Pharmacists and Future

What i am about to say, maybe harsh and it is just a thought. I am throwing this out to open up conversation and get others opinion. I didn’t like what happened, but I think some responsibility should lie within our profession. I think we should all blame ourselves.

We have been terrible stewards of our profession. We have allowed academia to run wild. All of us felt they had some obligation to take in students. We have all enjoyed passing some work on to students, to lessen our work load.

But now we should all step up and become good stewards of our profession. We should hold academia responsible. Using the US News ranking list of pharmacy schools, any school not in the top 50 should not be allowed to have students in residency’s. This would force the top students into the top schools to ensure they get the best jobs. This would put pressure on the other schools to step up their programs. Also any school not in the top 90 or maybe the top 75 if needed would not be allowed to put students in intern programs.

If schools cannot place students in internships then they would loose their accreditation. If they loose their accreditation then their students couldn’t take the nabplex exam. If they can’t take the nabplex then they can’t get licensed. Students then would avoid those schools and the schools couldn’t afford to stay open. Essentially causing them to wither on the vine.

Also if any school doesn’t require a pcat exam then we shouldn’t take their students. Schools that don’t vet their students should have internships refused. This would also have the same effect, causing them to wither on the vine.

State Boards of Pharmacy and nabplex should raise their standards. On the first pass 20% should fail. Then 10% of graduates should never pass the board. This would put more pressure on pharmacy schools. The pcat should be made more difficult essentially vetting and prescreening students before they get in. This would make sure only good students get in school and that they would be able to pass the new more complicated nabplex exam.

Also a new doctorate program should be started. It would be a PhD only program. Just as the Pharmd made the BS obsolete, the Pharmd would become obsolete. It would require students to have a BS before entering a pharmacy school. If you have a doctorate then you should have a BS first. This would cause a 2 year hiatus on graduates, thus easing the pharmacist over staffing problems. All students would also have to be a Physicians Assistant before graduating. They would either get a PA at the pharmacy school or before entering. We have all wanted Prescriber status now all future pharmacist would have it. All graduates would now have multiple options for employment making it easier to get jobs. This would also help ease the over staffing problem.

This seems harsh, but now is the time for harsh measures or more pharmacist will be displaced. It is meant to get others opinions and open up thinking and conversation.

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15 replies (most recent on top)

Most of these responses are ignorant, lack compassion and have nothing but subjective assumptions as their attempt at a rebuttal. Pharmacists who are being treated poorly at CVS, you can find a way out- if you truly want out. As for everybody making ignorant comments acting like a pharmacist degree is as easy as completing your quarterly LP quiz - go troll somebody else’s feed. And in that light, if you happen to be a pharmacist making those comments, you clearly are just trying to get a reaction.

Every single person who has and currently does work for this horrible company knows they could be treated better, the question is when are you going to stop pointing the finger and start facing reality. If you are miserable, start planning your exit route. Things aren’t changing any time soon with CVS. And to the douchebags who want to frame pharmacists as crying babies, walk a 10th of a mile in their shoes, or be prepared to admit you just happen to be somebody hear the complaints but never knew what it was like to be in their shoes. And if you actually are a pharmacist who worked in CVS retail and are saying these things, you need to get some therapy because I’m pretty sure you are holding onto some things of the past.

Not a pharmacist hater. I am just tired of watching pharmacists cry and get their way and do whatever they want because they think they are SPECIAL. you started this talk. I have been through 40 pharmacists in my 30 years and one or two were not like this but most are. They think they deserve better treatment because they have a pharmd. Well you are all finding out now how the rest of us have been treated. We are numbers. Nothing more. If they can find a cheaper one they will gladly replace you. In fact that's their goal. I for one am looking forward to all of the SPECIAL PEOPLE going away. Its about damn time If you clean a toilet good for you as if your butt sits on it then you should clean it. Keep thinking that you are special but you are just like the rest of us. Expendable.

