Pharmacy Residency Pro/Con

[Chillz87]

Hi everyone,

With midyear coming up, my colleagues and I figured this may be a helpful video to individuals that are considering whether or not to do a residency. We walk through some of the pros and cons of a pharmacy residency.



Hope it helps! We're also releasing another video next week about whether or not to register for ASHP's PPS.

Brian

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[Chillz87]

Here's one about PPS:

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

i saw the video on residencies. in my opinion the cons very much outweigh the pros. if you're someone who isn't passionate about pharmacy and has other hobbies, interests, pursuits outside of pharmacy then a residency doesn't really make sense. financial set back, life set back, and the biggest kicker of them all: no guarantee for a job. the job market is TOUGH out there. it will only get worse. i'm surprised the people on the panel did not touch heavily on that. we all want to work and get paid right? having residency training can be good but at the end of the day you either have a job or you don't

 

[Chillz87]

i saw the video on residencies. in my opinion the cons very much outweigh the pros. if you're someone who isn't passionate about pharmacy and has other hobbies, interests, pursuits outside of pharmacy then a residency doesn't really make sense. financial set back, life set back, and the biggest kicker of them all: no guarantee for a job. the job market is TOUGH out there. it will only get worse. i'm surprised the people on the panel did not touch heavily on that. we all want to work and get paid right? having residency training can be good but at the end of the day you either have a job or you don't

I'm glad you pointed that out and I couldn't agree more! Residency is a choice, which is why I decided to go with a pro/con vs. a 'you must do a residency' video. There is an insane amount of sacrifice that comes with residency and every pharmacy student should heavily consider what those are before going down that path. Residency is certainly not a good investment for some individuals.

You nailed it on the head about the job market as well. Pharmacy is oversaturated and it continually gets worse. So at the end of the day, a job that pays the bills is a critical factor. Personally, I love infectious disease and was going to do a PGY2 in infectious disease, but decided against it because there weren't many ID jobs on the market. Even if I did the residency, i probably would be jobless - to your exact point. I was also fortunate that the first publication of the pharmacy forecast 2013-2017 came out that year and it predicted that 1) we're saturated, 2) we have no shortage of residency-trained pharmacists (so residency doesn't guarantee job), and 3) we have a huge gap in informatics-trained pharmacists. Thus, I doubled-down on an informatics pg2 figuring i'll get my pick of jobs after graduation. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I recommend residency for everyone, no. I hope we have more individuals weigh in on pros/cons of residency so future pharmacy students can make an educated decision on what they're getting themselves into. Appreciate you chiming in!!