Pharmacy Internships

[lalaland33]

Hello, I just got accepted into Texas Tech pharmacy school and I'm thinking a little too far ahead. I have some questions about pharmacy internships (retail and hospital) for anyone who has done one to get some info.

1) When do students apply for internship positions? I know you can apply for the internship license only after the first year so do most pharmacy students start internships after P1?
2) What is the internship at retail like?
3) What is the internship at hospital like?
4) Are there some other internships that some of you guys liked a lot that isn't hospital or retail?
5) Texas Tech offers an MBA dual degree program with the PharmD which is during the summer (meaning I won't be able to work as many hours as I'd like) so which would be more impressive to an employer? Internship experience or an MBA?

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[someonesomething]

Can't speak for hospital but having been an intern for CVS and Walgreens. . . An internship in retail is just a retail job with slightly better pay and the promise of a job interview when you graduate pharmacy school.

1) You can start working retail whenever your state allows, but you can't be an intern at that company until your first professional year (P1). If you already work at that chain, then they can promote you/make you apply for the intern position. If you don't already work at a pharmacy, you can apply for an intern position straight away.
2) Suffering. Kidding! Retail is different for everyone and it depends on your store, location, hours, coworkers, a lot of different factors really. Some people are really good at retail and some people aren't. It's pretty much what you imagine a pharmacy job to be, filling and selling prescriptions, dealing with patients yelling at you, a never-ending drive-thru. But there's also the parts that come with being a pharmacy student, the chance to help counsel, the chance to offer medication advice and help patients, the ability to help your coworkers understand things about medications.
3) Pretty sure it's just a hospital technician job with the pharmacy intern title? Fill scripts in the hospital and deliver it to the floors
4) I never did it, but you can do summer internships in managed care (insurance companies) or industry (pharma companies like Novartis, BMS, J&J, NovoNordisk, etc.)
5) What job are you looking to get? An MBA won't mean as much if you want to work in clinical pharmacy or retail pharmacy, but if you're looking to be a manager for corporate retail or work in pharma industry and MBA would mean a lot. Internship experience is universally good for applying to your first job, but an MBA would be good in the long run when switching jobs, starting jobs, etc.

 

[lalaland33]

5) What job are you looking to get? An MBA won't mean as much if you want to work in clinical pharmacy or retail pharmacy, but if you're looking to be a manager for corporate retail or work in pharma industry and MBA would mean a lot. Internship experience is universally good for applying to your first job, but an MBA would be good in the long run when switching jobs, starting jobs, etc.

I am not very interested in retail. I don't mind working in retail as a tech but I do feel I would be extremely bored as a pharmacist in retail. But I was thinking of doing the MBA just to make myself stand out when it comes to applying for jobs (as of now I am interested in hospital pharmacy -obviously it may change over the course of the next 4 years) or maybe being able to work for some company (medical literature), or even the FDA. But it seems that the MBA is very "controversial" so I'm nervous that I'm getting into something that may take away something valuable like more time for an internship.

Also, thanks so much for the input! One more question about retail internships...do you get to do any verifying???

 

[newenglandboy]

No verifying at any jobs unless you're a pharmacist. Being an intern at a retail store is like being a super technician. You get to have a little more responsibility once you become an intern and can do things like counsel, immunize, compound meds, and other rph tasks while under rph supervision. Experience will vary based on area, state laws, and the pharmacy staff you work with. intern pay tends to be standardized across chains meaning your pay is dependent on what school year you are. when i was an intern, it took me until my last year before i made more than one tech who was hired <6 months, though for the most part i made close to or more than most techs of similar seniority.
Working in a pharmacy prior to graduation is highly recommended not only for experience, but also for learning. much of what you learn is acquired on-the-job. landing a job post-grad with little working experience will be significantly more difficult than someone who worked throughout school. honestly in my opinion, the mba is something that would be more beneficial later in your career (5-10 years post grad) vs. helping you immediately for the first job.