Seriously thinking about changing career paths

[ahmedqman]

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I'm not deciding on anything right now, but I think I'm pretty close to deciding that I do not want to be an MD. It's too high-stress (and the stress might affect me in terms of health) and I don't feel like prodding through someone's organs for 4 years of med school, and there's no guarantee that I'll have a match for a low-stress residency by the end of med school.

I have guaranteed acceptance to the University of South Florida College of Medicine with the following stats (I'm in the UCF/USF BS/MD program).

3.95 GPA in molecular biology and microbiology
31 MCAT
Research/Volunteering Experience.

Now I have expressed my desires to people who are qualified to give me advice, and they think I should seriously consider pharm school. I've been reading about the job, and it seems like a nice balance between a low-stress job, nice salary, and I don't have to throw away my major and start from scratch. I also still want to remain in a healthcare career, and serving as that intermediary between the patient and the healthcare provider might do the trick. Also, I want to have a family and kids and be able to do various things outside of my job such as reading about other things other than science and doing leisure activities in order to maintain family relationships (because these relationships are what I value most).

I'm thinking about changing to a Pharmacy career path and then applying to Pharmacy school. I will study my *** off for the PCAT like I did for the MCAT if I have to (I always like a solid challenge, and the MCAT was a very nice one that I had conquered by breaking 30+).

I'm thinking about shadowing a Pharmacist in order to see what they do, and even if it's a little monotonous, I'll definitely do it for the low stress nature and stability. I believe that my happiness and health comes first before anything else.

I don't want to make any hasty decisions right now so I'll be pondering this for the next few months over the summer while I start a research opportunity in organic drug development.

I wrote this post quickly, so if there are any problems, I'll clarify. I know I touched very briefly on why I don't want to go to MD school, but I've been thinking about this for the last few months and the more I think about going to M.D. school the more apprehensive and tense I get.

Edit: And yes, I'm aware that I will have to work hard in pharm school. I don't mind working hard. I did it in college and I worked hard for that MCAT score and that hard work and stress did not take a significant toll on my health. Med-school on the other hand... is a different beast which is constantly high-stress. Only the ones who have fire and passion for the light at the end of the tunnel will survive.

I will also contact a Pharmacy school student to see in order to see if this is the right decision for me, because if I make the switch, I need to make sure I do not regret it.

 

[tellsarah]

Since you have conquered the MCAT, I believe you would do well on the pcat. However, I would stick to the MD program you have already been accepted to, IMO.

 

[ahmedqman]

Trust me on this. I really don't want to do this. I have no burning passion to go through absolute hell (I heard med school is much more stressful than pharm school) and deal with all the emotional baggage that comes with it. I know I'm incredibly vague about this but you're just going to have to trust my judgement on doubting the MD path.

The burning passion is what keeps people in med school. I have none of it. Zero, zilch. I would rather have someone who has that burning passion take my position in med school because they could probably do more good with it and not struggle with all that stuff, and believe me, I have talked to traditional med students who really do have the burning passion. I can see it in their eyes, and I just DON'T HAVE IT.

Medicine is a high-stress job and you absolutely have to love it 100% in order to commit to such a high-stress job and go through a high-stress path in order to achieve that high-stress job. How stress factors into my decision is a very complex issue that I'll elaborate on sooner or later. I almost think of the MD path as a sort of calling for a certain type of person, and I absolutely respect those people who can do it all and love it and the same time.

Edit: And I LOVE caring about people and have lots of empathy for the sick and poor (which was one of the justifications my family used in order to compel me to go along the MD path, and I willfully accepted it not knowing about what I got into). I just don't to wade through high-risk and high-stress **** in order to achieve that goal. One can help others in many ways.

I could use the nice salary I make to donate to the poor so that they can pay for visits to a doctor. 🙂

Everyone's input is greatly appreciated. I don't want to jump the gun right now, so I'll definitely make a concrete decision within the next few months. I have 3 classes left to take for my major and I have a full year to do it.

