Is Residency Everything?

There's a really big push for residency in pharmacy schools at the moment and honestly it's kind of frustrating how much they are pushing it.  Why?  Cause this is not the only form of postdoctoral training that you can do after pharmacy school.  

So you may be wondering, what do you mean that there's more?

There's different forms of training that you can do and it's not residency.  So, if you are interested in some form of postdoctoral training, but not a residency, this may be the article for you.

1. Nuclear Pharmacy

This is unique in that it requires you to have some classes (that you can take online).  After 500 hours of training, you can be a licensed nuclear pharmacist.  If you want to hear more about this field, here's the link to an awesome podcast that I listened to not too long ago: https://soundcloud.com/pharmacy-podcast/nuclear-pharmacy-scientific

2. MTM 

This is short for medication therapy management.  These pharmacist are normally more on the consultation side.  They'll be looking at patients' profile and seeing how they can optimize it.

3. Fellowship training

Although this form of training is not accredited, once you complete, pharmaceutical companies can hire you as a pharmacist who will help out with their clinical trials.  I will take caution in fully researching the program before actually committing to it.

4. Masters'/PhD's

Although many students don't like this option.  I like the position that I'm in because I'll be graduating from my PharmD and will be licensed while I'm getting some PhD.  I probably won't have the time to get enough shifts to matter, but if I have time while I'm pursuing my PhD, I know I can pick up some shifts and make some good money.

I'm pretty sure that there's more to it than just this, but I thought to let people who are especially starting pharmacy school that there's more to it than just a residency, or just a retail or hospital pharmacy.  There's endless possibilities that can be done with the PharmD degree.