Retail vs. Clinical Pharmacy
Similar to many careers, pharmacy is very diverse, with many different job options. Two popular choices of people pursuing a career in pharmacy are clinical (or hospital) pharmacy and retail (or community) pharmacy. Retail pharmacists work at a pharmacy in a store, typically a large chain store such as CVS or Walgreens, while clinical pharmacists work directly with physicians and patients in a hospital or other health care facility. Both clinical and retail pharmacy have their specific benefits and drawbacks, but retail pharmacy is more advantageous to a recent pharmacy graduate pursuing this career.
Retail pharmacy involves less stress than clinical pharmacy. In retail, the pharmacist’s main task is issuing medication to customers (“What Pharmacists Do”). They stock and label medications, fill prescriptions, direct customers about the use of the drugs, give them general medical advice, and answer questions they might have about over-the-counter medicine (“What Pharmacists Do”). Likewise, clinical pharmacists work with customers, which are in this case the patients, but they also interact personally with doctors; in the hospital, some pharmacists may even go on patient rounds with them (“What Pharmacists Do”). Clinical pharmacy entails consulting with doctors about medications and recommending a course of action, not just filling prescriptions (“What Pharmacists Do”). Both clinical and retail pharmacy require patience and a love for helping
A growing demand has emerged in the healthcare field for well-trained pharmacy technicians to assist the pharmacist in many practice settings by assuming greater responsibilities. These may include order entry, filing prescription orders, compounding sterile preparations, cart fill exchanges, inventory control, operation of automated technology, utilizing the computer system as well as fulfilling other patient specific duties. Well-trained pharmacy technicians in retail and institutional settings are a vital part of the healthcare team.
As future pharmacists, we are going to face with not only the medications but also the patients, which the former ones are our tools while the latter ones are the people we use correct tools to care about. We are required to combine our pharmacy knowledge among medications with patients’ different health conditions to create the patient-centered care and provide the best outcomes. However, this care trend is in transition now, from professional-orientated to patient-centered.
In accordance with John Swales, “…survival of the community depends on a reasonable ratio between novices and experts” (27). The pharmacy proves to be a stressful work environment and there is a high turn-over rate, thus I have observed there are always new employees within the community. Although turn-over is a normal occurrence, there is a steady presence of “lifers”. A “lifer” is an employee who has been with the pharmacy for a very long time. For example, Barbie is a “lifer” and has been employed with the pharmacy for twenty-five years.
During the two and a half years of my pharmacy journey, I have been thinking what can a pharmacist do within the healthcare interprofessional team to better help the patients in order to achieve the best health outcome. I work in a clinic as well as inpatient pharmacy, additionally, I had my rotations at CVS and Regions Hospital. all these experiences shape my version of the pharmacists at different settings. Therefore, in various pharmacy settings, pharmacists can work differently with the whole healthcare team. The recent PED-Rx events inspired me how important pharmacists can play roles in when working in a team.
The contribution of pharmacists in a clinical setting and community pharmacy is significant that the workforce benefit from. When the workforce understands their medications and complies with the prescribed treatment plans the work center becomes healthy and the potential of increased productivity becomes a realistic and profitable proposition for the organization. When the workforce takes advantage of the healthcare services the pharmacists provide in a community and clinical pharmacies productivity and profit are at high potential reality.
I have spent my time as a student pharmacist learning about opportunities within clinical pharmacy and making certain that I was equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. In my pursuit, I became an active member of pharmaceutical organizations, held multiple leadership positions, attended clinical conferences, established research projects, participated in community service events, and other initiatives. I excelled academically, which was manifested in not just a high academic standard but also in tutoring fellow classmates and arranging sessions with other pharmacy students to help them improve time management and study skills. I shadowed pharmacists and residents before my advanced pharmacy practice experiences commenced to discover which areas of clinical pharmacy I found intriguing. I have obtained valuable pharmacy practice experiences in five specialties thus far including inpatient internal medicine, long term acute care, geriatrics and telehealth, and primary care. Through these rotations, I built upon the knowledge I acquired from my didactic courses but also developed patient-centered approaches and strengthened my clinical skills. I enjoyed many aspects of my rotations, including contributing pharmacotherapy recommendations, providing patient education, attending rounds and interdisciplinary team meetings – all of which have solidified my desire
Over the past century the practice of pharmacy has evolved from a field with few specialties typically focused on compounding and filling prescriptions to modern pharmacy practice which has many different specialties. Due to the many opportunities in the field of pharmacy one assignment I completed was the APhA Career Pathway Evaluation Program to see which specialties I hay have the most interest in based on a series of questions I answered. In the following paper, I will list and discuss these results, point out some of the positive and negative attributes to each career choice, and will make an assessment on which careers may be the best form me and some of the options I disagree with.
