Question about Shadowing
Started by Pharmgirl90
Where have you called? Chains, independents, hospitals? My inclination is that you'd be more successful finding someone willing to let you shadow if you tried independent pharmacies; that's what I did when I was 16 and had absolutely no pharmacy experience.
Yeah, independents are probably your best bet. For liability/HIPAA reasons, major organizations (chain retail, hospital, etc) probably have a blanket "no shadowing" policy.
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Yeah I called CVS, Walgreens, and Wal-Mart and I couldn't shadow..I haven't called an independent pharmacy yet..I will try that then..thank you!
Walgreens allowed me to shadow last month, all you have to do is sign a form. Call and talk to the pharmacy manager and tell him/her that there on the walgreens website it mentions pharmacist shadowing opportunities and go from there. The only retail setting that allowed me to shadow was Walgreens, don't bother with the others.
Just keep trying. Last year I tried to shadow but was shot down from everyone. But this year I was able to since I got in contact with a clinical pharmacist who teaches at the university that I go to and she hooked me up with a few of her friends. Then from there I just used their names as a reference to get more shadowing done.
What I also did was talk to the dean of the pharmacy school in an advising appointment and asked him if he knew anyone that would allow shadowing and he helped me out from there.
Hospitals are pretty strict on allowing shadowing, but contact their education department to see if you can.
I went from being able to shadow 0 pharmacists last year to shadowing at Walgreens, an independent drugstore, an independent drugstore attached to a clinic, a long term care pharmacy, infectious disease pharmacist at a hospital, and a regular hospital pharmacist. I'm also planning on shadowing 2-3 more pharmacists before this year ends.
I was just wondering if you shadowed a pharmacist only for one day how do you put that on pharmcas? For example I'm guessing you put it in the volunteer and extraculicular, but do you what do you write? That you shadowed, the name of the pharmacist, contact info and what you learned?
I would suggest to look at hospitals. They are the institutions that allow volunteering and shadowing. It will be very difficult if not impossible to find a shadowing position in a retail pharmacy (70%) of the pharmacy field. Look into big teaching hospitals or even small hospitals. They always love to have volunteers and they usually do an impressive job getting you the experience you need! You will get a badge, training, hours and you feel like you are part of their team and it's a great experience. I volunteered at UCLA hospital and it was one of the most rewarding experiences i've had as far as volunteering goes!
