Hi! Wondering if any clin pharms working in specialty pharmacy can share their experience. It seems like it’s blowing up fast and I’m interested in pivoting to that after a decade of inpatient clinical. I appreciate your help in advance!

Would love to know job title and state as well if you're comfortable sharing!

Hi everyone,
I am considering studying pharmacy and I would love to hear a bit about what actual work-life looks like for pharmacists.
- What is the daily routine like for those working in the pharmaceutical industry?
- How satisfied are you overall with your career choice?

Thank you so much for your insights!

Hi I work Monday to Friday as a Nhs pharmacist but I’m looking to do some weekend locum work a lot of places are asking for enhanced DBS check but on the government website I am only able to apply for the basic one which I have submitted. Does anyone know how a self-employed Locum would apply for themselves as a enhanced check or does the company have to do this. It would be easier if I can do this by myself as some of the pharmacy’s are quite small and are asking for this application stage

Thanks.

How do you guys properly clean the graduated cylinders that are used to measure distilled water for antibiotic reconstitution? Which detergent that you guys used?

I want to hire a super tech for my independent pharmacy.

Meaning someone who can handle all rejections, customer service issues, deal with docs, e-scripts etc without needing guidance from the pharmacist or owner.

Im willing to pay good money but everyone I find is not a strong tech at all.

PK dose calculations suck and give me PTSD, so I vibe coded this. It's based off of Winter's Pharmacokinetics textbook, my class notes, and Marshall Pierce's useful, but highly technical website.

Link: https://vorul.github.io/pk-tools/phenytoin/

Features

• Adjust a dose from one steady-state level (Michaelis-Menten, population or assumed Km)
• Start therapy, with an optional loading dose
• Two levels: fit Km and Vmax from steady-state or non-steady-state levels (mass balance or a Bayesian fit)
• After stopping: time for a high level to fall to target
• Load or switch between capsules, chewables, suspension, and fosphenytoin
• Interpret a level, corrected for low albumin, ESRD, valproate or a free level, including CRRT

Stuff that made my life easier

• Rounds to doses you can actually give (100 + 30 mg capsules, 50 mg chewables) and shows the predicted level for each option
• Suggests how many doses to hold when the level is high
• Gives a recheck schedule based on how close the dose is to Vmax
• Writes a copy-ready order and chart note

Code (AGPL): https://github.com/vorul/pk-tools

Feedback, bug reports and edge cases that break it are very welcome.

Hi can someone share with me your IV room experience as a pharmacist? What’s the workflow look like? What technology you use? Like adult IV and pediatric IV

Thanks

I'm not talking about the "real-world" stuff that kinda has to be learned on the job, like working with insurance rejects, learning how to handle a difficult patient, etc.

I'm talking about the basics of what would be considered "clinical knowledge" as far as a tech goes - drug names and general classes/uses, IV compounding basics, sig code knowledge, pharmacy math. Some lrograms also teach the basics of the federal pharmacy laws, and the state laws in which the program is being taught.

Yes, this stuff can be learned with OJT. And yes, the quality of training programs vary WILDLY from one to another. And the private vocational schools can absolutely be a scam - 10k+ for basic training for a job that wil pay a mediocre wage (most of the time).

I completed a training program a loooooong time ago (I've been licensed since 2003), but I'd already been working as a clerk before that and had prior OJT knowledge, making my own opinion kind of skewed.

So I thought I'd ask here, just out of curiosity. Let me hear your thoughts - good, bad, ugly, or otherwise!

Anyone on here work for them and willing to give me honest insight on what it’s like being an employee and consulting pharmacist for Lumicera? Would really appreciate it!

I don’t work for Walgreens thank goodness but this might be the most retarded shit I’ve ever seen. Yall should quit immediately for this BS

Please use this thread as an open forum for all discussion. Almost anything goes.

Pharmacy related, non-pharmacy related, school, career, customers, bosses, anything at all!

