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I'm a career switcher looking to switch into a pharmacy career from a chemical engineering background. I've contemplated switching into this field for a very long time. To gain exposure to what I may be potentially getting myself into, and to avoid not enjoying this new career I currently volunteer at a hospital pharmacy. It looks like a very good job, but I am sure I am not getting the entire prospective of hospital pharmacist job entirely.
I realize from the postings here that most pharmacists jobs are in the retail environment and I am also aware that it is more probable that I could end up in a retail establishment upon graduation. So I decided that I needed to get a look at retail conditions.
Most places that I called yesterday were not too keen on me doing a job shadow of them because they were either too busy, too lazy, or HIPAA regulations/store rules did not permit them to get me into the pharmacy. So I asked them if I could do a personal interview with them.
The first pharmacist I called would not do a personal interview because he owned his own pharmacy and was too busy to see me but he did give me about 10 minutes on the telephone to ask him questions. I called another pharmacist who works for Savon/Albertson's and she agreed to do a face to face meeting with me.
The first pharmacist owns his own pharmacy and has been a pharmacist since 1965. The second pharmacist, a female, has been a pharmacist since about 1975. Both echoed the fact that the profession has changed dramatically, and that it was much better than the advent of computers. They further indicated that at that time pharmacists knew their customers and patient/pharmacist interaction was important. Both conveyed to me that today that pharmacy is not very enjoyable anymore because of the dealings with irate customers, repetitive questions, and insane insurance policies. They echoed that it is increasingly impersonal these days. The male pharmacists told me that "today it's a game of my [pharmacy] computer matching the insurance computer." The female, who works at Savon, says that she gets no lunch breaks and working there is for the sake of generating revenue for the store. She said that each pharmacist was delegated by the store to do a minimum of 300 scripts/day. (There were two pharmacists on duty that day, so I assume that over 600 scripts passed through that pharmacy on a daily basis. Also, there was a high line forming when I got to the pharmacy. I wasn't sure if she could talk to me.) I asked her if that was feasible to do, and she said that many pharmacists struggle achieving that number. In answering my questions, she told me that only about 10% of knowledge gained in school is applied to the retail environment. She also mentioned the term "fast-food" several times when describing the environment of the pharmacy. (I found that interesting because she either visits this site pharmacyweek.com, or this is a term that has been adopted to describe the state of the pharmacy these days.)
The female pharmacist that I interviewed in person looked very tired and not just because she may have been tired that day, but it appeared as though their was no more "spark" in her. I asked her if she would do it all over again. She said she would only because she enjoyed the old days, but there is no way she would get into it if she knew she would be working under such conditions today.
The female pharmacist did not discourage me from getting into pharmacy field, but she did offer some valid suggestions for anyone considering it. Her suggestion to anyone getting into to the pharmacy field is this. Use pharmacy as a secondary option or as a specialization, meaning it should be used a lucrative part-time means of income while you pursue another passion. In other words do not use it for your primary means of income in your working career because the chance of getting burned out is very high; USE IT AS A MEANS TO AN END. She stated that it is a good idea to combine it with another degree(i.e. law), and specialize in pharmacy matters. To those that want to work their way up the corporate ladders, she says that it is essential to work in a store environment in order to become a district manager or vice-president. She finally suggested it can be used as a part-time job while you do something else, meaning that pharmacy should not be your primary means of income. Her ultimate goal in a couple years is to do pharmacy part time while see pursues other avenues in her life.
These set of interviews has been an eye-opening experience. I did not believe a lot of what is posted on pharmacyweek.com, so I had to find out about this myself. Most of the conditions conveyed on the website about retail conditions are factually true(which sucks!!!!). I will continue interviewing pharmacists to see if this general feeling of the industry is prevalent among them. Hopefully, in my next interviews I can speak to some younger pharmacists who have just entered the field and their reactions to conditions there.
Please take this post with a grain of salt. I by no means am trying to discourage anyone from entering the profession of pharmacy. These are merely my observations and I am echoing what I was told.
Thanks,
gary
I realize from the postings here that most pharmacists jobs are in the retail environment and I am also aware that it is more probable that I could end up in a retail establishment upon graduation. So I decided that I needed to get a look at retail conditions.
Most places that I called yesterday were not too keen on me doing a job shadow of them because they were either too busy, too lazy, or HIPAA regulations/store rules did not permit them to get me into the pharmacy. So I asked them if I could do a personal interview with them.
The first pharmacist I called would not do a personal interview because he owned his own pharmacy and was too busy to see me but he did give me about 10 minutes on the telephone to ask him questions. I called another pharmacist who works for Savon/Albertson's and she agreed to do a face to face meeting with me.
The first pharmacist owns his own pharmacy and has been a pharmacist since 1965. The second pharmacist, a female, has been a pharmacist since about 1975. Both echoed the fact that the profession has changed dramatically, and that it was much better than the advent of computers. They further indicated that at that time pharmacists knew their customers and patient/pharmacist interaction was important. Both conveyed to me that today that pharmacy is not very enjoyable anymore because of the dealings with irate customers, repetitive questions, and insane insurance policies. They echoed that it is increasingly impersonal these days. The male pharmacists told me that "today it's a game of my [pharmacy] computer matching the insurance computer." The female, who works at Savon, says that she gets no lunch breaks and working there is for the sake of generating revenue for the store. She said that each pharmacist was delegated by the store to do a minimum of 300 scripts/day. (There were two pharmacists on duty that day, so I assume that over 600 scripts passed through that pharmacy on a daily basis. Also, there was a high line forming when I got to the pharmacy. I wasn't sure if she could talk to me.) I asked her if that was feasible to do, and she said that many pharmacists struggle achieving that number. In answering my questions, she told me that only about 10% of knowledge gained in school is applied to the retail environment. She also mentioned the term "fast-food" several times when describing the environment of the pharmacy. (I found that interesting because she either visits this site pharmacyweek.com, or this is a term that has been adopted to describe the state of the pharmacy these days.)
The female pharmacist that I interviewed in person looked very tired and not just because she may have been tired that day, but it appeared as though their was no more "spark" in her. I asked her if she would do it all over again. She said she would only because she enjoyed the old days, but there is no way she would get into it if she knew she would be working under such conditions today.
The female pharmacist did not discourage me from getting into pharmacy field, but she did offer some valid suggestions for anyone considering it. Her suggestion to anyone getting into to the pharmacy field is this. Use pharmacy as a secondary option or as a specialization, meaning it should be used a lucrative part-time means of income while you pursue another passion. In other words do not use it for your primary means of income in your working career because the chance of getting burned out is very high; USE IT AS A MEANS TO AN END. She stated that it is a good idea to combine it with another degree(i.e. law), and specialize in pharmacy matters. To those that want to work their way up the corporate ladders, she says that it is essential to work in a store environment in order to become a district manager or vice-president. She finally suggested it can be used as a part-time job while you do something else, meaning that pharmacy should not be your primary means of income. Her ultimate goal in a couple years is to do pharmacy part time while see pursues other avenues in her life.
These set of interviews has been an eye-opening experience. I did not believe a lot of what is posted on pharmacyweek.com, so I had to find out about this myself. Most of the conditions conveyed on the website about retail conditions are factually true(which sucks!!!!). I will continue interviewing pharmacists to see if this general feeling of the industry is prevalent among them. Hopefully, in my next interviews I can speak to some younger pharmacists who have just entered the field and their reactions to conditions there.
Please take this post with a grain of salt. I by no means am trying to discourage anyone from entering the profession of pharmacy. These are merely my observations and I am echoing what I was told.
Thanks,
gary
