Is there anyone on this forum that actually likes being a pharmacist?

[brbi]

I enjoy it a lot. I decided that hospital and chain retail was not for me so I went into ownership and now own several. People will tell you that you cannot compete with CVS (or Omnicare), or Walgreens, but fortunately I've never experienced that. If you provide good service and get a good mix of insurance plans to bill, you'll be fine on the financial side as long as you monitor expenses.

Sometimes you need to provide services that others do not (delivery for example), but it can be done if you have the initiative to do it. If you are consistently better than your competition, then you can get great results.

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[Wickett]

Professors at UHCOP let the students know about the saturation and ways to stand out and be competitive. Our dean speaks about the diploma mill schools and they let us know about the current state of pharmacy. So no one is really trying to hide anything from us.

Im guessing those pharmacist that im talking about just don't post on online forums.

The dean of UHCOP plans on doubling main campus class size, as well as opening satellite sites. I'm not sure how admitting to the saturation while actively worsening it is really all that commendable.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I like my job.

 

[BidingMyTime]

I love being a pharmacist, I love my jobs. Both retail and hospital. I love all the different aspects of being a pharmacist. Yeah, all the bad things everyone says here about pharmacy are true.....but if you are the right person, you won't mind all those bad things. I don't mind people staring at me at retail. I don't mind technicians quadruple tagging me in retail. I don't mind people going psychotic on me in retail. I don't mind nurses throwing a fit and saying stuff that is medically untrue. I don't mind gossip and politics and spitefulness in hospital. I don't mind my boss being someone with less education than me in retail or hospital. I find the impossibly fast pace a good game challenge. I don't mind the complete stupidity I see among customers and co-workers (which you would probably see this in any job.) I'm not saying I like or enjoy any of these aspects, just that I don't mind them and I can ignore them.

I would never be a cop, because I couldn't deal with the crap they have to deal with. I could never be a researcher because I would literally go crazy with that sort of job. I cringe at the thought of being a nurse or doctor and having to deal with bodily fluids or open sores or any such nastiness. I enjoy my creature comforts waaaaay to much to ever be able to stand any sort of job that required me working outside in the elements. But other people love these jobs and are happy doing them.

My point is, everything bad you hear here, is most likely true, but that doesn't meant that you as an individual wouldn't be happy being a pharmacist. On the other hand, if everything you read here repeals you, then yes, you should take a 2nd thought about being a pharmacist, because it probalby isn't the right job for you. People like and love jobs inspite of all the bad parts of them, only you know yourself to know if a job is something you could stand doing or not.

 

[Sabril]

Like it, yeah. But worry about it more (I work in retail independent). I think if you have a job that you can stop thinking about after you close the gate, you'll be much happier.

The other thing is there is very little wiggle room. If you start out with retail, you are most likely stuck with retail. I think the opposite is also true for hospital.

 

[MilknCheerios]

I have only worked for a chain pharmacy for the past 7 years and yes, I like being a pharmacist. Before you write me off as a shill or this post as bull$hit, know that it's not always rainbows and sunshine either. There are days when I leave my shift tired and frustrated too, but those days are less than the days than I enjoy work.

There are a lot of factors and elaborating on them all could fill an entire page so I'll just blurb a few:

1) who you work with matters the most. If you get along with everyone and are willing to teach them things and vice versa, the day will go by much quicker. Front end included.
2) personal perspective. i've only worked for a chain pharmacy so this is all i know. the company's treated me well: giving me all my requested vacation days, opportunity to move when I first started, and corporate respects me and the work I produce. I'm a pretty competitive person, so doing work and being productive is in my nature.
3) $$$. sure, no pay raises, but I secretly feel many pharmacists are overcompensated anyway. If salaries go down and available jobs dissappear, less people will enter the profession looking for the quick buck and that increases my value. Remember, there's no shortage of pharmacists, but there is a shortage of quality pharmacists.
4) location. I like being in the Midwest, have family nearby, and don't really like big cities. It's the perfect fit for me.

Like many current pharmacists, I do wonder where the profession is heading-- but that's a post for a different day.

HAPPY 2020 EVERYONE!

