What is the purpose of a pharmacist?

Originally Posted by chorse123

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From what I've heard from a few people in the business, being a pharmacist is a pretty solid way to guarantee a nice middle class life. But you have to deal with incredibly difficult people--both customers and store managers--and scheduling can be really wacky. There are also pharmacists who, from what I've heard, work only a few days a week and make $40-$60k a year.

The infamous Styleforum part time 60k per year job!

FWIW that came from a senior HR person at a major national pharmacy.

IMO, retail pharmacy is a tough row to hoe, although I think most new grads pay some dues in this way.

Just my opinion, which is pretty worthless, but if I was in pharmacy, I'd specialize in geriatrics. Mucho regulations exist, and more in the pipeline, that will create increased demand for this particular specialty. Add that to the aging of the Boomers = profit.

My wife is a pharmacist. She has to exercise her judgment and use her training a million times a day. She doesn't count the pills, technicians do that. Her job is to check the scripts for drug/drug interactions (comuters catch some and don't catch others, and more importantly, computers often spit out false positives - essentially, the computer will show that there is an interaction but the pharmacist has to use her judgment to determine whether the interaction is acceptable given the need for the medication - a computer would probably not be able to do that), she also counsels physicians on the proper medications to prescribe in certain circumstances (pharmacists know more about drugs than physicians do), she counsels patients on the proper way to use medications, she speaks to insurance companies to get coverage or overrides or whatever. Stuff like that.

The pharmacy where she works is also a compounding pharmacy and has a compounding lab on site, but there is a compounding pharmacist there whose job is to take care of only the compounds.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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IMO, retail pharmacy is a tough row to hoe, although I think most new grads pay some dues in this way.

Just my opinion, which is pretty worthless, but if I was in pharmacy, I'd specialize in geriatrics. Mucho regulations exist, and more in the pipeline, that will create increased demand for this particular specialty. Add that to the aging of the Boomers = profit.

Yeah, the pharmacy where my wife works has a lot of nursing home clients and they supply all the medications to the nursing homes on a weekly basis. It is HUGE business.

My wife's boss, who paid his dues for 10 years working 16+ hours per day now works only a few hours per week, takes 3 or 4 exotic vacations per year, drives a Masseratti (sp?), and is basically loaded.


I should also add, she works forty hours per week on average and makes six figures, but sometimes the hours suck (some nights, some weekends, etc.).

Originally Posted by odoreater

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My wife's boss, who paid his dues for 10 years working 16+ hours per day now works only a few hours per week, takes 3 or 4 exotic vacations per year, drives a Masseratti (sp?), and is basically loaded.


*******! I'm becoming a pharmacist!

Their purpose is to be smarter and better people than doctors. Or so I have been told, or at least had suggested to me, by every insecure pharmacy student I have ever met.

so they go to school for 4 years to understand what the **** those doctors scribble on the prescription pad.

I believe up here there is some action being taken to allow pharmacists to make or at least renew prescriptions. Given our lack of doctors, this is a good thing.

There are many different types of Pharmacists. Some follow a more "rewarding" career path then others; but that really depends on what your definition of a rewarding career path is. Still, the retail pharmacists need to understand what they're dispensing, answer questions about them, monitor interactions and prepare certain formulations (ie: suspensions for children), among other things. I'd find the job really boring and mundane, but the pay and perks are nice.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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My wife is a pharmacist. She has to exercise her judgment and use her training a million times a day. She doesn't count the pills, technicians do that. Her job is to check the scripts for drug/drug interactions (comuters catch some and don't catch others, and more importantly, computers often spit out false positives - essentially, the computer will show that there is an interaction but the pharmacist has to use her judgment to determine whether the interaction is acceptable given the need for the medication - a computer would probably not be able to do that), she also counsels physicians on the proper medications to prescribe in certain circumstances (pharmacists know more about drugs than physicians do), she counsels patients on the proper way to use medications, she speaks to insurance companies to get coverage or overrides or whatever. Stuff like that.

The pharmacy where she works is also a compounding pharmacy and has a compounding lab on site, but there is a compounding pharmacist there whose job is to take care of only the compounds.



Yeah, the pharmacy where my wife works has a lot of nursing home clients and they supply all the medications to the nursing homes on a weekly basis. It is HUGE business.

My wife's boss, who paid his dues for 10 years working 16+ hours per day now works only a few hours per week, takes 3 or 4 exotic vacations per year, drives a Masseratti (sp?), and is basically loaded.


I should also add, she works forty hours per week on average and makes six figures, but sometimes the hours suck (some nights, some weekends, etc.).

Thanks, odor. This was the answer I was looking for. Illuminating.

I know a pharmacist in a small tropical country, in a medical clinic.
He was expected to know all the medications, interactions, side effects, proper dosages, and generics substitutions (and the old-school remedies, too) by heart, and make compounds for pills, creams and ointments. The docs would figure out the ailment and ask him what to prescribe especially when they had a choice between a few things. He'd also catch incorrect prescriptions where the medicine was wrong, or the dosage was inappropriate for the patient. And he'd know the interaction between anything the patient was already taking and what was prescribed. He had the freedom to sub in something the drug plan would cover vs what it wouldn't. Plus he had an over-the-counter practice too. Read pharmacy books for fun, and all those little box inserts that came with every medication.
But, before he retired he thought the life of a pharmacist had gotten much much easier with the ready availability of pills and the use of computers... hadn't used his mortar and pestle in years.

I know someone whose first job out of pharmacy school paid (at some national chain...I want to say Walgreens, but I can't remember exactly) six figures and had a BMW 3 series or $40k as a signing bonus.

Not a terrible job, if you ask me.

Originally Posted by Douglas

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Thanks, odor. This was the answer I was looking for. Illuminating.

I'll give you informative, or even interesting... But illuminating? Really?

K

Originally Posted by VKK3450

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I'll give you informative, or even interesting... But illuminating? Really?

K

I worked in a pharmacy in HS and college. I was allowed to count pills on occassion, but it had to be checked by a pharmacist before going out. So counting pills is not what they do. They spent most of their time making prescriptions that had to be custom-made, making sure patients weren't getting conflicting prescriptions (doctors didn't always check), consuling patients who needed to know basic stuff like what's best to treat some symptom, and running the joint. And as someone metioned, they dealt with a lot of ****** people. Sick people can be mean.

b