Hello, I'm a licensed intern pharmacist in CA looking to do the 1500 hours. I need your help. I talked to a couple of pharmacies, but I haven't heard back. I'm located in San Bernardino area. Is it to hard to find a position even as a volunteer? I haven't found a single employer who is willing to hire me even for free.

Hey there, I’m a student pharmacist in BC Canada, almost done my second year. My goal is to own my own pharmacy or multiple pharmacies. I want to start preparing now so that I can get into it as soon as I graduate. Consider this as me starting from the complete bottom and working my way up.

What resources can I use, who should I connect with/talk to, any courses i should take or books I should read about managing a business or pharmacy etc etc. As well as what can I expect running a pharmacy (how much I can make, factors I need to consider etc)

Basically everything I need to know/learn to be successful quickly. I want to prepare and do all that I can for when I graduate and take on the challenge.

Any help is greatly appreciated :)

Currently work as a pharmacy technician and I love the billing and insurance side of it and I’m good at it. I’ve taken over the Prior Authorization requests and I was wondering if anybody knew of a job position that I could just do those things?

Is penn medicine outpatient specialty a good place to work at? I didn't want to do retail anymore, but the job let's me do MTM atleast on the paper. What's anyone's experience there?

After seeing that the CDC STI, PrEP, PEP, and contraception guidelines were taken down, I used the Wayback Machine to pull up the guidelines and download the available PDFs to store on a flash drive. Are there any other guidelines or resources you would recommend saving for the future that may be in danger of being taken down?

I'm currently in post secondary and I'm just a part-time pharmacy assistant and work roughly 20 hours a month. In those 20 hours of the month I'm working, I say about 15 of those hours I'm pulling out my hair by the handfuls with the amount of circus acts patients are bringing in. Like seriously you're yelling at me over the phone because you have zero refills left on a script from an MD who is notorious for not doing refills with faxes from pharmacys. The amount of demands and rudeness from patients is starting to get out of hand, I had a patient about a month ago ask me to personally pay for her meds (she only wanted eliquis when apixaban would be A, covered by MSP (its universal health insurance in BC Canada) B covered by her extended health coverage.) Don't think my jaw has dropped faster in my life.

Hi there,

I'm a newly qualified pharmacist working in community (5 months) and I am finding that I am having recurring thoughts about situations I have dealt with in work. I am worrying a lot more lately about things that have happened in the past (could even be months ago) and I am worried that I have made a mistake somewhere or have potentially misdiagnosed someone for example and I can't even put my finger on why I feel like this, and I know there's nothing I can do to change those situations but I still can't help feeling like this. Is this common, have other people felt like this? Thanks

Hello all!

I've been a PRN floater pharmacist with Walgreens for about 2 months and I was working full-time hours since I was hired. As of now I'm only scheduled for 2 shifts for the next 4 weeks as they have started to cut hours. I don't know if they'll add more shifts to my schedule later on or if my upcoming schedule for March will be just as vacant.

I've been talking with my other fellow pharmacists about this and some suggested about looking for a second job. The only problem is I'm still new to the company and only have 2 months of experience as a pharmacist so I wasn't sure if that would be a red flag to other employers. I don't plan to leave Walgreens as they said they would offer me a PT or FT position if one opens up.

I'm thinking about waiting this month and see if I get any more hours for March and if not I'm considering of job searching.

Well it happened again another employer failed to train a pharmacist I know properly and fired them along with input from Residency trained staff Pharmacists.

So I did it. No more need for 1 cent of tax payer money to go towards PGY1 training from Medicare. With 140 schools of Pharmacy, Thankfully Two have closed recently the education can be done in school and " training" can happen through the employers at full Pharmacist pay.

If Pharmacists want to take Pharmacy Residencies at crazy low salaries then fine but that can be done privately not with taxpayer money

So I sent off an email to the Department of Governmental Efficiency. DOGE asking Musk and cohorts to look at putting funding for pharmacy Residency under the microscope. If you feel the same then send DOGE an email.

The way Pharmacy has gone PBMs over expansion of Pharmacy Schools my job market has turned to dust and I now need every cent of my Social Security and Medicare that I can get. I don't need that spent on pharmacists who turn around and disrespect older colleagues like me. Us "older" people have done a lot to keep Pharmacy going through the years. Pharmacy as a Profession was in the crossroads back in the 90's ... Thank you for listening to my roar... this bear got poked way too many times.

Currently our pharmacy doesn’t have anything to do with storing, ordering and dispensing anesthesia gas. The new company who is buying us wants pharmacy to manage anesthesia gases.

Does anyone who works in inpatient pharmacy and currently manage anesthesia gases have any information on how that is done?

