Being a Pharmacy Tech...

[Mo0o]

OP:

Why dont you start as one of those sub-RNs (LPN or CNA??) and then work towards being an RN. You can then transition to NP or CRNA if you wanted although you definitely need additional experience, usually in a MICU or OR setting before you can apply for CRNA school. If you worked in a busy ER as a LPN or CNA you can do a lot of random shit and just get exposed to the field of medicine in general.

Being a pharmacy tech doesnt sound very interesting and I know it wouldnt help you for med school applications

 

[vi edit]

We work 12 hours and we don't get a lunch. At least she would there and be treated like a professional. A far better way to go.

My wife works hospital pharmacy and rarely gets a lunch or her breaks. Some days she's lucky to even get a restroom break. But she cares about her job and and goes balls (or ovaries?) to the wall once she hits the door. She works ED and ICU units so it's a bit more...demanding than other less accute or urgent.

 

[theshad]

DigitalCancer, are you able to shadow pharmacy students at all? The local medical school here in town won't let us shadow students (fucking stupid). I asked because I was interested in going to medical school, and they said they don't allow shadowing.

WTF.

Also, if your goal is to get a Pharmacy degree, I would honestly just pursue that instead of getting a pharmacy tech degree THEN getting a weapons-grade pharmD.

Shadowing med/pharm students would be quite a waste of time, we have lecture for 4 hours a day and then go into a box and study by ourselves for another 10.

Opening your own pharmacy is especially difficult nowadays, big chains have taken over most of the areas and independent pharmacies simply can't compete with their prices. The only locations I have seen that independent pharmacies can keep themselves alive are in the farm countries around here.

If you want to get a PharmD around here at least you absolutely need to have experience in a pharmacy in order to get into pharmacy school. There is I believe 1 person in my class that has experience only volunteering at pharmacies and was still able to get in, everyone else I know of worked in a pharmacy for an extended period.

Being a pharm tech for the experience to get a PharmD would be worth it, being a pharm tech for a career, not at all. You could work part time in a pharmacy while getting all the prereqs done for pharmacy school and then work as an intern when you actually get accepted. Pharmacy school still is quite expensive also, keep that in mind.

 

[alkemyst]

You are actually entitled to a break in the USA.

If you aren't taking one you made yourself a bitch.

There is no job that shouldn't get a lunch break day to day. There are many that don't time to time. If it's everyday, you just became a slave.

edit: assuming 8 hours or more worked in a day to stop those part-timers thinking they should be allowed a break too.

 

[tcsenter]

OP, if you want to get into patient care then Pharm Tech probably isn't the way to go. ED Tech, CNA, EMT or something in patient care would be a better entry-level starter position and not a whole lot more education.

I didn't even know there were any pharm tech vocational/training programs. I thought they were all OJT. I've known (personally) two pharm techs and they were both trained OJT. I helped one of them with their med terminology and pharmacology.

 

[TheVrolok]

You are actually entitled to a break in the USA.

If you aren't taking one you made yourself a bitch.

There is no job that shouldn't get a lunch break day to day. There are many that don't time to time. If it's everyday, you just became a slave.

edit: assuming 8 hours or more worked in a day to stop those part-timers thinking they should be allowed a break too.

ED staff (Techs, Nurses, Doctors, etc.) often don't get food breaks (let alone a "30 minute lunch break") on busy shifts. Next time you have a medical emergency and the ED is full, would you prefer to wait around because the staff is taking a break? Some professions don't have certain luxuries afforded to others.

 

[vi edit]

ED staff (Techs, Nurses, Doctors, etc.) often don't get food breaks (let alone a "30 minute lunch break") on busy shifts. Next time you have a medical emergency and the ED is full, would you prefer to wait around because the staff is taking a break? Some professions don't have certain luxuries afforded to others.

Pretty much. In my wife's case she gets in to work, does 2 hours of homework on the patients in her unit then goes on rounds for 4 hours gets back to her desk and starts plugging in/validating med orders that were issued up on rounds.

ED is even crazier depending on what is coming in through the door.

 

[alkemyst]

ED staff (Techs, Nurses, Doctors, etc.) often don't get food breaks (let alone a "30 minute lunch break") on busy shifts. Next time you have a medical emergency and the ED is full, would you prefer to wait around because the staff is taking a break? Some professions don't have certain luxuries afforded to others.

LOL LOL LOL dude.

ER is they way we say it too. ED = erectile dysfunction in America.

Like I said, it's ok if it's sometimes...if everyday you are being punked.

If you are that good, you don't have to deal with that. If you are not, then you are the majority of the health care industry chasing paychecks.

down here in Palm Beach County, we have a lot of wheelchair pushers making much more than they should.

 

[TheVrolok]

LOL LOL LOL dude.

ER is they way we say it too. ED = erectile dysfunction in America.

Like I said, it's ok if it's sometimes...if everyday you are being punked.

