Daniel Said:

Where do I start if I wanted to pursue a career as a pharmacist?

We Answered:

If you're still in high school or college then see your guidance counselor; they will be able to steer you in the right direction. If you're out in the working world go and see a pharmacist and find out where they attended school.

Vivian Said:

Pharmacy or ultrasound technician?

We Answered:

Both ultrasound and pharmacy are expected to grow quickly in the next several years. As for the timetable and amount of money, it depends on what you mean by "pharmacy". If you mean pharmacy tech, then you're going to make lot less than you would in ultrasound. Ultrasound techs can expect to make $50,000 or more starting. I'm not sure of the exact figures for pharm tech, but it's A LOT less. You can do either ultrasound or pharm tech in two years. If you meant pharmacist, you're looking at a doctorate, so you're not going to be working by 2013. However, if you're really interested in it, it's well worth the wait monetarily. On average, pharmacists make over $100,000 a year.

You do need to consider what type of work you're looking for. You can't get much more different than pharmacy and ultrasound. In pharmacy, you don't work directly with patients nearly as much as you do in ultrasound (this is especially true if you work as a pharmacist in a hospital; you may never see patients in this case). In ultrasound, direct patient contact is pretty much all you do every day. So, if you're more interested in working with things than with people, you might want to choose pharmacy. If you really like to be up close and hands-on with patients, ultrasound is probably a better choice.

Good luck in whatever you choose to do!

Micheal Said:

pharmaceutical career pathway?

We Answered:

You need to contact the Michigan Board of Pharmacy for information about the requirements in your particular state for pharmacy technicians.

A pre-pharmacy program usually does not have specific courses about drugs if your at a university without a pharmacy school. Still, its good preparation for a variety of fields in health-care.

Commonly you have to have a year of general chemistry, a year of organic chemistry and a year of general biology. It is helpful to enroll in a human anatomy and physiology class. That to me would be the toughest, but it prepares you for learning how drugs affect the body.

Since pharmacy technicians became licensed in my state of Indiana there are tons of cases of pharmacy technicians being caught stealing drugs. The problem with having low requirements to get the pharmacy tech license is that the people who get them don't have much invested in obtaining the license. Being a pharmacy tech would give valuable experience on how a pharmacy is run and helps drive into the memory the different types of drugs on the market. It would be ideal preparation for pharmacy school Starting pharmacists usually get 90,000 per year. So, keep that in mind.

Jack Said:

Can anyone tell me the academic steps required to become either a Dermatologist or a Pharmacy Technician?

We Answered:

Hi again Angela,

Before actually answering your question I would like to point out some important information. The first thing is that there is a huge difference between a physician (AKA MD) and a doctor (PhD). MD means Medical Doctor and it was given to us physicians in the 14th century out of courtesy. Interestingly enough, the UK does not use the term doctor, instead they use the correct term Bachelor of Medicine. Technically throughout much of the academic world, the term "doctor" refers to an individual who has earned a degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The reason for this is the actual meaning of the word doctor (Latin Doctoris) which means teacher. It is for this reason that physicians in the most general of terms should not be addressed as doctor but as physician. It is also interesting to note that again in the UK, the higher postgraduate degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD) is reserved for those who can prove a particular distinction in the field, usually through a body of published work or the submission of a dissertation. Also of note is that ScD is only given by some of the US, UK and Canada's leading academic institutions (University of Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, MIT, etc) as the highest conferred research doctorate.

Thus as you can see asking a physician about a PhD program is useless due to the fact that a physician does not go through the same training. One is investigative/theoretical in nature (PhD) and the other is more practical in nature (MD). In other words, one investigates the theories as to why and how while publishing the data and thus TEACHING the world while the other uses this information to actually directly apply such as treating patients such as is the case with physicians. Thus for your daughter to become a PhD she must finish high school, go into a university (some institutions call it college in the US, whilst in most of the rest of the world we differentiate college from university. She must finish a 4 year program at the university (science based program, more specifically biology if she wishes to pursue that field of interest) and then apply to a post-graduate program. Now that I am aware of and that I have been able to quickly assess no such program (PhD I mean) exist specifically for Dermatology.

Requirements for PhD:
4 years undergraduate studies (AKA University Degree - BSc)
Apply to a PhD program:
Requirements (Basics):
-GRE Test (Graduate Record Examination): Measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills. Some also require a specific GRE Subject test
-Typically 3 letters of Recommendation from either scientist and/or Professors.
-Letter explaining your interests in the field, what kind of research you would like to do etc. NOT ALWAYS a requirement but is common.

The point of graduate school is to produce original research, including the writing and defense of a thesis or dissertation. This research can take anywhere between 3-8 years in most cases. The dissertations are devastating to see because the whole point of this is to defend your research. One must defend what they did, how they did it, why and even the future of that research. The objective of the panel of judges is to tear your research apart piece by piece. It can be incredibly frustrating to see ones work torn to pieces but this is how science works, it must stand up to peer review.

Ok Pharmacy Technician VS Pharmacy Assistant:

The main differences are that a technician does more menial tasks such as inventory, removing medications from boxes and shelving them etc. The assistant will actually count pills, have contact with the patient in taking the prescription, imputing it into the system and even answering some questions by the patient. Thus not only is there a greater role for the assistant but also greater chances for job advancement. It is also a good idea to become certified although in most states it is not mandatory it simply adds to the resume and allows for greater job opportunity which is always a bonus.

I will now list some pharmacy assistant schools within Georgia:

Virginia College:
-Augusta, Georgia
-Macon, Georgia

Brown Mackie College:
-Atlanta (Norcross), Georgia

Everest College:
-Atlanta West, Georgia

Everest Institute:
-Jonesboro, Georgia

I really hope this helps you out Angela, good luck to you and your daughter. If you want more information or simply weeding out some of the information I gave you please feel free to e-mail me.

Sincerely,

Dan

Charles Said:

I am considering becoming a Pharmacy Technician. Does anyone have good advice for me?

We Answered:

I dated a girl that was a pharmacy tech for a major chain of drug stores. She made good money, about $17 an hour to start. The key is to stay away from any government job, especially state hospitals! This is one job that won't be laying off anytime soon. She didn't have many complaints other then long hours during cold and flu season.

Norman Said:

Advice from any pharmacy technicians out there...?

We Answered:

You take an exam, the PTCE, for certification. To become licensed, you just need to be a high school graduate, you do not need to be certified.
There is not a huge, outstanding demand for pharmacy techs. They are always vulnerable to technology improvement. You don't make much. The highest pharmacy tech salary I have ever heard of is $13/hr, and average is around $10/hr. Walgreens really has not change their pharmacy tech salary for several years. Most companies will not care if you are certified or not at hire. You will make more money if you are certified, though.