Working as PharmD during med school

[Broccoli987]

Posting to see if anyone has had experience working as a pharmacist with a PharmD while in med school. I am not asking for questions as to why I am looking to make the switch. I am just curious what the feasibility would be.

Background: I attended one of the top pharmacy schools and have learned a lot of pathology, etiology, and diagnostic criteria for a host of disease states. Obviously not nearly the same amount as a medical student but I believe it has given me a very solid foundation. Working as a PRN pharmacist you get roughly $55-$60 per hour, so I would only be looking to work around 20 hours a month just to cover the cost of living. I would prefer to do this, seeing as I already have a bit of student loans from pharmacy school.

Open to all advice and suggestions.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[AMEHigh]

If you can have a flexible schedule then yes I think it’s totally feasible to work 5 hours per week during med school.

 

[ortnakas]

20 hours a week isn’t plausible, but 5-10 is probably possible and would help you cut back on your loans.

 

[njtrimed]

Posting to see if anyone has had experience working as a pharmacist with a PharmD while in med school. I am not asking for questions as to why I am looking to make the switch. I am just curious what the feasibility would be.

Background: I attended one of the top pharmacy schools and have learned a lot of pathology, etiology, and diagnostic criteria for a host of disease states. Obviously not nearly the same amount as a medical student but I believe it has given me a very solid foundation. Working as a PRN pharmacist you get roughly $55-$60 per hour, so I would only be looking to work around 20 hours a month just to cover the cost of living. I would prefer to do this, seeing as I already have a bit of student loans from pharmacy school.

Open to all advice and suggestions.

20 hours a week is definitely possible during your pre-clinical years. It’s much harder to schedule around clerkships, but I managed to work one day a week per diem throughout third year, and will be able to work 2-3 days a week again once my subinternships are over.

 

[gyngyn]

Many schools require consultation with and approval from your Student Affairs Dean before working.
Some schools prohibit work outside of school (tutoring...).

 

[watermelon master]

I think 20 hours a month is reasonable

 

[crunchywhit]

20 hours a week no. Period. A few hours a week, possibly. I wouldn't have been able to do that on my surgery clerkship, or my pediatrics clerkship (our rotation is very hours intensive and mostly inpatient). I would consider doing the 5 hours a week but to give yourself the out that if it is starting to cut into your performance to drop it. A B+ student while working vs an A student while not working will make a difference in your residency options (potentially, depends on what you end up applying to.) I would never do anything that would drop me a quartile in the class because of the detriment to matching. But that is an assessment based on my goals, and yours may be different. I worked continuously, essentially full-time or at least 30 hours a week from the age of 15 until starting medical school. I was accustomed to balancing work with school. I would not have found it possible in medical school. It was only into the fourth year that I have started doing minimal tutoring. Not trying to be a downer, just one person's perspective on the matter.

 

[Gilakend]

I think it would be fine during pre-clinical. I think the bigger issues would be: 1. finding a job as a pharmacist in the current job market 2. convincing that job you only want 20 hours a month (from what I understand from my pharmacy bros a lot of the pharmacy jobs right now are offering 18-36 hrs/week).

 

[libertyyne]

do you want to do poorly on step ? working 20 hours a week is how you do poorly on step.

 

[Goro]

Posting to see if anyone has had experience working as a pharmacist with a PharmD while in med school. I am not asking for questions as to why I am looking to make the switch. I am just curious what the feasibility would be.

Background: I attended one of the top pharmacy schools and have learned a lot of pathology, etiology, and diagnostic criteria for a host of disease states. Obviously not nearly the same amount as a medical student but I believe it has given me a very solid foundation. Working as a PRN pharmacist you get roughly $55-$60 per hour, so I would only be looking to work around 20 hours a month just to cover the cost of living. I would prefer to do this, seeing as I already have a bit of student loans from pharmacy school.

Open to all advice and suggestions.

Unless your a a master at time mgt, this would be a recipe for disaster.

I had a student who thought that he could still maintain his consulting job while an OMSI. He tanked and had to repeat year.

When he came back, he no longer consulted

 

[themoonman2]

Yes, 5 hours/week would be possible for most of preclinical. It would be very difficult to do during certain times, and you may have a hard time performing well in your classes depending on how flexible the job is. I would argue that those 20 hours/month could be put to better use doing research/leadership positions, but if you're not going to a competitive residency, you would be fine. If you're gunning for a competitive specialty or residency position, you will not have time to do the extracurriculars required. You also will also probably not have time to do the job regularly during clerkship year.

Best of luck!

