Getting a Pharmacy Internship is one of the most important things you can do while being a student. Most of my classmates had internships throughout school. It is not something that is required of students to finish school. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting pharmacy experience will do for your career. It will prepare you for the real world experience of pharmacy. This way you will not be one of those new graduates staring into headlights after learning the idealistic practice of pharmacy is far from true. Furthermore, you are building a strong network of pharmacy colleagues as resources.
Getting a Pharmacy Internship
When I received my acceptance letter from the University of Washington School of Pharmacy it was one of the best feelings of accomplishment of my life. It was time to celebrate and have fun. At this point I had not realized that it was time to apply for my pharmacy intern license and start looking for internships right away! With this being said it is important to start applying for your pharmacy intern license after you receive acceptance from a pharmacy school. This will allow you to work immediately as a pharmacy intern. Most internship jobs hire 1st year pharmacy students. Other thing to keep in mind is that other students will be competing for the same jobs as you! Do not wait to find a pharmacy internship job as it may be difficult to get one depending on the opportunities available in the surrounding area.
Retail / Community Pharmacy Internships
Generally these internships are ongoing throughout pharmacy school. You can get hired as a 1st year or 2nd year and maybe as a 3rd year. Most companies will try to hire 1st years only because of all the training required. They get more years out of you if you start 1st year compared to if you were to start your 3rd year of pharmacy school. It is almost a waste of time to train someone for such a short time of employment.
Start looking at each company’s website that you would be considering. Have your cover letter and resume polished and start applying. Get in contact with human resources and the district manager to get everything moving. Be aggressive but be careful about offending people or being annoyingly aggressive to get the internship.
Hospital Internships
Majority of hospital internships start the summer before you start pharmacy school. There is a lot more training involved in hospital pharmacy compared to the retail/community side of pharmacy. Each year you will progress with more and more responsibilities and eventually moving towards pharmacist responsibilities by your 4th year. Each hospital internship program is different. Some programs will only let you do tech work and others will be more of a gradual progression towards a pharmacist. If you get lucky you can get hired on as a 2nd year. This only happens if someone left unexpectedly or they increased the budget for pharmacy interns.
Read about my experience as a hospital intern.
Non-Traditional Internships
There are many other pharmacy internship opportunities available to students depending on which pharmacy school you end up at. The surrounding city will have many different companies that may need pharmacy interns. These internships may include research, genetics testing, insurance companies, long term care pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, infusion pharmacies, compounding pharmacies, and specialty pharmacies.
One tip I would recommend for those who do non-traditional internships is to consider picking up a 2nd internship. The reason being is that if you become specialized in one of these fields it may be more difficult for you to find a job when you graduate because most jobs are in retail/community or the hospital. You want to diversify your skill set.
I hope the recommendations above will help guide, motivate, and inspire you to achieve your goals. Follow my blog for more tips and advice on finances and being a pharmacist. What are your experiences? Please comment below and share your thoughts.