Last edited:
-
Hi Guest, applications open for the SDN Prehealth Scholarship!
$2500 to help prehealth students from under-resourced backgrounds - learn more and apply today! -
Scholarship Access: Becoming a Student Doctor course
Free access to comprehensive medical school prep. Eligible students include AAMC FAP recipients and HS graduates from underserved areas. Apply today.
Please help ASAP about dilemma
- Thread starter Rabbit99
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2016
- Messages
- 84
- Reaction score
- 35
- Points
- 4,621
- Medical Student
It seems you clicked on the wrong forum (this is psychiatry, not pharmacy). Regardless, are you still in undergrad? Most schools have career counseling services that are designed specifically for this sort of thing.
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2017
- Messages
- 161
- Reaction score
- 101
- Points
- 2,671
A PA is the closest you will get to practicing like a doctor with less debt and time. It has become an attractive field for a lot of people these days. The GRE should not be difficult if you study enough. It is easier than the MCAT by a long shot. I took it and did well by studying for a month, and I'm a horrible test taker.
If you have made good grades but possibly not too hot on the MCAT, I would suggest either taking it again or applying to a DO school. A pharmacist's job is completely different from a physician's job. You will not be happy in it if you enjoy the idea of speaking with patients and making the diagnosis yourself. Many people also take a gap year to improve their scores and allow them to apply more broadly. That is also an option. If you want to a be a doctor, do it first. You don't want to be that kid who thought he/she couldn't make it to med school, go into a different field, then realize they hate it and wasted time/money/effort.
Good luck
Choosing the right place in the medical field can be challenging. If you put aside thoughts about money and job availability aspects aside, than keep in mind that any jobs there are stressful and have fears. For example: choosing MD can stop from fear of blood; being nurse - fear of shots and other work, pharmacy- fear of missing the expiration date, mistake of preparation of med. this is just simple approximate examples, anesthesia- fear to kill by accident by giving more than suppose to.
For that reasons they do pay malpractice insurance. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful and think you are always protected.
But anyway, you need to think that in any choice you can't get away from the responsibility. You may be afraid now, by who knows when you will be trained and experienced, this fear will go away.
Btw, I asked one of the pharmtech in the hospital why they don't want to go further in their career, he simply said he doesn't want the responsibility, he said if pharmacist pay malpractice let him worried about. in a way he is right, at least he is honest
For that reasons they do pay malpractice insurance. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful and think you are always protected.
But anyway, you need to think that in any choice you can't get away from the responsibility. You may be afraid now, by who knows when you will be trained and experienced, this fear will go away.
Btw, I asked one of the pharmtech in the hospital why they don't want to go further in their career, he simply said he doesn't want the responsibility, he said if pharmacist pay malpractice let him worried about. in a way he is right, at least he is honest
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2017
- Messages
- 161
- Reaction score
- 101
- Points
- 2,671
If it offers you any insight, my brother went to med school and my cousin went to pharmacy school. He's doing a residency in IM (wants to specialize in nephrology), and he says it's not too often that he sees someone dies. Most of the time, it's a lot of routine work and people come in with the same problems. However, not all specialities are like that. When he was in med school in some clinical rotations, he saw some cases where death was inevitable. He saw people die, but he eventually got over it. It's not cruel, but you have to become slightly detached in order to perform your job. A lot of doctors may feel this.
Pharmacy school is slightly different. Yes, they teach you clinical skills and round with patients. But a lot of those patients aren't in a life/death situation. If they are, you aren't exposed to it in the same degree as a doctor/nurse. For many cases (like myself), it's better that way. I'm not comfortable being in the front line. If you like that, then med school/PA school may be more for you. You get the full experience with patients. You may be able to save someone's life. In pharmacy, you can prevent an accidental Rx from killing someone, but you won't be given a lot of credit for it.
So as a technician how often do you do compounding and calculations while working in a community pharmacy- is it maybe 30% of the time? Is there much less compounding nowdays? Just wondering
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
In my hospital they don't do calculations. They make simple syringes like magic mouth wash.
Also I don't know about programs in the other state, but in NY together with Naplex and law exam there is a 3rd part is making IV. You are given bunch of chemicals and you have to make some IV.