Pharmacists work environment of pharmacists is usually in retail places, hospitals and research facilities. The most common retail places pharmacists work are CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. In Pennsylvania alone the average amount of annual openings is 400. In Pennsylvania alone, the employment number of “pharmacists is expected to grow by seventeen percent between 2008 and 2018” (“Outlook”). The employment number increase for pharmacists is higher than any other occupation. “The reason that pharmacist job prospects are high is because employers have problems attracting pharmacists because of the limited number of PharmD programs” (“Outlook”).
One of the most important responsibilities of a pharmacist—whether in a hospital or community setting—is to help people. I was able to observe this critical factor portrayed by my clinical instructors at both St. Francis and at Walgreens. All the pharmacists I worked with during those two weeks displayed a genuine desire to improve their patients’ quality of life by ensuring no drug-drug interactions were present and asking questions about medication histories. I felt humbled and gratified being able to contribute in a minor way when providing
When most people hear Pharmacist, they think of a drug store like Walgreens or CVS. However, a Pharmacist is capable of more than just working in a drug store. Pharmacists play a major role in healthcare today with many job opportunities. There are many different fields and career paths that a Pharmacist can choose. This essay will explore three different pharmacy careers that was examined through data collected by a survey on the internet. The three career pathways are Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, Chain Community Pharmacy, and Community Health Center Pharmacy.
The pharmacist’s role is vital in Sue’s care and she has established that they help her manage her condition (Shawn McFarland et al., 2014). For instance she picks up her prescription from the pharmacy, and discovered that she had a new medication that the doctor prescribed. She asked the pharmacist if he could explain the medication to her. He gave her an easy to read pamphlet of her medication.
Even students with perfect grades in high school, during undergrad, or even during pharmacy school struggle at times when going out into the world to find their ideal job as a Pharmacist. When most people think of a Pharmacist, they immediately think of a retail setting, such as CVS/Pharmacy, Giant, etc. In today's age, after going through their residency or working as a Pharmacy technician in a retail setting, most graduates do not want to be stuck in a retail pharmacy all their lives. According to a few articles online, students nationwide are struggling with these issues and more on a daily basis. We will be covering what the average pharmacy students struggle with before, during, and after pharmacy school.
There are pharmacists that work in totally different fields and their tasks require them to be specialized in different areas of pharmacy. Some of the different types of pharmacists are, Pharmaceutical technicians and Pharmaceutical scientists. Both share a general relation with each other, but they both have major differences according to what they do on a daily basis. Pharmaceutical scientists usually specialize in one aspect of the drug development process. They design new drug remedies using natural or man made ingredients, they study how disease affects the body and what causes some people to develop certain types of disease, study how the human body responds to medications so scientists can develop more efficient, safer drugs,they uncover new ways to use existing drugs to treat different types of disease, they Test drugs on animals and humans to ensure safety and efficiency, determine the most effective formulation and dosage for a specific drug, and advise corporations or government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, on issues related to pharmaceutical development.(Explore) To become a pharmaceutical scientist, you must have a strong interest in mathematics, biology, and chemistry. In college, you can major in the pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy, chemistry, biology, engineering, medicine or a related field.(Explore) Pharmacy Technicians work the same hours as pharmacists. This may include evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. Because some hospital and retail pharmacies are open 24 hours a day, technicians may work varying shifts. As their experience increases, pharmacy technicians often have increased control over the hours they work. There are many opportunities for part-time work in both retail and hospital environments.
They counsel patients on the use of medication, upon a patients release from the hospital. Retail pharmacists help answer questions about over the counter and prescription drugs. They must ask patients certain health questions in order to make a judgment on which medications to prescribe. Some pharmacists specialize in drugs for psychiatric disorders or intravenous nutrition.
Today in the 21st century the roles of pharmacist have expanded tremendously. Before pharmacist had the role of solely dispensing drugs. Pharmacists were limited to only being regulatory or clinical pharmacist. Back then they were called medical purveyors who were much like today’s regulatory pharmacist and hospital pharmacist who are similar to hospital pharmacist. Now pharmacists carry many roles in healthcare. Pharmacist can play roles in public health, community, health systems, state, and federal government.