What is the job of a pharmacist like?

[Starlight7]

I am interested in pharmacy and am considering a career in it. However, I am not entirely sure of what their job is like. I'd appreciate it if you could desribe what the typical day to day job of a pharmacist working in retail is like from your experience. I'd prefer if you told me specifically what YOU find, even if that does not represent what me or most other people would find.

More specificly:

Do you find it stimulating and interesting, or is it tedious and boring? In what way(s)?

What type of personality do you think you'd need to like the job?

How much time do retail pharmacists typically spend interacting with patients compared to counting pills, compounding medication, and that sort of thing?

Are you happy with your desicion to be a pharmacist, why or why not?



Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

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[crazybob]

I'm still an intern, but I've found that shadowing a pharmacist is the best way to get most questions answered. If you see it from their work on a typical day, you can see if you would like doing what they do.

If you ask them questions while shadowing, they'll usually tell you from personal experience. They also tell you to shadow other types of pharmacists to get a broader view of pharmacy as a profession.

 

[gwarm01]

I'm still an intern, but I've found that shadowing a pharmacist is the best way to get most questions answered. If you see it from their work on a typical day, you can see if you would like doing what they do.

If you ask them questions while shadowing, they'll usually tell you from personal experience. They also tell you to shadow other types of pharmacists to get a broader view of pharmacy as a profession.

So you found an internship? That's great! Where are you?

 

[jinga]

I am interested in pharmacy and am considering a career in it. However, I am not entirely sure of what their job is like. I'd appreciate it if you could desribe what the typical day to day job of a pharmacist working in retail is like from your experience. I'd prefer if you told me specifically what YOU find, even if that does not represent what me or most other people would find.

More specificly:

Do you find it stimulating and interesting, or is it tedious and boring? In what way(s)?

What type of personality do you think you'd need to like the job?

How much time do retail pharmacists typically spend interacting with patients compared to counting pills, compounding medication, and that sort of thing?

Are you happy with your desicion to be a pharmacist, why or why not?



Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Shadow, shadow, shadow. Don't just do the bare minimum. Try to work in various pharmacy settings for an extended period of time so as to gain relevant experience. One day or even a week in a pharmacy isn't enough, try to work for hundreds or even more than a thousand hours. For real...

 

[jinga]

The reason I suggest you work for such a large amount of time is that I'm positive a lot of the people in my class just want to make six figures. I actually heard a girl the other day state in a mocking voice: "I want to help people." She was kidding. I could have slapped the .....

 

[rxlea]

Please use the search function and read the stickies at the top of the pre-pharm forums. There are different areas of pharmacy like community, clinical, mail order, nuclear, IT, admin, and many more. It is a pretty flexible degree, but if you read the other threads in the forum, you will see that the job opportunities are not as plentiful as they once were. So, do your research! and, try to go to a more established school- not one of these newbie schools.

 

[HighSpeed]

Please use the search function and read the stickies at the top of the pre-pharm forums. There are different areas of pharmacy like community, clinical, mail order, nuclear, IT, admin, and many more. It is a pretty flexible degree, but if you read the other threads in the forum, you will see that the job opportunities are not as plentiful as they once were. So, do your research! and, try to go to a more established school- not one of these newbie schools.

You dont come across IT pharmacy too much. Does anybody have detailed information about it?...

 

[IndustryPharmD]

Do you find it stimulating and interesting, or is it tedious and boring? In what way(s)?

What type of personality do you think you'd need to like the job?

How much time do retail pharmacists typically spend interacting with patients compared to counting pills, compounding medication, and that sort of thing?

Are you happy with your desicion to be a pharmacist, why or why not?

Any job has the routine portion that gets tedious and boring. Some jobs you can do with a pharmacy degree have more of it, others less. But I have never met anyone, from any walk of life (including artists, musicians, writers, actors, investors, etc.) whose job did not have of the tedious and boring component. Also, what's boring for some, could be exciting for others.

Depends on what you want to do. There are great many things you can do in the field of pharmacy, which require completely different personality traits. The ones common to all of them, in my opinion, are intellectual curiosity, ability to handle stress of whatever kind well, and communication skills.

Retails pharmacists' ability to spend time with their patients depends on a lot of factors, such as the amount of prescriptions to fill, the help (both quantity and quality of technicians), the population (not all segments of the population are interested in talking to the pharmacist) and the pharmacists' own desire to talk to patients (many do not want to).