If you are that good, you don't have to deal with that. If you are not, then you are the majority of the health care industry chasing paychecks.

down here in Palm Beach County, we have a lot of wheelchair pushers making much more than they should.

Actually, ED is the more common (and correct) term now. I've spent time treating patients in Palm Beach County (in Boca); you'll have that everywhere.

 

[alkemyst]

Actually, ED is the more common (and correct) term now. I've spent time treating patients in Palm Beach County (in Boca); you'll have that everywhere.

ok

 

[vi edit]

LOL LOL LOL dude.

ER is they way we say it too. ED = erectile dysfunction in America.

Like I said, it's ok if it's sometimes...if everyday you are being punked.

If you are that good, you don't have to deal with that. If you are not, then you are the majority of the health care industry chasing paychecks.

down here in Palm Beach County, we have a lot of wheelchair pushers making much more than they should.

You have no fucking clue. When your hospital is censused out and you have people backed up in the ED(yes it's ED. Our Emergency Department has over 60 rooms...not a singe room...) and biomed is running around trying to create bed space to get people moved inhouse your clinical staff is busting their ass on the floors getting people into stable enough shape to get to a stepdown floor or discharged so the backlog in the ED can get admitted inpatient. When census is low there's extra time. When you literally have patients on beds in a hallway because there are no extra rooms your staff is going balls to the wall.

 

[vi edit]

To help settle the "ER" vs. "ED" debate lets go to the vendors that cater to them...

http://www.allscripts.com/en/solutions/acute-solutions/allscripts-ed/edoverview.html

http://www.picis.com/solutions/emergency-department/ed-pulsecheck.aspx

http://www.epic.com/software-ancillaries.php

From KLAS:
http://www.klasresearch.com/Emergency_Department_information_systems

 

[alkemyst]

I get it 'girl'...I am sure you make sure to correct every hoodrat off the street: "honey, this ain't no ER, it's a full department"

FTMFL.

 

[TheVrolok]

I get it 'girl'...I am sure you make sure to correct every hoodrat off the street: "honey, this ain't no ER, it's a full department"

FTMFL.

Correcting a hoodrat is a far different venture than pointing out a mistake on a message board that supposedly contains many intelligent folk who would appreciate the truth.

 

[tcsenter]

Everyone started calling it the ED in the mid-to-late 90s.

 

[DigitalCancer]

So, from what I'm hearing is that I should stick on my path to be a CRNA and not even deal with the PharmD since it'd be pretty useless for me? ^_^

 

[Rockinacoustic]

So, from what I'm hearing is that I should stick on my path to be a CRNA and not even deal with the PharmD since it'd be pretty useless for me? ^_^

What kind of relationship do you ultimately want to have with patient care?

 

[DigitalCancer]

I want to be able to help people, play a role in their lives. I've always seen myself helping people (probably b/c my aunt was an LPN and I spent a quite a few days at her work, a nursing home).

 

[Mo0o]

I want to be able to help people, play a role in their lives. I've always seen myself helping people (probably b/c my aunt was an LPN and I spent a quite a few days at her work, a nursing home).

You gotta be more specific than that. If you said this during a med school interview i would laugh at you. There are a lot of ways to "help people" in an semi-medical field:

CNA/LPN
RN
CRNA, NP
Pharmacy tech/ pharmD
Speech therapist
Physical therapist
Occupational therapist
Respirator techs
Surgery techs
Xray techs
Social work
EMT
Parademic
Lab medicine techs
Microbiologists
Case Managers
Psychologist
I'm definitely forgetting stuff but this is what comes to me right now.

All these fields "help people" and play a role in the lives of people who need medical care. Pharmacy ends up having very little patient contact so if you wanted to play a more hands on role I dont think that's the field for you. Theres pros and cons to everything that you gott afactor in

 

[alkemyst]

Correcting a hoodrat is a far different venture than pointing out a mistake on a message board that supposedly contains many intelligent folk who would appreciate the truth.

Correcting something on the internet/among mostly laymen who understood what was being said to begin with shows a lack of intelligence.

You'd be right at home in a gun forum correcting all the references to 'clips'

 

[Rockinacoustic]

I want to be able to help people, play a role in their lives. I've always seen myself helping people (probably b/c my aunt was an LPN and I spent a quite a few days at her work, a nursing home).

Ok. Do you want to achieve this through direct patient contact and care such as a Nurse would, or through consultation and accessibility such as a Pharmacist provides?

 

[TheVrolok]

Correcting something on the internet/among mostly laymen who understood what was being said to begin with shows a lack of intelligence.

You're claiming I lack intelligence for correcting you? When it was in fact you who first "corrected" my usage of "ED?" Only then did I suggest that it was proper to use "ED." ... Yikes.

 

[alkemyst]

You're claiming I lack intelligence for correcting you? When it was in fact you who first "corrected" my usage of "ED?" Only then did I suggest that it was proper to use "ED." ... Yikes.

Right proper on a medically focused forum <> general one.