Retail or Hospital?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
rxliteguy

rxliteguy

Membership Revoked
Removed
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
217
Reaction score
1
what are the advantages or disadvantages? how is the pay different?
Members don't see this ad.
 
rxliteguy said:
what are the advantages or disadvantages? how is the pay different?
Click to expand...

I can start this one off-
retail: lots of patient contact
hospital: little or no patient contact, because it's substituted with nurse contact

The advantages and disadvantages are subjective to the individual.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
rxliteguy said:
what's wrong with order entry?
Click to expand...
Doctors have sloppy handwriting. Scribble, scribble, scratch, scratch, etc. Try reading that when you don't have a hard copy!
Nurses will call you, at times it's non-stop.
You need a lot of patience to stare at a screen all day, because the techs fill and deliver the scripts.
I don't see how some of the pharmacists on SDN tolerate their own computers. If I did order entry, I wouldn't surf the internet at home.
 
I really don't like either. You have to deal with bull**** no matter where you wind up. Bitchy customers....meet bitchy nursing staff. Retail pharmacists have to deal with insurance formularies...hospital pharmacists have to deal with irrational physicians who are unable/unwilling to accept formulary changes and go out dynasty style on you in at P&T meetings....the hours for both suck unless you luck into a 9-5...

I think there are far better opportunities than either. I'm a weirdo that wants to do industry. But if that doesn't pan out and I have to deal with a more traditional job, I'd like to have a job as a prison pharmacist. I can't image a more perfect job with more perfect patients. The customers have to be nice to you or they wind up in solitary...no worries about compliance because they take the **** right in front of you...no worries about weird diet choices...they are forced to exercise...no insurances or formulary crap to deal with...you see your patients daily...no missed appointments or missed refills....it's a M-F 9-5 type of job....I mean.....really....that **** is ideal. Plus you get to wear a snazzy uniform to work.

In fact....I think I just convinced myself...I'm going to look into this ****...damn..I might have just had an epiphany....
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
I really don't like either. You have to deal with bull**** no matter where you wind up. Bitchy customers....meet bitchy nursing staff. Retail pharmacists have to deal with insurance formularies...hospital pharmacists have to deal with irrational physicians who are unable/unwilling to accept formulary changes and go out dynasty style on you in at P&T meetings....the hours for both suck unless you luck into a 9-5...

I think there are far better opportunities than either. I'm a weirdo that wants to do industry. But if that doesn't pan out and I have to deal with a more traditional job, I'd like to have a job as a prison pharmacist. I can't image a more perfect job with more perfect patients. The customers have to be nice to you or they wind up in solitary...no worries about compliance because they take the **** right in front of you...no worries about weird diet choices...they are forced to exercise...no insurances or formulary crap to deal with...you see your patients daily...no missed appointments or missed refills....it's a M-F 9-5 type of job....I mean.....really....that **** is ideal. Plus you get to wear a snazzy uniform to work.

In fact....I think I just convinced myself...I'm going to look into this ****...damn..I might have just had an epiphany....
Click to expand...


i think you meant you just had a rant :laugh:
 
Personally, I like the retail job I have right now. The pharmacy doesn't have a drive-thru, the floor plan is closed so people can't stare at me while I fill their scripts, because we only have a drop-off window and a pick-up window, and the floors are raised up about a foot to give us some distance between ourselves and the customers. Although, there is one big disadvantage: the pharmacy is small. You have to walk into the aisles if someone needs to pass. Other than that, I'm happy :biglove:.

I wish I could work more. I'll go to work in a sour mood, but thirty minutes later, I'm a happy little clam. I wish friends/family would call me once in a while when I'm at work, because I'm in a talkative, friendly mood. Besides, everyone else gets phone calls :p. Oh well...I get paid to work and not to chat.

I don't feel like a slave anymore, even though I work for a retail chain. The pharmacists are older, in their 40's and 50's. They are concerned with correctness, not perfection. They talk about sports, stocks, and retirement. For the first time, I don't have to hear petty gossip at work.
 
i hear some universities have a pharmacy in their student health center. I'd love to work in one of those.