 

[PikminOC]

If it makes you feel better, these mid-levels are being pumped out in diploma mills too and are replacing physicians in many places.

Edward-Elmhurst to replace physicians with midlevel providers at immediate care sites

Due to budget constraints, Chicago-area health system Edward-Elmhurst Health reportedly plans to lay off 15 physicians from its immediate care clinics next year and replace them with nurse practitioners, sources told Becker's Hospital Review.

www.beckershospitalreview.com

 

[njac]

Love my job. Graduated in 2009. Did PGY-1 and a PGY-2. Have had multiple unicorn jobs and moved across the country for amazing opportunities.




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[APN-59 rph]

I enjoy it a lot. I decided that hospital and chain retail was not for me so I went into ownership and now own several. People will tell you that you cannot compete with CVS (or Omnicare), or Walgreens, but fortunately I've never experienced that. If you provide good service and get a good mix of insurance plans to bill, you'll be fine on the financial side as long as you monitor expenses.

Sometimes you need to provide services that others do not (delivery for example), but it can be done if you have the initiative to do it. If you are consistently better than your competition, then you can get great results.

OOP's end bibi start me...
First I had better answer the question...I have always tolerated it 'cause I needed the denaro. If a thing or two had worked out better I would have bailed long ago...and those were the GOOD times..to be honest, if i was a newbie I would start out frantic with worry and then find another field that does not involve a university.. ASAP. The following is un-authorized jabbering.....


This is the key..right here. I know of some operations like this and it seems to work. Owners like this could probably make a lot of different business operations successful. They look for peeps like them to hire. THAT part you will have to analyze on your own. ...are you like them? Now, two things: ONE "Monitor expenses" Name a gigantic expense in this business. If you answered Me! Me!...you gotter. Who gets the open pharmacist job when an owner is reviewing apps?
TWO "Expanding the biz" Maybe the owner decides to add a venue or two. The latest around here is to automate the new venues , run them with two techs and have the staff at central monitor and check the techs. Probably need two pharmacists at central to run three or four dispensing operations.
I guess I am not sticking to the actual question. If I was the owner I would like it...As a worker bee, it would have concerned me........ and guess who the gigantic expense is....

 

[gwarm01]

I love how threads started by pharmacy students usually devolve into the student getting defensive and arguing that the working pharmacist is wrong or knows less than them.

 

[wagrxm2000]

Most pharmacists enjoy their job, SDNs complainers are not a good representation.

 

[LivingMyBestLife]

You are trolling me and I only want serious answers.

My answer is serious. You asked pharmacists about if they like working to which I accurately responded. Perhaps in the future consider rephrasing your question to more accurately seek the responses you want. Did you mean are pharmacists working in pharmacy as pharmacists happy? Bc that is very different than what you asked.

 

[PromethazineDM]

I work inpatient hospital pharmacy side and I love it. I am very comfortable with my position here but the problem is when you want to move somewhere and have to compete against hundreds to thousands of other applicants because your chances are slim unless you have an inside connection there. The times that we do post job openings, they are already being reserved for a "friend" for a current employee that they recommended.
In my opinion, I think many of us who are already secured at our own jobs are not bitter about our position but just annoyed at how many people are still trying to pursue pharmacy without doing their research. What pharmacy school you attend does not matter at all unless the employer happens to be a die-hard alumni or something lol. Depending on where you want to work, it really comes down to who you know and if positions are even opened. Then you have schools charging you 2-3x the tuition amount that you can even pay off nowadays but I don't even want to get into that..

Yup I've seen most new hires has at least 1 year of residency with experiences and 2 years residency is becoming more common. I can't imagine competing with so many hungry application willing to do more for less. The more pharmacists graduating from less prestiguous school, the more they likely to overcompensate and pursue 1-2 years residency.

The first graduating class of some the newer schools haven't graduated and we already experienced a major saturation problem. I can't imagine when the perfect storm of recession and saturation occurred.

I like my job but I work in a unicorn job. If I'm going to do 2 year of residency to get a job now, I'd rather become a CRNA.

 

[confettiflyer]

Yup I've seen most new hires has at least 1 year of residency with experiences and 2 years residency is becoming more common. I can't imagine competing with so many hungry application willing to do more for less.

