Why didn’t you just go to medical school, at least you would have been a doctor.

UGH. If I ever hear that statement, or something similar, again, I just may scream. Why do I have to constantly defend my choice of a career path? Why isn’t being a pharmacist just as good as being a doctor? Let me tell you, I know more about your medications – and how they work – than your doctor (henceforth, a physician, because contrary to popular belief, I am a doctor, I have the degree to prove it!). I can’t tell you how many times I have prevented harm to patient because of that. I tell people, let your doctor diagnose you, but trust your pharmacist when it comes to medications (and always go to the SAME pharmacist you trust – it just may save your life!).


Let’s start at the beginning.

At work today, I worked the OR pharmacy. This means my daily interactions are with the anesthesiologists of the hospital, the PACU/Day Surgery nurses, the OR techs, physicians, and on occasion, even a surgeon (they are not magical beings people, just wanted to state that). I also see the patients on their way to surgery and after, entering their orders, checking for drug/drug and drug/allergy interactions, and providing the narcotics for each individual OR case. I work in a fishbowl, and I’m trapped in the small area which contains the OR pharmacy satellite. However, I like working here; I interact with more people than I answer phone calls (I will post about the day to day activities of an inpatient pharmacist in another post).

So, handing the narcotics over to the nurse anesthesiologist, she made a comment about the “new girl” that worked the day before. I informed her that was our most recent former resident, LP. “A resident? What does that mean in pharmacy?”

Um, the same as a medical resident, duh. Not – actually, a great deal – of graduating pharmacists do not undergo residency. It is a recent evolution in pharmacy for some pharmacists to undergo specialized training to become clinical staff, and one route is pediatric pharmacy (which I did, at the same hospital that I am gainfully employed with). After the first year, a small percentage of residents continue on to a second year (which was my original life plan, to go into pediatric critical care, but marriage and a pregnancy and the Navy derailed that plan at the moment). Either way, it is much like the medical resident. The pay is small but the rewards amazing.

So after I told her that I finished undergraduate school, then four years of pharmacy school, and a residency, she goes … “you might as well have gone to medical school after all that.”

Excuse me?! My choice isn’t as good as medical school? I don’t think so. It was almost a slap in the face. Yes, at one point, I wanted to go to medical school, but I LOVE pharmacy more. I like what I do on most days. I love the interactions (most of the time, there are some physicians who believe they know more than I do when it comes to medications and how they work and their place in therapy and…).

I really believe pharmacists need to speak up more. And not to be like physicians, but acknowledge our doctorate degrees (side note: not all pharmacists are doctors – but all the recent graduates are).

Yes, I am a doctor. Just not a physician… thank God!