I have seen some pharmacy residencies geared towards medications for neurology patients? I'm not understanding your comment.
First, you need to learn about Anatomy & Physiology BEFORE applying to pharmacy school. Second, "Clinical Pharmacist " is a very vague term. Where do you want to work: inpatient, ambulatory care, retail insurance, academia? Upon graduation from pharmacy school, usually 20%-30% of your class will be matched to residency, the rest will go to retail or get "middle of nowhere jobs". Residency training will certainly give you advantages in getting "nice jobs" but a lot of people are able to get out of retail also.
Sounds like you want to be a neurologist. Have you thought about medical school instead of pharm?
Yeah, listen to this person. If you have a specific field in medicine that you want to work in, go to med school/PA school/NP school and specialize in that field. There are pharmacist positions that specialize in just about everything, but most of them are very limited and I would never start my career path expecting to land something as rare as a neurology pharmacist. I might consider it if you were interest in a more common specialty, say oncology, but it is still a stretch. I would say most of us had no clue where we would end up when we entered pharmacy school except for those who went into this wanting to do retail.
That makes sense but I didn't get into medical school and it's cumbersome to try again. I can see myself being happy as a Pharmacist even if I'm not highly specialized.
When you say happy, do you mean you wake up looking forward to going to work and it's so much fun you whistle all day and then you're sad when it's time to go home? That is highly, highly unlikely.
In terms of my PGY-1, very little direct patient interaction. I would round with the critical care team in the ICU or the different hospitalists that rotated every two weeks through the hospital. Currently doing a PGY-2 in ambulatory care (VA), and I correspond directly with patients daily. In terms of VA, pharmacists have a scope of practice so daily face to face / telephone / virtual interactions with patients is something you'd be expected to do (along with answering daily questions from the rest of the healthcare team).
Physiology +/- Anatomy is something you come to the job with (check for drug/drug interactions, pharmacokinetics, reasonings for potential ADRs, etc.). Since I am still a resident, my hours and research requirements have started to drain my mind and body, but I also know the pay-off at the end of the next 6 months will afford me a comfortable lifestyle with my family (set hours, weekends + federal holidays off). Federal jobs don't pay as much as other positions, but I think the trade-off of responsibilities and long-term retirement plans are well worth it for myself.
This forum has a great many intelligent, helpful, and insightful individuals. There are qualified individuals here, with decades of experience. I would read the responses here, and notice the cautionary tone, in most.
Yes.
