Paris Lee
English 1001-027
Exploratory Essay
17 February 2020
Exploratory Essay( Pharmacy)
The topic that I want to discuss is being a Pharmacist. I recently just changed my mind on my job/career choice because I looked at the pay and everything that surround that job. The career I wanted to be in was being a mortician/funeral home director and some things I was looking at, I just didn’t think that would fit the type of lifestyle that I want and have. I’m mainly speaking about the pay because I compared the salary for both jobs and I leaned into becoming a Pharmacist. California has always been a place that I’ve always wanted to move to since I visited there. With moving there I hope to fulfill being a pharmacist. Pharmacist job is pretty easy, a pharmacist dispenses prescription medications to patients and offers expertise in the safe use of Prescriptions. Pharmacists work in pharmacies, including those in drug, general merchandise, and grocery stores. They also work in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. A couple of questions I have about the job description is as follows; What’s the pay like? What’re the benefits? What’re the hours? Are you required to travel? What’s the work environment? How many jobs available? What training is required? How many opportunities does this job open up? Could you possibly open your own business? What are holidays and PTO (Paid time off)? Is it possible to move up in the business? How do you become a Pharmacist? How do Pharmacist fill the prescription drug?
The first source at which I will be answering some of my questions is a government site so this site is going to have credible information, the information you can trust. The United States. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor of statistics. “Pharmacist” BLS. 4 Sep.2019. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm. The wage at which a Pharmacist is paid is very high. “The median annual wage for a pharmacist was $126,120 in May of 2018”. So between 2018 and in the past year, the median has probably gone up. The hourly pay at which they are paid is “$60.64 per hour. The work environment can vary depending on your preference and what you feel is more comfortable for you. Pharmacists work in various environments. They can work in Pharmacies and drug stores, Hospitals; state, local, and private, Food and beverage stores, and general merchandise. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $87,000, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $161,250. In May 2018, the median annual wages for pharmacist in the top industries in which they worked were as follows: General merchandise stores annual wage was $131,460, Food and Beverage stores annual wage was $130,140, Hospitals; State, local, and private annual wage was $127,330, and Pharmacies and drug stores annual wage was $124,760. A pharmacist has a wide range of how they want their schedule to be. Most Pharmacists work full time. Because many pharmacies are open at all hours, some pharmacist work nights and weekends. Full-time of duty (primarily between 7:00am-6:00pm) Monday thru Friday. May include varying days, evenings and nights with rotating weekends. The next source will come by a newspaper and this source will explain the job opportunities and how many jobs available.
The source I will be using for this paragraph involves using a Newspaper. (March 18, 2013, Monday). Career Transition For Middle-Aged Professionals. Careerealism. Retrieved from https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:580D-H831-F03R-N36H-00000-00&context=1516831. We all know that when it’s your last year of college and your fresh on the worksite you are looking for a job that was fit to your major you know what you were studying for and sometimes depending on what your career is depends on the job openings. Some jobs have early openings and some you may have to wait several weeks to months depending on the job outlook and how many employees the job has and needs. The average growth in jobs for pharmacists from 2010-2020 will be 30% and this was noted back in 2013 through the BLS occupational job outlook website so this might’ve changed seeing that it is 2020 now. The employment of pharmacists is projected to show little or no change from 2018 to 2028. Demand is projected to increase for pharmacists in a variety of healthcare settings, including hospitals and clinics. These facilities will need more pharmacists to oversee the medications given to patients and to provide patient care, doing tasks such as testing a patient’s blood sugar of cholesterol. The number of Pharmacy schools has grown in recent years, creating more pharmacy school graduates and therefore more competition for jobs. Students who choose to complete a residency program gain additional experience that may improve their job prospects. The source for my next paragraph will be a trade publication typically written by professionals.
