UCSF Pharmacy Information Day - Part 4 - Pharmacist Panel Concluded

[The Questions from the Audience portion of the Pharmacist Panel.]

Q: Do you think that the UCSF PharmD program helped you pass the licensure exam? What was your class passing rate?

4 – UCSF makes sure you're very prepared, although my year didn't do so well. That was because we had an acute crisis care with a crash cart, and you have to do a separate class to get that experience, and the exam had a part that was all about that.

3 – It's all computerized now. I felt very comfortable. In your 4th year, you end earlier than other schools. You end in March. You'll have months to prepare for the exam. When you graduate, the class president/officers will organize reviews. I thought it was helpful.

If you'll look at the schedule, you'll see that  in your 4th yeyour 4th year ends early, and you have three months to prepare. I felt very comfortable taking it.

4 – You'll have a lot of resources.

1 – I was in the last class to take state board that was written. It was much harder.

3 – I don’t know passing rate.

Q: Can you talk about residencies in hospitals?

3 – There are different types. For the most part, when you graduate, you pretty much have to do a year of residency to work in a hospital in a metropolitan area. One or two students did it without it, but that's rare. It'll help you with your clinical skills. Just like in med school, they usually do another three years of residency, rotating through different services. You know the textbook stuff, but you have to put in your hours to be a seasoned clinician.

1 – Part of what happens is that there's a match. You'll interview and you'll be ranked. You need to have communication skills. And know what they focus on. Do your research into where you want to go. If you don't match with them, they won't pick you.

4 – I don't know about other schools, but at UCSF, most people do a residency. 60%. Right now they're working on a law to require that if you want to be [a clinical pharmacist?] you have to do a residency.

3 – At UCSF I feel like we tend to do residencies more than other schools. It’s just our culture, but a lot of us end up doing it. All sorts of residencies.  General residcies, pediatircs, infectious disease, or specialize.

Q: 1 – I have a question. what made you special? Why did UCSF choose you?

2 – Leadership is really important. How do you deal with difficult people? What would you do in a difficult situation? Volunteering and working.

1 – All I had was community pharmacy experience. I knew nothing else. But I was open to learn about it all. Life long learning. Knowing what was happening in the field was important. And communication.

3 – There's a lot of group work. I felt that people so friendly, and successful, but also down to earth.

3 – Try to be oyourself.

4 – I got waitlisted, so don’t ask me.  I agree with them, they’re looking for your personality.

Q: What was the most challenging question?

1 – It depends on who interviewd you.

Q: What is demand like for each of your fields?

1 – It depends on your location. In San Diego, it's hard. In San Francisco, it depends. It cycles. Every 7 years there's a shortage. We're trying, as a profession, to move away from counting, so who knows by the time you're done.

3 – SF General Hospital is trying to cut budget costs. There is a proposal to fire everyone and rehire everyone at 37.5 hours per week. Guess what job classes are exempt? There are two. Radio technologies, and the other was the pharmacist. Currently at my hospital, other departments are freezing, but I kinda don't want to announce this to the people I work with, but we're still hiring. Every year we hire 4 new pharmacists. Staffing pharmacists. If I may, in my own biased opinion, you will always have a job. If you're willing to do the work, you'll always have a job. If you don't have a job when you graduate, call me, I will find a job for you.

2 – It's not a matter of finding a job, it's a matter of finding a perfect job. You may have to make sacrifices based on location, but after that you can do what you want.

3 – If you want to do the worst shift ever, even being a clown for a circus, it's not always available. But with a PharmD, you can choose what you want to do. In bad economic times, you'll always have a job.

4 – In managed care, it's a little incestuous, there aren't a lot of people there. We call others and ask "Are you happy with your job?" That happened to me, and originally I was insulted, but eventually she broke me down. If someone applies we all call each other up. "Don't you dare take so and so." Even with the freeze for other jobs, pharmacists were still allowed to be hired.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what would have done differently with undergrad?

2 – I don’t think so. Once I got in, I still had to take two more classes before I could start. What I did was Foothill for chem lab, BART [subway] to Berkeley for physio, then work. You can do what you want with undergrad as long as you do the prererquisites. My friend was an English major.

4 – We had a music major, econ, engineering,... it doesn’t matter.

3 – If you work for a ballet company, the circus,... as an undergrad, you can’t ge ta lot of pharm experience. Maybe a clerk position. If you can, try to, but it’s not required. Do something to stick out.

1 – For me, I would have tried to… being well rounded is important… if all you take is science, how can you be well rounded? I would have taken more lit classes. Language classes.

3 – To make our job easier, think about how are you going to stick out. Someone brought their violin. That's not to say “Be kooky”, but you'll be in a class full of leaders. You have to bring something. People are always giving back to the school. That’s what the culture is. Don't just come here to UCSF if you want to grind out your classes and just work. If that’s you, this might not be school for you.

2 – Don’t come if you just want to count pills. It’s way too much work if you don’t want to be innovative. Come here if you want to put your name out there. Otherwise if you just want to count pills, it's way too hard.

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And that's it!!  Finally after three posts I got through the first segment of the UCSF Pharmacy Information Day. They were all awesome people, with a lot of energy. They certainly sell the school well. There was a lot of confidence in all of them, they all sounded happy, and you can tel they all love what they’re doing.

As a side note, it looked like the moderator gave all the speakers a gift of some Ghiradeli Chocolate.  Mmmmm...

Part 5 - UCSF PharmD Program Overview is next!