wtf pharmacist salaries?

[Slew Foot]

You know what's even more ridiculous? Anesthesiologists' starting salary is $400k.
And don't give me the whole risk crap too. Yes there is some risk, but that's with just about any job in the medical profession.
I've anesthetized nearly a thousand mice at my lab job and it's as easy as pie. The machine works out the perfect concentration for you of oxygen and anesthetic. You just set the dial to the correct position. I haven't had a single mouse die.

Because mice are exactly like humans. If its so easy why dont you do it?
Do mice come into your OR piss drunk with a knife in their head? No? Didnt think so. And 400 is a bit high, 300-350 depending on location is a better average start.

 

[ichy]

but dont they also have the highest malpractice premiums? Something like half their salary?

No.

Anesthesia used to be much more dangerous than it is today. A remarkable thing happened in anesthesia during the 1980s. There's a chapter in the book "Complications" (really fascinating reading BTW) about how they realized that way too many people were dying from anesthesia complications, and through some fairly simple improvements (checklists, standardizing the way equipment controls are set up, etc etc) the death rate for anesthesia was reduced by more than an order of magnitude.

 

[yhelothar]

I'm not saying they're exactly the same, but if anything, I would expect our bodies to be more resilient than a weak little mouse that gets horrible nutrition and is stuck in an empty cage all its life.

But $300-350k is more than most surgeons.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Right, except that the computer can't demonstrate to you how to use your inhaler or glucometer properly.

Video demonstrations can be used.

Or when your medication comes back rejected and the computer tells you "Non formulary, PA required" will you comprehend what that means?

So you're saying something of this nature can't be remedied in a future enhancement to the software?

Will the computer call the MD for you when your brand name medication has a $100 deductible and there is a comparable Generic for $5 a month?

You don't think this can be remedied in a variety of ways? I specifically TELL my doctor to write the prescription for generics.

Again, I've heard very little so far that can't be done now or in the near future with technology.

 

[ichy]

You know what's even more ridiculous? Anesthesiologists' starting salary is $400k.
And don't give me the whole risk crap too. Yes there is some risk, but that's with just about any job in the medical profession.
I've anesthetized nearly a thousand mice at my lab job and it's as easy as pie. The machine works out the perfect concentration for you of oxygen and anesthetic. You just set the dial to the correct position. I haven't had a single mouse die.

Anesthesia for simple surgeries on healthy patients is largely done by CRNAs, not MD anesthesiologists. Go do anesthesia for an obese, diabetic patient getting bypass surgery and then come back and tell me how easy it is.

A lot of this is like flying a commercial airliner. Take a basic private pilot, give him a bit of simulator training and he could probably take off, fly, and land a jetliner safely most of the time. The first time you lose an engine or have some other emergency though you'll be grateful for the thousands of hours of training and experience that commercial airline pilots have though. 99% of flights they don't use a fraction of what they learned, but when they do the stakes are a couple of hundred lives.

 

[vi edit]

like others have said, there's a huge difference between retail and hospital. It's like comparing a mall cop to a swat team cop. And even then the disparity in ability is huge.

 

[Dangerer]

The pharmacy profession outlook is dim, that is why they are working on limiting the number of pharmDs by making it much more difficult to get in to in order to protect their profession.

Pretty much nothing is being done in order to protect the profession.

More schools are popping up all over the country. Cali has 8 or 9 schools with more in the works and Chicago area alone has 5 or 6. Besides new schools opening up, the older, more established schools are increasing class sizes or adding satellite campuses.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Drug interactions are exactly the kind of thing that computers are made for. X+Y=Z. Put in the variables, spit out the results.

Then? Does the patient get the medication or not? Why? Are you a car that you put on a lift? X+Y medicine? You may want it to work that way, but it doesn't fit nicely into your imaginary scenario.

What judgement is supposed to be made? The judgements are supposed to happen at the doctor's office in prescribing the drug in the first place.

What happens when (not if ) a doc fucks up? What happens if the doc doesn't realize something about the patient the pharmacist may know? This happens every day.

My undergrad is in pharmacy, so I know about the profession. Out of curiosity, what do you do? Let's analyze what you do assuming you have a job.