Why all the negative talk about pharmacy?

[futurething]

I read many threads before posting this and i'm seeing all these people talking really badly and some disrespectfully about pharmacy, jobs etc. YES. I know that there are too many pharmacists in this world and that the job market is saturated but that's just like any other field. (at least in my country) Why are so many people excited and dying for med school? There are so many doctors that are not getting paid enough and having many other issues because of the decrease of the number of doctors. (just like pharmacists) Plus, i think being a pharmacist doesn't only consist of retail selling that some may consider boring, but has many other opportunities such as working in pharmaceuticals, as a scientist, medical sales representative, researcher and many more... We are living in a world where there is too much of everything. I rarely come across people who don't complain no matter what field they're in..

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[EastBay80]

Any other field takes 6-8 years to study and costs $50,000/year for the last 3-4 years of studying?
And 18,000 new graduates vs. 900 jobs a year?

 

[futurething]

Any other field takes 6-8 years to study and costs $50,000/year for the last 3-4 years?
And 18,000 new graduates vs. 900 jobs a year?

That's the US case! 50k a year and there are 18 000 new graduatess?? How's that.

 

[PharmtoCS]

There are much better professions, i.e. computer programming, finance, accounting, engineering, etc. that offer better job prospects and work conditions without requiring you to graduate with $200k+ in loans and spend an additional 4 years of your life in school. Also keep in mind that retail still makes up 70% of the jobd available to pharmacists. This is referring to the United States.

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[LoveWillSaveTheDay]

I read many threads before posting this and i'm seeing all these people talking really badly and some disrespectfully about pharmacy, jobs etc. YES. I know that there are too many pharmacists in this world and that the job market is saturated but that's just like any other field. (at least in my country) Why are so many people excited and dying for med school? There are so many doctors that are not getting paid enough and having many other issues because of the decrease of the number of doctors. (just like pharmacists) Plus, i think being a pharmacist doesn't only consist of retail selling that some may consider boring, but has many other opportunities such as working in pharmaceuticals, as a scientist, medical sales representative, researcher and many more... We are living in a world where there is too much of everything. I rarely come across people who don't complain no matter what field they're in..

From what I can tell, a lot of the people who down the profession are:

1) not pharmacists. They're prepharmers/pharmacy students who started looking at their debt and the number of students that they have to compete with in their area and comparing that to other fields. These are the people who did no research on job outlooks in their area. (For example: why bother going to school in the east coast? With 6+ schools plus the surrounding states?) I can name atleast 2 people like this on SDN.

2) they are RPHs who just looked at the average salary of pharmacists and said "it's always been my dream...." without ever working in a pharmacy first. Since it's not a requirement for pharmacy school some people don't bother. They've done ug research, mission trips, etc. and have an unrealistic view of the day to day task of a pharmacists. So they jump into the career and become disappointed and bitter because it's not what they thought it would be.

Or 3) They're seasoned RPHs who see the current stats of prepharmers/students and all the new schools vs the stats of students in their day and don't like it. And I get that. As a non-traditional, I've been taking time to raise my gpa. Got it to a 2.75 but im taking more upper level classes this fall and spring because I want it to be at least a 2.8 before I apply anywhere. There are some people here who ask how to get in with a 2.5, they don't really want to put in the work that they should. And believe it or not, some get acceptance.

But that's just what I see ‍♀️

 

[futurething]

From what I can tell, a lot of the people who down the profession are:

1) not pharmacists. They're prepharmers/pharmacy students who started looking at their debt and the number of students that they have to compete with in their area and comparing that to other fields. These are the people who did no research on job outlooks in their area. (For example: why bother going to school in the east coast? With 6+ schools plus the surrounding states?) I can name atleast 2 people like this on SDN.

2) they are RPHs who just looked at the average salary of pharmacists and said "it's always been my dream...." without ever working in a pharmacy first. Since it's not a requirement for pharmacy school some people don't bother. They've done ug research, mission trips, etc. and have an unrealistic view of the day to day task of a pharmacists. So they jump into the career and become disappointed and bitter because it's not what they thought it would be.

Or 3) They're seasoned RPHs who see the current stats of prepharmers/students and all the new schools vs the stats of students in their day and don't like it. And I get that. As a non-traditional, I've been taking time to raise my gpa. Got it to a 2.75 but im taking more upper level classes this fall and spring because I want it to be at least a 2.8 before I apply anywhere. There are some people here who ask how to get in with a 2.5, they don't really want to put in the work that they should. And believe it or not, some get acceptance.

But that's just what I see ‍♀️

Yes. Absolutely. Some people are not aware of what a pharmacist really does and wish they were physicians or anything else. But what i think is very wrong is the openings of many pharmacy schools in the country which makes the field very saturated. There should be rules and regulations and it should be hard for any university to have that kind of license.. People should stand against it really.

 

[Amicable Angora]

I would say that a big source of discontent stems from the lack of support from our pharmacy organizations and accrediting bodies. Pharmacists as a whole, are not very cohesive and isolated. They don't really back each other up, which coupled with gross mismanagement (I think we can all agree the way new schools are popping up like weeds and standards dropping is disturbing and poorly dealt with) lower pharmacy morale.

 

[futurething]

I would say that a big source of discontent stems from the lack of support from our pharmacy organizations and accrediting bodies. Pharmacists as a whole, are not very cohesive and isolated. They don't really back each other up, which coupled with gross mismanagement (I think we can all agree the way new schools are popping up like weeds and standards dropping is disturbing and poorly dealt with) lower pharmacy morale.

Yes i agree. Pharmacists are always in some sort of competition with each other and that's tiring.

 

[deleted462159]

The old pharmacists, especially pharmacy owners, look back at the "golden days" and today looks too dreary in comparison.

The new pharmacists have mostly experienced the soul-sucking retail rat race is. That's not to say they haven't had rotations or worked elsewhere, but a common experience. Combine that with worry of all the new grads pharmacy schools are pumping out + new pharmacy schools popping up.

 

[futurething]

new pharmacy schools popping up.

I don't understand how it's so easy to have new schools like that without any resentment.

 

[sspharmy]

Majority RPH's I've worked with still believe pharmacy is a good career and don't talk negatively about the career itself. All the pharmacist's I've worked with went to top-mid tier schools. They do make a face when they hear about people with low stats getting accepted. They also agree it's very saturated, so they advise me and other pre-pharmacy techs to aim for established schools, do well, and network before and during pharmacy school.

I've worked with 30+ RPH's in retail, most were in their 30's, 40's+, but I've worked with a couple of new grads as well.

In my experience, it's prospective and current students students that are the most unhappy with certain aspects of the career. Specifically, the over saturation and the schools that charge an arm and a leg and accept students with GPA's in the 2.0 range. Other health fields have their fair share of problems, but how often do you hear of an applicant with a 2. something GPA and mediocre MCAT score getting into an MD/DO med school? Generally, a lot people think that regardless of passion/experience, if you're GPA is below a 3.0 and test scores are mediocre, you shouldn't be able to become a health professional. There are even some extreme people on this website that think anything below a 3.5 is out of the question.

 

[MatCauthon]

If Amazon get in the game then there will probably be a lot more pessimists in here.