Yes, I am happy that I became a pharmacist, even though that has never been my "dream job", and it is not anywhere close to what I would have been doing if I did not need to earn a living. Pharmacy degree allowed me to explore a lot of different options and find a job that I like reasonably well that allowed me to gain some great experience along the way, and it also bumps up my payscale above people with other degrees who do what I do at my level and years of experience.

 

[Its Z]

Any job has the routine portion that gets tedious and boring. Some jobs you can do with a pharmacy degree have more of it, others less. But I have never met anyone, from any walk of life (including artists, musicians, writers, actors, investors, etc.) whose job did not have of the tedious and boring component. Also, what's boring for some, could be exciting for others.

Depends on what you want to do. There are great many things you can do in the field of pharmacy, which require completely different personality traits. The ones common to all of them, in my opinion, are intellectual curiosity, ability to handle stress of whatever kind well, and communication skills.

Retails pharmacists' ability to spend time with their patients depends on a lot of factors, such as the amount of prescriptions to fill, the help (both quantity and quality of technicians), the population (not all segments of the population are interested in talking to the pharmacist) and the pharmacists' own desire to talk to patients (many do not want to).

Yes, I am happy that I became a pharmacist, even though that has never been my "dream job", and it is not anywhere close to what I would have been doing if I did not need to earn a living. Pharmacy degree allowed me to explore a lot of different options and find a job that I like reasonably well that allowed me to gain some great experience along the way, and it also bumps up my payscale above people with other degrees who do what I do at my level and years of experience.

You haven't found your grey eyed prince with a castle yet?

 

[IndustryPharmD]

You haven't found your grey eyed prince with a castle yet?

No yet. Do you know an available one? As a reminder, the castle has to be in the mountains, castles on the plains aren't good enough. Though I swear it is cheaper to buy a castle somewhere in Eastern Europe than it is to buy a house in Hudson Valley.

 

[PharmaTope]

Any job has the routine portion that gets tedious and boring. Some jobs you can do with a pharmacy degree have more of it, others less. But I have never met anyone, from any walk of life (including artists, musicians, writers, actors, investors, etc.) whose job did not have of the tedious and boring component. Also, what's boring for some, could be exciting for others.

Depends on what you want to do. There are great many things you can do in the field of pharmacy, which require completely different personality traits. The ones common to all of them, in my opinion, are intellectual curiosity, ability to handle stress of whatever kind well, and communication skills.

Retails pharmacists' ability to spend time with their patients depends on a lot of factors, such as the amount of prescriptions to fill, the help (both quantity and quality of technicians), the population (not all segments of the population are interested in talking to the pharmacist) and the pharmacists' own desire to talk to patients (many do not want to).

Yes, I am happy that I became a pharmacist, even though that has never been my "dream job", and it is not anywhere close to what I would have been doing if I did not need to earn a living. Pharmacy degree allowed me to explore a lot of different options and find a job that I like reasonably well that allowed me to gain some great experience along the way, and it also bumps up my payscale above people with other degrees who do what I do at my level and years of experience.

really good post, but what is your dream job? I do a lot of life thinking and positive thinking to new goals. Is the financial aspect the only thing from stopping you pursue your dream job? Honestly, I say try to get your dream job. Everyday would be a reward in some way then.

For me, pharmacy would allow me to have family time. I want to have family and children, it is rewarding to me. I love learning about the body and the effects of medication and diseases. I just wish I could do more with pharmacy. I feel very limited at times.

 

[FruitFly]

Definitely different people will have different opinions on it. I'm definitely looking to go back to school and become a lawyer. Dispensing pharmacy is just not for me( as a full-time job )- no glory in it, and overworked.

 

[UNMorBUST]

no glory in it, and overworked.

Much of the same could be said about Law.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Much of the same could be said about Law.

and like, everything...

Except maybe porn stars or something.

 

[UNMorBUST]

and like, everything...

Except maybe porn stars or something.

Also cowboy astronauts.

 

[IndustryPharmD]

really good post, but what is your dream job? I do a lot of life thinking and positive thinking to new goals. Is the financial aspect the only thing from stopping you pursue your dream job? Honestly, I say try to get your dream job. Everyday would be a reward in some way then.