Just curious, if anyone knows.
I noticed that some pharmacies have the B in their DEA as in BX0000001, most are F. I understand the basic difference is hospital/clinic vs distributor but why do these pharmacies have different classes? Is it just that they (B) have been around longer (like physically older pharmacies?) I noticed that chain doesn't necessarily matter, it is usually mixed between the two with retail pharmacies.
Note: I even have seen A for a pharmacy in my area recently.

Has anyone on here done a work from home pharmacist MTM job with Centene? Curious about feedback in terms of workload, metrics and goals. Anyone experience layoffs or being let go unexpectedly?

As a Pharmacist or Pharmacy owner, IF there's an Excel template tool that helps you better manage your store operations and improve financial position, what key areas you would like this Excel template to cover?

- Inventory Tracker?

- Stock ordering / procurement tracking tool?

- Dashboard for key metrics, eg Product performance tracker; Revenue, Gross Profit by category (ie by Over-the-counter; PBM; or other levels of categories; Store visits by customers?

- Any other key areas you would like to include?

PS have you been wishing such an Excel tool exists, that perhaps can easily link / port your transaction data into the Excel template. You then just click refresh button, the file would do the rest for you, ie displaying Dashboard, tracking inventory, creating alerts for stocking ordering points etc etc......

OR pretty much you have already been managing above areas using your existing Software system, and not really in need such an Excel tool at all?

Keen to understand whether there's any pain points in the Pharmacy communities.

Thx

What’s the easiest way do get doctors office do get a PA done. I currently have 40 PAs waiting for approval. I have sent it via covermymeds, faxed to hard copy info over manually, and called and left voicemail with the info. I still can’t seem to get to doctors do get these PAs done. Any advise?

Does anybody ever wonder if gabapentin could cause or worsen diabetic gastroparesis? So many diabetics are on it for neuropathic pain. Gastroparesis occurs because the nerves that tell the stomach to empty are damaged. So, wouldn’t a drug that decreases nerve excitability make it worse??

Cross-posting apparently isn’t allowed here. But I thought this link posted by @VeryConcoiusWater on r/DataHoarder might be of some use if you’re in search of any data sets that were recently “disappeared” from the CDC website:

https://bsky.app/profile/altcdc.bsky.social/post/3lgqo35t7v224

All I can say is Godspeed to whoever these nerdy good people are.

I’ve been working in med comms for the past 5 years, trying to break into a true pharma role and it’s just gotten harder and harder. The 60+ hours a week are burning me out, actually considering another pharmacist role where even if the work hours are tough, at least I may get paid more.

I’ve been considering going retail, not really pulling the trigger on anything, but just wondering if anyone actually likes what they do. Clearly there are plenty of people who don’t on here, but I do miss patient care and did enjoy working as a tech and then an intern in a retail pharmacy. A hospital job would be ideal, but I know everyone has done a residency at this point, so wondering if retail would be a good move. Curious as to y’all’s thoughts. Cheers!

years ago, I made the decision to go to college after highschool, starting with college and then pharmacy school. Meanwhile, my younger brother entered the workforce directly, prioritizing saving for a home and avoiding student loans. Fast forward to today: I’m in my third year of working as a pharmacist, carrying a significant amount of student debt and still without a home, while my brother, now a manager at Panda Express, is making a higher salary and has recently bought his own house. Trust me I am happy for my little brother, but God damn why did I do this to myself.....

I work in a LTC pharmacy (service a mix of SNFs, ALFs, and AFHs) and we recently were inspected by the Board of Pharmacy. The Board recommended that we only take physician orders for 30 days if there is not express verbiage on the order indicating that they are good for a certain time frame. Previously we would take “orders” that didn’t state any qty, refills or time for 1 year. Ex. a hand written order from a provider that says increase amlodipine to 5 mg daily. Signed, dated. WE would previously enter that good for 1 year and now they’re saying 30 days…

This would be a huge shift for us and would impact our customers and probably piss off the providers we work with so I tried to find something in the rules/laws but can’t find anything. So I’m curious – what do you other LTC pharmacies do?

Edit: I should have specified - I’m talking about ALF non-POs. So like all those one off orders that prescribers write for facilities.

Anyone here a part time consultant for guardian pharmacy? I have an interview coming up in hope to supplement my income but was wondering if it was feasible with my current position. I have a few week days off a month to be able to do site Visits all day but was hoping to be able to do chart reviews from home. Would love input if you currently hold this position. The flexible hours seem to good to be true.

I am genuinely asking for advice on what to say to my director.

