Summer internship

[nms005]

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I was recently offered a summer internship with kaiser permanente in an outpatient pharmacy. However, I may also have the opportunity to do an internship at a hospital during the summer. I think that in the future I would prefer to pursue hospital pharmacy over retail pharmacy, but I haven't really had much experience in hospital so I can't be for sure.
I feel that if I give up the kaiser internship this summer, I would not have that opportunity again, whereas I might have the opportunity to do the hospital internship next summer.
I do not know whether I should go for the kaiser internship, since it is guaranteed, and pursue a hospital internship next summer, or go for the hospital internship this summer.
I have already done a drug test for the kaiser internship, but I have not filled out any other paperwork. Would it be wrong to tell them no now?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[type b pharmD]

I was recently offered a summer internship with kaiser permanente in an outpatient pharmacy. However, I may also have the opportunity to do an internship at a hospital during the summer. I think that in the future I would prefer to pursue hospital pharmacy over retail pharmacy, but I haven't really had much experience in hospital so I can't be for sure.
I feel that if I give up the kaiser internship this summer, I would not have that opportunity again, whereas I might have the opportunity to do the hospital internship next summer.
I do not know whether I should go for the kaiser internship, since it is guaranteed, and pursue a hospital internship next summer, or go for the hospital internship this summer.
I have already done a drug test for the kaiser internship, but I have not filled out any other paperwork. Would it be wrong to tell them no now?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

A. Kaiser Has hospitals.

So go with kaiser. See if you cant transfer to a kaiser hospital next summer.

Just an idea.. Around here kaiser is the holy grail of internships, so i would stick with it if you can. I know they pay P4s $20/hr here , and P3s $18. Why is it so sought after? I'm not entirely sure, but i think it has something to do with really awesome benefits of working for kaiser (either fringe benefits or just the practice environment)

 

[pearljam5a1]

I worked as an outpatient tech for 3 years at a hospital and it has some pros and cons but for me the cons far outweighed the pros. If you have retail experience then you'll feel more at home in an outpatient pharmacy. You get a smidgeon of the inpatient side (discharges from the hospital) but not as much as if you actually worked the inpatient pharmacy. A lot of times the techs will bounce back and forth from inpatient/outpatient depending on the need.

The good news is that you usually only take scripts from providers in your hospital... this makes reaching the doctor that much easier (most of the time). Insurance is easier to deal with depending on your patient population. Where I worked we had mostly indigent patients with insurance through the hospital so there was no online billing needed. It's also nice not to have to kiss your customer's butt all the time.

I would say go for the inpatient internship. You'll have more opportunities to do things in a wider practice. Depending on the size of the hospital you may have lots of satellite pharmacies in the ICU's and peds that you can work in. You'll also be able to compound more in an inpatient setting including IV meds and TPNs.

 

[pharmstudent09]

A. Kaiser Has hospitals.

So go with kaiser. See if you cant transfer to a kaiser hospital next summer.

Just an idea.. Around here kaiser is the holy grail of internships, so i would stick with it if you can. I know they pay P4s $20/hr here , and P3s $18. Why is it so sought after? I'm not entirely sure, but i think it has something to do with really awesome benefits of working for kaiser (either fringe benefits or just the practice environment)

Actually I make $22/hr as a P1 in CA. I think by 4th year we make $25/hr, but I wouldn't do it just for the pay. I think working for Kaiser is amazing, plus like you said there is a lot of opportunity to rotate around to different sites. As a Kaiser intern you can pick up shifts in outpatient, inpatient, satellite, and possibly get exposure to Am Care. It's really great to get your foot in the door so I'd go for Kaiser.

 

[BMBiology]

I worked almost a year at kaiser as an intern. The pay is well. I just wish I didnt have to work as much. Life is busy enough as a student but with work, it took a lot out of me.

 

[desklamp]

For future reference, how do you get these kaiser summer internships? I haven't found anything on their site (like the johns hopkins pharmacy internship). Is it just applied to like a normal job in their career opportunities webpage?

 

[deleted205891]

If you don't want the internship, give it to me (if they can subsidize my relocation to the West Coast 🙂).

But seriously these things aren't easy to come by nowadays. You said that you may have something else lined up. Well, you are not 100% sure, are you? I think you shouldn't take your chances and take Kaiser (which many people on here seem to only have good opinions about).

 

[xiphoid2010]

If you don't want the internship, give it to me (if they can subsidize my relocation to the West Coast 🙂).

But seriously these things aren't easy to come by nowadays. You said that you may have something else lined up. Well, you are not 100% sure, are you? I think you shouldn't take your chances and take Kaiser (which many people on here seem to only have good opinions about).

Are things different on west-coast? Here in ohio, most of the students are in year-long internships. To run off during the summer means you are off the payroll and can lose your internship to someone else. Maybe giving up a retail year long internship position is no big deal, but I'll be damned to give up my sweet year-long hospital internship in the ED for a 3 month stint.

 

[nms005]

Are things different on west-coast? Here in ohio, most of the students are in year-long internships. To run off during the summer means you are off the payroll and can lose your internship to someone else. Maybe giving up a retail year long internship position is no big deal, but I'll be damned to give up my sweet year-long hospital internship in the ED for a 3 month stint.

It is the same way here on the west coast. If you left for 3 months, you would lose your internship. For me, though, I am a P1, so this will be the first internship that I will have. I won't be leaving another internship for this one.

Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate it. I have decided to stick with Kaiser.

 

[nms005]

For future reference, how do you get these kaiser summer internships? I haven't found anything on their site (like the johns hopkins pharmacy internship). Is it just applied to like a normal job in their career opportunities webpage?

I am not sure about how you normally get an internship with Kaiser, but I went to a job fair at my school where I got the contact information for a manager at Kaiser and then he helped me get the internship.