My mother’s recently on a “one of my children should be a pharmacist, like their father” kick. (Forget, for a moment, that said father has a PhD in pharmacokinetics, which is a bit different from being a pharmacist.) She is convinced that it’s easy enough for anyone to learn and grasp, and that it’s very easy to find a cushy, high-paying, good-hours job as a RPh.
Now, question is this: what exists in the world of reality? Is it really that easy to become a pharmacist? Are there that many job waiting for prospective pharmacists?
WRS - I’d much rather like a doctorate in political science or religion instead, thankyouverymuch.
Probably true in relation to many other careers. I wouldn’t say it was a piece of cake, but compared to most of the minds on this board, it would be relatively simple.
Myself on the other hand, struggle greatly with just the prerequisites, and my GPA is slowly but surely dropping. And the schools are all pretty competative. I am under the impression if your GPA is less than 3.5, don’t bother. I can only afford another B or two and I will be at that point. Easy? Not for me anyhow. Definately in high demand, and there are lots of applicants, which means there is a goodly amount of competition.
I’m working with a guy who’s planning on getting a PharmD degree, which is a four-year post-graduate degree. According to him, and others from whom I’ve heard this, there’s a strong demand for pharmacists out there and the starting pay is very good. OTOH, pharmacists tend to have high rates of burn out and drug addiction.
I remember working with a suspended pharmacist. Kept bringing his work home with him. Keeping that in mind, he told me, “If you can count, you can be a pharmicist.” But apparently the pay was quit nice.
My dad, two of my uncles, and my brother are pharmacists. Actually my brother has a PharmD.
It’s now a 6 year program just to be a retail pharmacist, IINM.
I don’t think it takes the smarts of a math/physics program and certainly not the slog of a med student, but it’s not exactly a “soft science” either.
With a PharmD, you can teach, run clinics, be a consultant, and still do retail if you want.
I think demand varies locally. There’s some regions where there are shortages of pharmacists and some where there are gluts. But for a long time, its been a profession you could always get a job, especially if you’re willing to relocate.
There are also positions for “floating pharmacists”, pharms that might fill in at any CVS, say, in a particular region with travel pay, overtime, etc.
There is some pressure. You can lose your license for a lot of things, get fined for things, and if you think you have an addictive personality, stay away.
It’s just a good, professional, well-respected job.
I work with the Pharmacy admission program, for most of the US pharmacy schools you send your application here if you wish to apply to any of 43 schools. It’s highly competitive, lots more applications that slots open. Some folks apply to 10-15 schools with the hope of getting into 1 or 2.
My sister is a pharmacist. The schooling can be tough. Retail hours can be crappy as well. She has been working for a rehab hospital, and will be leaving soon. Budget cuts took away her tech assistant, she was on call 24/7, as she was their only pharmacist. They burnt out an intelligent hardworking gal. She won’t have any trouble finding another job, but she’s going to wait a while, as she wants time off.
Heh. It seems like every few weeks my mother decides that it’d be great for me to be a pharmacist. I agree that there are perks - high pay, stunning demand, good hours. If I could do everything over again I’d consider it.
But - uh - I’m 23. I’m already going to 25 by the time I graduate with a CS degree. She doesn’t seem to realize that changing my major from something that requires no biological or chemical science to something that requires a lot of it, as well as an advanced degree, might necessitate my being, oh, 30 by the time I’m finally in the workforce.
