Pharm Residency

[jhm23]

Quick overview: I recently graduated from college as pre-dental. I've been working as a dental assistant for about 5 months now, and I am realizing that dentistry may not be for me.
Now I am looking into other health careers, and pharmacy is one of them.
To be honest, retail does not intrigue me in the slightest because of minimal patient interaction and work setting, but I've noticed that I can specialize as a pharmacist in cardiology, oncology, critical care, etc.
This seems very interesting for me, but I cannot know for sure until I shadow.
However, just to get quick insight into the field, is specialization a good idea? What does it entail in order to specialize? Do I need to work an "x" amount of years as a licensed pharmacist before I can apply to a residency?
Lastly, I want to understand why pharmacy has such a bad rep on these forums? I really have very little info about this career since I just started looking into it, but is it a bad career to pursue? Even as a specialist?

Thank you!

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[PharmtoCS]

The speciality positions you mentioned are far and few between and requires incredible luck. Retail makes up about 70% of the jobs available to pharmacists.

Since most pharmacists end up in retail (whether by choice or not) and the shrinking job market I would avoid pharmacy if I were you.

 

[pharmBear]

Hello,
The fields you mention usually require 1 (pgy1) to 2 years (pgy2) after pharmacy school in the form of residency. Majority of people apply for residency in their last year of pharmacy school. The match rate for residency is tough. Graduating residency does not guarantee you a job at the end of the residency contract, and you may be overqualified for the job that do exist (staffing in central hospital, retail ect).

Pharmacy gets a bad rep at the moment because employers do not see the money value pharmacist bring because of the pay compared to money we make for our employers minimal bc of high drug cost/low reimbursement/and few places have provider status for us to bill for our services). Also bad rep thanks to bls data saying there is zero percent growth in the profession in the next ten years.

Hope that helps. Goodluck.

 

[bazuka]

Quick overview: I recently graduated from college as pre-dental. I've been working as a dental assistant for about 5 months now, and I am realizing that dentistry may not be for me.
Now I am looking into other health careers, and pharmacy is one of them.
To be honest, retail does not intrigue me in the slightest because of minimal patient interaction and work setting, but I've noticed that I can specialize as a pharmacist in cardiology, oncology, critical care, etc.
This seems very interesting for me, but I cannot know for sure until I shadow.
However, just to get quick insight into the field, is specialization a good idea? What does it entail in order to specialize? Do I need to work an "x" amount of years as a licensed pharmacist before I can apply to a residency?
Lastly, I want to understand why pharmacy has such a bad rep on these forums? I really have very little info about this career since I just started looking into it, but is it a bad career to pursue? Even as a specialist?

Thank you!

I would trade professions with you right now lol. I agree with others here, pharmacy maybe a very interesting and rewarding career but almost everyone is struggling to find a job. You will incur a lot of debt and won’t enjoy life. I would stay away if I were you. Go to medical school, more respect more money and more power.

 

[AM77]

Going into pharmacy just to specialize? Why not go into medicine? Even if you do complete a residency just to avoid retail, the job growth for pharmacists right now is 0%. Pharmacy is already oversaturated. If you think competition for retail jobs are bad, hospital is even worse. For example, Kaiser Permanente just posted a recent job opening for a per diem pharmacist position. They just received over 300 applications within a matter of days. Too many new pharmacy schools have been opening up and pumping out too many graduates. That’s the reality of the pharmacy profession.

 

[mentos]

There are 15,000 new pharmacists every year and zero job growth for the next ten years. Fifteen thousand. Let that sink in.