For me, pharmacy would allow me to have family time. I want to have family and children, it is rewarding to me. I love learning about the body and the effects of medication and diseases. I just wish I could do more with pharmacy. I feel very limited at times.

What I would love to do is get a PhD in linguistic anthropology. Now, the odds of finding a job in that field would give any pharmacy student starting the "sky is falling" threads nightmares. Because there is only a handful such positions worldwide. And because to do the kind of research I would like to do, I would need a lot of money, which would need to come from somewhere. That's leaving aside the question of whether I would be paid enough to support my lifestyle. Therefore, it makes sense to first make enough money so that you don't have to worry about things like that and THEN do what you want to do. Because trust me, when money becomes an issue - even the dream job becomes a source of constant stress. Imagine if you could only make $30,000 a year as a pharmacist - would you still be happy with your job if you had to constantly worry whether you would have enough money for next months' rent and having to see a doctor would be a financial disaster? Dreams are all fine and dandy until they crash against the iron ass of reality. There are plenty of stories in Hollywood about those who came pennyless and became stars - but there are no stories written about many times those who came with the same dreams and are still waitressing. That creates a distorted perspective in an average Joe Shmoe's mind.

 

[PharmaTope]

What I would love to do is get a PhD in linguistic anthropology. Now, the odds of finding a job in that field would give any pharmacy student starting the "sky is falling" threads nightmares. Because there is only a handful such positions worldwide. And because to do the kind of research I would like to do, I would need a lot of money, which would need to come from somewhere. That's leaving aside the question of whether I would be paid enough to support my lifestyle. Therefore, it makes sense to first make enough money so that you don't have to worry about things like that and THEN do what you want to do. Because trust me, when money becomes an issue - even the dream job becomes a source of constant stress. Imagine if you could only make $30,000 a year as a pharmacist - would you still be happy with your job if you had to constantly worry whether you would have enough money for next months' rent and having to see a doctor would be a financial disaster? Dreams are all fine and dandy until they crash against the iron ass of reality. There are plenty of stories in Hollywood about those who came pennyless and became stars - but there are no stories written about many times those who came with the same dreams and are still waitressing. That creates a distorted perspective in an average Joe Shmoe's mind.

very good post again with good insight. i have friends who are physicians that do photography. photography is their passion but medicine pays their bills.

you are very right though. what is your passion, what do you love, are important questions. if you are passionate about your job and it earns a lot, then you are a very very fortunate person. majority of people do not like their jobs. the people working the deli at the supermarket aren't doing that for a passion of theirs.

money complicates everything because there is always a fear of supporting yourself and a family. the best thing you can do is try to manage debt and maintain a good position. that was, once upon a time, a real draw to pharmacy. there were so many avenues to explore and you could have a job at the drop of a dime. now, not so much. this is with a lot of professions in healthcare that do not bring money into a hospital. if pharmacists were able to provide a billable service (procedures in medicine) they would be able to move in new directions. if pharmacy was smart, it would push for anesthesia assistance etc. when you think that nurses are able to do that, given your drug knowledge, add another year of training on top to be a pharmacist anesthesia assitant.

there are a number of ways pharmacy can improve but i dont think APhA works to give more options, just my 2 cents.

 

[type b pharmD]

very good post again with good insight. i have friends who are physicians that do photography. photography is their passion but medicine pays their bills.

you are very right though. what is your passion, what do you love, are important questions. if you are passionate about your job and it earns a lot, then you are a very very fortunate person. majority of people do not like their jobs. the people working the deli at the supermarket aren't doing that for a passion of theirs.

money complicates everything because there is always a fear of supporting yourself and a family. the best thing you can do is try to manage debt and maintain a good position. that was, once upon a time, a real draw to pharmacy. there were so many avenues to explore and you could have a job at the drop of a dime. now, not so much. this is with a lot of professions in healthcare that do not bring money into a hospital. if pharmacists were able to provide a billable service (procedures in medicine) they would be able to move in new directions. if pharmacy was smart, it would push for anesthesia assistance etc. when you think that nurses are able to do that, given your drug knowledge, add another year of training on top to be a pharmacist anesthesia assitant.

there are a number of ways pharmacy can improve but i dont think APhA works to give more options, just my 2 cents.

It's possible to make your own way and do something interesting in pharmacy. think outside the box... I am a mere p1 and already have an alternative route lined up.