 

[PharmDstudent]

Trust me on this. I really don't want to do this. I have no burning passion to go through absolute hell (I heard pharm school is much less stressful than med school) and deal with all the emotional baggage that comes with it.

The burning passion is what keeps people in med school. I have none of it. Zero, zilch. I would rather have someone who has that burning passion take my position in med school because they could probably do more good with it and not struggle with all that stuff, and believe me, I have talked to traditional med students who really do have the burning passion. I can see it in their eyes, and I just DON'T HAVE IT.

You need passion in pharmacy school too. I hardly get to sleep sometimes. I don't enjoy the 2 to 3 hour naps instead of a full night's sleep. If you don't have to work part-time during the school year, then you probably won't have too many sleepless nights.

 

[ahmedqman]

You need passion in pharmacy school too. I hardly get to sleep sometimes. I don't enjoy the 2 to 3 hour naps instead of a full night's sleep. If you don't have to work part-time during the school year, then you probably won't have too many sleepless nights.

Well, I agree, which is why I will try to shadow a pharmacist. However, I probably will not have to work part time, as finances are not a problem. My family will cover any professional school that I need.

I have an interest in science and I desire to have something specifically in healthcare. I wouldn't want to do anything else. I would just want to do something that doesn't require me to deal with blood and guts and is not as stressful.

If I have any misconceptions about pharmacists and/or pharmacy school, please correct them.

 

[CCdarling]

I really believe you should work in a pharmacy/shadow a pharmacist before you change your mind You are in a position that alot of people would envy, acceptance into a medical school. However, I agree if you don't have the passion for it, you really should not go through with it. Nonetheless, definitely gain some experience in the pharmacy field before making your decision. Who knows, you might change your mind after working in one 😕.

And after you've gained some pharmacy experience, and you still believe this is the right path for you, then totally go for it. I think the pharmacy adcoms will look favorably on this. Here you are, accepted into med school, but yet you knew this wasn't the path for you, so you did a 180, gained pharm experience, loved it, yadda yadda and the rest is history. You get the gist 🙂.

 

[mrblah]

I'm not deciding on anything right now, but I think I'm pretty close to deciding that I do not want to be an MD. It's too high-stress (and the stress might affect me in terms of health) and I don't feel like prodding through someone's organs for 4 years of med school, and there's no guarantee that I'll have a match for a low-stress residency by the end of med school.

I have guaranteed acceptance to the University of South Florida College of Medicine with the following stats (I'm in the UCF/USF BS/MD program).

3.95 GPA in molecular biology and microbiology
31 MCAT
Research/Volunteering Experience.

Now I have expressed my desires to people who are qualified to give me advice, and they think I should seriously consider pharm school. I've been reading about the job, and it seems like a nice balance between a low-stress job, nice salary, and I don't have to throw away my major and start from scratch. I also still want to remain in a healthcare career, and serving as that intermediary between the patient and the healthcare provider might do the trick. Also, I want to have a family and kids and be able to do various things outside of my job such as reading about other things other than science and doing leisure activities in order to maintain family relationships (because these relationships are what I value most).

I'm thinking about changing to a Pharmacy career path and then applying to Pharmacy school. I will study my *** off for the PCAT like I did for the MCAT if I have to (I always like a solid challenge, and the MCAT was a very nice one that I had conquered by breaking 30+).

I'm thinking about shadowing a Pharmacist in order to see what they do, and even if it's a little monotonous, I'll definitely do it for the low stress nature and stability. I believe that my happiness and health comes first before anything else.

I don't want to make any hasty decisions right now so I'll be pondering this for the next few months over the summer while I start a research opportunity in organic drug development.

I wrote this post quickly, so if there are any problems, I'll clarify. I know I touched very briefly on why I don't want to go to MD school, but I've been thinking about this for the last few months and the more I think about going to M.D. school the more apprehensive and tense I get.

