Pros
- Compassionate and caring environments. - Opportunity to make a difference in the community. You will be the approachable face of a confusing and often intimidating health care system, even on bad days you leave feeling like you've really helped. There is a level of job satisfaction in that that is hard to match. - Nearly all Pharmacists I met here were funny warm people with kind senses of humor. - Staff pharmacists care and worry over their regular patients and it is good to see that from an inside vantage point. - Very organized environment. - This is a fairly stable career choice and management is very willing to work with you to make it a comfortable situation. - Professional atmosphere. - Almost no heavy lifting is required for this job. - Very rarely boring. - You get a snazzy jacket. ;)
Cons
- The hours can be long on your feet, breaks inconsistent or nonexistent, and the job can get very stressful and attention demanding. - Another thing I noticed is that while the Pharmacist on duty is the ultimate authority over the Pharmacy Department (behind the counter), as it is against regulations for non-registered pharmacy staff to enter the Pharmacy without constant supervision, sometimes store directors or other department managers who are not registered with the Board of Pharmacy ignore this and do not like to be corrected; even though it leaves a store open to audit or worse. This reduces productivity as the lowest ranking pharmacy staff member, usually the one also designated to wait on patients, is the designated "watcher" in these situations.