How I Did It: Pharmacy

Joann is a PharmD candidate in Florida. To ask her questions, comment below!

How and why did you choose this career?

I knew from a young age that I wanted a career in the health care field. My mom was a nurse so I grew up around hospitals. Based on this interest, I chose pharmacy through a process of elimination. By junior high school, I knew I didn’t want to be a nurse or a doctor and I didn’t want to deal with bodily fluids.  At this point, my mom gave me the idea of pharmacy as a stable and flexible job. I was attracted to the stability this career had to offer along with the flexibility for family life. Also I happened to enjoy chemistry. I was fascinated by drugs and their ability to alter the body. I did some research on pharmacy and in high school I shadowed some pharmacists. Once my mind was made up that was it.

What is a typical day in your work like?

This description will be from the point of view of an intern in a retail/community setting meaning; any pharmacy location outside of a hospital or long term care facility. In the morning, the pharmacist logs into the pharmacy’s system to find a list of prescriptions that people called in to be filled and checked before being picked up. There may also be voicemails to get, left from doctor’s offices calling in prescriptions. Typically the morning is quiet and consists of filling prescriptions. Once customers start coming in and phones are ringing, it is the pharmacist’s job to counsel patients on their medications and answer any medication questions that may come up. So, it gets busy because there are continually prescriptions to be checked, as well as interacting with patients. This is why having good technicians and interns is so important. They are a big help because they can do almost everything a pharmacist does, except for the final medication check for drug interactions etc. before it goes out to the patient and advising/counseling patients. Also, only the pharmacist or intern can give immunizations (in some states like FL, interns cannot immunize). For example; if anyone walks in for a flu or shingles shot. A technician can prepare the vaccine, but the pharmacist would administer it. The only time most pharmacists sit down is during their lunch break.

What are the most and least rewarding aspects of your job?

The most rewarding is just knowing you are providing people with the care and medication therapy they need to help them feel better. Something as simple as helping someone choose the right over the counter product for their particular problem. However, the least rewarding is having to play “drug cop”… let me explain. The top three most widely prescribed medications in this country are narcotics. This class of drugs are also the most abused. They are typically prescribed for pain and they can be very addictive. So part of our job ends up being the regulation of these drugs. For example, telling patients no they can’t get them early etc. There are a lot of rules involved with filling this class of medications and we have to make sure the correct protocol is being followed. Here is a funny rendition of this scenario: http://youtu.be/YmDFN3aIhZc

What education requirements are needed and what colleges do you recommend for pursuing an education leading to this occupation?

A Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from an accredited pharmacy school is required to work in retail/community pharmacy. Then an additional one or two year residency is required to work in most hospital pharmacies. Pharmacy is a career where the university doesn’t matter. As long as it is an accredited program. My only advice is when choosing schools, compare costs of tuition as well as cost of living in that area. Also, check what the school’s remediation policy is. For example: some schools don’t offer the option to retake a class in the summer if you don’t pass it the first time. So depending on the class, the student may be held back for a year.

What high school and college classes have you found most applicable/important for your occupation?

All science and math classes. For both high school and undergraduate especially calculus and organic chemistry.

Would you choose this career if you could make the decision again? What would you do differently?

Honestly, I don’t think I would choose this career again due to various discoveries I have made about myself since getting into pharmacy school. I probably would have chosen to get a master’s degree in public health or to be a naturopathic doctor (ND). Read more about this profession here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-stanclift-nd/naturopathic-doctors_b_1923371.html

However, I do believe God has a good and perfect plan for my life and pharmacy is a part of this plan for a reason.

What do you wish you knew but didn’t when you first contemplated this career?

I wish I knew more about the academic requirements of pharmacy school. To be honest, I was fairly naïve about this and so I encourage prospective students to research this extensively. It is not enough to be good at science and to have a good memory, math needs to be a strong point too! There is a lot of math involved which is a weakness for me. Also, it is a huge sacrifice to your personal life. Personally, I have had to put a lot of things on hold in order to make it through successfully. This is not the case for everyone, but it has been my experience so far.

Are there any trends that concern you? Any trends that will make this career choice more or less attractive in the future?

Well, I would say a PharmD is not as marketable now as it was about ten years ago. It has become a very popular career choice therefore, the market in some parts of the country (like Florida) can be saturated. The reason is that there are six pharmacy schools just in Florida alone. Each one of those schools graduates a hundred or more students per year. Simply do the math, there just aren’t enough pharmacies in one state to employ all those graduates. But, as long as someone is willing to move, there are still plenty of job opportunities in other parts of the country. Therefore, it is still an appealing career in terms of stability and flexibility.

Career and Family Balance.

In my opinion, pharmacy is a great career to balance work and family. This is why so many women choose this profession. In fact, last year Forbes ranked pharmacy as the best paying job for women. This year U.S. News ranked pharmacy as the third top career in healthcare based on solid employment growth and a high median salary. http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/pharmacist

Salary.

 According to www. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm entry level pharmacists in 2012 were starting around $100,000- 116,000 a year, making $50-56 dollars an hour. In my experience, pharmacy interns make anywhere from $10-17 an hour depending on the state and company. With experience, the top 10 percent of pharmacists can earn more than $145,910 per year. Words of advice: Explore as much about pharmacy as you can before entering pharmacy school. Do your research. Do not be driven by dollar signs alone, because this is a fleeting motivation. Especially explore blogs and forums that give personal perspectives on being a pharmacist/ pharmacy student.

For more info about pharmacy:

1. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/categories/pharmacy-forums-pharmd.121/

2. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm

3. http://www.pharmcas.org/advisors/start.htm

4. I recommend watching YouTube videos that portray pharmacy.