Edit: And yes, I'm aware that I will have to work hard in pharm school. I don't mind working hard. I did it in college and I worked hard for that MCAT score and that hard work and stress did not take a significant toll on my health. Med-school on the other hand... is a different beast which is constantly high-stress. Only the ones who have fire and passion for the light at the end of the tunnel will survive.

I will also contact a Pharmacy school student to see in order to see if this is the right decision for me, because if I make the switch, I need to make sure I do not regret it.

You may want to post in the pharmacy section, and get the opinions of some pharmacists who will give you more info than you ever want about pharmacy. At the same time, they can give you an idea of what to expect and what pharmacy job is right for you.

 

[PharmDstudent]

Well, I agree, which is why I will try to shadow a pharmacist. However, I probably will not have to work part time, as finances are not a problem. My family will cover any professional school that I need.

I have an interest in science and I desire to have something specifically in healthcare. I wouldn't want to do anything else. I would just want to do something that doesn't require me to deal with blood and guts and is not as stressful.

If I have any misconceptions about pharmacists and/or pharmacy school, please correct them.

Besides the gory stuff in medical school, what do you think is stressful?

The hardest part of pharm school, in my opinion, is being able to keep up enough endurance. After the first year, you can't get by on smarts alone. You have to study your *** off, because the information is very specific and detailed. It seems foreign sometimes too. Once you get to Therapeutics in your second and third year, you have to diagnose and manage hypothetical scenerios that are consistent with problems of real-life patients.

 

[ahmedqman]

Besides the gory stuff in medical school, what do you think is stressful?

The hardest part of pharm school, in my opinion, is being able to keep up enough endurance. After the first year, you can't get by on smarts alone. You have to study your *** off, because the information is very specific and detailed. It seems foreign sometimes too. Once you get to Therapeutics in your second and third year, you have to diagnose and manage hypothetical scenerios that are consistent with problems of real-life patients.

Yeah, I've heard about this. I know I'll have to work hard. There's nothing in life that comes for free (trust me, a 31 MCAT doesn't come for free, nor does a solid GPA... you give up a lot of your free time). It's just that I know a bunch of people in med school and the more I think about it the more I just do not want to do it. And 60-80 hour residencies do not sound appealing to me for a profession I have no passion for, nor is the gory stuff. Do you think pharmacy school is as stressful as med school? I have an inkling that it is not, but I could be being naive, which is why I chose to post my story in the first place.

Edit: BTW, I am not trying to say that Pharmacy school is a cakewalk or that it's the easiest career ever. That's not my goal here. My goal here is to find a place in healthcare where I can balance my likes and dislikes and live a comfortable life without destroying my happiness in the process.

I have expressed to my family periodically for two years that I was not doing the MD path for me and that it was to keep them happy. Now I realize that you can't slug out med school in order to keep them happy and am finally deciding to voice my concerns to my family members more frequently. Hopefully they'll listen a bit more.

And I'm not saying that pharm school is something you can slug out. Maybe you do have to have a passion or fire for pharm school like one has to have a passion for med school. I AM NOT TRYING TO MAKE PHARM SCHOOL SEEM EASY, I AM JUST SEEING IF IT COULD BE A POSSIBLE CAREER PATH FOR ME, because I am 96% sure that I don't want to go down the MD path.

Edit: And that scenario thing actually sounds fun. I like synthesizing knowledge in order to come to a conclusion with regards to a patients condition, which is why I want to stay in healthcare. Throughout my college career, I have built a very medically oriented knowledge base (I have taken neuroanatomy, neurobiology, anatomy, physiology, endocrinology, and am currently taking introduction to pharmacology), and it's one of the reasons I want to stick to something in healthcare. I like the fact that one has to exercise judgement in making decisions about a patient's health, so I guess that's an aspect that I like.