But this is the standard for almost every job for this generation entering the workforce... more education for the same work.

How many jobs out there require a BS/BA that were originally fine with HS diploma only? How many internships exist that used to be entry level positions?

Pharmacy is definitely not special.


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[mentos]

But this is the standard for almost every job for this generation entering the workforce... more education for the same work.

How many jobs out there require a BS/BA that were originally fine with HS diploma only? How many internships exist that used to be entry level positions?

Pharmacy is definitely not special.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN

My plumber went to vocational high school for free. Started working co-op senior year then graduated with no debt and worked for a company then started his own business. I paid him $10,600 for a new boiler. The parts cost $7000, the rest went into his pocket. Took a couple days to install. I had quotes as high as $21,000.

 

[Twentytwelve2]

I actually enjoy coming into work. Walking through the entrance, morning salutations, unlock the key to the pharmacy and turn on the lights. Ahhh, peace to myself while my techs slowly trickle in. Then BAM BAM BOOM, 12 hour shift is over. The great thing about retail is it feels like a video game. What is in store today? What challenges or people will we face today? Can I get the queue done even quicker by tips/hints/short cuts? New secret short cut no one knows about? Playing around with the software to find loop holes to getting things done faster?

I even work more shifts at other stores because I mastered the software and enjoy working! Even with slow techs, I can over come it with my skills.

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

I work for a chain, and I love my job. People say I drink the corporate Kool-Aid, but It's more than that.

I never knew what "easy" or "comfortable" felt like in Pharmacy. After I graduated from pharmacy school, I got thrown into a manager position where I was a student on rotation 6 months prior, at the worst store in the district. BOP failures, litigation, back to back crises and fires to be put out. My entire team hated and resented me, and I failed so much early on in my role as a leader.

I didn't love my job then because I couldn't even breathe at work. I tried solving most problems by muscling it, throwing more RPh hours at everything. Staying late, coming in early 4 hours extra a day, for months on end.

But then I finally accepted that I needed to evolve as a pharmacist. What I was doing was not working. Once I embraced the leadership role, learned the business, and focused my energy on the right areas, everything starting falling into place.

It wasn't easy. Every day in Retail Pharmacy, we have to change our best practices to accommodate new programs and initiatives. I also had to learn and implement new leadership strategies on top of all that because I sucked at everything.

I don't remember the exact turning point, but somewhere along the way, I looked back and noticed how awesome I have it. I finally reached Pharmacy Nirvana. And it was all because of my willingness to set aside my ego, adapt, and grow with my profession. I used to think the fruits of accomplishment were the prize, but really it's the journey. If we're not growing, we're dying.

We all can agree that pharmacy is a completely different beast from 10-15 years ago. I think the most people complaining are the ones who are still trying to practice pharmacy using the old strategies and mindset. Basically, they lost something they once had.

I think if more pharmacists were prepared for the shifting roles in community pharmacy (aka business and leadership), they would feel empowered to overcome adversity and solve their problems. Without all the pain in retail, most pharmacists would love their job. But so many expect someone else (lawmakers, the company, their boss) to fix everything for them instead of leveling up themselves.

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[Sine Cura]

I actually enjoy coming into work. Walking through the entrance, morning salutations, unlock the key to the pharmacy and turn on the lights. Ahhh, peace to myself while my techs slowly trickle in. Then BAM BAM BOOM, 12 hour shift is over. The great thing about retail is it feels like a video game. What is in store today? What challenges or people will we face today? Can I get the queue done even quicker by tips/hints/short cuts? New secret short cut no one knows about? Playing around with the software to find loop holes to getting things done faster?

I even work more shifts at other stores because I mastered the software and enjoy working! Even with slow techs, I can over come it with my skills.

This is the best case for retail... managing scripts and attendant garbage from joke clinics and pts all day

I literally told a newb tech that if you have played tedious video games then retail is similar. Your main satisfaction comes from mastery of bull****

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

no, **** pharmacy

it's just a means to an end. make enough money to create revenue streams, then make more money to invest into stocks and real estate

 

[wagrxm2000]

I work for a chain, and I love my job. People say I drink the corporate Kool-Aid, but It's more than that.

