Pharm. and med. residents

[konkan]

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Doesn't it look weird that although p. and m. residents make about the same amount of money (~35-40,000) after that their salaries differ so significantly? I am not trying to say pharmacists should get more or physicians should get less - it just looks weird.

 

[kwizard]

Doesn't it look weird that although p. and m. residents make about the same amount of money (~35-40,000) after that their salaries differ so significantly? I am not trying to say pharmacists should get more or physicians should get less - it just looks weird.

Sorry, but its hard to compare apples and oranges. I think the range in residencies for medical training is 3-7yrs (possibly some w/ greater than 7yrs). Then many also may have to do clinical fellowships (another 1-2yrs) to subspecialize.

As you progress through residency training in medicine your pay increases with PGY year so PGY2 makes more than PGY1 and so on. Hopefully pharmacy will at least be able to adopt the increase in pay from PGY1 to PGY2 as it tends to vary a little in pharmacy amongst regions.

The other issue is that those w/ comparable yrs of residency training (i.e. internal medicine, family practice?) who do ~3yrs of residency training typically don't make that much more than pharmacists (depending on how many hrs you put in and moonlighting) unless of course you are in a booming private practice. However, the retail pharmacist who owns there own store is typically doing way better than the avg as well. Lastly you have to take into consideration the amount of hrs MDs regardless of specialty put in on a weekly basis (typically a lot >40hrs/wk). Also they have the ability to bill and get reimbursed for various services which again makes comparisons a bit difficult.