 

[nnguyenc]

you definitely need to shadow a pharmacist,
you need to know what you are getting into and which specialty you want within the pharmaceutical field (retail makes the most money but it is stressful, clinical is where
you can apply your knowledge but at a lower salary than retail)

i'll come back after work and provide more info (b/c i know i'm going to get drilled for saying there is only hospital and retail out there)

but with your stats, i think pharmacy school will come easy to you and you
will most likely be in the top 10 of your class

where are you located btw?

 

[Allure]

The grass is not always greener on the other side. I know a few pharmacists that went back to school to get an MD because they are not happy with their jobs. You should definitely go shadow a pharmacist and if possibly, try to get a job in pharmacy because just looking and doing are two different things. Pharmacy school is of course not as intense as med school, but it's not about the 4 years you spend in school or a few extra years you spend after that doing residency, it's more of the job that you will have to wake up to every day for the next 30-40 years. So make sure you make that decision wisely. Get some exposure first. The last thing you want to do is go to pharmacy school and then regret later. I don't really know anything about med school to really comment on it, but I know that I can never do it. I'm afraid of blood..lol...and there is actually someone in my class who dropped out of med school because he's afraid of blood. He passed out a few times and decided that it was not for him.

 

[ahmedqman]

it's more of the job that you will have to wake up to every day for the next 30-40 years.

I think that's what's so attractive about it. I just want to have a normal job not stress out every freaking day and work super long hours for the next billion years of my life (hyperbole of course). But yes, I will shadow one and talk to various pharmacists. I am pretty sure MD is not for me, as I hate seeing the insides of other people and I don't want to make an effort to desensitize myself. I did see a cadaver dissection video and although I didn't pass out, it still bothers me (my dad passed away when I was 17 so that didn't help things). I like how my mind is right now and am currently happy w/ it, so I actually have no desire to desensitize myself. The high-stress nature of the profession is a huge factor for me, because I can't say I am the best at managing high-stress situations (maybe except for cramming for exams, but that's studying, and MD school is NOT about studying, after your first two years, you have to work in a clinical setting in which you do all the nasty stuff and I've heard about and everytime I think about it I'm like "yeesh... do i REALLY have to do that?"). I don't want to poke people with needles and I've always had kind of an inborn fear of needles piercing the skin, everytime I need to get a vaccination or my blood drawn, I have to look the other way.

nnguyenc, I am located in Orlando, Florida.

Does one have to love pharmacy in order to get through pharm school, or does one just have to NOT MIND getting up every day and doing the same job over and over? I need to find that balance, I mean you can't absolutely 100% love a profession and expect to get paid well for doing it, there's often a balance involved. I'm hoping that this has that balance I'm looking for.

How does an undergrad like me get work in pharmacy? I actually should try that and see how it works out.

 

[Knickerbocker]

Considering that you went through everything and are even at the point of acceptance, it seems like you didn't do enough research about being a doctor.

It also looks like you are looking to quickly change your mind to pharmacy, which is probably not a good idea.

I'd suggest talking to pharmacy students (P3/P4, not people who were just accepted) and practicing pharmacists for some opinions.

 

[Zapages]

If you are accepted to Med School. You should stick it out, there are other fields in medicine you can go into instead of just becoming a surgeon. You can go into Radiology/chemotherapy and if you like research you can go into Medical Research.

Check this sheet out I know its funny but its very true... Maybe you'll find something that you might like.

Good luck on your decisions. 🙂

 

[KnittyTurtle]

My input will be to take a step back and re-evaluate what you want in life. And think about this question "If you knew you had only 10yrs to live, what would you do?"

Excercise: On one half of the paper, write what you are good at. On the other half, write what you want in a career.

Hopefully, these excercises will lead you to a better understanding of yourself and in finding a career that will utilize your strength to best help our society as well as increase your happiness. Best of luck on your journey.