I never knew what "easy" or "comfortable" felt like in Pharmacy. After I graduated from pharmacy school, I got thrown into a manager position where I was a student on rotation 6 months prior, at the worst store in the district. BOP failures, litigation, back to back crises and fires to be put out. My entire team hated and resented me, and I failed so much early on in my role as a leader.

I didn't love my job then because I couldn't even breathe at work. I tried solving most problems by muscling it, throwing more RPh hours at everything. Staying late, coming in early 4 hours extra a day, for months on end.

But then I finally accepted that I needed to evolve as a pharmacist. What I was doing was not working. Once I embraced the leadership role, learned the business, and focused my energy on the right areas, everything starting falling into place.

It wasn't easy. Every day in Retail Pharmacy, we have to change our best practices to accommodate new programs and initiatives. I also had to learn and implement new leadership strategies on top of all that because I sucked at everything.

I don't remember the exact turning point, but somewhere along the way, I looked back and noticed how awesome I have it. I finally reached Pharmacy Nirvana. And it was all because of my willingness to set aside my ego, adapt, and grow with my profession. I used to think the fruits of accomplishment were the prize, but really it's the journey. If we're not growing, we're dying.

We all can agree that pharmacy is a completely different beast from 10-15 years ago. I think the most people complaining are the ones who are still trying to practice pharmacy using the old strategies and mindset. Basically, they lost something they once had.

I think if more pharmacists were prepared for the shifting roles in community pharmacy (aka business and leadership), they would feel empowered to overcome adversity and solve their problems. Without all the pain in retail, most pharmacists would love their job. But so many expect someone else (lawmakers, the company, their boss) to fix everything for them instead of leveling up themselves.

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Don't worry everyone who enjoys their job is apparently just "drinking the Kool aid".

 

[RxEvileye]

The number of people who read this forum is insignificant..

I would say it is quite significant. Other than knowing many pre-pharms who used it in my own undergrad (especially the school-specific forums to track acceptance etc and get interview advice), many people in my own pharmacy school class were on here.

When I spoke to a pre-pharmacy club one time, one of them asked about the job market. I asked if they had read bad things on SDN and they said yes. I then asked who reads SDN in general, and almost the whole room raised their hand and laughed.

We should still maintain interest in having good candidates apply to pharmacy school if we want our profession to be better. Turning away people who are truly interested in the work by telling them there are zero jobs is counterproductive. Point them to reputable career resources like the BLS and let them make the decision if the risk is worth it. For me, it was and I am glad I took it.

 

[grumpyRph]

retail chain worker full time rph since 2011. i'm not super thrilled with working weekends so much tho (every other for me). be nice to join society on more weekends (especially during summer) for all the adulting weekend activities. lately it's been making me feel like i'm in jail. i'm also single and ready to mingle so weekends is prime for that but siiiiigh. haha

and as far as the work itself. it's mostly fine, but there's just enough few bad apple customers and doc offices that can get under my skin. the needy needy needy patients who won't get off the phone with you and are ticking time bombs of complaints. and then never being able to reach doctors and dealing with snotty office staff when you want to resolve a problem blah blah.

if communicating/technology improved with other health care professionals/entities, my job would feel a lot smoother and more pleasant. there's so many time-suck obstacles to get such simple things done. that kind of drives me crazy too.

that being said, i mean it's mostly easy and i have a really good grasp on what i do now. nothing makes me scared or nervous. there are plenty of lovely and easy going customers too. at this point i'm ready for something else to challenge me i guess.

 

[lord999]

Why do you guys assume that I wouldn't understand the job market in my own state of residence? Im already aware of how I feel about pharmacy and what I have to do be able to have more job prospects. I'm a veteran planning on commissioning after I get my PharmD. The reason why I made this thread is because it seems as though yall went into pharmacy because it was supposedly easy money and not because you actually cared about being pharmacists.

There are more trolls on this side of SDN getting their membership revoked and then making new profiles to spend all day saying the same crap. The criticism given on this forum to prepharms is most of the time not even constructive.

Because of how you’re responding, with hostility and defensiveness to non troll realistic feedback, that you are single perspective. You’re not considering the totality of many sincere responses.

