Hey everyone, my name is Sibin, and today I’m here to talk to you about pharmacy school, and if it’s worth it in 2021.
To give you some background,I am a pharmacist by training. I graduated with my PharmD degree in 2016, and currently work in the pharma industry.
What I am going to do is try to highlight some key factors to take into consideration that may not be necessarily be top of mind.
A pharmacist, at the core, is a medication expert that plays a critical role in helping patients get the best results from their medication and improve their health.
Fun fact - Pharmacist are considered the most accessible health care professional, being that most people in the US live within 2 miles of a pharmacy
First things first - What is it about pharmacy that attracts you? Next - what type of pharmacist do you want to be?
With a doctorate of pharmacy, or pharmd, you can pursue quite a few career paths as a pharmacist, and depending on which path you choose plays a major factor in job availability, salary, or quality of life. Some of the different roles include:
Pharmacist in a community setting, such as CVS or Walgreens, or, at a local independent pharmacy. Although they are both in the community setting, they are 2 very different types of experiences, depending on factors like quotas, direction from a corporate office, and even the relationship with patients
Maybe you’d like to work at a Specialty pharmacy?
Mail order pharmacy?
Pharmacy informatics?
If you want to work in the hospital setting, do you want to work as a staff pharmacist verifying orders and making IV’s, or would you want to work as a clinical pharmacist doing patient rounds with a team?
Maybe you’re thinking about working as a pharmacist in managed care, such as an insurance company like Blue Shield or Kaiser?
Or... maybe you want to work in pharma? Medical Affairs? Regulatory Affairs? Commercial?
Or maybe you’d like to work at the FDA?
Or you’d like to be a cannabis pharmacist?
In 2012, the Medical Marijunana state bill passed in Connecticut that requires a pharmacist to be the one to dispense cannabis from medical marijuana dispensaries.
Now in terms of Job outlook, the bureau of labor statistics projected a 3% decline from 2019 to 2029. There reasoning was that pharmacists that work in retail pharmacies and drug stores are likely to decline due to the increase in people filling their prescriptions through mail order and online, but also because of the increased role and responsibilities of pharmacy technicians.
If we go over to linkedin and search pharmacist in jobs, we can clearly see that there are jobs where pharmacists are needed. Now of course, some of these may indeed be old job postings, but Linkedin is pretty good at keeping there job postings up to date.
Also, given the current global health crisis, there actually seems to be an influx in positions available related to vaccine support all over the country
So as you can see, at this moment, there seems to be jobs available. Does it mean that it will be easy to get your dream job in your preferred locations? not necessarily….BUT definitely not impossible.
And finally,pharmacy’s changing! And hopefully, for the better.
In some states, the pharmacist’s role has evolved to include the opportunity to prescribe medications , adjust and monitor drug therapy, perform patient assessments. and in certain states, pharmacists can actually prescribe a small number of medications like birth, control, naloxone, tobacco cessation products, preventative HIV medications, and travel medicine.
For example, in Flordia, House Bill 389 expanded the pharmacy practice to include drug therapy services with collaborative pharamcay practice agreements in place. This means that pharmacists can initiate, modify, or discontinue drug thereapy for conditions such as arthiritis, asthma, COPD, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
As of October 2020, there were 40 pending pieces of legislation pertaining to the provider status and the level of integration pharmacists should experience in the field.
Pharmacy has definitely changed over the past few years, and continues to evolve with our changing healthcare landscape.
If you have a passion for pharmacy and want to be a medication expert in the healthcare setting, then I say pharmacy may be an excellent career path that can bring a sense of fulfillment.
Feel free to reach out with any questions at sibinRx@gmail.com
Twitter: sibinRx