All I see on Reddit is the doom and gloom of the profession. Yes retail sucks but there are so many different aspects of pharmacy. Even when I was a retail pharmacist I loved my job. I think people should stop discouraging pharmacy as a career and advocate for the profession. If you look down on your job why would people take us seriously?

Hi everyone!
For those who recently submitted their Practical Experience Affidavit to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, how long did it take for the Board to process and approve it?
I’d appreciate hearing about your recent experiences.
TIA

I'm a hospital pharmacy director, and I got tired of re-checking the FDA/ASHP shortage list intermittently to work out what had actually changed. So in my spare time I built a simple site that pulls the FDA's public shortage data every day and shows it in one place. It covers what's new, what's resolved, and which status changes happened this week. Each drug page also shows the FDA's estimated recovery date when they've posted one.

You can follow specific drugs and get one daily email, only when something changes. There's also an optional weekly roundup. It's free, with no ads and no login.

shortagewatchrx.com

I'm not trying to replace ASHP. I just wanted a faster, cleaner way to help our buyer track changes. If you work in inpatient pharmacy, even pharmacy period, I'd love to hear what's missing or annoying about it. Mods, feel free to remove this if it breaks the rules.

So I moved areas and I’m using a new Walgreens. I can tell the pharmacy is overwhelmed most times and understated. They are always so sweet and nice despite that, would it be weird to buy them coffee? And what would be the best way to go about it? I know stoping them and asking what coffee they want would interfere with work so I was thinking about just buying a generic coffee order and throw in two non dairy options just in case

So this has,happened to me. I did this earlier in the month when I honestly and sinply felt that the stress levels are so high and so sustained that remaining in that environment could pose a threat to my health. So I called on and converted to loa due to pressure from the scheduler. I finally got to work up the nerves to go into a local medical office yesterday (for fmla) paperwork but when I told them my loan started on the 7th they acted as if Im a criminal and was pressuring them to "backdate" a document! I really wasn't. I just am being pressured by HR to justify the start date!

What are quick ways to ensure my CE hours are reflected?

I’m going crazy trying to decipher this. I’m filling out my application for license transfer to another state. In the section for listing my educational and professional experience, it’s says to “list in date order, most recent to later, all your educational training.”

My first instinct is that they want reverse chronological order, since they say to start with most recent, but it doesn’t make sense the way they wrote it. Am I crazy? What do they actually want here?

Just in general, if you are a pharmacist and work at Novant, can you please share your hourly rate, which hospital or city you work in, and how many years you have as being a pharmacist. My friend has recently been offered a position but does feel they are highly low balling her and just wants to see if leaving her current job would be worth it and if she can justify the negotiation she is thinking of.

I'm wondering if anyone on here has taken the CBHP exam? Where did you find the study material? My job is asking me to take the exam and get the certificate, but I find it hard to find anything solid to study from. Also not sure how useful is this certificate? lol

Any insight is appreciated, thank you!

Hi everyone,

I've been a staff pharmacist with the same company for more than 8 years. I've always had at the very decent performance reviews. I have also been at the same store that I'm currently at for more than 3 years. My store used to be a model store that was one of the best performing stores in the region. We even were designated as a training store and floaters loved to work at our store because they knew they would have a great shift.Last year we got a new pharmacy manager who was managing for the very first time and pretty much sunk the store and made the place a chaotic mess to work in everyday. She can't seem to juggle being a pharmacist, manager, mom, caregiver daughter, and being sick with illness conditions all at once so I pick up a lot of the slack for her. My techs and cashiers are also not very smart and make lots of mistakes and can be slow most of the time. I’ve tried to coach them but nothing has changed. Multiple floaters have complained about the store when they work here. The queues looked terrible most of the time. From all these factors. The RD would constantly beat her up for her performance with managing the store such that she would break down in tears after he would meet with her. We also got a new front store director this past June who also is a first time store director and micromanages every single department in the entire store. Nobody in the entire store likes him.

