Trying to decide hospital internship...

[sdh0202]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello, I'm going to attend pharmacy school in coming months and I've been actively looking to land a hospital internship since last year to get Rx experience. I recently interviewed at two places and trying to decide which hospital should I work for during school year (Assuming I get an offer from both)

Choice A: pharm tech job, 40 min public transportation (subway + bus), larger teaching hospital with ~600 beds, full time hours paid training guaranteed during remaining summer , flexible shift hours during school year, 13 hr/a week , one week night and every other weekends, busy work setting, hourly wage is not that good ($13 ish), since there is no such thing called pharmacy intern in NJ

Choice B: pharmacy student job (intern), 10 min public transportation from home (!!), smaller hospital (~200 beds), 16 hours a month mandatory, hard to pick up extra shift maybe, hourly wage is higher than A, since I work as intern at least, training days are random, not full-time, with no guaranteed training hours, working environment does not seem to be that busy

As you can see, I would have preferred closer distance with more hourly wage if choice A was not giving me more work hours during summer and hospital is much bigger and I would learn more stuff in larger setting.
I'm trying to decide between A and B, and any helpful comment would be appreciated!

 

[Sparda29]

Take choice B unless choice A tells you they will be training you as a pharmacy intern would be trained. You don't want to get stuck batching pills and IVs all day.

 

[sdh0202]

Take choice B unless choice A tells you they will be training you as a pharmacy intern would be trained. You don't want to get stuck batching pills and IVs all day.

Thanks for the comment. They would require me to get NJ pharm tech certificate within 6 months of hiring and they made it clear that I would get trained like a pharmacy tech, working in omnicell, IV, filling cart and so on. I need to prepare my own paperwork and choose own preceptor if I want to transfer intern hours to school. Choice B is specifically pharmacy student position, learning things and attending conference if I want to, where supervisor has preceptor experience for over 15 years, and paid like intern

 

[Sparda29]

Thanks for the comment. They would require me to get NJ pharm tech certificate within 6 months of hiring and they made it clear that I would get trained like a pharmacy tech, working in omnicell, IV, filling cart and so on. I need to prepare my own paperwork and choose own preceptor if I want to transfer intern hours to school. Choice B is specifically pharmacy student position, learning things and attending conference if I want to, where supervisor has preceptor experience for over 15 years, and paid like intern

Choice B.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Less busy work environment, that means that people will actually have the time to teach you stuff (yeah, there might be more different stuff going on in a teaching hospital, but if nobody has the time to explain anything to you, that won't help), and the higher pay and proximity to home sounds really good. I would be leaning towards B, although if they aren't going to give you full-time hours in the summer, that isn't good. I think I would risk it and go with B, if you can't get full-time summer hours, you can always see if you can get hours at a retail store.

 

[alprazolamborghini]

do hospital. experience from hospital will be more valuable than that of retail. plus you can become retail pharmacist quite easily later on.

 

[Jibby321]

do hospital. experience from hospital will be more valuable than that of retail. plus you can become retail pharmacist quite easily later on.

Doesn't mean he/she will be good at it.

 

[Sparda29]

The best possible training for anyone who wants to become a retail pharmacist is probably to become a CVS intern at a 24 hr store that does close to 700-900 scripts/day. Then when you become a pharmacist, you go work at a store that does max 200/day or go work for an independent. After working in a super fast store and getting used to that high volume, the low volume will seem so easy.

 

[sdh0202]

Thanks all for your comments. At the moment I would like to get experience from hospital as I'm interested in doing residency after I graduate (but who knows it might change during 4 years span).
I wish I could get some decent experience in both retail and hospital settings, and I was kind of leaning toward choice B, until I went for interview on choice A; larger hospital, more training hours, saw all these PGY 1 residents in their pharmacy... and so on.. I thought maybe in terms of learning stuff and building connection, choice B might be a better choice. I still prefer choice B but I would have to wait and see how both would responds to me. (Choice B is on reference check stage)

 

[Jibby321]

The best possible training for anyone who wants to become a retail pharmacist is probably to become a CVS intern at a 24 hr store that does close to 700-900 scripts/day. Then when you become a pharmacist, you go work at a store that does max 200/day or go work for an independent. After working in a super fast store and getting used to that high volume, the low volume will seem so easy.

This is true. I used to work at cvs that did 600/day. And pretty much can handle anything after coming from that hell hole.

 

[Sparda29]

This is true. I used to work at cvs that did 600/day. And pretty much can handle anything after coming from that hell hole.

The independent where I work has me do one weekday at the main store that does 500-600 on the weekdays, and the rest of the week he floats me around to his newer operations which do like 25-100. When I'm at the new operations, I'm pretty much snacking and surfing the internet all day. When we get customers in, I usually have them wait, bill their insurances and while the tech is filling, I counsel them, then go back to check when the tech's done, and they are on their way.

 

[sdh0202]

Update: I got a job offer from choice A only couple days after I had interview and B hospital just notified me that they only need a letter from school that I'm the pharmacy student starting this Fall. I also found out that pay rate is not substantially different (B hospital said that it won't be less than $13/hr while for A, starting rate is ~$13ish). If pay rate is same, I have to decide between closer distance, less work, and less mandatory work hours (16 hr a month) vs larger hospital setting ,busy work, and more mandatory work hours (13 hr per week). This is really tough decision to make lol

 

[sdh0202]

Bump.
I'm now kind of leaning toward A hospital (still have to get a letter from school to get decision from choice B), where I work as a pharmacy tech for 13 hours a week (one 5 hour weekday, two 8 hours weekends shift, then only 5 hour weekday shift and weekends off), due to its size, reputation, and skills I'm gonna learn in short period of time.
I've been working at least 15 hours a week when I did my undergraduate work in college, but I'm little worried about different course workloads of first pharmacy school semester. Some of my friends recommend me to start small while I always wanted to do work in larger hospital setting but if my grades suffer due to work hours, that would be a different story. (my school starts IPPE from the start, so it's basically 17 credits+ 3 hours of IPPE every week). I know there are many different pharmacy students here, what do you think about working 52 hours a month during a pharmacy school?