The source I will be using for this paragraph is called “Trade Publication” a trade publication is a source that is professionally written. There is a lot of advertisements, jargon in which you may see in a trade publication. A trade publication is short maybe 1-5 pages. Lucinda, L. M. “Specialized Training Puts Pharmacists Front and Center.” Drug Topics, vol. 160, no. 2, 2016, pp. 26. ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1780167715?accountid=2909. In all jobs, you have to go through some type of training. In the mid 19th century, physicians played a key role in formalizing pharmacy education, because they were concerned with the quality of the drug products. They recognized the importance of ensuring the integrity of medicines, and they took the initiative in molding a profession with the skills and knowledge needed to prepare and distribute high-quality medications. Changes in education over the past 60 years have been noted and taken into consideration. A report came out in 1949 stating that “Pharmacy was making a turning point in education and practice.” The report recommended increasing prepharmacy coursework to increase both scientific rigor and general education requirements. In the early 1960s, the degree you had to get was between a 4-year BS to a 5-year degree. In California, schools did not make the transition to a 4-year-to-five-year BS transition; Instead, in the late 1950s, they introduced the six-year Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum, thereby ushering in clinical pharmacy movement. Many schools began to offer post-baccalaureate Pharm D degrees as well. In the late 1990s, A single degree standard affirmed that a Doctoral level of education was necessary for 21st-century pharmacy professionals.
The source I will be using for this paragraph is an “Academic Journal.” An academic journal is a peer-reviewed source it roughly about 15 to 30 pages in length. This source is very specific what you’re trying to find and they use academic language, very technical. Rostad, Ingrid S., et al. “Paid Sick Leave as a Means to Reduce Sickness Presenteeism among Physicians.” Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2017, pp. 71-85. ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1917823098?accountid=2909. All jobs have some form of “employee benefits” but some jobs get more benefits than others. One aspect of the job I want to know is, are you paid when you are sick and the “employee benefits at which you may receive. In many countries, paid sick leave is an important means for improving employee health and organizational productivity Societies aim to sustain the productivity of their human resources by enabling workers to access medical care and follow the recommended treatment to facilitate faster recovery and illness prevention. Economic compensation for workdays lost was provided to workers who got providing social health insurance or national systems. A study among Swedish employees found that when insurance systems were more generous, the aggregate number of sick days increased, and when the system was more austere, the number fell. These results may indicate that employees working in countries with less generous insurance systems replace absenteeism with presenteeism due to the economy. Since pharmacists make the drugs and prescribe they get prescription drug coverage and Employee discounts. I’m positive pharmacists are awarded more benefits but the ones I explained the paragraph are the only ones I could find in the academic journal.
For my last source, I will refer back to a website just how I did in my first body paragraph. This source explains step by step how the prescription drugs are filled. “Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia.” Filling a Prescription (Dispensing) | Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia, pans.ns.ca/public/pharmacy-services/filling-prescription-dispensing. What does it mean to dispense medication? When you dispense, this includes all steps necessary to translate a medication order(prescription) into an individualized medication supply that is both safe and appropriate. The Pharmacist will ask if you have visited this Pharmacy before. If the answer is no, you will be asked to fill out a consent form. This event allows the pharmacist to fill your prescription. If the answer is Yes, they will ask for an identifier (birthday or home address). This allows for an easy search within the pharmacy’s computer system for your prescription records. All of the information you give to the pharmacist will allow them to personalize your medication counsel when medication is being picked up. A member of the pharmacy team will enter the prescription into the profile, checking the doctor’s information, medication/dose, indications from the prescriber, and quantity of the script. The medication bottle will be scanned and packaged with the Lot and Expiry. The medication is then counted for the designated quantity, labeled and handed off to the pharmacist to be checked. The pharmacist will perform a clinical check of your medication. After the clinical check is finished you be notified via phone, text, or email that your medication is ready for pickup.
Concluding my paper, I would like to say, some advice I may give people that potentially might be in my field is that if you are thinking about getting into this field of work, you have to be very focused and open-minded because you are dealing not only with people lives but also you are creating medicine for people to take. Some of the information I couldn’t find which wasn’t a lot. I wasn’t able to find certain information because we used different sources that were broad on the information. This field and the information I was searching for were really easy to find because the description and the things you have to do as a pharmacist are straight forwarded when it comes to the knowledge of knowing the career/field. I didn’t have many challenges except just trying to find the right source to use when we had to use an Academic journal, trade publication, and Newspaper. My last and final thoughts are that if you’re looking to pursue your career in pharmacy, all I can say is you just have to love what you are doing because, if you don’t love what you are doing then you are going to hate your job and wish you were another career.