I tell her this. She smiles and nods. And then two weeks later she says how fitting a pharmacist’s life would be for me. I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
Do a search of this site --there are lots of relevant threads.I used the word “pharmacist” and I found this:
" Now, lets flash forward 3 years after graduation. I work for a large, large corporation that has pharmacies on almost every corner. The pay is great, I have to admit (almost double what I expected when I first entered school), and they treat you pretty well. The reason I, as a young pharmacist, do not want to be in this environment anymore, as are many pharmacists who are either exiting the RETAIL field or choosing other things thus creating the pharmacist shortage are: 1) Feeling unprofessional. How can you ask someone who is an expert in their field to ring up dogfood, deal with customers, and submit to the will of a store manager who may not even have a high school diploma, without hurting their feelings? Being a retail pharmacist may pay a lot of money, but at some point, it just ain’t worth it. 2) Dealing with insurance companies. This is a nightmare. It is such a nightmare that most high volume pharmacies just designate a technician that only handles problems with people’s coverage. A lot of pharmacists just say, “I didn’t go to school to deal with this”, and exit 3) It is a very stressfull job, thank you very much. You are under a lot of pressure to make sure you verify every prescription with 100% accuracy, and at the same time do it fast, fast, FAST!!! If you don’t, you will be hearing from your boss. After a while, it can grind on you, and you move on to something else. So to answer your original question you can become a pharmacist but it ain’t fun."
From what I’ve heard the field pretty much exsists as chappachula puts it.
Good pay, but very unrewarding. They spend their days counting pills. Back in the day they were responsible for making sure different prescriptions didn’t get mixed with others someone was taking. Nowdays, everything is on a computer and it tells of any conflicting meds. And lots and lots of pharmacies have evening and weekend hours along with 24 hours pharmacies so I don’t know where the “good hours” myth comes in.
I think even with the good pay I would become depressed and burn out fast.
I considered becoming a pharmacist, but I’d be looking at getting a BS (hey! You’d think I’d have enough credentials for that) and then entering a grad program.
It would be completely starting over for me. Nothing in my BA would carry over but chem. I just can’t afford to do it. sigh
I once asked a pharmacist I knew about this, asking “how many years of college do you have to have to count pills from one bottle to the other”. He laughed (I had warned him that I was going to ask the question in “the most offensive way possible”) and agreed that much of retail pharmacy is pretty much like that.
He also described the concept of consulting pharmacist who works with the docs to develop the best course of treatment for a particular individual once the physician has diagnosed the condition. Very interesting stuff.
Actually, I’ve come to appreciate my retail pharmacist since my health problems of the last year. We’ve had to watch out for drug interactions, he’s helped me get my doc to prescribe in a different dosage that I could keep track of more easily (my job makes taking a four-times-a-day dose almost impossible), found that I could save an enormous amount of money by taking two doses of another medication at half strength each, etc.
One major problem is that I just don’t do any of the hard sciences, not where there is one correct answer. If I can BS my way out, I’ll do fine. Otherwise, I’ll be stuck. And there’s not much room for BS in pharmacy. “Of course you can take Vioxx! You see, according to Hobbes, humanity is prone to violence. So if we try to rectify ourselves, we increase entropy - and remember entropy is a law, since the days of King Richard the Lionhearted…”
Sure, money’s a good thing, but I see my bosses and I cringe at the thought of being a pharmacist. They go through so much stress, and that’s not counting problem customers, short-tempered customers, dissatisfied customers, etc. I’d rather earn less but enoy what I do.
Thanks for your post, Chesse Monster: nice to know I am not alone. Solidarity!
WRS - I got a BA. Should have been a BS, because that’s all what I did through college.
There are other routes, besides a retail Pharmacist, you can take in the Pharm"*" world. For example, you could work in research for a big drug company.
Then you may have a hard time getting into Pharm school. The applications have breakdowns for Science and Non-Science GPAs, and they are pretty competitive.
My dad is a pharmacist and told us not to go into it. He works 70 hours a week and has for as long as i’ve known him. His wages are good, he makes about $43 an hour with a ton of benefits but its obviously not worth it to see what its done to him. Its not unusual for him to get up at 6am, prepare for work, leave for work at 830, get there at 9, close up at 930pm, get home at 945, watch an hour of tv, go to sleep and do it all again tomorrow. No thanks, i’d rather drive a hyundai, live in a small home and work a job that doesn’t kill me inside instead.
(not that money is everything, mind you)