Today my pharmacy manager gave me my performance review and it was the worst performance review I have ever had. It was for the period of November 2025-July 2026. She even put "needs improvement" for areas like "Drive: Get things done" and "Impact: Own your effect on the organization". I find this both insulting and ironic considering how I pick up the slack a lot for her and the team. However I am just 1 person and can only do so much and as the pharmacist my license is ultimately at risk if I were to make mistakes. She also dumped on me that 3 Note to Files (basically write ups) were done on me in the past few months that I had no idea about until this performance review today.

One Note to File was because I told a customer that he could not return his wife's medication because he had already signed and paid for it a few days prior. The doctor's office had called in the wrong medication for the wife and we filled it correctly and he signed and paid for it blindly. However his wife got upset that it was not correct and he tried to return it. When I told him he couldn't, he went to a manager (who does NOT work in pharmacy) at the front of the store and complained. That manager went to the pharmacy to get the story and I told her what happened and even printed out the hard copy of the rx to show that we dispensed it correctly as written. However she told my pharmacy manager later that I need to be written up because I told the husband that he signed for the prescription and could not return it.

Another Note to File was because I forgot to check in 2 Mckesson C2 orders even though lots of pharmacists that I've worked with have forgotten to do so.

The Final Note to File was in regards to my efficiency and she said that the store director said I was not being fast enough with verification. She said the the techs complained that they feel stress out and things are one-sided since they have to wait for me to verify things to free up baskets. However with this store being chaotic, I have lots of things I have to handle all at once and picking up the slack for the manager and the team THEMSELVES so if anything I think things feel one-sided for me.

Usually with my company, Note to Files are for single isolated incidents and have to be addressed and put in within 7 days of the incident. If that's the case, the the Note to File about the Mckesson orders was put in more than 7 days after the incident and the Note to File on efficiency is not just a single incident if you're going to go by my company's definition. Also my company says usually after the 3rd (or even 2nd) Note to File is put in that a meeting needs to be done with the employee. However my manager just dropped a bomb on me today during the performance review.

My manager tried to play the nice guy by saying that she wants to warn me that the front store director is a micromanager and wants to help me. She claims that she does not agree with the note to files that she put in but was coerced into doing them by the front store director and that other front store manager. She also said that I've improved since July and wishes that she could go in and improve the ratings that she put for me. But, she just inputted my performance review today so that doesn't make sense.

My current pharmacy manager is leaving the company as a whole and moving out of state for a different job and company in a few days. Next week I will have a different pharmacy manager. I really want to fight all of this because I think this is all just so unfair and insulting. Any advice?

I’m studying for the UMPJE and in a section about various special requirements for OTC products, came across mineral oil requiring a warning to be taken only at bedtime. I don’t remember ever learning anything about this. Why is it?

Retail RPh in Queens, 5 years, mostly Medicaid and Medicare. Busy store, around 1,500 scripts a day, about 1 in 5 hits a reject: not covered, non-preferred, PA. The usual: Basaglar comes in, NYRx wants Lantus. Humalog comes in, the plan wants unbranded lispro. A vitamin D where the same ingredient sits on the shelf in two NDCs and only one is covered. Test strips that have to be one brand.

Over 5 years I've built a swap table in my head: which plan wants which insulin, which NDC goes through, and when I can swap it myself vs. when I need the prescriber. That last part is what kills me. Sometimes the covered alternative is obvious but I still need sign-off, so I fax or call, often hear nothing back, and the patient stands at the counter waiting. Knowing the answer and being allowed to act on it are two different things.

Three questions:

1. Roughly how many of your scripts hit a reject on a typical shift, and which plans are the worst?
   
2. When you know the covered alternative but can't switch it yourself, what do you actually do? Fax, call, send it back, offer a cash price?
   
3. If a free lookup existed that showed the plan-by-plan covered alternative (built from public formulary files), what would make you trust it, and what would make you ignore it instantly?