Air Force Pharmacy

[Reverent]

I've been a retail tech for tenish months now, certified since November, and have been giving some thought to military pharmacy. I have tried to get on with five different hospitals to get some more experience, and have been turned down by each. I'm in a situation where I have to work fulltime and attend my undergrad classes fulltime, so it's pretty rough on me.

I was wondering if anyone knew about being a Pharmacy Specialist in the Air Force? Would my wife and I be able to live on an Air Force base and I work in the hospital or the commecary pharmacy there? How does it work? What are the chances that I sign up, am promised a Pharmacy Specialist position, and then they say, "oh our bad, we need you in the middle east." I have no intentions of being shot at :[ Even if I were deployed to mix IV bags in Bagdad or something, how safe are military personel?

Also, would I be able to complete my undergrad studies while enlisted, or would I have to wait out the four years before I can attend classes again?

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[Croatalus_atrox]

I was wondering if anyone knew about being a Pharmacy Specialist in the Air Force? Would my wife and I be able to live on an Air Force base and I work in the hospital or the commecary pharmacy there? How does it work?

If you enlist as a pharmacy tech in the Air Force, whether or not you decide to live on base at your duty station with your wife is up to you. As a married servicemember you will be entitled to base housing, but the wait lists can be somewhat long sometimes. As for your job, you'll work in either a hospital or clinic pharmacy, depending on where you are stationed. Larger bases tend to have hospitals, whereas some smaller stations only have a clinic. Your duty station will in large part determine your working hours and duties.

What are the chances that I sign up, am promised a Pharmacy Specialist position, and then they say, "oh our bad, we need you in the middle east." I have no intentions of being shot at :[ Even if I were deployed to mix IV bags in Bagdad or something, how safe are military personel?

Well, assuming that you satisfactorily complete the Pharm Tech course, it is extremely unlikely that the Air Force wouldn't employ you in that role. You need to understand that there is always the possibility of deployment for most Air Force career fields. For the most part, Air Force medical personnel don't go into harm's way like Navy corpsmen or Army medics do, and Pharm Techs even less so. If you can't handle the possibility of deployment, then maybe the military isn't for you...TANSTAAFL, you know.

Also, would I be able to complete my undergrad studies while enlisted, or would I have to wait out the four years before I can attend classes again?

We can't answer that question definitively; at best we can offer generalizations that might not hold true in your particular case. We don't know where you will be stationed, what educational opportunities are available there, what your educational plans are, how far along you are in your education, whether or not you can use online courses, etc. Generally, though, you must wait until after you complete your training and career development courses before you can pursue non-Air Force educational goals. This can take up to a year or more. Most enlisted folks are able to get at least some college courses done during their initial enlistment.

 

[Reverent]

If you enlist as a pharmacy tech in the Air Force, whether or not you decide to live on base at your duty station with your wife is up to you. As a married servicemember you will be entitled to base housing, but the wait lists can be somewhat long sometimes. As for your job, you'll work in either a hospital or clinic pharmacy, depending on where you are stationed. Larger bases tend to have hospitals, whereas some smaller stations only have a clinic. Your duty station will in large part determine your working hours and duties.

Well, assuming that you satisfactorily complete the Pharm Tech course, it is extremely unlikely that the Air Force wouldn't employ you in that role. You need to understand that there is always the possibility of deployment for most Air Force career fields. For the most part, Air Force medical personnel don't go into harm's way like Navy corpsmen or Army medics do, and Pharm Techs even less so. If you can't handle the possibility of deployment, then maybe the military isn't for you...TANSTAAFL, you know.

We can't answer that question definitively; at best we can offer generalizations that might not hold true in your particular case. We don't know where you will be stationed, what educational opportunities are available there, what your educational plans are, how far along you are in your education, whether or not you can use online courses, etc. Generally, though, you must wait until after you complete your training and career development courses before you can pursue non-Air Force educational goals. This can take up to a year or more. Most enlisted folks are able to get at least some college courses done during their initial enlistment.

Ideally I'd like to work in a hospital, so when I get out I can land any hospital position I want (three 12 hour shifts while finishing undergrad would be killer). Do I get any say in wether I'm hospital or clinical? As far as being deployed, I fully understand that in any branch of the military that is always a risk you take, but like you said, a pharm tech couldn't be too dangerous. Any possibility of going overseas as a tech? I wouldn't mind taking the opportunity to see some other parts of the world, since I've never even been out of the states.

I've already got some college credits under my belt, so the online course thing might work out well for me.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Croatalus_atrox]

Ideally I'd like to work in a hospital, so when I get out I can land any hospital position I want (three 12 hour shifts while finishing undergrad would be killer). Do I get any say in wether I'm hospital or clinical? As far as being deployed, I fully understand that in any branch of the military that is always a risk you take, but like you said, a pharm tech couldn't be too dangerous. Any possibility of going overseas as a tech? I wouldn't mind taking the opportunity to see some other parts of the world, since I've never even been out of the states.

You get zero say in whether you will work in a hospital or clinic. If you were to stay in the AF for more than just one enlistment, you would generally work in both types of settings over the course of your career. As I mentioned before, the nature of your duties as a pharmacy tech will in large part be determined by where you are stationed. You can, of course, ask for specific duty assignments and/or regions where you want to be stationed on the so-called "Dreamsheet", but your assignment preferences are generally the last thing considered when they decide who will get stationed where.

Getting stationed overseas is a possibility, and your chances of getting an overseas assignment (as opposed to being deployed) are marginally affected by stating overseas preferences on your Dreamsheet. Don't expect miracles. Sometimes the system can be absolutely perverse and contrarian, and it will seem like the Dreamsheet is used to determine exactly where not to send you.

I've already got some college credits under my belt, so the online course thing might work out well for me.

Again, it depends on your educational goals. I don't know how well online programs for degrees in the sciences work out. When I was in, those weren't very well developed, and where I was stationed precluded the pursuit of Bachelors degrees other than in Business, Management, or Psychology. If that suits your plans, all is well then. If you are looking to get your degree in an engineering discipline or science field and get assigned to a small base like Cannon or overseas, you might be SOL.

Not to chase you away or anything, but this particular forum is more geared toward answering questions about military medicine for medical professionals like doctors, dentists and pharmacists, rather than enlisted military medicine issues. Not that there aren't folks on here who can answer your questions, but there are "better" places for people with questions about enlisted service to go. You might try the forums at usmilitary.about.com, and to a lesser extent the Air Force Community Discussion forums at military.com. I particularly recommend the usmilitary.about.com site; they have lots of resources there that can help you with many aspects of military service. In your particular case, there is some information about the Pharm tech career field that you might find useful, such as assignment possibilities and the like.