CaliRx....you live in my area & I'm going to assume you're going to apply to CA schools primarily....with perhaps some out of state. If I'm wrong, then please disregard all my opinions.
For CA schools - I'd really not mention the phrase "clinical pharmacist" because in the current political pharmacy within this state, all the schools are graduating pharmacists with competent to excellent clinical skills.
The phrase "clinical pharmacist" has become trite, overused & frankly sets up & acknowledges a divide which the pharmacists within CA have seen is nonproductive. The trend is to have pharmacists in all practice settings facilitate safe, effective & appropriate drug use - not just within the framework of disease, but also acknowledging cost & expense realities. This involves not just use within inpt acute medicine, but also ambulatory care & smooth transitions between the two areas.
But - how should you phrase your interest (I'm not even sure what you mean by "clinical pharmacist" frankly....)?
You could indicate your interest in learning how to facilitate the most appropriate and effective use of drugs in a variety of practice settings. If acute inpt medicine is your interest...you might mention your interest in monitoring drug therapy to optimize outcomes and minimize adverse reactions or unnecessary expense (which requires learning about budgets, cost analysis in addition to physiology, pharmaceutical chemistry & pharmacology).
All practice settings involve a great degree of education from pharmacists. Acute inpt medicine requires us to develop monitoring protocols & educate a variety of professionals when new drugs are introduced or when older ones have been identified as being a source of drug errors.
Likewise, ambulatory pharmacy (which is your reference to "retail") requires pt or family education & now is being strongly pushed toward medication therapy management - which is reimbursement for the pharmacist to monitor a pts therapy for appropriateness, effectiveness & development of side effects. This is a new trend toward using pharmacists in the ambulatory setting in a more "clinical" role and is a first step toward reimbursing for service rather than for product, however, this has been done for years & years without reimbursement.
So......yes - indicate your interest - but use better wording. As for research....yes - if research is an interest of yours then by all means, include that. Be prepared to be able to discuss in an interview what area of research you're interested in & why.
Good luck!
