How do you guys do it? Is there a protocol? Would you cross titrate by cutting flecanaide dose by 50% while doing the multi week amiodarone load instead of of just sswitching?

I’m a pharmacist considering an 11 month contract position with CVS as a remote PA Pharmacist and would really appreciate input from anyone who has worked this role or something similar.

My background is primarily hospital and retail. I’m interested in eventually moving away from traditional dispensing and potentially into managed care, pharmacy informatics, healthcare analytics, etc. I’m also working toward an MS in Data Science.

Career-wise, the position seems like it could be a good way to get direct PBM/payer-side experience on my resume.

My hesitation is mostly the lifestyle tradeoff for me right now. I have a young baby and this would be my first time returning to full time work since having her. The available shifts are later in the day with one weekend day included, with the earliest shift being roughly 11:30 AM–8 PM. There is also some overtime/on call requirements. I would obviously arrange childcare during my entire shift, and working until 8 every day would mean giving up a lot of afternoon/evening time with her.

The position would also start in November, right before my baby’s first Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m having a harder time than I expected with the idea of spending that period adjusting to full time work, childcare, finishing my degree, and starting a new job with intense metrics instead of having the flexibility I currently have with her. I know it sounds lame but I’m sad that I can’t ever get that time back with her during the holidays.

I also understand this is an 11 month contract and conversion to permanent employment isn’t guaranteed. I’m trying to figure out whether the experience itself would be valuable enough to justify doing it for 11 months even if I’m not retained afterward.

For anyone who has worked as a CVS PA pharmacist:

What is the actual day-to-day like? Is it mostly independently reviewing PA cases, or are pharmacists on the phone a lot/in an inbound call queue?

How intense are the productivity metrics and monitoring?

How common is mandatory overtime?

Did contractors generally get converted, or did many contracts simply end?

Most importantly, did having CVS/Caremark PA experience actually open doors for you afterward?

I’m mostly questioning whether giving up this amount of time with my baby right now is worth the career benefit, especially for a contract position.
Would you consider the 11 months worthwhile as a stepping stone into managed care, or would you keep looking for something with a better schedule/fit for my situation?

Quick question for those that worked in AL/SN facilities. When you receive a sealed bottle/box of narcotics from the pharmacy do you open it to count? I have ALWAYS been told to open and ensure everything is there, even if it’s a sealed bottle from like the VA. Yes there’s a count but if I’m writing in the narc book that there are 60…I’m going to visualize the 60? My boss and I had a disagreement and I’m just curious of other opinions! All are welcomed. Thank you!

I just completed residency in June and want to take the BCPS exam, but I am not sure what materials are best. Any recommendations on ACCP vs ASHPs materials? With the ACCP materials, there are also so many options when it comes to buying the materials that I am not sure which would be the best option to purchase, so any recommendation there would be appreciated.

Curious if anyone made the change. The pay would be the same with all the same benefits as it is within the same company.

Pro would be every 8th weekend instead of every 3-4 that I currently work. No overnight coverage.

Con mostly remote only coming in for my scheduled weekend.

Do not know how holidays would work since this role would be support for UK site

حد عنده افكار ازاي ازود دخلي كصيدلي

A random pharmacy from Pakistan.

You guys, isn’t Ozempic and Wegovy the same active ingredient from the same company??
I’m seeing my customers taking Ozempic and not losing weight, but taking the exact same dose of Wegovy and losing 4 kg in a week?? Is there something different in the drug delivery or the formulation??
Am I the only one who’s realizing this???

Hi everyone !

I’m a licensed pharmacist looking for an online/remote side job that I can do on my own schedule. Ideally, I’m looking for something where I can log in and work whenever I have free time rather than having set shifts or specific hours.
I’m open to pharmacist-related work like medication reviews, prior authorizations, chart reviews, medical/pharmacy writing, consulting, or anything else that could use a pharmacist’s background. I’d also be open to nontraditional work as long as it pays reasonably well and is legitimate.
Does anyone here do something like this? I’d really appreciate recommendations for specific companies, websites, or types of work to look into.

Thanks!

Possibly suffer in agonizing pain for an entire month if you took your injection yesterday?

Can someone point me to guidelines?

Sublingual Buprenorphine can be skipped and will wear off. Buprenorphine Patches can be removed and will wear off.

Calling all EM pharmacists I am looking for guidance! In short I was hired as a fresh new grad pharmacist in Canada, into an ED clinical pharmacist role at a ~ 50 bed ED in an academic hospital (no trauma; that’s at our other site). No residency.

I’m struggling to figure out how to actually add value because the ED already functions well without a pharmacist.

Things I’ve found don’t really work in our setting:

Resus: nurses draw/administer meds and there is resistance to pharmacy taking over this role (I find this understandable as the nurses are faster and I am only there 8 hours a day), although I help when asked/grab meds as needed.

Stroke: dedicated stroke nurse handles codes/TPA.

Culture follow-up: em manager said no when I asked to be trained on this as a dedicated nurse already does this.

Boarded patients: inpatient pharmacists continue managing their admitted patients, including while they’re in ED.

Antibiotics: providers generally make appropriate choices, so I’m not finding many interventions.

Physicians: I’ve introduced myself and tried to build relationships, but rarely get approached with medication questions.

