retail vs. LTC opinions?

[pennster]

Here's my situation:

I've been at my current job for almost 3 yrs. I'm the manager of a grocery store chain store, do about 900-1100 per week, 3-4 great techs, nice and loyal customer base, no problems with the store management or my DM. Unfortunately have gone through several sub-par staff pharmacists, including my current one who is totally passive aggressive and lazy. There is a huge pharmacist shortage in this area so my DM pretty much takes what she can get. Overall I'm pretty happy, I think I have a good situation as far as retail goes, but
1. retail does wear on you, not all customers are nice
2. hours suck, we work 12's and alternate weekends
3. my staff pharmacist sucks

i'm looking into a LTC care job, so closed door, no IV or TPN's and hours are 9-6 M-F, every 3rd sat, closed sundays. you do have to be on call sometimes, but according to the manager you hardly ever get called in, and you get paid even if you handle the situation by making a bunch of phone calls from home. i've heard LTC can be kinda boring, but they are really busy 2000/wk with 3 pharmacists and 4 techs, so she says time flies by. the benefits are alot worse though and i'd have to take a 2 dollar paycut, but the hrs are appealing.

how does LTC compare to retail as far as clinical stuff goes? its not a consulting LTC job, just dispensing.

any opinions?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[PharmDstudent]

Here's my situation:

I've been at my current job for almost 3 yrs. I'm the manager of a grocery store chain store, do about 900-1100 per week, 3-4 great techs, nice and loyal customer base, no problems with the store management or my DM. Unfortunately have gone through several sub-par staff pharmacists, including my current one who is totally passive aggressive and lazy. There is a huge pharmacist shortage in this area so my DM pretty much takes what she can get. Overall I'm pretty happy, I think I have a good situation as far as retail goes, but
1. retail does wear on you, not all customers are nice
2. hours suck, we work 12's and alternate weekends
3. my staff pharmacist sucks

i'm looking into a LTC care job, so closed door, no IV or TPN's and hours are 9-6 M-F, every 3rd sat, closed sundays. you do have to be on call sometimes, but according to the manager you hardly ever get called in, and you get paid even if you handle the situation by making a bunch of phone calls from home. i've heard LTC can be kinda boring, but they are really busy 2000/wk with 3 pharmacists and 4 techs, so she says time flies by. the benefits are alot worse though and i'd have to take a 2 dollar paycut, but the hrs are appealing.

how does LTC compare to retail as far as clinical stuff goes? its not a consulting LTC job, just dispensing.

any opinions?

What type of patients would you be dispensing to? Do the patients live at home, in a nursing home, at a psychiatric or hospice facility, etc.? I ask that question, because I did an IPPE rotation at a LTC pharmacy, and they filled for all of those types of patients. The only patients that would call were calling from home. They would ask a few questions here and there. Sometimes the doctors and nurses would call from the facilities.

 

[pennster]

What type of patients would you be dispensing to? Do the patients live at home, in a nursing home, at a psychiatric or hospice facility, etc.? I ask that question, because I did an IPPE rotation at a LTC pharmacy, and they filled for all of those types of patients. The only patients that would call were calling from home. They would ask a few questions here and there. Sometimes the doctors and nurses would call from the facilities.

the facility services 10 local nursing homes, so no calls from patients. the majority of the calls are from nurses, the rest from doctors. how much clinical did you see on your LTC rotation compared to retail? did the LTC pharmacists like it?

 

[rxlynn]

You might want to check on how strongly they actually adhere to those hours. I'm talked with several LTC pharmacists who say that they don't actually get to leave at 6 pm everyday because they tend to get more busy in afternoon/early evening and therefore the staff must stay until they get all the order done for that day, no matter how long that takes.