Pharmacy Career Questions

[staroceanX]

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I'm a prospective student for pharmacy school. I'm interested in pharmacy career but don't know much about it. Here are some of my questions that concerns me:

1. Is it boring being a retail (community) pharmacist where u just stay at a small pharmacy in a grocery store and counting pills? What are some of the excitment pharmacists have in retail? (people interaction?)

2. How much patient interaction and drug discussions do clinical pharmacists have? I heard it's more exciting than retail, but what's the real difference?

3. People tends to stereotype of a pharmacist being a boring, no socializing, and non-creative profession that makes good salary. How much creativity is involved in the profession?

4. Many of my instructors said to find a job that I love. If you're already a pharmacist, what's the best satisfaction (besides money) that you find in the profession? Would you trade your job for anything else?

Sorry for all the annoying questions. I'm just extremely frustrated with all these career hunting. I really find pharmacy could potentially be a great profession, but i just need to know more abou it. Thanks for reading them!!

 

[Glycerin]

I'm a prospective student for pharmacy school. I'm interested in pharmacy career but don't know much about it. Here are some of my questions that concerns me:

1. Is it boring being a retail (community) pharmacist where u just stay at a small pharmacy in a grocery store and counting pills? What are some of the excitment pharmacists have in retail? (people interaction?)

2. How much patient interaction and drug discussions do clinical pharmacists have? I heard it's more exciting than retail, but what's the real difference?

3. People tends to stereotype of a pharmacist being a boring, no socializing, and non-creative profession that makes good salary. How much creativity is involved in the profession?

4. Many of my instructors said to find a job that I love. If you're already a pharmacist, what's the best satisfaction (besides money) that you find in the profession? Would you trade your job for anything else?

Sorry for all the annoying questions. I'm just extremely frustrated with all these career hunting. I really find pharmacy could potentially be a great profession, but i just need to know more abou it. Thanks for reading them!!

Did you check out the FAQ posted at the top of the pre-pharmacy forum (where this thread may or may not need to be...)? If not, there's a link on my signature, so just click that. 🙂

 

[kwakster928]

1. Is it boring being a retail (community) pharmacist where u just stay at a small pharmacy in a grocery store and counting pills? What are some of the excitment pharmacists have in retail? (people interaction?)

I only have limited experience w/ retail, but i can say that it is totally depends on the individual. one of the pharmacist i shadowed did not want to deal with people at all. all he did was quality control. make sure it was the right drug no interaction etc. he was in front of the computer most of the time, didn't leave that computer that much. he was extremely quiet as well. on another pharmacist i have actually worked w/ gave me totally different prospective in retail pharmacy. the pharmacy he worked at already had robots who counted and labled most common medications, and techs took care of the rest of the prescritions that are not being handled by the robot. what he did was that not only he checked all the work but he actually took his time to go meet the patients and explained the use of the medication and possible side effects to the patients. he took time to explain in common terms, especially to elders who happen to pick up multiple prescriptions at a time. he did that for most of the prescriptions. he even rang the register. my point here is that the experience can be quite different among individuals and their personality. it is how you want to make use of the skill. obviously one pharmacist who was actively involved with patients used his knowledge at use but other not as much as. yes retail can be very boring. yes you deal with a lot of stuff that you really shouldn't be.

2. How much patient interaction and drug discussions do clinical pharmacists have? I heard it's more exciting than retail, but what's the real difference?

I work at a cancer cancer. the pharmacist at my place are charged with explaining medication use to the pt. upon discharge. the pharmacist here also talk to family members regarding any medication that pt is on and what we can expect from the medication. the pharmacist here doesn't get as much as pt interaction as one in retail, but he is in contact w/ physicians and nurses constantly. he recomends some changes in dosage and answer any questions regarding any of the medication that pt used prior to being admitted. of course oncologist knows their drugs like no other but pharmacist are there when they have any question regarding that cancer drug that they are planning on using w/ other drugs that are not really in their scope of specialty.

3. People tends to stereotype of a pharmacist being a boring, no socializing, and non-creative profession that makes good salary. How much creativity is involved in the profession?

this stereotype occurs because most of the public only see us behind the counter counting pills. please note that while retail holds majority of the pharmacy jobs but that's not the only thing that you can do witht the pharmacy degree. you can work for the industry in marketing and sales, (this is where your creativity can shine), or medical writing if you are a good writer. you can be in charge of setting up a fomulary in healthcare plans. that does require a lot of knowledge in pharmacoeconomics. i belive in FAQ there is a link for pfizer pharmacy career book. take a look at that. what you can do with the pharmacy degree is endless. please dont think that retail and hospital/clinical pharmacy is that only ones out there.

