Hello all, I’ve always wanted to post one of these “Ask The” threads, but never had the time to actually follow one. So, now that I have time for one, let me start one. But First, a bit about me:
I am currently attending South University School of Pharmacy in Savannah Georgia. It is a 3 year program, vs. the normal 4 year pharmacy program. Basically, that means we go year round, and things go a little faster then in a normal pharmacy school. I am approx 33% done with school, and will be graduating in June, 2011 with my Doctor of Pharmacy degree (Pharm.D.). I finished my first calender of school, and am currently doing my Intermediate Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE, commonly referred to as my first set of rotations.)
So, ask your questions, and I’ll see about getting responses to them!
Was pharmacy school insanely hard to get into? I worked in a pharmacy for a few years in high school, and a few of the other students working there wanted to become pharmacists (not me; I was far too rubbish at science for that!) and they were told that it was pretty much impossible. With only one school in the province they were demanding GPAs higher than those of applicants to medical school (though it took three years of undergrad to apply to med school rather than one before pharmacy school). There’s now another school in the province so entrance might be slightly less limited; I don’t know.
At your rotation, have you had to deal with any ethical dilemmas? I remember that one thing I found interesting when I worked at the pharmacy was the different approaches of each of the pharmacists. One (the owner, not surprisingly) would wait till people were out the door and comment on how stupid their doctors were for prescribing certain drugs, and the other would wait till the owner left and criticize him for not questioning some prescriptions. (Yeah, it was also a very toxic environment and it closed shortly after I quit.)
Good lawd! Pharmacy school is packed enough as it is with material, but you’re doing it in three years? My hat goes off to you sir/madam.
I’m a CPhT and there’s no way I’d ever be able to hack pharmacy school. Not disciplined enough to handle that kind of full time school. I’ll stick with doing all the bitch work of a pharmacy and for a fifth of the pay.
It was somewhat hard to get into. I scored really well on the PCAT, got 92nd percentile, but my GPA was only around a 3.3. I applied one year to only the school in Atlanta, Ga (Mercer), got an interview, and was put on the wait list. Never got in. The next year, I applied to all three schools in Georgia, interviewed with all three, and wait listed at all three. I also applied to two schools in the Carlina’s, but was denied straight away. I finally got a call from South about a month before school started asking if I was still interested, Pretty much said “Hell Yea!”
I have actually only completed my first week so far in my first rotation. I’m doing a local independant pharmacy. There are some things that they do that I am glad my name isn’t on the license, but nothing I would have an ethical problem with. So far at least.
Just remember that a good tech is a very important resource, and something good pharmacists really appreciate.
Actually, yes, they do. We had lab twice a week pretty much for the entire year, and one quarter of that was just learning how to compound. I remember we had one week where we learned how to compound suppositories (so two labs). We had to compound anal and vaginal suppositories. We didn’t do urethral.
Does your pharmacy stock Sandoz’s Eyelube (hypromellose) and do you agree with me that it is a terrible product name (though I’ve known people to use it and say it worked very well!)?
Actually, I’ve never heard of Sandoz’s Eyelube (hypromellose though, I have), so if it is stocked, I’ve never seen it. I’m sure we could order it though if anyone actually wanted it.
Is there really a shortage of techs in the United States or not? I’ve completed three full years of college with a cumulative G.P.A of 3.8, and in some not easy courses. I also scored 99.8% on the qualifying examination for the California State Board of Pharmacy, and I can’t find a job anywhere. I finally gave up and took a shift manager position at Pizza Hut. What gives?
I haven’t heard anything about there being a shortage of Pharmacy Techs, I don’t know anything about the requirements to be a tech in California, but in Georgia a Pharmacy tech is basically an unskilled job (no offense to most techs out there, I was one myself not too long ago!).
Most Pharmacy Techs in Georgia are hired off the street by people just looking for a job (at least at the chains, Rite Aid, CVS, Wallgreens, etc), and are paid just slightly above minimum wage ($8-$9/hr). From my experience, the main problem getting a job as a tech is to apply when there is actually an opening. That normally happens in the fall, in the beginning of Cold season, and when a tech quits.
One thing I will say, a lot of the chains right now are squeezing the pharmacies for tech hours, which is causing the techs that are there right now to not get as many hours as they are used to. This forces them to work at other locations in the chain, making it even harder for someone new to get into the job.
Here in California the coursework required for licensure is roughly equivalent to a year (minus summer) of community college study, although most people take it at an adult school or trade/tech school. The standard rhetoric fed to interested parties is that there is a critical shortage of qualified technicians in the job market. I’m beginning to suspect this is more hype than reality.
What are the legal requirements in California to work as a tech? Mainly, do you HAVE to be licensed? It could be the shortage of qualified techs working in pharmacies is because under qualified (and cheaper!) people are working those jobs. I honestly have no idea about the pharmacy law in California, it is one of the few states in the U.S. I won’t be able to transfer my license to once I graduate (the other is Florida), plus since I’m in Georgia, there is no incentive to teach us much about their laws.
No, I hadn’t, but it was GREAT! Thanks for showing me this link!
Sure, not a problem at all! Just have your doctor write you a valid script indicating the strength, quantity, and directions he wants, and I’ll be happy to exchange that prescription order for a nice vial full of that quantity of vicodin!
Absolutely—you have to be licensed to work as a tech in California. Here is the licensing application, which spells out the educational requirements. Most other states have followed suit and now require some sort of formal training and licensing of pharmacy techs, due in large part to the tragic case of Emily Jerry. You might also be interested to know that Wellpoint, which is the largest PBM in the United States, now requires all employees who work in claims approval to obtain federal tech licensing.