Is it really difficult to find a job in a hospital without doing a residency?
 
steveysmith54 said:
i hear some universities have a pharmacy in their student health center. I'd love to work in one of those.

Is it really difficult to find a job in a hospital without doing a residency?
Click to expand...

I know Cal State San Bdo was hiring one last Spring. Not sure what the state pays though. I think it was $50+ though.
 
Farmercyst said:
I know Cal State San Bdo was hiring one last Spring. Not sure what the state pays though. I think it was $50+ though.
Click to expand...

Nice!!! my friend goes to CSU Northridge and said she gets meds from the school. I was so surprised. I'd like to work in that setting one day...
 
Farmercyst said:
I know Cal State San Bdo was hiring one last Spring. Not sure what the state pays though. I think it was $50+ though.
Click to expand...
That's a low salary. The pharmacists at LSU make between $30-40/hr. My old boss said he would have made around $75,000 if he had worked for the university.
I think it would be a little too boring. Mostly birth control or Plan B scripts, antibiotics, and anti-virals. College students are generally healthy, so they don't really need too many maintenance meds.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
PharmDstudent said:
That's a low salary. The pharmacists at LSU make between $30-40/hr. My old boss said he would have made around $75,000 if he had worked for the university.
I think it would be a little too boring. Mostly birth control or Plan B scripts, antibiotics, and anti-virals. College students are generally healthy, so they don't really need too many maintenance meds.
Click to expand...

LOL. I don't have a problem with that. I wouldn't think they would require too many class 2 meds either. maybe some xanax, zoloft here and there.
 
PharmDstudent said:
Doctors have sloppy handwriting. Scribble, scribble, scratch, scratch, etc. Try reading that when you don't have a hard copy!
Nurses will call you, at times it's non-stop.
You need a lot of patience to stare at a screen all day, because the techs fill and deliver the scripts.
I don't see how some of the pharmacists on SDN tolerate their own computers. If I did order entry, I wouldn't surf the internet at home.
Click to expand...


we have a screen capture system that allows you to zoom in on what you're reading. it's great. i look at double screens all night, and work on IT issues some days, but i still surf the web....i guess it's a bad habit!

nurses DO call all the time! non stop! but, they're employees, too and not customers...if they are nasty, you can be too, or speak to the supervisor. don't let them be mean!

i love hospital. i can spend a day in the IV room, or do orders, or work on projects. you also get much more lattitude in hospital....there are substitution policies, conversion policies, no bone-headed calling the MD " i only have cream and you wrote for ointment, can i substitute?" phone calls. i just tell them nurse that's what we've got and that's that. you can speak to the MD about actual problems, not insurance problems....like "you know, i dont think you want dig in that patient who's K is 2"
 
tussionex said:
we have a screen capture system that allows you to zoom in on what you're reading. it's great. i look at double screens all night, and work on IT issues some days, but i still surf the web....i guess it's a bad habit!

nurses DO call all the time! non stop! but, they're employees, too and not customers...if they are nasty, you can be too, or speak to the supervisor. don't let them be mean!

i love hospital. i can spend a day in the IV room, or do orders, or work on projects. you also get much more lattitude in hospital....there are substitution policies, conversion policies, no bone-headed calling the MD " i only have cream and you wrote for ointment, can i substitute?" phone calls. i just tell them nurse that's what we've got and that's that. you can speak to the MD about actual problems, not insurance problems....like "you know, i dont think you want dig in that patient who's K is 2"
Click to expand...
What does "dig" mean? I guess the "K" means potassium and the "2" refers to some level of potassium.
I don't get it, so can you fill me in :oops:?
 
Does it really matter that I like retail and Tussionex likes hospital? What matters is what you enjoy and gives your daily existence some meaning. You are still in school, do both. Decide for yourself what you like better. There is nothing more injurious to your happiness as hating the job you go to every day.
 
SpirivaSunrise said:
Digoxin ;)...you'd be worried about arrhythmias
Click to expand...

typical drug rep response...:smuggrin: Stick to what you know..selling drugs.

Digoxin competes with K+ for Na+/K+ ATPase binding site in myocytes. Hence, hypokalemia can potentiate Digoxin toxicity.

That's why prudent druggist like Tussionex can call the doc and say..."Hey..hold that dig and pump some K+ into that patient!"
 