4. Many of my instructors said to find a job that I love. If you're already a pharmacist, what's the best satisfaction (besides money) that you find in the profession? Would you trade your job for anything else?

i am not a pharmacist yet but i still think this is the best decision that i have ever made. you are getting paid good money because you do a serious work. some of you might not believe this but you have people's live on your hands. you can potentially kill someone if you screw up big time. this is a big responsibility. the most people end up hating the pharamcy are those who came to pharmacy school just for the quick cash after school. this is a profession. this is what you are going to be doing for rest of your lives. if you dont like it from the start what are the chances that you will like it 4, 10 years from now. you will get plenty of job satisfaction when you believe that everytime you dispence a medicaiton you feel good that you are making that pt better and you did your part of insuring the safty of that medication you just dispenced. if you look at it as "oh well there goes another pill bottle... " you are in a wrong field.

pardon my writing i just kind of typed it as thoughts came to my head. i hope you can follow through.

 

[bananaface]

pardon my writing i just kind of typed it as thoughts came to my head. i hope you can follow through.

Those are really good, thoughtful answers. 🙂

3. People tends to stereotype of a pharmacist being a boring, no socializing, and non-creative profession that makes good salary. How much creativity is involved in the profession?

That is less of a stereotype and more of a myth. Pharmacists are generally creative, problem solving individuals who think on their feet.

In some retail settings there is a big opportunity to interact with patients. In a more volume driven/understaffed retail setting, the amout of interaction decreases. Clinical or outpatient pharmacists have the most patient interaction in the hospital setting. Those working in an inpatient setting may have no patient contact whatsoever.

4. Many of my instructors said to find a job that I love. If you're already a pharmacist, what's the best satisfaction (besides money) that you find in the profession? Would you trade your job for anything else?

I am an intern at the moment, as I complete pharmacy school. The things that I really enjoy about my current job are fostering positive patient interactions and being a part of a close knit team.

 

[bananaface]

This thread is being moved to the Pre-Pharmacy forum, so that others interested in these questions can find them easily. 🙂

 

[staroceanX]

all the replies are extremely helpful. Thanks for the analysis of all my questions, kwakster928. I'll post more threads if i got more questions.

 

[baggywrinkle]

1. Is it boring being a retail (community) pharmacist where u just stay at a small pharmacy in a grocery store and counting pills? What are some of the excitment pharmacists have in retail? (people interaction?)

It can be tedious, but then all jobs can be. Excitement; realizing you have made an error that got out of the pharmacy to the patient. Excitement; having a customer take a swing at you because insurance won't pay for their meds. Excitement; having a customer thank you for catching a dosing error made by the physician. Excitement; having a customer tell you that you are the nicest pharmacist in town.

2. How much patient interaction and drug discussions do clinical pharmacists have? I heard it's more exciting than retail, but what's the real difference?

Some have none at all and must go out of their way to interface with patients directly. All their discussion is with nurses or practitioners. Indeed, hospital pharmacy can be a refuge for the socially challenged. Steps have been taken to remedy this by placing pharmacists on the floors, requiring pharmacists to do coumadin counseling or discharge counseling, placing satellites in clinics like oncology. The well adjusted retail pharmacist is a shmoozer like your insurance salesman and can easily talk about anything with anyone. He remembers dogs babys & hunting trips and will be
on a first name basis with his customers.

3. People tends to stereotype of a pharmacist being a boring, no socializing, and non-creative profession that makes good salary. How much creativity is involved in the profession?

We are not robots or dispensing machines in spite of what Matt Matt thinks about us. It is our job to make what the physician envisions actually happen
in real time with the materals at hand, then it is our job to explain what is going on in a way that a person with a sixth grade education can understand it. Sometimes you gotta be a freaking psychic to get it done safely

4. Many of my instructors said to find a job that I love. If you're already a pharmacist, what's the best satisfaction (besides money) that you find in the profession? Would you trade your job for anything else?

A winning lotto ticket would be nice because then I could practice pharmacy a few days a month when I felt like it rather than because I have to put food on the table. There is a big difference between the two

 

[OoShimmeroO]

VOLUNTEER or WORK in a pharmacy settting for at least 6 months. It's the only way you'll know. I can't stress this enough.