 

[Thesimplelifeofamyloid]

Normally I'd say don't work in medical school, but considering you can make quite a bit of money in your position, I think it depends on also too what your goals are in medical school. If you're trying to gain a prestigious medical residency in neurosurgery at harvard, then this probably going to hurt you. If you just want to be a family physician and don't care about your location, then this would be feasible. The faster you figure out what you want to do, the better off you will be.

 

[njtrimed]

do you want to do poorly on step ? working 20 hours a week is how you do poorly on step.

While not everyone may be able to handle that work load and I certainly wouldn’t recommend taking on too much, it’s pretty easy to just stop working if it eats into med school responsibilities. The few med students I personally knew who kept picking up shifts at work were (like me) a little bit older and had previously successfully juggled school, work, and family, and to my knowledge we all knew our limitations and did well enough in med school too. But I have no doubt others have taken on too much and realized it too late.

Yes, 5 hours/week would be possible for most of preclinical. It would be very difficult to do during certain times, and you may have a hard time performing well in your classes depending on how flexible the job is. I would argue that those 20 hours/month could be put to better use doing research/leadership positions, but if you're not going to a competitive residency, you would be fine. If you're gunning for a competitive specialty or residency position, you will not have time to do the extracurriculars required. You also will also probably not have time to do the job regularly during clerkship year.

Best of luck!

Agreed. If you’re gunning for the most competitive residency spots, the extra time you’d spend working would better be spent cranking out publications.

 

[libertyyne]

While not everyone may be able to handle that work load and I certainly wouldn’t recommend taking on too much, it’s pretty easy to just stop working if it eats into med school responsibilities. The few med students I personally knew who kept picking up shifts at work were (like me) a little bit older and had previously successfully juggled school, work, and family, and to my knowledge we all knew our limitations and did well enough in med school too. But I have no doubt others have taken on too much and realized it too late.

Agreed. If you’re gunning for the most competitive residency spots, the extra time you’d spend working would better be spent cranking out publications.

Althought I Agree that some people might be able to do well. However being risk averse person myself , i would rather spend the added 20 hours a month studying for step 1 and giving school my best effort vs making a 1000 dollars as OP has suggested. 20 k over two years vs 100's of thousands in life time earning and heart ache if you do poorly on step are unable to get the specialty you want. Not worth the risk IMO. Now if you have always wanted to do family medicine and dont see yourself doing anything else , than thats fine.

 

[njtrimed]

Althought I Agree that some people might be able to do well. However being risk averse person myself , i would rather spend the added 20 hours a month studying for step 1 and giving school my best effort vs making a 1000 dollars as OP has suggested. 20 k over two years vs 100's of thousands in life time earning and heart ache if you do poorly on step are unable to get the specialty you want. Not worth the risk IMO. Now if you have always wanted to do family medicine and dont see yourself doing anything else , than thats fine.

Totally fair. Everyone is different. I think it’s fairly easy to gauge whether or not you are where you need to be academically without adopting the “P = MD/DO” attitude. And given the OP’s background, I would trust that s/he is likely capable of deciding to stop working if necessary. A per diem job can be easily re-evaluated and dropped if it’s adding too much pressure. Different story if it’s project-based employment or something where you’d feel obligated to stay on.

 

[libertyyne]

Totally fair. Everyone is different. I think it’s fairly easy to gauge whether or not you are where you need to be academically without adopting the “P = MD/DO” attitude. And given the OP’s background, I would trust that s/he is likely capable of deciding to stop working if necessary. A per diem job can be easily re-evaluated and dropped if it’s adding too much pressure. Different story if it’s project-based employment or something where you’d feel obligated to stay on.

it is possible and I agree everyone is different. I will say this being a non-trad myself in a large class. I knew 10 non trad students with careers before 3 of them had to take an extra year because they could not pass nbme required to sit for step. 6 of the remaining had below average step 1 scores and only one was above average. Age is inversely correlated with doing well on the exam. All of these people passed their classes without issue.

 

[Tenk]

Picking up one shift every other weekend is totally doable but you’d have to manage time well.

 

[njtrimed]

it is possible and I agree everyone is different. I will say this being a non-trad myself in a large class. I knew 10 non trad students with careers before 3 of them had to take an extra year because they could not pass nbme required to sit for step. 6 of the remaining had below average step 1 scores and only one was above average. Age is inversely correlated with doing well on the exam. All of these people passed their classes without issue.

Interesting! I have seen the opposite at my school. Most of the non-trads with previous careers are among the top students, with a handful in AOA. (And no, most of them did not work during med school, although one of the superstars in the class ahead of mine did). Obviously this is all anecdotal. My point in all this was that I think the OP will be able to determine pretty quickly if work is interfering with school.