road to becoming a clinical pharmacist

[SciPharm]

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Hello all,

Glad to be a part of SDN. This site is pretty awesome.

I recently got accepted to UNM COP (starting mid August) and was hoping to ask a few questions concerning future goals. I would like to become a clinical pharmacist but I'm not sure which electives I should focus on during the next four years to aid in being selected for residency? What else should I focus on to ensure my success in becoming a clinical pharmacist? In the previous posts on SDN, most of it describes what a clinical pharmacist does day in day out, but I'd like to know the challenges or extra curricular activities a person should do while in pharmacy school? I've read http://pharmacy.osu.edu/academics/introduction-to-pharmacy/materials/PfizerPharmacyCareerGuide.pdf about clinical pharmacist and what is expected but I was hoping to gain the knowledge that they don't have or say in the career guide. Such as IV training, not sure if pharmacy school would train us in IV or if that's something we have to learn on our own like the CPR certification we must attain before the start of school. Also, I have never worked in a hospital before but I have 7 years experience in retail as a CPhT. That's probably a negative for hospital intern/CPhT hiring purposes, huh?

I was also wondering if anyone recommends buying a naplex review book now and connect the dots each year so as to better prepare for the naplex exam at the end of the 4th year. I'm a horrible test taker. Just trying to think of ways to tackle the test smoothly. If you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear everyone's' thoughts on any of this.

Thanks in advance. 🙂

 

[Travex]

-No, buying any Naplex review books now would not be recommended at all. Maybe during P4 year if you are apprehensive but people have told me not to worry about it until after graduation (you have a few months between graduation and taking the Naplex, plenty of time to study).

-Retail experience is definitely a plus for hospitals. Of course they would prefer someone with hospital experience, but they would still pick you over someone with no experience at all.

-Electives are not really going to matter much. There are some exceptions such as taking a minor in psych if you want to get a psych residency. Also sometimes pharmacy professors will teach an elective so you can take those if you are interested in their field OR just want to build a good relationship with them for letters of recommendation. For example at my school we had an elective geriatrics class and oncology class.

-Some schools will train you with IVs but not all. Regardless, you can get it if you work in a hospital. I do not believe it would make you look any better as a residency candidate though. Clinical pharmacists rarely make or check IVs in places I've worked.

-In general you should try to get an internship at a hospital, keep your grades up, be involved in extracirriculars (health-related preferred but if you are passionate in other areas it would be fine as well). If any professors are involved in research you can try to volunteer/get a job assisting them.

 

[type b pharmD]

Other very important things would include ranking intensive clinical settings highest for your rotation selection. You'll definitely want acute care / critical care, am care ie kaiser/va type settings, and perhaps ID if that's what you're into.

Certain schools offer good electives such as acute care, peds, geriatrics. All of these are good. Get involved in organizations and participate in available competitions if possible (ie formulary monograph competition) . Also find a mentor early (aim for end of year 2) who can just sit down with you and help you plan goals, help you publish/ research with them, or advise you in general.

People may say it's not easy to match or become a clinical specialist. This may be true, but it is definitely a LOT easier if you start early.

 

[SciPharm]

Other very important things would include ranking intensive clinical settings highest for your rotation selection. You'll definitely want acute care / critical care, am care ie kaiser/va type settings, and perhaps ID if that's what you're into.

Certain schools offer good electives such as acute care, peds, geriatrics. All of these are good. Get involved in organizations and participate in available competitions if possible (ie formulary monograph competition) . Also find a mentor early (aim for end of year 2) who can just sit down with you and help you plan goals, help you publish/ research with them, or advise you in general.

People may say it's not easy to match or become a clinical specialist. This may be true, but it is definitely a LOT easier if you start early.

Hello,

Thanks for replying so fast!

Thank you very much for the advice. I will gear my electives towards what I become interested in as I get exposed to more fields post my P1 experience. As of right now, I am interested in ambulatory, compounding, and most of all toxicology but really I do not know if I'll still like em after being exposed to other fields during rotations. Guess I just have to wait and see.

Travex, thanks for convincing me not to buy a naplex review book now. I was close to buying a Kaplan naplex review for around $30. It makes sense that by 2017 (when I graduate) the content of naplex will have changed on the exam as well.

I'm glad hospitals will hire me without having prior hospital CPhT experience. I'm going to try getting hired around December by a hospital. That way I get a feel of how pharmacy school will be like for the first semester. Thanks for the advice. Just hope there's a job opening somewhere in the city 🙂
I was seriously going to wait till the end of P1 to start looking for jobs. I have to wait till P1 for intern since our school won't give out intern licenses till after completing P1 year.

type b PharmD, I am planning on getting involved in extra curricular organizations but I was wondering about fraternities. Should I join one? Will that look good on my CV for when I apply for a residency?

Yes I do not want to struggle or start planning for a residency at the end of P3 or beginning of P4. That's why I'm asking all questions now so I can become better prepared for future goals. 🙂

Hopefully I'll find a great mentor in school to help guide me in the correct path. Just hope I don't have to traverse through the swamps of Dagobah in order to find my mentor 😛

 

[Notecard]

UNMH hires a few pharmacy interns every April-May. Same with Lovelace and Pres. Apply there close to the end of your first year to get a job. Your previous experience should make it easy and if you get involved your first year it should be even easier to get hired at one of those places.

UNM is a great place if you want to get into clinical pharmacy. We had like 21 people get residencies this year.

Oh yea sshp does this clinical skills competition every fall and even though you don't know anything you should come to it to get a feel of what it's like. It's around the second or third month of school? Can't remember.

 

[joetrisman]

Do some shadowing. Find a mentor.

 

[SciPharm]

UNMH hires a few pharmacy interns every April-May. Same with Lovelace and Pres. Apply there close to the end of your first year to get a job. Your previous experience should make it easy and if you get involved your first year it should be even easier to get hired at one of those places.

UNM is a great place if you want to get into clinical pharmacy. We had like 21 people get residencies this year.

Oh yea sshp does this clinical skills competition every fall and even though you don't know anything you should come to it to get a feel of what it's like. It's around the second or third month of school? Can't remember.

Do some shadowing. Find a mentor.

Thanks for the info Notecard. I'm going to have to look more into the clinical skills competition. Sounds very interesting. If you find out exactly when that event happens, please let me know 😀

Joe, I shadowed an independent pharmacist in 2005 for a couple of months. But I didn't really learn much from him. I ended up only watching him and his son doing all the procedures of a typical pharmacy operation. Wish I got more hands on experience at that time. Plus, this pharmacist got caught later that year stealing controlled substances. So I'm a bit reluctant to find another shadowing site. But you're right, I'll have to start somewhere and it's been a couple of years since I quit retail pharmacy. Gotta play catch up so to speak.

Thanks for all the feedback and info everyone! Much appreciated

 

[MackandBlues]

find different clinical pharmacists and shadow them. I did this and I think it helps show iniciative (sp?). plus it gives you more to talk about in your residency interviews if you happen to get a really good rotation in the spring aka after interviews have happened.