 

[Pharmpills]

You have being offered a spot that tons of people would die for but yes happiness is important. You said "low stress nature and stability" of pharmacy, ive worked in a pharmacy for years and retail for the most part is not low stress bc it can get insanely busy with phone ringing non-stop (reality check). You came so far and suddenly decide MD wasnt for u wtf?? didnt you do something to get experience, what if you go to pharmacy school and in the 3rd year say oh maybe i should do MD now. I mean its ok to change careers but seriously u need to think harder about the choices u make. Remember as a doctor u can retire earlier but u have to work alot more, med school is more difficult too so consider those among other things and get a grip after all ur stats are high and i want it haha.

 

[CantW8]

GO 2 MED SCHOOL!!!!!!!! I've spoken to so many pharmacists that wished they went 2 med school instead. Pharmacy is very stressful esp retail pharms which ppl now think is a fast-food joint. As a Dr u can take your time except when u're working in the ER or w/e. GO 2 MED SCHOOL! or u will regret it! Trust me!!! <= pharmacists 😴<=Doctors lol i want to be a pharmacist because i'd rather touch pills than ppl! plus my grades weren't goood enough for med school.

 

[Antimony]

Come out to the Pre-Pharmacy Society at UCF and find out more. Our website is www.prepharmacysociety.com

 

[tellsarah]

If you are accepted to Med School. You should stick it out, there are other fields in medicine you can go into instead of just becoming a surgeon. You can go into Radiology/chemotherapy and if you like research you can go into Medical Research.

Check this sheet out I know its funny but its very true... Maybe you'll find something that you might like.

Good luck on your decisions. 🙂

That is a great chart!
My specialty is Dematology
Anyone else?

 

[tellsarah]

Edit: BTW, I am not trying to say that Pharmacy school is a cakewalk or that it's the easiest career ever. That's not my goal here. My goal here is to find a place in healthcare where I can balance my likes and dislikes and live a comfortable life without destroying my happiness in the process.

\quote]

I believe this is the goal of most people wanting to go into or change occupations in healthcare. Like stated above, if you do MD, more options will be afforded to you later on to fit the kind of life you want. You may just have to go through hell for 6-10 more years.

Good luck

 

[ahmedqman]

I need to carefully re-evaluate my decisions and my potential options and make sure I'm thinking rationally and not out of personal fears and anxiety.

Edit: Students like me are probably the reason most med students think BS/MD guaranteed programs are a crock of ****.

 

[stylerprodigy]

Shadowing a pharmacist would be a good idea. You wouldn't want to regret your decision say your last year of pharmacy school. Ask Susie and Dr. Lopez too. Susie has opportunities for you to shadow pharmacist in ORMC or Florida Hospital. My friend did that and shadowed an oncology pharmacist and he loved it. It seems like you will be the type that will work in the hospital rather than retail. There are a lot of fields in pharmacy. By the way, I think I know you. Did you take Endocrinology last semester and worked in Dr. Chakarbardi's lab? Anyways good luck, I too switched from premed to pharm.

 

[lwang81]

Honestly you just need to work at a pharmacy and see for yourself. People will say pharmacy is great or it sucks. People will say being an MD will suck or it's great. You have to find out for yourself if it's for you. Work at a pharmacy. Shadowing is different than actually being responsible for things at a pharmacy I think. Actually be put in stressful situations and see how you like it or if it's not stressful at all for you. Volunteer at a hospital pharmacy as well.

 

[ahmedqman]

Did you take Endocrinology last semester and worked in Dr. Chakarbardi's lab? Anyways good luck, I too switched from premed to pharm.

Yes.

 

[Allure]

I like learning in pharmacy school a lot (minus all the stress from studying for exams) more than I like the profession itself. You just learn so much in school but you only really use 10% of that. Pharmacy definitely pays well and has decent hours. But same thing goes to family physicians. They only work Mon-Fri 9-5. At least that's the hours of all the family doctors that I've had.

