Is studying pharmacy worth it?

Question

Thinking of it this way - you're going to be studying something for 4+ years only to end up with a job which basically consists of handing pills to people behind a counter. That is, a job that any 16-year old school leaver could do.

Answer 1

online degree-

http://carerschools.com/

Answer 2

In the USA there are about 10,000 different medications that can be dispensed. A lot of them are fatal if given in the wrong dose. and there are many thousands of interactions between the different drugs that can cause fatal or very serious side effects that can disable or incapacitate the patient. Only a very ignorant person would believe that dealing with these complicated medications can be done by a drop out.

Pharmacists have about 3 to 4 times as much training as physicians when it comes to drugs, so they spend a lot of their time checking that the MDs have given proper prescriptions. Pretty routinely they catch MD mistakes. Every month new medications are coming on the market and things are getting more and more complicated. THat's why the length of training had to be lengthened from 3 years to four years, and why the standards for entry to pharm school were raised. You have to be pretty smart to remember and understand all this stuff.

Based on your view of pharmacy, it probably would be a pretty bad career choice for you. You don't seem like someone who is worth a average starting salary of $87,500.

Answer 3

No, assistants just hand pills to people. Pharmacists have to know what drugs can counteract with another, they have to learn a ton and they get paid really well. Any 16 year old is NOT going to get paid more than 9$ and hour... Research your interests and find something you want to do, that you are interested in that will give you the income you think you need to live off of.

Answer 4

Yes it definitely is.  First of all, there are many schools that offer 0-6 year programs for students right out of high school.  So if you went that route, it's only 2 extra years than a regular college, 1 of those years being rotations which you aren't in school taking classes anyway.  Pharmacists don't just count pills.  Like Anita said, they check for interactions, etc.  And CVS isn't the only place where a pharmacist can work.  They can work in a clinical setting, doing rounds with doctors to make treatment plans, do research, work for drug companies, and teach.   You aren't limited.  Plus they make alot of money

Answer 5

No, a 16 year old can not do that job.  It's very serious and people depend on the pharmacist to fill their prescriptions right and give them advice.  I know several pharmacists and they're rolling in money.  I think it's totally worth it, if you have the brains to remember all that stuff you study!

Answer 6

tsk! are you kidding me?! just get a pharmD degree out of pharmacy school and expect to make as much as 50/hr at a hospital! many times, you get even more.

Answer 7

Ok, apparently you have not had contacts with most sixteen year olds these days. lol.

Pharmacists are doctors. They don't hand out medications from behind a counter. They manage pharmacies, they make sure that people are taking the right medications, like maybe someone you know is on ten or twenty diff. meds. and the physician who writes the script doesnt know what interacts with what. This person could be your grandma, and could have a serious medical complication due to drug interactions. The pharmacist that went to med school, is trained to find this problem and correct it. Hence probably saving a life. In addition to contributing to the medical field, pharmacists make lots of money.

Besides what do you have against them anyway?