Last piece of advice,If you think it’s going to be straightforward to commission without risking a RIF at O-4, you might want to read the uniformed forums on what ASD(HA) has in store. I expect a William Cohen style 1996 exodus and for many positions that can be converted or fee basis out to TMA, they are vulnerable and selection pressure is higher. Even commissioning standards are raising due to market conditions.

 

[ExpressMaiL]

Hell yeah I do. I have a life because of it.

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

no, **** pharmacy

it's just a means to an end. make enough money to create revenue streams, then make more money to invest into stocks and real estate

There's nothing inherently wrong with the means to an end approach. However, there are consequences for a profession filled with renegade practitioners who are only looking out for number 1.

It teaches the new generation of pharmacists to think small, keep their heads down, and just count by fives.

It prevents some of the best and the brightest from ever entering our profession where they could actually use their talents and make a difference.

If we're all just using our PharmD's to siphon money and doing nothing to maintain or elevate our profession, we're going to run out of resources sooner or later. The resource I'm talking about is creative energy, morale, spirit. This is why some pharmacists fear being replaced by robots.

I hope that this Pharmacy Armageddon we're experiencing will clearly define what our profession should be. Maybe Pharmacy can rise from the ashes.

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

There's nothing inherently wrong with the means to an end approach. However, there are consequences for a profession filled with renegade practitioners who are only looking out for number 1.

It teaches the new generation of pharmacists to think small, keep their heads down, and just count by fives.

It prevents some of the best and the brightest from ever entering our profession where they could actually use their talents and make a difference.

If we're all just using our PharmD's to siphon money and doing nothing to maintain or elevate our profession, we're going to run out of resources sooner or later. The resource I'm talking about is creative energy, morale, spirit. This is why some pharmacists fear being replaced by robots.

I hope that this Pharmacy Armageddon we're experiencing will clearly define what our profession should be. Maybe Pharmacy can rise from the ashes.

wait, what. i feel that most people in this profession just don't give a ****

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

wait, what. i feel that most people in this profession just don't give a ****

Since Retail is 60-70% of the profession, there's a good chance this is true.

I hope not. The renegade pharmacists are dangerous.

Collectively, you can bring the entire profession down (if not already).

Jokes, cynicism, pessimism, and hate are like guerilla warfare.

Some do these publicly, while others do it anonymously.

Either way, trying to fight it all head on is a losing battle for anyone.

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[KARM12]

I love my job too! But I also did two years of residency and have a unicorn job. I have a good work/life balance, good patient load, and a positive work environment. People told me 10+ years ago that I was stupid for doing two years of residency... I seem much happier than most all these years later. I did residency because I really wanted to do clinical and when it was less common.

However, I would not recommend pharmacy as a profession for new grads. It is a different beast now. The students we get on rotation are a lot different than they used to be. Many have no actual work experience.

 

[Pharmacy is a Scam]

I would say it is quite significant. Other than knowing many pre-pharms who used it in my own undergrad (especially the school-specific forums to track acceptance etc and get interview advice), many people in my own pharmacy school class were on here.

When I spoke to a pre-pharmacy club one time, one of them asked about the job market. I asked if they had read bad things on SDN and they said yes. I then asked who reads SDN in general, and almost the whole room raised their hand and laughed.

We should still maintain interest in having good candidates apply to pharmacy school if we want our profession to be better. Turning away people who are truly interested in the work by telling them there are zero jobs is counterproductive. Point them to reputable career resources like the BLS and let them make the decision if the risk is worth it. For me, it was and I am glad I took it.

Agreed. I think there are MANY more pharmacy students/pre-pharms who actively lurk and read the forums than there are who take that next step to create an account and post something. If I were to guess, I'd say that for every 1 poster on SDN, there are 50 lurkers.

 

[Gombrich12]

Agreed. I think there are MANY more pharmacy students/pre-pharms who actively lurk and read the forums than there are who take that next step to create an account and post something. If I were to guess, I'd say that for every 1 poster on SDN, there are 50 lurkers.

The general rule is for every 1 active content creator on a forum there are 99 lurkers. SDN and reddit have definitely helped the saturation issue reach a large audience and literally saved lives in the process.

