Career change? Can you tell me about being Pharmacist?

[Lola]

I work in an office setting now, selling insurance. I am good at what I do, but I am wanting something else.

I dropped out of college several years ago because I was not going to school for me, but for my father and grandmother. Now that i am ready to go to colllege for ME, i am considering becoming a pharmacist.

Is anyone in this field? Or anyones wife in this profession?

I am looking for some insight and thoughts about the career itself and anything that goes along with it. I have been searching online a lot, but i wanted some real input from folks before i head over to a local universityt hat offers this program.

Thanks so much

 

[zebano]

My sister in law is studying to be one and she really likes her job as a pharmasutical (sp?) assistant, but I can't give you any real information.

 

[SagaLore]

I hear its really frustrating, because a lot of elderly decide to tell you their life story every time they see you, and middle aged women start asking for medical advice for all sorts of interesting inflictions.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I hear its really frustrating, because a lot of elderly decide to tell you their life story every time they see you, and middle aged women start asking for medical advice for all sorts of interesting inflictions.

Sounds like Lola's job now

 

[pontifex]

they can make really good money.
i think the schooling is pretty intense and difficult too but i'm not sure.

i used to work for a pharmacy chain (tech support) so I got to talk to pharmacists and got to learn a little bit.

 

[Gibsons]

I can tell you that it's getting pretty competitive. Lots of kids are pre-pharm from what I can tell.

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: zebano
My sister in law is studying to be one and she really likes her job as a pharmasutical (sp?) assistant, but I can't give you any real information.

Thanks for that though. The problem is that there are only three schools that have a pharmasist program and the closest one is somewhat farther away. I was really looking forward to it too.

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I hear its really frustrating, because a lot of elderly decide to tell you their life story every time they see you, and middle aged women start asking for medical advice for all sorts of interesting inflictions.

To be honest, that is basically what i hear at my job now. People call and come in and spend (literarlly) hours talking because they are lonely

 

[Descartes]

vi_edit would probably be a good man to ask. His wife is a pharmacist, I believe.

 

[rudder]

You can trade pain pills for sex.

Well, that is if you are a creepy old fart.

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: Descartes
vi_edit would probably be a good man to ask. His wife is a pharmacist, I believe.

Thank you, I will PM him

 

[sixone]

My dad is a pharmacist. The pay is great, and there are lots of things you can do with that degree.

If you're thinking of working in a "real" pharmacy as a career, the hours suck. Be ready to give up your evenings and weekends, and not have a settled, regular schedule. No more bankers hours for j00!!

Dealing with insurance, and being the middle-man between your customers and the insurance company is a big stresser. Your customers will ask you to commit fraud on a regular basis, by skirting the contract your pharmacy has with the insurance provider/network. Giving in to the temptation even once can lose you your license, or bring some stiff fines, which will make your employer less than happy.

Please don't think I'm trying to discourage you. My dad loves what he does, mostly. Go figure.

 

[sixone]

Originally posted by: LolaWiz

Originally posted by: Descartes
vi_edit would probably be a good man to ask. His wife is a pharmacist, I believe.

Thank you, I will PM him

WinstonSmith is a pharmacist. I don't know if he still visits here, but you can find him at TFNN.

 

[CptObvious]

<= (not a pharmacist, just got this info from someone I know)
You're looking at 6 years of school (2 years undergrad taking core courses + 4 years of pharmacy school) and probably $100K of loans, but once you get out you're pretty much guaranteed a job if you want to work retail, at $70-90K. If you want to do clinical you have to do an extra year of residency and it's more competitive.

 

[sao123]

my wife & her best friend went to school to become a pharmacist.
There are plenty of opportunities out there, with decent pay.
however it is a stressful job because of the way certain prescriptions (narcotics & pain killers) are monitored.

It gets pretty bad when you have to tell people that you cannot or will not fill their prescription, and they get real pissed at you... but you really have to cover your own ass because you can get in deep ******, if you dont do stuff by the book.

People steal doctors prescription books, get forgeries, anything they can to get pills... and you have to be able to tell a real from a fake.

its even mroe stressful because if you give someone the wrong pills, or dont give them the proper drug counciling or drug interaction information, you and the pharmacy can get sued.

High pay, & high stress... but.... its probably worth it.