It's actually pretty easy to find a job especially with Walgreens. Go to their website, click on career and fill out an application. The good thing about Walgreens' system is that all the stores within the distance that you want can see your application, so if they're hiring, they'll call you. I got 3 phone calls as soon as I submitted my application. I didn't think I would get any phone calls since I tried that before with other companies and nothing. CVS sucks because you can only pick one store to apply to. But it might be a while before you can get a job, so for now, go to a store and ask to shadow.

 

[Chiyo]

Personally, based on the short bio you provided, I think you'll do fine in pharmacy school & as a pharmacist. You already said you are willing to work hard, want to help people, and stay in healthcare. But I want you to ponder the following few points. (I'm taking about everything in general. So no flames!)

1) Are you okay with only earning ~$100K/year? (ie, is money important to you?)

Generally hospital pharmacist will earn $80-100K+ and retail $100-120K+.
Even if you become clinical coordinator or DOP at hospital, it won't generally exceed $150K-180K.
(Let's not talk about owning a pharmacy here...)
If you become family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics doc, you'll earn between $150K-200K/year.
Anesthesia, surgery ~$300K
Specialist (neurosurgery, etc) ~$500K and up

But will you need that much money? Malpractice insurance will take a big chunk too.

2) Are you okay with being underappreciated?

I think pharmacy profession is generally underappreciated, and I think this is mainly the reason people go to med school after obtaining a PharmD.
General public doesn't know what it takes for the pharmacist to fill an Rx... in retail, you have to deal with a lot of insurance issues and patient complaints. If you do catch drug interaction, dosing mistake, etc as a retail pharmacist, the MD's won't call back and thank you for catching those mistakes (but you still got to do your job). Sometimes you'll even get YELLED at by the patient by catching drug interaction, becaue it's taking longer to fill that Rx & some MDs get annoyed if you call after-hours for the said reason...
If you're clinical pharmacist in hospital, and when you make a suggestion you have to be careful with how you present it so it wouldn't hurt MD's ego (even though your suggestion is helping them). If your hospital doesn't have established clinical pharmacy service, you have to work up & establish rapport with MD's before they start taking your recommendation.
You won't have autonomy... your suggestions will always have to go through that MD before orders can be written, even though it is your intervention.

3) Are you okay with not having "status"?

You'll generally not be called with Dr.xxx with PharmD. (Except you're pharmacy professor/preceptor and your students might call you Dr.xxx)

If you think you can deal with all of the above..then I'd say go for it.

Also, keep in mind if you want to practice "clinical" pharmacy, you might have to up to 2 years of residency.

 

[SPharmN]

Just a thought, have you considered dentistry, nursing, or optometry? It seems like the nature of those professions matches with your descriptions too. You definitely need to work (or at least shadow) a bit in a retail pharmacy before you decide. It'll be better if you get to work in a busy store (600 scripts+ per day) so that you can experience what kinda of stress and social status the pharmacists are under.

 

[jasmine0211]

The grass is not always greener on the other side. I know a few pharmacists that went back to school to get an MD because they are not happy with their jobs. You should definitely go shadow a pharmacist and if possibly, try to get a job in pharmacy because just looking and doing are two different things. Pharmacy school is of course not as intense as med school, but it's not about the 4 years you spend in school or a few extra years you spend after that doing residency, it's more of the job that you will have to wake up to every day for the next 30-40 years. So make sure you make that decision wisely. Get some exposure first. The last thing you want to do is go to pharmacy school and then regret later. I don't really know anything about med school to really comment on it, but I know that I can never do it. I'm afraid of blood..lol...and there is actually someone in my class who dropped out of med school because he's afraid of blood. He passed out a few times and decided that it was not for him.

I think pharmacy school is just as intense as medical school. The hardest class to pass in medical school is pharmacology

 

[Fatpharm]

I think pharmacy school is just as intense as medical school. The hardest class to pass in medical school is pharmacology

I would have to disagree. My pharmacy school is a lot less intense than my undergrad. An underdergraduate classmate of mine got into the same school, but he is in med and I am in pharm. He always looked run down when I saw him.