 

[owlegrad]

Every thread shows how many posts there are vs how many views. There are many, many times more views than posts.

 

[PromethazineDM]

But this is the standard for almost every job for this generation entering the workforce... more education for the same work.

How many jobs out there require a BS/BA that were originally fine with HS diploma only? How many internships exist that used to be entry level positions?

Pharmacy is definitely not special.


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You are definitely right. . It is definitely degree inflation, place higher debt burden and time investment if you really want to work in the hospital in the future. It is something prospective pharmacy students should take into consideration of the opportunity cost vs other fields.

There are plenty of jobs that do require 4 years doctorate degree plus 1-2 years of residency, 6 figures debt but on the job training with less student debt, time invested. I know programmer, accountant, engineer friends that make 6 figures job and some make much more than a pharmacists would make with less schooling and less student loan debt.

With so many pharmacy school opening up, pharmacy is definitely not special.

 

[njac]

I love my job too! But I also did two years of residency and have a unicorn job. I have a good work/life balance, good patient load, and a positive work environment. People told me 10+ years ago that I was stupid for doing two years of residency... I seem much happier than most all these years later. I did residency because I really wanted to do clinical and when it was less common.

However, I would not recommend pharmacy as a profession for new grads. It is a different beast now. The students we get on rotation are a lot different than they used to be. Many have no actual work experience.

All of this.


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[Pharmacy is a Scam]

Every thread shows how many posts there are vs how many views. There are many, many times more views than posts.

Where do you see this? I'm assuming mods have a different UI?

 

[KARM12]

Love my job. Graduated in 2009. Did PGY-1 and a PGY-2. Have had multiple unicorn jobs and moved across the country for amazing opportunities.




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Because you worked hard to get there and don't expect everything to be handed to you.

 

[confettiflyer]

I’ve been lucky to have good students and am excited to see where they will be going in the coming years...doors are wide open for them with residency and employment, but I also understand that my n=6 on an annual basis and this is likely not the norm.

Some years back I had a drought of good students, but it helps now that they have to elect my rotation instead of being assigned to it randomly as a requirement.


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[TateThePharmacist]

To answer the original posters question, I really enjoy my job.

I recently graduated and chose to not do a residency so I had an extremely hard time finding inpatient work. I finally found a full time inpatient position in a pretty rural area. I love the work, but there's tons of down time (which gives me plenty of time to lurk the forum). I get paid extremely well for a new grad, which goes contrary to what everyone is saying about pharmacist pay going down (however I do think for retail it is pretty stagnant pay).

I have my complaints about my job (although I'd have complaints for just about any job), but I think they're mostly complaints about the profession and the directions it's going. But overall life/work is good. I did extremely well when it came to student loans (hoping to have them paid off in a month or two), I'm no longer having to study for anything or do stupid unpaid projects, and I make a ridiculous amount of money for the amount of work I put in.

What I think a lot of the negativity comes from in the field is an over-saturation of pharmacists. This comes from the diploma mills pumping out too many pharmacists for the amount of new jobs created/older pharmacists retiring and the issue also stems from the vast majority of pharmacists having multiple jobs. I can confidently say that over half of all pharmacists I know/work with have more than 1 full time job, which I honestly think is messing with the job market. I'm sure most are because of their crippling student debt, but I know several who have no student loans and still work over 40 hours per week. Anyways, just my two cents.

 

[gwarm01]

Where do you see this? I'm assuming mods have a different UI?

Post you cowards!

 

[owlegrad]

Where do you see this? I'm assuming mods have a different UI?

It isn’t public information?

Forget I said anything, I have already said too much.

 

[wagrxm2000]

Wouldn't views count for everytime the same person looks at the thread too though?

 

[owlegrad]

Wouldn't views count for everytime the same person looks at the thread too though?

I think so. But if the same person makes multiple posts that also counts in the total posts. So it may be a wash in the end.

 

[hye345]

I'd be lying if I said I enjoy my (current) job, although some days go by faster than others. Pharmacy (at least retail) is similar enough across the board, the issue is the people you work with, as well as the workflow. These can make it or break it. I'd count both as negatives where I'm at now.