My suggestion to you, as a recent graduate this past spring, is to try to take as many "unusual" rotations as you can during your last year. Use those rotations as to sort of interview job opportunities that you might not have known existed. I found some really neat niche pharmacies during my rotations that I'd never even heard of originally. :thumbup:
 
Learn to do both. So you can choose.

One thing to remember though, if you can do hospital, then transition to retail shouldn't be that difficult. But if you have no hospital experience and been in retail for 20 years, good luck in trying to work at a hospital.
 
Epic said:
Learn to do both. So you can choose.

One thing to remember though, if you can do hospital, then transition to retail shouldn't be that difficult. But if you have no hospital experience and been in retail for 20 years, good luck in trying to work at a hospital.
Click to expand...

That isn't true at all. We had a person that was just like that where I used to work. It took them months upon months to get acclimated to how insurances work, brand names of ALL of the drugs in every class, figuring out how to counsel patients correctly, etc.

You hospital elitists.....
 
The floater from the VA pharmacy was the worst. I was suppose to train her or at least that's what she said, which I attempted to do with much effort, but the ship had sunk. It was a Sunday, therefore it was just she and I. It was chaos, total chaos.

She was trying to get her "foot back in the retail door", but on that day, she just shoved it in her mouth.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
That isn't true at all. We had a person that was just like that where I used to work. It took them months upon months to get acclimated to how insurances work, brand names of ALL of the drugs in every class, figuring out how to counsel patients correctly, etc.

You hospital elitists.....
Click to expand...

Well...that's kind of the sad part. The first thing you thought to mention as far as becoming acclimated to retail is figuring out how insurance works.

(And that's not directed specifically @ you WVU)
 
Epic said:
Learn to do both. So you can choose.

One thing to remember though, if you can do hospital, then transition to retail shouldn't be that difficult. But if you have no hospital experience and been in retail for 20 years, good luck in trying to work at a hospital.
Click to expand...

I am the living, breathing example of this!

But - you gotta learn to do both well. No one wants a half-a**ed pharmacist in either place.

So, read, read, read & keep up to date!
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
That isn't true at all. We had a person that was just like that where I used to work. It took them months upon months to get acclimated to how insurances work, brand names of ALL of the drugs in every class, figuring out how to counsel patients correctly, etc.

You hospital elitists.....
Click to expand...

That person probably didn't belong the hospital... at least not in my hospital..:smuggrin:
 
sdn1977 said:
I am the living, breathing example of this!

But - you gotta learn to do both well. No one wants a half-a**ed pharmacist in either place.

So, read, read, read & keep up to date!
Click to expand...


You're a living breathing example of something alright.. :p
 
Epic said:
That person probably didn't belong the hospital... at least not in my hospital..:smuggrin:
Click to expand...

I was thinking that same thing. What does that pharmacist do when they get a pt admitted with the brand names? Just put them down on the med rec sheet & forget about it?

That person is what I was referring to - probably not very good at the hospital job either.
 
Epic said:
That person probably didn't belong the hospital... at least not in my hospital..:smuggrin:
Click to expand...

Yeah, whatever. When I was at the hospital back in Parkersburg, we had two Ohio State grads that came from CVS and they were acclimated into the hospital **** within a few months, too. Heck, they were the best pharmacists there within a few years. In fact, one of them then did the non-trad PharmD thing at Florida and is the current clinical director. It depends on the person. Some people are just idiots. And from my own limited 7 years of experience...you definitely find them in hospitals and retail.

Both environments are vastly different requiring vastly different knowledge basis to solve vastly different problems. For each time some hospital gnome has to whip out the globalrph website and figure out the next vanc dose, Bill down the street has to do a ghetto diagnosis on little billy and give him something for his runny nose.

Freakin' hospital elitists....think you're better than everyone else.

Makes me want to be a prison pharmacist even more....man...that's a good idea...
 
I couldn't agree with you more. I've been in this business for 4 yrs, of course as an intern, and it works the same way for me. I'm afraid of nasty customers in retail than nasty nurses in hospital.
 
rxliteguy said:
what are the advantages or disadvantages? how is the pay different?
Click to expand...