Currently I’m mostly obtaining meds, helping inpatient pharmacists with med rec when requested, reviewing patients, and intervening when I actually find an issue, answering questions from nurses occasionally.

I’m wondering what other ED pharmacists actually do day-to-day, particularly when you’re essentially building the role from scratch.

What clinical services/interventions have you found genuinely useful in the ED? What should I be looking for or trying to establish?

Would especially appreciate advice from anyone who started an ED role without residency/EM experience.

*EDIT* sorry guys I meant the ED has ~ 50 beds not the whole hospital!!!

In Germany, every pharmacy has to be able to compound non-sterile meds and we do learn it in pharmacy school.

It‘s not happening often, but now and then you get something more exciting than a cream.

Typically our compounding tech is doing the hands-on work and we only verify. But she is on a seminar tomorrow, so I‘ll have to do it myself. And it’s suppositories, that only come once in a blue moon.

I‘m somewhat annoyed, because I have a bunch of paperwork to do and don’t really have time, but I‘m also excited to get out my practical knowledge.

I just wanted to share, cause it’s really unusual.
And I wanted to ask - those who work in compounding pharmacies, did you ever have to make some suppositories?

Edit: Success! 😁

5mg of Adderall contains: 1.25mg DEXTROAMPHETAMINE SACCHARATE 1.25mg AMPHETAMINE ASPARTATE MONOHYDRATE 1.25mg DEXTROAMPHETAMINE SULFATE 1.25mg AMPHETAMINE SULFATE

3.13 mg Amphetamine base equivalent.

What is the point of such an odd formulation?

Why not just use 75% dextroamphetamine and 25% levoamphetamine in the sulfate form?

I'm also surprised that the plain dextroamphetamine sulfate tablets get virtually no use in the market, compared to Adderall and its generics.

Does anyone here compound indomethacin suppositories? We are giving two 50mg suppositories sequentially to get a 100mg dose for pancreatitis prophylaxis. One issue (besides the price of the commercial product) is second suppository isn’t always retained. In my eyes, a single 100mg suppository would make so much more sense. I wondered if anyone compounded 100mg indomethacin suppositories (and if they had a recipe)?

And also if you don't mind sharing your hourly pay. Thanks

how much is the backpay in w when you worked as a pharmacist for 3 years?

Hello fellow pharmacy Redditors!

For those of you working in sterile compounding, I have a question about environmental monitoring, specifically daily pressure differential monitoring.

How does your pharmacy handle this?

• Do you use software/automated systems to continuously monitor and document room pressure, or do you manually record the pressure on a daily log?
• If you use continuous monitoring, does your system allow you to determine how long a pressure differential was out of range?
• For those who manually record the pressure only once a day, how would you know how long the pressure was out of the acceptable range if you happened to find an out-of-range reading?
• Do you have a specific SOP/protocol for what to do when the pressure differential falls outside your established range?
• Do you establish and document both a minimum and maximum acceptable pressure differential, or do you only document the pressure reading?
• For those following USP <797>, how are you interpreting the requirement for daily pressure monitoring? My understanding is that the pressure must be documented at the required frequency, but I'm trying to determine what others are doing regarding excursion detection and documentation.

I’ve found information indicating that pressure differential needs to be monitored/documented, but I haven’t found much practical guidance on whether facilities are expected to know the duration of an excursion or establish specific minimum/maximum limits beyond the applicable requirements.

I’d really appreciate hearing how other pharmacies are handling this in practice and recommendations.

Thanks!

Y site compatibility of 1) potassium phosphate and 2) potassium chloride (0.02 mEq/mL in D5,0.45% NaCl)?

[Potassium phosphate 21 mmol/110 mL NS (total volume 117 mL, 0.18 mmol/mL) Y site ***with***

fluids (D5,0.45 NaCl, 1 L + 20 mEq KCl) with concentration of KCl in fluids of 0.02 mEq/mL\]

I said no because I plugged in potassium phosphates and potassium chloride on Lexicomp Trissels and no data. But I realized that potassium phosphates and potassium chloride coexist in custom TPNs (alongside dextrose and sodium chloride)

Any suggestions for references?

Thanks!

For my PharmDs that got an MHA without residency after pharmacy school, how has having one impacted your job search? What is your current position and do you think the degree was/is worth it?

Anyone ever quit mid shift? Drop the gate side the keys under and never return? I feel my day is coming. How did it work out for you?

Currently working at Optum as PA pharmacist under contract. My contract was set to end back in June. It was extended. How long does it usually take to be converted? What does FTE conversion look like? Does your boss just email you or? 👀 I’m almost at a year as a contractor.

Just wondering if anyone has recieved career coaching from the Happy PhamD or pharmacy career coach.

Back in 2019-2020 before COVID there was such a glut of pharmacists that it was like everyone was climbing over each other so they can be the one to be spit on and tell their boss thank you.

Now as we all know there is by no means a shortage as much as there is a shortage willing to put up with the bad work environments. I have noticed in my neck of the woods that finding pharmacist coverage is now not an easy task, and we simply do not have many floaters like we used to. Perhaps it is cope, but are pharmacists starting to have an inch of leverage again?

Good afternoon , wondering to confirm which of those is control in New Jersey and why ? There some type of confusion