 

[rxkrafted]

I'd be lying if I said I enjoy my (current) job, although some days go by faster than others. Pharmacy (at least retail) is similar enough across the board, the issue is the people you work with, as well as the workflow. These can make it or break it. I'd count both as negatives where I'm at now.

Retail feels like working at a fast food restaurant but replace food with drugs. You got doorbells letting you know the drivethru needs help, customers yelling, etc. It actually sounds worst now that I'm thinking about it... At least customers are happy when they get their food. Customers are never happy when they get their meds because they're sick and could possibly be mad because of a high cost.

 

[mentos]

Retail feels like working at a fast food restaurant but replace food with drugs. You got doorbells letting you know the drivethru needs help, customers yelling, etc. It actually sounds worst now that I'm thinking about it... At least customers are happy when they get their food. Customers are never happy when they get their meds because they're sick and could possibly be mad because of a high cost.

I worked at Burger King when I was a teenager and never got yelled at by customers. Everyone was pretty happy to get their food. Retail pharmacy is definitely worse because of insurance, phone calls, and unhappy customers.

 

[Hels2007]

I've never worked fast food, but I have worked at a call center handling all the inbound calls for a cell phone company back when no one knew how to check voicemail, when roaming started immediately outside your town, and plans were priced basically at a dollar a minute. When I quit that job and came to Walgreens, for about a year and a half I was amazed at how nice and polite everyone was. Of course, that was in the days of two-tier copays and generous staffing...

 

[confettiflyer]

It isn’t public information?

Forget I said anything, I have already said too much.

On iPhone


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[hye345]

Retail feels like working at a fast food restaurant but replace food with drugs. You got doorbells letting you know the drivethru needs help, customers yelling, etc. It actually sounds worst now that I'm thinking about it... At least customers are happy when they get their food. Customers are never happy when they get their meds because they're sick and could possibly be mad because of a high cost.

Honestly, In my experience, most patients are pleasant most the time; sure, they can be a bit slow, but as annoying as that can be, it’s not really malicious. It’s the few legitimate bad interactions that last the longest on the mind.

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

Professors at UHCOP let the students know about the saturation and ways to stand out and be competitive. Our dean speaks about the diploma mill schools and they let us know about the current state of pharmacy. So no one is really trying to hide anything from us.

Im guessing those pharmacist that im talking about just don't post on online forums.

The problem with this approach is that they're not trying to fix the problem but just cover it up until it goes away... if no one takes real action, it won't be fixed. Be competitive? how else do you become more competitive than a doctorate degree? join 50 organizations? become officers? dean's list? MBA? what other medical profession pushes these unrealistic accomplishment on ALL students?

Only way to solve this problem is to shut down schools. Get rid of or take control of PBMs. Stop monopolization of pharmacies and related entities. This can greatly benefit pharmacists and patients. Do you know who won't benefit? Schools, chain pharmacies and these useless organizations such as apha.

 

[lane one]

Why do you guys assume that I wouldn't understand the job market in my own state of residence? Im already aware of how I feel about pharmacy and what I have to do be able to have more job prospects. I'm a veteran planning on commissioning after I get my PharmD. The reason why I made this thread is because it seems as though yall went into pharmacy because it was supposedly easy money and not because you actually cared about being pharmacists.

1. I actually love my job
2. You know NOTHING about being a pharmacist until you've done it

 

[sozetone]

I'm just curious?

I graduated with a degree in biomedical science and was undecided for the longest time on what I wanted to do. I took a medical toxicology class during undergrad and discovered that I love the science. When I decided to apply to pharmacy school I knew about the saturation but I didn't mind potentially having to move to a less desirable area and I made sure not to apply to any of the diploma mill schools (I currently attend UHCOP).

When I was active duty in the military I worked in the pharmacy as well as with physicians so I know what the work entails.

The pharmacy forum has the reputation of being populated by bitter users but then again it seems as though only a select few people post on a regular basis.

Yeah man i honestly love being a pharmacist, i do not like being a RETAIL pharmacist. That said, i saw some cool videos that said you have tons of opportunities opening up in other areas of pharmacy, so you new guys should be alright.