1. hospital <<<<< retail as RPh, but >>>>> as intern/student
2. hospital: very laid back, you have time surfing the internet for shopping, listening to music, watching online movies, etc., as long as people do not report it to your boss and the hospital website allows the internet access to the website.
3. retail: like hell, no time to in-/exhale, sooner or later you gonna develop HTN, diabetes, eventually dyslipidemia due to metabolic syndromes, GERD because of eating disorder, arthritis b/c no time to sit down, so on and so forth stress-related issues. Yet, you can be very proportional you know, b'cause of exercising at least 8 hrs/d.
4. you're equal to any HCPs in the hospital, so just shoot them back if you get shot (I don't mean physical violence). yet customers in retail are like gods, thus i don't wanna get into any troubles. That's why I must practice tolerance, patience, calmness, coolness, and forgiving.

So I choose retail to challenge myself as it's very rewarding = higher salary:thumbup:
 
I wouldn't move out west for anything. Thankfully, the PHS needs mad pharmacists and they don't require a residency...only a PharmD. If I wanted to drive 2 hours both ways, I could have a prison pharmacy job next month in Glenville....too bad I got stuff tying me down right now.
 
rxliteguy said:
what are the advantages or disadvantages? how is the pay different?
Click to expand...
1. hospital <<<<< retail as RPh, but >>>>> as intern/student
2. hospital: very laid back, you have time surfing the internet for shopping, listening to music, watching online movies, etc., as long as people do not report it to your boss and the hospital website allows the internet access to the website.
3. retail: like hell, no time to in-/exhale, sooner or later you gonna develop HTN, diabetes, eventually dyslipidemia due to metabolic syndromes, GERD because of eating disorder, arthritis b/c no time to sit down, so on and so forth stress-related issues.
Yet, you can be very proportional you know, b'cause you're always on your feet at least 8 hrs/d. besides, you get a full 8 working hrs even though you actually in the 6 hrs (everybody covers one another).
4. you're equal to any HCPs in the hospital, so just shoot them back if you get shot (I don't mean physical violence). yet customers in retail are like gods, thus i don't wanna get into any troubles. That's why I must practice tolerance, patience, calmness, coolness, and forgiving.

So I choose retail to challenge myself as it's very rewarding = higher salary:thumbup:
 
pharmdinfl said:
My suggestion to you, as a recent graduate this past spring, is to try to take as many "unusual" rotations as you can during your last year. Use those rotations as to sort of interview job opportunities that you might not have known existed. I found some really neat niche pharmacies during my rotations that I'd never even heard of originally. :thumbup:
Click to expand...


i'm gonna have to second that...try a bunch of things while you are out on rotations....who knows what you will end up liking?
for the record, i was completely ready to be a retail pharmacist until rotations...that was what changed my mind!

take as many different rotations as you can....you may just find a niche you never expected!
 
Just my two cents if you go into hospital.....look for places that have physician order entry! It is night and day how much more you can be "clinically" involved (if nothing else a good double check on the typed in orders) when you aren't spending the whole day pulling orders off the fax and typing in 26 home medications that a nurse already spent 20 minutes writing down. The inefficiency in some hospitals and lack of the use of technology burns me up. We are not "secretaries" and we should not have to type hand written orders in when the doctor could have spent less time typing them in himself instead of writing them down, giving them to the nurse, waiting for the nurse to fax them to the pharmacy, waiting for the doctor to call the pharmacist back because you can't read his writing or he wrote something down wrong, and then listening to the doctor yell that the medication should have been on the floor an hour ago. Can we get some innovative corporate minds into hospitals to improve this inefficiency? :rolleyes:
 
or, try to get on a project that's implementing CPOE
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

C
Retail vs Hospital jobs
Replies
3
Views
1K
Script1992
S
C
Retail, Hospital, Industry, or Own Business?
Replies
11
Views
894
Coati
C
H
Anyone works for a Major Retail Pharmacy?
Replies
2
Views
766
HappyPharmD
H
R
Switching from retail to hospital
Replies
8
Views
1K
rxbaby
R
Sunshine98*
Outpatient Hospital Interview
Replies
23
Views
2K
projektreverb
P
Top