Works cited
“Pharmacists : Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 Sept. 2019, www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm.
(March 18, 2013 Monday). Career Transition for Middle-Aged Professionals. Careerealism. Retrieved from https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:580D-H831-F03R-N36H-00000-00&context=1516831.
Lucinda, L. M. “Specialized Training Puts Pharmacists Front and Center.” Drug Topics, vol. 160, no. 2, 2016, pp. 26. ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1780167715?accountid=2909.
Rostad, Ingrid S., et al. “Paid Sick Leave as a Means to Reduce Sickness Presenteeism among Physicians.” Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2017, pp. 71-85. ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1917823098?accountid=2909.
“Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia.” Filling a Prescription (Dispensing) | Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia, pans.ns.ca/public/pharmacy-services/filling-prescription-dispensing.
Site Title 
1. Does the author provide an interesting fact, analogy, quote, or other way to pull the reader into his/her essay? (Hook) If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes- I thought that it was interesting that the author first considered becoming a mortician and after that decided a pharmacist was the route they wanted to take. This is a drastic change and it makes me curious.
2. Does the author provide a broad overview of their field? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, a broad overview of the field is provided.
3. Does the author explain what drew him/her to this field? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, it’s a bit confusing though. It seems as if the pay/salary was what drew them to the field and also that California has something to do with it but I’m not sure if there’s a connection there.
4. Does the author end the introduction with a list of questions that he/she hopes to answer by the end of the essay? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes there is a very clear list of questions provided.
Body:
5. Does the author split this section up by source or by content? How can you tell? Are there any times when the author breaks this organization? If not, how can he/she fix this?
The author splits the section up by source. It’s clear the way that it is organized and it makes it easy to see what information was pulled from each source.
6. What are the author’s major sections – what topics does he/she cover? (Be specific).
Pay and salary is a major one. Job field/growth and opportunity. General job description/duties
7. Does the author explain positive things about the career that he/she is going into? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, he explains many of the good benefits that pharmacists get and a lot of the different pay bonuses/stuff like that.
8. Does the author explain negative things about the career that he/she is going into?
No, there aren’t many negative things listed about his career.
Conclusion:
9. Does the author provide advice to his/her reader? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, there is clear advice provided.
10. Does the author provide any extra information about his/her career? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, there is extra information provided about the career.
11. Does the author explain any challenges they had when trying to find any information about his/her topic? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, they couldn’t find a lot of information and was challenged .
12. Does the author provide a closing thought to leave his/her readers with? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, and I do agree with the thought. Not that that’s relevant but it finishes it off nicely.
Content:
13. Are there any questions from the Thesis that the author does not address by the end of the essay? If so, which ones? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Are you required to travel?
Could you possibly open your own business?
Is it possible to move up in the business?
14. Does the author use a picture? If so, is the picture no more than 1/6 of the page? Also, does the author use no more than three pictures throughout the essay?
No pictures were used in the essay.
15. Are there any sentences that are confusing or hard to read? If so, how can he/she fix this?
Not really. The writing was generally easy to comprehend and flowed well.
16. Does the author provide a topic sentence for each paragraph in the body? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, a topic sentence was provided for each paragraph.
17. Does the author provide a transition between each main point? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Not really. The author does a good job providing a topic sentence for each paragraph but the overall transitions are not really there.
18. Does the author use Times New Roman, 12 point font, with 1 inch margins and double-spacing? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, but wordpress changes the mechanics so it’s hard to see this.
19. Does the author provide a title? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes, a title is provided.
20. Has the author included his/her name and page number on every page after page 1? If not, how can he/she fix this?
No, the author’s last name was not included on each page but again it is hard to tell because of word’s formatting.
21. Does the author have a works cited page with at least 5 sources listed? If not, how can he/she fix this?
Yes there is a works cited page and 5 sources are cited.
22. Is the works cited page in alphabetical order with a hanging indent? If not, how can he/she fix this?
No, the sources are not in alphabetical order and the hanging indent is not visible again due to the wordpress.
23. Are there any other issues that the author needs to be aware of? If so, what are they?
No, nothing glaring stands out. Section headers would help organize but that’s very minor. Other than that the essay looks relatively solid.
LikeLike