Having talked with students from the dental and med school, they tell me they don't have a lot of time on their hands. The definitely don't have the extracurricular involvement with fraternities and other organizations. The E-board for the university student government that involves all the schools on campus is heavily represented by pharmacy students with no dental or medical students this year.

 

[RNtoPharmD]

Also, keep in mind if you want to practice "clinical" pharmacy, you might have to up to 2 years of residency.

2 years of residency??what kind of residencies are those? wow..That long? I thought residency is only one year.
The clinical pharmacist training is only a year short of family practice doc (4+3)?

 

[PharmDstudent]

I would have to disagree. My pharmacy school is a lot less intense than my undergrad. An underdergraduate classmate of mine got into the same school, but he is in med and I am in pharm. He always looked run down when I saw him.

What year are you in pharmacy school?
Pharmacy students that haven't gotten to Pharmacology, Medicinal Chemistry, and Therapeutics love to say that undergrad was easier.

 

[PharmDstudent]

2 years of residency??what kind of residencies are those? wow..That long? I thought residency is only one year.
The clinical pharmacist training is only a year short of family practice doc (4+3)?

Theoretically, you could be in school forever! Schools offer residencies, fellowships, and PhD's.
You could also train in a type of specialty pharmacy (nutrition, psychiatry, nuclear, etc.) and get certified in it.

Keep this in mind, general practitioners do not have to specialize just like retail pharmacists do not have to specialize. It only takes four years of pharmacy school to be a pharmacist. Doctors need to do residencies. Additionally, it would take longer for a doctor to specialize than it would for a pharmacist.

In general for pharmacists, general residencies are first year. Specialized residencies are second year.

A year ago, I had thought about doing a pharmacy management residency. Eventually, I had decided that I didn't want to pursue that type of residency for several reasons, these two in particular: there are only a few of those programs in the country and an MBA would not be the most useful master's degree (for what I would like to do).

Instead, I can work part-time as a pharmacist while getting the master's degree that I want. It works out to be about the same--> pharmacist experience plus master's degree with associated management experience.

 

[Allure]

I was thinking of doing a pharmacy management residency too and you brought up some good points. The state that I am in is well known for it and one of the first to offer that kind of residency (we're talking 30 years back). However, we have to be accepted into the M.S. program when we apply and the program is 2 years, with them paying for our tuition. The only concern I really have with this is how easy it would be to get a job after doing the 2-year residency vs. other residencies (oncology, peds, etc.etc..)

 

[Allure]

I think pharmacy school is just as intense as medical school. The hardest class to pass in medical school is pharmacology

It's because there is only 1 pharmacology class for them whereas with us, it's spread out over the course of 3 years. Imagine having to learn everything we learn in 3 years being compressed down to 1 semester.

 

[Chiyo]

2 years of residency??what kind of residencies are those? wow..That long? I thought residency is only one year.
The clinical pharmacist training is only a year short of family practice doc (4+3)?

PGY-1 is general residency and you can be a broad 'clinical' pharmacist with 1 yr residency.

To become critical care, infectious disease, oncology, transplant, or pharmacotherapy specialist, PGY-2 is recommended/required to become competitive in the job market.

(I put clinical in parentheses since all pharmacists are supposed to be clinical in their mindset; I refer to the ones who are on the floor & round with MD's as "clinical pharmacists")

 

[Fatpharm]

What year are you in pharmacy school?
Pharmacy students that haven't gotten to Pharmacology, Medicinal Chemistry, and Therapeutics love to say that undergrad was easier.

Second year. Not yet in therapeutics (our school its third year), but I am doing fine in med chem and pharmacology.

 

[mustang sally]

I don't know too much about pharmacy school or being a pharmacist, but I just want to say good luck to you. I think admitting that were doing medicine for your family and not for yourself is great and will probably save you a lot of anguish in the long run.