funny. For one, I would NEVER fill a Lortab prescription from an optometrist like another ***** in another post had said. Pharmacy is one of the most diverse medical professions in healthcare .... and we are doctors in our area of expertise just like you. But if I had a choice of studying the eyeball for 4 years or studying pharmacotherapy of diseases of the body like pharmacy I would pick the latter every time. Retail pharmacy is just one option for doctor of pharmacy students. A retail pharmacist does stand on their feet alot but I would say 99% of them don't count pills, they look for drug interactions, counsel patients, diagnose, verified filled prescriptions, educate on various disease states, vaccinations etc....the list goes on and on. Its never a dull moment in retail. I would much rather do that then star at someones eyeballs all day long. Pharmacist have way more patient contact than optometrists. Most people can count on their right hand how many times they even go to the eye doctor and when I do I opt for an opthamologist. I don't mean this to sound harsh but optometry is a much more limited field than pharmacy.... but it's a good profession. As a pharmacist you have so many choices when you graduate like: retail (chain and independent), management, nuclear pharmacy, disease state management pharmacists (diabetic educators etc), clinical pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, long term care facility pharmacy, consultants, mail order........there are many many more. That is why there is so many people going into pharmacy. The average annual pharmacist wage for graduates is 110-120k a year .... it is even more if you complete a 1 or 2 year residency. I do feel that they are opening up way too many pharmacy schools. But I've heard they are also opening up more and more optometry programs. So will there be a decline in salary??....I'm not sure. But I do know if salary goes down too much enrollment will go way down. No one will want to go through 8 years of college and a possible residency to not make a good 6 figure salary....epecially if tuition keeps climbing. So, not to be doom and gloom but I feel the demand for pharmacy will go one much longer than optometry simply because of how diverse pharmacy is and how important pharmacists are to just about every area of healthcare. What optometry has going for it now is there isn't near the amount of schools like pharmacy. If we (pharmacy) had the same number of schools optometry did right now our salary would be 300k a year or more. So my suggestion for anyone going into a medical profession is to think very carefully about it..... the more divers the field the better and longer the demand will be.

 

[mclem222]

optometry blows away pharmacy in my opinion. Pharmacists just dispense drugs. They don't treat patients. Optometry you have patients you treat and give advice to. As a pharmacist you are a dispenser.

 

[nc2tarheels]

fishpharm is trolling. This is the second thread you've pulled up thats old as hell. What's your point of doing so? Get real.

 

[FishPharm]

optometry blows away pharmacy in my opinion. Pharmacists just dispense drugs. They don't treat patients. Optometry you have patients you treat and give advice to. As a pharmacist you are a dispenser.

LOL apparently you need to make yourself some glasses, not sure if you've had that class yet or not because pharmacists do way more than dispense pills ... that would be a pharmacy techinican's job. Pharmacists are involved with every part of healthcare that relates to medication, that is why you will see pharmacists on every floor of every hospital. When physicians do rounds a pharmacist is always part of that team. When I do rounds I've never seen an optometrist..lol. Pharmacist treat patients every day, especially in retail. Any recommendation we make to a patient is from a diagnosis we make. I personally don't feel that putting a machine infront of a patients face and asking, " Tell me which is clearer.... 1,2, or 3" is really treating patients...lol. Getting on here an slamming the pharmacy profession won't make your field any more diverse.... im sorry but it won't. The fact is your limitation is to the eye and if someone has a big problem they go see an opthamologist. By the way, two more optometry schools are opening up in Virginia.