In about a couple months after a 4month long search, I’m finally leaving this hell hole of a place I work at. If I could I would have thrown in my 2weeks now but I wouldn’t be able to use my pto and wipe out my bank. I have planned vacation coming up and I’m trying to hold on till then. My plan is to come back and put in my notice.

We have a director and a manager under the director. I find the director a reasonable person and one with good values personally but I find the manager quite opposite…

She has been there for a long time so I can’t believe my director is completely oblivious to everything so I’m stuck on what to say in my quarterly 1 on 1 with him.

This is what I want to talk about.. My yearly evaluation I had with my manager was not a good one in September. She had MTS track my browsing history because “numerous individuals” have said I’m distracted from work. I was completely blindsided by this because my verification rate is in the top 3 among day shift pharmacists in the department. Also, I was able to go back and find out the time line she did this and I realized that my coworkers were acting oddly different during this time. To put it in context, I was working in our Satellite cancer center facility and we can narrow down our settings to the satellite and also have the main hospital pharmacy verification queue open. My coworkers were verifying main hospital orders like crazy! I would wonder why they were doing that while we had 120 chemo/infusion patients scheduled on average in our cancer center. For this our hospital has 1 person to handle the verification for the day which is a lot on its own. I found out later on that this was their way to say “I’m distracted from work and do not help out when I’m in satellite locations. “ Pull a report now and I can 100 % say that non of the pharmacists in the satellite locations verify main hospital orders.

I have not worked in our cancer center for almost a year now. I am now full time in the main hospital with IV room and OR satellite.

Workplace bullying is also another topic I want to discuss. This manager selects a few technicians and have these people snitch on other techs, specifically ones she wants to write up or target. These technicians are promised tech specialist roles in return for their hard work. When she collects enough reports from these techs she will have a meeting to discuss with the individual about their professional conduct. These technicians most recent one was they called in a tech to tell her she was a “bully” to other techs. Similar situation to what I experienced in mine.. Also side note, one of the “certain individuals” that said I was distracted from work is now the cancer center manager. No surprise there.

Among the many issues I faced, this is the main topic I want to discuss with my director.. I’m afraid if I don’t say anything my manager will beat me to it and I will be in a sit down with both him and her awaiting a write up on something I didn’t see coming. Ever since my meeting I have been in fear of this happening.. I’ll be that person in the office unable to defend my self.

While im glad I’m leaving, I wish a better workplace for my coworkers. I wish for change.. good ones. I’m not sure if this is worth bringing up. My reasoning is that I want to give my director a fair chance to rectify the situation so that I can say I brought up my concerns to my managers but it was not resolved.

The sad part is I don’t think I can make it to the end of next month because this is bothering me like crazy. I truly need advice.

I’m a pharmacy student just trying to get some more insight for what others prefer to use to treat nausea in patients that have a longer QTc. Thanks in advance!

Please use this thread as an open forum for all discussion. Almost anything goes.

Pharmacy related, non-pharmacy related, school, career, customers, bosses, anything at all!

I’m looking for some advice. I’ve been practicing retail since I graduated in 2014. I’m about to transition to hospital practice.

I’ve been working there per diem since April. But I know my knowledge is definitely lacking. I’ve asked others at the hospital what to study, but gotten vague answers.

Does anyone have specific advice on what to study? Or personal experience of what they’ve used to study from? I got a NAPLEX study guide, but don’t even know where to start.

Thanks in advance!

Is it possible to become an auditor as a technician? I feel like that might be an interesting career move with better upwards mobility, but I don't know much. All of the auditors I've encountered have been really chill and nice and I think it'd be fun to be another chill auditor and get to see how all of the different pharmacies operate.

I'm wondering if there's a pipeline, education requirements. Does the DEA do it? If so, do they do it exclusively? What are the hours like? Are there other technician jobs that offer similar mobility you might recommend instead? Edit: I'm in the PNW, so primarily looking at Oregon/WA

I’ve seen insulin glargine 150 units bid Is there a point where insulin just does NOT work??

I'm a pharmacist in primary care, and the constant back-and-forth over preferred glargine is getting frustrating. Today, a patient’s insurance rejected Lantus, Basaglar, Tresiba, Toujeo, and Semglee—only covering glargine-yfgn due to a formulary change.

I also moonlight in retail, so I understand why certain products aren’t interchangeable, but since they’re clinically equivalent, we just end up switching to whatever is covered anyway.

I’m thinking about having something like this auto-populated in all eRX for glargine:
"Dispense generic/brand/biosimilar equivalent to insulin glargine per insurance formulary and pharmacist's discretion."

Would this be enough for retail pharmacists to switch to the covered option without calling? Any potential issues that might arise? TIA!