If I were a betting man, I'd wager good money that if you ask almost anyone in America what they know about pharmacists, one of the first things out of their mouths is that pharmacists make great money. I'll even go as far to say that a large majority of pharmacy students (if they're being honest) will say that this is a motivating factor in choosing to be a pharmacist. Heck, I know this was a motivating factor for me. However, while I do make good money being a pharmacist, this fact alone wouldn't be nearly enough to keep me in the profession. One thing that many people forget is that education is not free. In fact, a pharmacy degree is up there in cost with law and medical school. Additionally, most pharmacy students do not come from wealthy families that can pay for their entire education. So, factoring in undergraduate studies for 3-4 years and 4 years of pharmacy school, most students come out of pharmacy school anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000 in debt. Think about that for a second. You could realistically buy a new starter home (especially in this market) for that much. Pharmacists start out in their careers up to their eye balls in student loan debt. So while the salary looks good from the outside, when you factor in the amount of debt incurred while learning to "slap a label on a box" (actual quote from a customer in my retail days) pharmacists aren't raking in the dough. This is another reason why I think pharmacists should qualify for the National Health Service Corps, but that's another blog all together. In addition, the salaries aren't increasing at the rate they were when I came out of school. Due to the number of pharmacy schools that have opened up in the past 5-10 years "in order to meet the demand for pharmacists", as a profession, we've graduated so many pharmacists, the demand has decreased. For example, when I started pharmacy school, there were 83 pharmacy schools in the country. Now there are something like 120-130 pharmacy schools. So there's been a 50% increase in the numbers of pharmacists available for hire. This has made finding a job post pharmacy school difficult for many graduates. I'm not saying there aren't jobs to be found, there are, but the days of writing your own ticket to where and when you want to work are over, as are sign-on bonuses. Most other professions don't really have any of these things either, so maybe this isn't a bad thing? I think it probably is, but that's just me.
Also, consider the hours most pharmacists work. If one is working in a community pharmacy ("retail"), you can expect 10-14 hour days, usually with no lunch (or dinner) breaks and people complaining when, heaven forbid, you actually need to use the bathroom and their prescription takes 3 minutes longer than you promised. Most of the time, pharmacists are salaried, so there isn't any overtime pay. You may get a break or shorter hours working in a hospital or clinic or if you are a clinical pharmacist. But those jobs generally pay less than retail. The vast majority of pharmacy school graduates go into retail, even though their pharmacy curricula frequently tout all the clinical and advanced work pharmacists can do (yet another issue for a future blog). And here's another BIG issue I have, especially as a clinical pharmacist: why is it that I did 2 extra years of specialized training and still make less than my wife who's a retail pharmacist? I'm not jealous or blaming anyone. I just think the amount of specialized knowledge I have should be worth something. What's probably even worse than that, is the irony that most pharmacy school professors get paid MUCH less than their students do the minute the students graduate. Again, a large disconnect. But all this explanation was just to illustrate the fact that while pharmacists are payed well, they are by no means rich.
A more "appropriate" answer to the original question, albeit less truthful, is that I was good at chemistry, biology, science, etc. Which I was, but I could have gone into any other medical field, right? But I figured to be a psychiatrist (which was something I considered doing), I'd be in school forever and I didn't want to be 32 and just finishing my training. So that led me down the path of pharmacy. In addition, I had gotten a job at a local pharmacy and really enjoyed hearing the pharmacist answer all my incessant questions about how this drug or that drug works. I was intrigued and this is a big reason why I ended up in pharmacy: I wanted to learn all that cool information about the medications. I also had a great role model in my grandfather who was a pharmacist. When I was a kid I remember visiting him at work and seeing how happy he was. I never remember him talking bad about his job and he genuinely seemed to enjoy going to work. I really looked up to him and still do, even though he isn't practicing any more. I remember asking him once, how does Tylenol know where you hurt? I guess that should have been an early indication of my selected profession.
So to sum up: I got into pharmacy because I was interested in learning more about medications and I really thought I could be happy doing it (i.e. make money). But, while that got me into pharmacy, I don't think it would have been enough by itself to get me through pharmacy school. What I found out when I got into pharmacy school and I started to actually counsel patients on their medications was that I really enjoyed being able to use my knowledge and talk to people. So I did as much counseling and teaching as I could while in school, but I still thought there had to be something more. Then one day when I was sitting in class, we had a lecture on eating disorders. The professor introduced herself as a psychiatric pharmacist. Immediately I was interested. I had taken a lot of psych classes in high school and I really enjoyed it. Figuring out that I could do both pharmacy and psych together was a dream come true. I went up to her after class, introduced myself awkwardly, and proceeded to grill her about how she got to where she was. She suggested I come to talk with her in her office at a later date. I think I may have scared her a little. Once I found out more about what she did and how she got her training I was hooked. I really felt like I had found what I wanted to do. So from that point forward, I knew what path my career was going to be. Everything I did in pharmacy school from then on was aimed at becoming a psych pharmacist. I took my mentor's advice and got a second job at a hospital to get more experience than just retail. I took on extra projects, wrote a review article, tried to get as many clinical rotations during my last year in pharmacy school (which didn't really work out too well, although I did have a great psych rotation), and researched my options for residency training. I'm sure I made everyone crazy with my preparations and especially my mentor by hounding her for her letter of recommendation. I ended up getting an amazing residency and meeting some great people in Charleston, SC. During this training, my passion for psych pharmacy increased and I knew I had found my niche.
So without finding psych pharmacy I don't think I'd be as happy as I am. Now I enjoy going to work, helping the patients, teaching students, and doing my research. So all of that helps keep me doing pharmacy. Hence why my answer is complex. I got into pharmacy for different reasons than I stay in pharmacy, but I'm glad I chose what I did for a career. And I think that's what really keeps me happy: I know I'm making a difference and I'm proud and happy to be called a psychiatric pharmacist.
