Why I Want To Be A Pharmacist

Lately as I lie in bed unable to sleep I plot in my head what pharmacy school interviews will be like. I am not attempting to be cocky in that I'll get there, but it's something I like to think about at night. One of the questions I hear so often from other students whom have gone for the process is the question of why you want to be in pharmacy. There's the recurring answer of "I want to help people" and "I want to make money!" (ok, they don't actually say that, but that's their goal).

You want to know what my answer will be? Because someone needs to finally step in and bring some stability to the senselessness that is the field of pharmacy. Reading a post by the TAestP, found here, reaffirms my belief. Many are shocked when I say I'm getting a business degree prior to applying to pharmacy school. Often I ask why I am not getting a biology or chemistry degree which would more effectively relate to pharmacy. And in truth I am quite close to both a chemistry and biology degree from all the electives I have taken, but I have stuck with the business degree for one simple purpose. No one in the industry has any business sense.

I don't mean this in a derogatory way, but the industry is being drove directly into a giant pile of shit. In TAestP's post, he describes a pharmacy's new 'Free Antibiotic" prescription plan. At my place of employment the hours of the technicians are cut consistently and while the pharmacist is expected to do more. The schools push MTMs left and right, yet upper management does not allot the time for such a beneficial, and profitable, endeavor.

And really it makes no fucking sense. Why give out free medication? That completely devalues the product you are trying to sell. It tells the consumer that this is a cheap good, one which should be taken for granted. Is that really the impression we want to give the public? That we're nothing more than a convenience store for their medication? Sure you move more product and get more consumers in the door, but at what cost?

On top of that pharmacists are being forced to do far more than they should have to. You want your pharmacists to do proper consulting and conduct MTMs? Well schedule some extra help for christs sake! I mean honestly, you have to spend money at times to make money. Sure, you may have increased tech hours by 20 hours a week one store, but how much more money are you going to make off of MTMs? How many more loyal patients are you going to be getting because the pharmacist was able to relate to them?

Pharmacy is a health care service. So often this is forgotten with upper management. As I tell new co-workers when I'm training them, you have to take this job seriously. It's not stocking shelves at Wal-Mart, you make a mistake and you can kill a person. There's really no other way to get around it.

I want to go to pharmacy school because I do want to help people and I do find it interesting as all hell how the body reacts to various effectors. I also want to go into a pharmacy to help remedy the mistakes made on the business side of the field. I am not insinuating that I will solve problems industry wide, but I want to start bringing respect and dignity back to the profession. If that is only within the small chain I plan to own some day, so be it. It;s time someone's had the balls to say no more bullshit.

This has to stop, sooner rather than later. I want to be a pharmacist to better the lives of the patients and to better the lives of my colleagues. Is that really so much to ask?