Pharmacy School: Thoughts on entering the final stretch

Graduates of the pharmacy classes of 2021 recently received their results for their pharmacist licensing examinations. Congratulations to everyone who passed their exams and are now licensed pharmacists! While I have seen the celebration posts and am extremely happy for my upper year colleagues, it quickly dawned on me that one year from now, it will be my turn. Three years ago, I entered this profession with only a few months' experience in community pharmacy and very little understanding about the profession. At that time, the thought of graduating and becoming a licensed pharmacist seemed so far away. Now with that reality coming closer, I am realizing how fast these past three years flew by. Over these first few years I have learned a lot about both the pharmacy profession and myself, gotten involved with the pharmacy community through extracurriculars, and worked part time in community pharmacies. I have made great friends and had amazing experiences that I will cherish after graduation as memories. Although pharmacy school has been a positive experience for me, there are a couple of realistic lessons that I have learned over the years. Extra effort is always worth it, for its own sake Coming into the profession, I knew about the saturation in the job market and that making connections was very important. So I took on a lot of extracurricular and work opportunities while in school in the hopes that I would be well connected to find a job in the future. While connections are important and helpful in finding jobs, I have learned that my extracurricular involvement may not guarantee me a job in the future. My connections with the community pharmacies I work at may not guarantee me a job if nobody I know is looking for a pharmacist after I become licensed. Sometimes you don’t get the return on the investments that you are looking for. Nothing is guaranteed in life. Although my enthusiastic involvement in pharmacy may not guarantee employment in the future, I learned a lot through these experiences, met a lot of people and made some happy memories; all of which have been well worth the effort. From working in pharmacies, I have seen the struggles that pharmacists face on a daily basis: increased workload, wage freezes, budget cuts, unpaid overtime work, liability, no union, and lack of advocacy to name a few. These are things that they don’t really teach in school. Having worked a lot during the previous online school year, there were days in the pharmacy where I would feel exhausted and stressed out, and questioned whether I made the right choice going into pharmacy. Reality is the best teacher Sometimes I wonder if things would have been better if I had chosen a different career path. Throughout school, I've had the chance to interact with people in different professions and I learned that every profession its their own challenges. Switching from pharmacy to another field may not guarantee a better life. It's difficult to understand what it's like to be in a profession without experiencing it yourself; there are many people outside of pharmacy who think that being a pharmacist is a stress-free job that involves merely counting pills all day. Despite the challenges of pharmacy, I have found it to be rewarding at times (although this is not a thought that comes to mind when I am being yelled at by a patient in the dispensary). Being able to provide support to people in the community, answer questions they may have about medications and help vaccinate people has been meaningful. Working in a pharmacy during a lockdown has also allowed me to interact with real people and to connect with others in a time of social isolation. Looking forward to my final year in pharmacy school, my goal is to experience and learn as much as I can about the pharmacy profession—what interests me and what does not. Through my placements, I have gained exposure to non-community pharmacy fields such as hospital and government and been able to learn from different preceptors and people in pharmacy. Next year, when it's my turn to graduate and get licensed, I will look to the future with an open mind, ready for any kind of reality that awaits me on the other side. As the saying goes: hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Read Andrew's earlier blog, Life after pharmacy school, a new normal

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