What happens if I don't do a residency?

Started by DrCure21
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DrCure21

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Hello:

What happens if I don't do a residency? Besides retail, what are my other possible career options coming out of school? Any ideas are appreciated.

Please, only post serious professional comments. Don't waste your time saying marry a millionaire, become a hooker, blah, blah, blah. There is a reason I am seeking help and posting this thread.

Thank you!!!
 
If you don't do a residency, your chance of becoming a hospital pharmacist diminishes significantly. Your options besides retail are mail order, Long Term care, home infusion, etc...which are really all derivatives of retail.
 
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DrCure21 said:
Hello:

What happens if I don't do a residency? Besides retail, what are my other possible career options coming out of school? Any ideas are appreciated.

Please, only post serious professional comments. Don't waste your time saying marry a millionaire, become a hooker, blah, blah, blah. There is a reason I am seeking help and posting this thread.

Thank you!!!
Click to expand...

If you don't mind me saying so, I think your approach is all wrong. A much better approach would be to find an aspect of pharmacy that you want to do and then finding out the best route to get there. I believe for most pharmacy paths residencies make you more competitive, but are not required.

If you are dead set against residencies simply rule out the ones that require residencies. The jobs that I have heard of that require residencies are the "super" clinical jobs found at large hospitals, and even then required is a pretty strong word.
 
pharm B said:
While there are programs that require a residency (or hospital experience), there are still a few hospitals out there that will hire you without that.

Also, Industry is another option. Phamacovigilance sounds interesting.
Click to expand...

Most industry positions require residency, fellowship, or lots of experience.
 
I didn't even know you could work as an unlicensed pharmacist. I didn't even know pharmacies hire them either. 😱
 
You will have to work retail pharmacy.

Read this thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=774868

The only thing I have to add to this lists is flu shots. Oh and you get to do this all in a 12 or 14 hour shift with no breaks.
Actinomycin said:
Oh by the way the following events made the previous week and especially today super special -

1) Customer brings in insurance card when coming to pick up the script (not when dropping it off) and creates a scene that it took a few more minutes to get his script ready. His idea of insurance is something that is swiped like a credit card at the register.
2) Mr. Coupon who has 4 prescriptions. Runs a grand scheme where he transfers one rx to a different pharmacy and tries getting 20/25$ coupons from each one. Called kmart to get a copy, said they also needed one for the same guy. Oh he wanted to get a coupon at both places. Throws a fit when I said he cant use a coupon again within 6 months.
3) A rx was mistyped and 3 refills entered instead of none for a CIII substance. I refuse to fill it since there were no real refills and it was a typo. Doctors office closed to get any more refills. Throws a fit that her bottle said she had 3 refills and I was refusing to give her medication.
4) Someone comes from a doctor 400 miles away with a script for 240 oxyco..... On telling them I need to call and verify with the MD they throw a fit and tell me they will take all their business elsewhere. All the business was the last 240 oxy....filled just a few days back by another floater.
5) This lady wants to talk to the DM that we are not carrying her medication and always out of stock. The techs do the ordering and as a floater coming to that store after 7 days I have absolutely no idea why it wasnt ordered.
6) Confront tech about not entering correct doctors name. Get some valuable wisdom - it really doesnot matter if we put the right doctors name. It is all scanned in the system and whoever wants to change it can go ahead and do that.
7) Me no english customer - brings a walmart bottle with one refill remaining - wants to get a rx transferred from walmart. Call walmart, they said they already transferred it to target. Call the 2 targets in town - the guy has already used up all his refills - just trying to go to different pharmacies in town with an old button. Just refuses to get the idea that no refills are remaining - his walmart bottle says one refill is remaing - eats up 10 valuable minutes of my day.
8) Will think more about all these special events. Join in and add to this list............
Click to expand...
 
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J DUB said:
Well, we shall see....

Maybe in the future but staff positions in my area will still be there for several yrs to come

Cali is a supersaturated area for the most part....we have just started getting there in SC.
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Give me a freakin break. Like it or not, a lot of students read this forum and providing sound advice is one of the unwritten responsibilities as a professional, all joking and playing aside.

Your recommendation on this issue is not only poor but also very ill advised to tell the students and other pharmacists just because you and your 20 classmates were able to find hospital jobs, that it's ok to skip a residency and still find a hospital job in this ultra competitive world which is only going to get worse.

Career longevity is approximately 40 years and to bank it following your advice by others is very risky.

Think about it.
 
Its Z said:
Give me a freakin break. Like it or not, a lot of students read this forum and providing sound advice is one of the unwritten responsibilities as a professional, all joking and playing aside.

Your recommendation on this issue is not only poor but also very ill advised to tell the students and other pharmacists just because you and your 20 classmates were able to find hospital jobs, that it's ok to skip a residency and still find a hospital job in this ultra competitive world which is only going to get worse.

Career longevity is approximately 40 years and to bank it following your advice by others is very risky.

Think about it.
Click to expand...

Well, neither of us know for sure what will happen...hence why I said we shall see...

In my state you can still get hospital jobs without a residency and even in clinical positions. Several of my friends are in pure clinical roles in smaller hospitals.

It is not ultracompetitive here yet....in a couple of yrs....more than likely it will be.

I am talking right now in my state (SC) I know folks are getting hospitals jobs without a residency. So, where I live, it is not required right now.

Cali is not the center of the universe but does usually predict future trends in general. Hence, why I said we shall see.....
 
It also varies year by year. The year I graduated, 2 people out of 85 were able to get hospital jobs without a residency. The year before that had been 6 or 8. Not sure what it was this year.
 
DrCure21 said:
Hello:

What happens if I don't do a residency? Besides retail, what are my other possible career options coming out of school? Any ideas are appreciated.

Please, only post serious professional comments. Don't waste your time saying marry a millionaire, become a hooker, blah, blah, blah. There is a reason I am seeking help and posting this thread.

Thank you!!!
Click to expand...

I didn't do a residency and I'm glad I didn't. I got offered a retail job before graduation, took it and used their free services to pass the boards and get immunize certified. After a few months I took a job with a hospital as a staff pharmacist. I do the hybrid clinical/staffing model and I've been happy with it, especially compared to the hassles of retail. Just keep in mind, there is no perfect job in pharmacy. There are still inconveniences in hospital pharmacy, eg: no extra pharmacist coverage during the busy months, constant trimming of the budget, clueless nurses, jerk physicians.

Your other options: IV infusion clinic is a good one with no patient interaction and just having a coworker relationship type of environment. Same with nuclear pharmacy. Independent retail pharmacy is another good option due to better quality of life, less corporate BS and less fear of 'getting reported to management'.
 
I'm glad I didn't take the chance even though I didn't think I would be working in hospital pharmacy. It was well worth it to me.
 
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