working while in school

[pharmk03]

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I have a question. I'm a nontraditional student going back to try to get all my pre-requs in for pharmacy school. I have three years of experience in a non-related field and desperately need to show some kind of volunteer or work experience in the pharmacy field in order to even stand a chance for applying! Does anyone have any advice as to the best way to get this experience?

I would love to have a paid job, but with trying to get so many lab classes packed into a semester, I only have like 3 or 4 hours during the day to even work...would retail chains even hire someone for a 4 hour shift? Would I need to be a certified tech to do this or are there other positions available in the pharmacy dept? And do hospitals offer work experience like this?

Has anyone just done volunteer work like shadowing pharmacists and still gotten into schools??

Thanks so much for the help! The odds are stacked against me, but I'm going to keep trying!!

 

[Miss Sushi]

Hey there,
From what I know, most pharmacies work in 8-hour shifts. Try volunteering in a hospital pharmacy, they usually take people on. Not sure about other hospitals, but I think mine has a 4 hour per week minimum. That would work out for you 🙂

 

[Mangosteen]

I've volunteered at a local hospital in their pharmacy just one summer and I got in. They're being pretty strict about taking volunteers for pharmacy because of liability reasons but I think they'll make exceptions if you're over 18, which obviously you are. They did an extensive background check on me.

 

[DownonthePharm]

Try contacting a free or low cost charitable clinic or pharmacy. They usually are aching for help and you will learn a lot. I volunteered two nights per week, 2-4 hours each time and was accepted into school this year. The experience is most important for what you learn about the profession to put in your personal statement and talk about in your interview, not just sheer hours of contact time. Talking with the docs about meds and looking things up I didnt know in the PDR was a lot more helpful to me for a few hours a week, than 40 hours of filling bottles would have been.

 

[xnm11]

i currently only work 4 hours a week in a retail pharmacy. it's one of the smaller chains with only about 8 stores total, so if you have those sorts of pharmacies near you, they are probably more flexible with hours than a large nationwide chain.