If you know kids interested, here is more information---https://pharmacy.rutgers.edu/info-for/information-sessions/
OT: Rutgers School of Pharmacy Days
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Not in Ocean County . I swear there are more pharmacies than Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, and Wawas combined. lol Of course, the average age of residents is 107 so that may have a little to do with it.
Opportunity for employment is disappearing. Retail Companies merge or fail (Rite Aid) under crushing debt as Amazon and the internet take hold of the profession, and those without a clinical background have become dinosaurs and unemployable.
The gross over correction for the pharmacist shortage in the early 2000's has allowed the number of pharmacy schools to multiply unchecked, leading to a glut of licenses, and accounting for more than 20 percent of graduates to not find full time employment in many parts of the country...yes NJ is on that list.
Add to that the exorbitant tuition (many students I know leave school more than 250k in debt)and it doesnt make the now drastically declining salary and high pressure work environment worth it in my opinion.
The gross over correction for the pharmacist shortage in the early 2000's has allowed the number of pharmacy schools to multiply unchecked, leading to a glut of licenses, and accounting for more than 20 percent of graduates to not find full time employment in many parts of the country...yes NJ is on that list.
Add to that the exorbitant tuition (many students I know leave school more than 250k in debt)and it doesnt make the now drastically declining salary and high pressure work environment worth it in my opinion.
I was in my third year in Newark and moved with the program to Piscataway in 71-72
I was in the second graduating class there
The building was expanded and the courses taught now are way more specialized and prepares students to go off in other directions if necessary
I think we only had about 100 graduate at that time, which was near capacity
I was in the second graduating class there
The building was expanded and the courses taught now are way more specialized and prepares students to go off in other directions if necessary
I think we only had about 100 graduate at that time, which was near capacity
I actually worked at Merck Medco for several years in Parsippany until they closed the facility down (not as a Pharmacist). I thought the idea of ordering medicines through the mail was kind of strange and once I started working there I came to the conclusion it is a horrible idea. If anyone ever saw the “pharmacists” who were employed there, they wouldn’t buy foot cream by mail. They were about as professional as your average carnival worker. I think they all went to the Acme Pharmacy School. I never once purchased any med through the mail and still haven’t to this day. I can’t tell you how many things can go wrong with the process and that isn’t even including the actual production. Endless times, customers being told their med was already in the mail when in fact it wasn’t even at the end of processing and meds being switched from brand name to a generic or an alternate even though the Doctor wrote DAW on the prescription (Dispense as written). I can’t tell you how many times I had people on the phone crying or threats to kill me, blow up the building,etc.With some health plans there are huge cost differences between retail and mail but if you can afford retail I would stick with that. The place was so bad that when they gathered everyone into the company cafeteria and somebody from corporate headquarters announced to us the place was closing down, people clapped. I was never so happy to be unemployed in my life.
I have a good friend who was an inspector in the field, now an office worker for the board of pharmacy
I occasionally ask him are there more openings versus closing when it comes to independent stores....
much of the time, to my surprise he will say that there are more openings than closing, or it is a push..... there was a period of time when the number of closings would make it look like the independent was going extinct, not so much right now.
I know two pharmacists who lost their retail jobs and worked mail order..... neither lasted very long.... one was a woman who I trained.....I had always stressed to check and double check the product before finishing that prescription
she tried to be that thorough as an assembly line
mail order pharmacist......even though the mail order operation was not supposed to have a hourly quota, they harassed her till she had to quit.....
I personally could save quite a bit of money by mail ordering, but I prefer to go to my old store
I have no doubt your post rings true also
Do you think this has anything to do with medical marijuana / a alternative treatments like CBD?
I only worked retail as a RPh in my 5th-6th years, when I got my license in November of my 5th year. Not sure if this has changed or not, but I worked as a per diem/floating pharmacist at CV-Stress, and boy did I get my ass kicked at times. Not surprising having graduated from RU, I went into industry after completing my PharmD, and I still think pharmacy is an excellent degree given the flexibility one can have with it. When I was in pharmacy school, there were maybe 50-80 schools I think, most at state Us...and over the years I've heard so many more schools have opened pharmacy schools, but haven't stayed close to the retail/hospital (non-clinical) sectors to know if the pendulum swung too far the other way...
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