 

[Zombie]

My wife is a pharmacist. It is not all fun and games and easy money. Be ready to work your butt off in school. You might as well go to medical school if you are willing to put in that much work.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: sixone
My dad is a pharmacist. The pay is great, and there are lots of things you can do with that degree.

If you're thinking of working in a "real" pharmacy as a career, the hours suck. Be ready to give up your evenings and weekends, and not have a settled, regular schedule. No more bankers hours for j00!!

Dealing with insurance, and being the middle-man between your customers and the insurance company is a big stresser. Your customers will ask you to commit fraud on a regular basis, by skirting the contract your pharmacy has with the insurance provider/network. Giving in to the temptation even once can lose you your license, or bring some stiff fines, which will make your employer less than happy.

Please don't think I'm trying to discourage you. My dad loves what he does, mostly. Go figure.

oh yeah, forgot about the hours. i can't remember how many times a pharmacist would tell me he was working 12-14 hours a day (sometimes more), 7 days a week, sometimes.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Zombie
My wife is a pharmacist. It is not all fun and games and easy money. Be ready to work your butt off in school. You might as well go to medical school if you are willing to put in that much work.

Uh, no.

Pharmacy is 7-8 years of schooling *including undergrad*. Plus with pharmacy school you can actually work in your field as a pharmacy tech while you go to school. You really can't do that as a med student.

Medical school is 7-8 years *after* undergrad. The residencies are hell, depending on the position/specialization the pay isn't *that* much better than what some pharmacists make, and you have crappy hours and are always on call.

My wife does 40 hours a week as a clinical pharmacist, show me a doc or even a nurse that has that luxury. No on call, no more than 40% of her scheduling is 2nd shift with the other 60% being 1st. She works every 3rd weekend.

She doesn't deal with insurance claims. She doesn't deal with cranky customers. That's one of the beauties of going clinical. But you do have to put up with arrogant MD's and cranky nurses.

 

[amish]

to be a pharmacist you must have a doctorate degree if i remember correctly. current pharm D programs run 6 years.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: amish
to be a pharmacist you must have a doctorate degree if i remember correctly. current pharm D programs run 6 years.

If you know immiately out of high that it's what you want to do, you can enroll in a specially focused 2 year undergrad program that covers all pharmacy school requirements. You then have 3 years of professional classroom experience and a fourth year doing rotations for a total of 6.

Most pharmacists have at least 3 years of undergrad, if not the full 4 to get their BS degrees.

 

[vi edit]

Here's the cirriculum for the pharmacy program my wife graduated from:
http://www.pharmacy.uiowa.edu/doctorof/curriculum.htm

She did 3 years of undergrad as a chem major at a small private college before being accpeted into the pharmacy program.

 

[richardycc]

I was a pharmacy major way back when it was only a 5yr program, I dropped out because I had a zoology teacher and TA from hell, its a 6yr program now, and every graduate with a pharm. d title. I am still very good friend with one of the guys from the pharmacy program I met in freshman yr, he obviously became one, and making good money working as a retail pharmacist, changed company a few times. He is now working at a supermarket's pharmacy that does a 1/10 of the scripts vs his pervious company. thats all I can tell you.

 

[Zombie]

I was just stating my wife's experience. Looking back she feels she should have just gone to medical school for a year more. BTW Doctors make far more than Retail pharmacist and retail pharmacists are paid the most.

 

[Eska]

Originally posted by: Zombie
I was just stating my wife's experience. Looking back she feels she should have just gone to medical school for a year more. BTW Doctors make far more than Retail pharmacist and retail pharmacists are paid the most.

That's not true. Some corporate or hospital pharmacists make more. The key thing is being the "managerial" material.

What are your questions Lola?

 

[BurnItDwn]

Just a suggestion,

If you want to know what it's like to be a pharmacist in retail, try to get a job as a pharmacy tech part time, maybe just one or two days per week.
Then you'll see for yourself. There's no sense in going to school for a bunch of years for something you won't know if you'll like, but if you go and be a tech and learn the system, you should be able to figure out if that's what you want to do.

I started as a pharmacy tech part time in High school, and stayed as a tech until 1 year after dropping out of college. I went into IT, but I did consider staying in school and going for my pharm D.