Research in pharmacy school

[pharmschoolhopeful2014]

Hi all,
Sorry if this is not the right forum to ask.
I was fortunate to get accepted to UNC and will be starting Fall 2018. I'm definitely interested in involving in research during school. UNC also has a formal research pathway/certificate within the curriculum. I'm hoping to get some advice and guidance about what field of research to commit to?

1. Stay within the same field.
So my background is in behavioral pharmacology (neuroscience and addiction to be specific with research and pubs on propentofylline and n-acetylcysteine as potential treatment for cocaine addiction). I'm well trained and can function independently in lab doing molecular, drug testing, animal behaviors so if I continue working with my former mentor
pros: I can hit the ground running: getting data, writing proposal and even potential 1st author pub

I don't need as much training and don't have to devote as much time (already have prelim data). This is important, because I want to work as pharm tech part time during school.
I truly love the project and want to carry it to fruitful.​

cons: The PI is not well known in pharmacy field. Her research is not directly pharmacy related but more like behavioral pharmacology.

2. Join a more pharmacy directly related lab
pros: The project and PI are more related to pharmacy field
cons: I'm not familiar with medicinal chem techniques. I'm a fast learner and can learn new techniques but I'm not sure if I would want to invest that much time in research. After all, I'm getting my PharmD not PhD, and I absolutely plan to work as pharm tech part time.
Not very interested in the research topics. Such a shame none of the lab at UNC pharm school focuses on brain diseases

My goal after graduation is to find a job. Of course ideally getting a residency (specialized in psychiatry if possible). I have some networking in pharmaceutical industry that can potentially hook me up with fellowship later. However, I'm not opposed to retail either (hence planning to work as pharm tech throughout school)

tl/dr: how much time and effort should I devote to research in pharmacy school?
Thank you

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[Dalteparin]

You say you want a residency in psychiatry, so that means you have to do a PGY-1 first and then get a PGY-2 in psych. Are you looking to be a clinical pharmacist? I ask because while doing "molecular, drug testing and animal behaviors" is nice to have on your resume, it won't prepare you for a residency. Pharmacists don't do any of that. If being a clinical pharmacist is your goal, you'd probably be better off getting an internship with the local hospital and helping out with research projects there.

If you want to work in a lab, a PharmD won't prepare you for that. Either get a dual PharmD/PhD or just get a PhD.

 

[Rouelle]

^^^agree with above

Some other things to consider: pharmacy school takes time, working as a tech takes time, and laboratory research takes time. It’s better to do a few things well than many things poorly. As you are undoubtedly aware, laboratory research requires quite a commitment. I’ve had students in the past want to do research in my lab for just a couple hours a week here and there. Their inability to devote any real effort to research made it mostly a waste of both their and my time. You might get some summer research in, but it’ll be challenging during the school year. My thought: choose wisely where you want to devote your efforts.

 

[Seriously Serious]

Congrats on the UNC admission. I would focus on doing well your first year, and get the feel for the program before over extending yourself. As a student who hit the ground running in research and pharmacy work experience, it was extremely exhausting maintaining a competitive GPA for residency. I recommend completing your first semester without working/research, second semester, find that tech position/internship. Then I would discuss research projects with faculty for the ~summer~.

 

[lord999]

There are other threads on this topic directly.

I have somewhat of a different take. Remember not to fail out of pharmacy school first (I have seen students do so for concentration reasons). Secondly, to what end do you want to do research? Do you want to be a scientist or an investigator (and as time goes on with NIH and industry funding, these roles are increasingly becoming separate)? If you want to be a scientist, for what reason are you in pharmacy school (there are good reasons, but from what you wrote, I would probably warn you about matriculating if you are set on the research path).

From what I read, I do not see you all that committed to research as much as committed to roles. I think you should figure out what you want to *do* before you start thinking about the options. Otherwise, the underemployed PharmD or the eternal Postdoc will be your fate, and you only have yourself to blame for not making real commitments to defining your role.

Rouelle, npage, me, and a couple of others have research training backgrounds and run the gamut from hardcore investigator NIH I track (or in my case, SI) to trying to find a mix between the two (not easy), to basically not researching at all and working as a pharmacist, to house husband. If I can say something on behalf of all of us who have walked down this road, I would say that we should have thought about what we signed up for in terms of commitment much more than we did before joining the research track.

For a quick but informative read about why this is the case, try this:
A graduate school survival guide: "So long, and thanks for the Ph.D!"

The book I FORCE all my PharmD students to read if they want a recommendation letter from me for graduate school has been out for a while now, but still completely relevant to both the peculiar business of academia and the issues around resource acquisition:
Getting What You Came For
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[pharmschoolhopeful2014]

Thank you so much for all of your valuable advice.
I may be overestimate my ability to commit to many things.
@lord999 you're right. I'm not as committed to "research" as I'm committed to the roles that I think I should take on. I know for sure I don't want to be a PI.
My goal is to get a residency. I thought that having research on my resume would make my application stands out and increase my chance of getting into a residency program.

I think I'm gonna at least take the first semester to get a feel of what I'm capable of before trying out everything and risk falling short.
Thank you all for your advice. You guys rock!

 

[Pacho From Cali]

This thread is interesting. From the OP, it seems you have some post-bac training in a lab. Wet lab I'm assuming with animals.

Nothing in Pharmacy school will help you in that respect. You are wasting your time thinking going to Pharm, trying to convince yourself and a RPD you are a good fit for residency. Then why have you done all that research. Do you know what residents do? Do you know what residency-trained pharmacists do? A few of them work at Walgreens with the rest of us.

Your best bet -- Go become a Clinical Research Associate. Network thru UNC or the hospital and find someone who will mentor you in clinical trial operations. Your prior skills in the lab will be transferable and you even complete your research simultaneously. Google "translational research"

 

[lord999]

Thank you so much for all of your valuable advice.
I may be overestimate my ability to commit to many things.
@lord999 you're right. I'm not as committed to "research" as I'm committed to the roles that I think I should take on. I know for sure I don't want to be a PI.
My goal is to get a residency. I thought that having research on my resume would make my application stands out and increase my chance of getting into a residency program.

I think I'm gonna at least take the first semester to get a feel of what I'm capable of before trying out everything and risk falling short.
Thank you all for your advice. You guys rock!

Research is a POSSIBLE tiebreaker if there are roughly similar applications. I'd worry more about getting in the game in the first place: having grades that don't suck (immediate elimination if below a cutoff), having people are reputable to recommend you, not interviewing like a disaffected shut-in. Sink your time into those options. Honestly, I never have seen a scenario where research determined the tiebreaker. The more relevant one that I've had to deal with is the problem that the interviewer is piqued by the candidate and finds some way to recruit them as a way of hitting on them after they join the residency. That happens all the time, and it's very annoying when an RPD gets the reputation for recruiting pretty useless people and even worse for the oversight when the inevitable fraternization occurs.