Does Pharmacy Experience Help??

pagandeva2000, LPN · Jul 18, 2008

I think it would be great to have, because you will certainly have a heads up on the classification of drugs, reconstitution and dosage calculations. Good luck!

Keepstanding, ASN, RN · Jul 18, 2008

What Pagan said....I think the pharmacological aspect of it would be a plus. Good luck :)

joshindfw · Jul 18, 2008

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I am not an expert at math, but I can learn. I did just finish learning the formulas and iv flow rates and stuff like that. It did take me a while to get a grasp on it, 1. I am self studying for the pharmacy exam, and 2. I work all the time and can only study maybe an hour a day. I would like to start going to college in this coming up year and get my basics/prerequisites out of the way, and then go to nursing school. I thought about going to school for an lpn/lvn, but with the way my work is now, i might as well just stick it out in school and just go for the RN license. I just dont want to overwhelm myself too much. Thats why I come here to you all. :)

ilstu99 · Jul 18, 2008

I think that would be a GREAT idea! One of the areas a lot of RN's I know struggle with is pharm. Any experience would be helpful. Getting paid to get that experience would be a total bonus.

Good luck!

SweetTeaRN, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2008

Do you already work in a pharmacy? If not, are you planning on working in a retail or inpatient pharmacy? I worked for a year as a pharmacy tech in a retail pharmacy while in RN school. It did help some. I think mostly, it helped with me memorizing the generic name that matched up with the brand name of common drugs (our pharmacy was organized by brand name, so you would have to know that on a generic bottle of warfarin, for example, that it would get stocked with the "C's" for Coumadin.) I spent most of my time stocking, doing customer service, etc. Somewhat, it also helped with knowing how (and what) gets reconstituted and also with drug classes and a little bit with side effects and interactions. However, I ended up quitting the pharmacy (I was paid horribly) before I took the national certification exam. I began working as an ED Tech where I did my clinicals for school. I got paid more, and I thought what I learned there was much more valuable. With that said, there is a fellow new grad RN where I work who worked in the inpatient pharmacy there as a tech for 7 years before being a nurse. She knows much of the hospital staff, knew the Pyxis system in and out, knew a lot more about the drugs than I did. If you are going to work as a pharm tech, I suggest you try working in a hospital setting. (Oh, also, she got paid way more than I did in the pharmacy, and got a higher RN starting salary than I did as a new grad). Good luck to you!

iteachob, MSN, RN · Jul 19, 2008

I can answer this quickly.......yes, it would be a great advantage.

kstec, LPN · Jul 19, 2008

I worked in a hospital pharmacy for 14 years as a pharmacy technician and it helped me emensely (sp). I actually tutored in LPN school for the critical care drips and calculations. In pharmacy you learn dosing, what PPN's, and TPN's are made up of, you learn the norms of rates, the norms of doses, what the drugs are used for, you learn NICU and PICU calculations and how to dose per kg, appropriate routes of administration per patient and so much more. In the LPN program, the pharmacy part was the easiest part, it was the whole body thing that got me. I'm doing good now in that area. At work if someone wants to know the name brand or generic of something, I'm the one they ask. If they need to know a category of a drug, they ask me. If I have critical thinking questions about an assessment, I'm asking the more experienced nurses for help in that area. I learn something new everyday. I don't think that you get enough pharmacology in the LPN program, but maybe in the RN you get more. I did ask if they could increase the amount of time re: pharmacology, considering a mass majority of errors in hospitals are med errors. All I know is that they increased the RN time, but not the LPN time. Also, if the pharmacy knows your going to school for nursing they will help mentor and they have tons of resources, not just with medications but patho too.

RXtech · Jul 19, 2008

I agree with SweetTeaRn - hospital pharmacy will give you a lot more useful experience than retail. Hospital tech jobs are harder to come by, though.

I'm working on an ADN right now, and the pharmacology comes pretty easy to me, but a lot of the people I'm in class with are working as nurse techs and they are getting a lot more practical experience as far as nursing goes. I have absolutely zero patient care experience from working pharmacy. I have thought about taking a CNA class and switching jobs just for the experience, but it would be a pay cut and I can't really afford to do that.

Good luck to you!

joshindfw · Jul 21, 2008

Yes, I actually plan on getting iv certified, and certified in compounding, and work in a hospital setting. I would rather prefer to work in the hospital than a retail pharmacy, I have worked mail order pharmacy, but you do not get much experience in anything other than pressing correct buttons on computer. But it is a slow process but it will be worth it all in the end. Thank you all for your support. Right now I am trying to catch up on my math skills, not my strongest point, but i will get there. You all have a good monday!

Joshua.

joshindfw · Jul 21, 2008

Another thing that I wanted to add is that, I currently work for Allstate insurance, at a corporate office, and i personally dont want to be here for the fact it isnt any where close to the field that I want to go into, the only problem I am facing is that I know if i stay here they are flexible with hours and could let me go to school and work around my shift, but I dont know what I should do. Stay here go to school, or find another job and chance that they might let me work around school schedule, i do have untill january to make up my mind, but I just know that to get into nursing school and to get hired on in the medical profession, a person needs experience and I am not getting that here. Taking in regard I am studying for the Pharmacy exam and all that. I just dont know, any ideas on that?