And to any pharmacist who feels their work is so clinically important that FS doesn’t matter— personally, I don’t care what you think. You obviously aren’t a very good clinician if you cannot have empathy or compassion for your ENTIRE store team. I don’t need to worry about Health Hubs. I did a residency and CHOSE to go back to retail because I don’t hate everyone like the people posting on here seem to. The day passes fast, pay is good, and the work is easy. With my experience and residency I’ll probably be pretty well set to handle a health hub given I ran 4 clinics in residency. Sorry I’m not sorry ;)

AGAIN to the pharmacist hater— sorry for your experiences over the last 30 years. Again, please do not generalize. I find it perfectly suitable to be good at all things at all times. No industry, job, or profession stays the same forever. If I can clean my toilet at my home so I can piss in peace, I will gladly do it where I work too so as to not end up with some sort of infestation from an ungodly mess of a ‘bathroom.’

You will still clean the bathrooms, remember you will survive if you are cross trained.

If FS does go away, then the bathrooms won’t magically clean themselves. RX will have to pick up some duties that are beneath them so careful what you wish for.

I’m a pharmacist, and I send everyone paying for fs items to the front. I send every fs question to the front, I don’t feel the need to help front store because it takes away from important work. When we all become health hubs, what is FS?

I have never seen a pharmacist clean a toilet in 30 years. And why in the f— would a pharmacist do front store damages?? That is a lie from hell !!

I wrote the post about the negativity toward pharmacists. In response to the last comment... Again, I will state that your generalization is NOT TRUE. I don’t think I’m one bit ‘special.’ I can’t be the only pharmacist in the country who sees reality. Personally, I pretty much regret daily that I ever wasted my time and money to go to school for such a thankless, mindless job. You cannot say every pharmacist is some certain ‘way.’ Frankly, I enjoyed waitressing much more than this profession. If you work with terrible pharmacists, don’t take that aggression out on a forum where some pharmacists participate because they are truly worried about their ENTIRE store. I am not above anybody and my actions at work reflect that and always have (even in the days of prosperity). I have been put on final job warning for refusing (multiple times) to fire good colleagues over bogus reasons. I do truck. I ring register (all day every day). I’ve relieved front store employees. I help with FS damages and outdates. I haul trash. I have cleaned bathrooms and fixed toilets. Who are you to categorize all pharmacists as entitled brats???

Because for years pharmacists have treated everyone else like second class citizens. Get over yourself. It's about time you have discovered that YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. YOU ARE A NUMBER JUST LIKE THE REST OF US!!

Why does every person on this forum seem to have a problem with pharmacists? It is beyond annoying. We are not ALL spoiled brats! And believe it or not, what the OP said is correct. If you have a mo–n of a pharmacist or PM in your store, it’s likely because they in fact ARE an entitled id–t. Very likely, they got accepted into a sh– school and barely passed. I can only speak for myself, but I graduated with a 4.0 GPA. I did attend a top notch school. I was also accepted into medical school and veterinary school. I picked Pharmacy because I could not afford the tuition (get enough loans) for the other schools. So please stop judging everyone! My whole family is blue collar workers and I respect them immensely, as I do my FS staff! I love my FS and do everything I can to help them sell sell sell! Even running to the cooler to get folks in drive thru a bottle of water. CVS is broken because everyone from the bottom up can’t look in the mirror and face what is going on! This is not just a CVS problem. Corporations are gutting and cutting everywhere! Blaming one another and seeing no value in your colleagues is not going to promote any type of environment that leads to advocacy or protection of our pay and benefits! If pharmacists best look out for ‘cheap’ new grads, then I guess store managers and shifts best look out for ‘cheap’ 18 year old high school graduates lying in wait to steal your job and make a fraction of what you do while they post on Facebook all day and trash what is left of already trashed stores!

Pharmacist school is for people that didn't get accepted to medical school.

It’s lose, not loose

Ok boomer

Get over it pharmacists. The days of you guys getting your way is over. No more crying and threarening to quit and the bosses giving you your way because they had no other choice. Now there are lots of choices. It's about time.

Thread regarding CVS layoffs

Pharmacists and Future

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