Internship vsRresidency ?!!

[ahlawy]

Can someone explain to me what's the difference between internship and residency ?!! Aren't they the same thing ?!!! I'm confused ...

[torontopharmie]

Internship usually refers to hours that are required in order to get licensed. These intern hours are submitted to the state Board of Pharmacy and allow you to sit the NAPLEX and MPJE. These can be accumulated in either a retail or hospital pharmacy. You can either volunteer or get paid a technician hourly rate (if you are lucky).

Residency is more for already licensed or soon to be licensed pharmD graduates. It is basically for pharmacists that want a clinical position in a hospital. As a foreign pharmacist it is more difficult to get a residency. You need to pretty much be a licensed pharmacist (finished internship hour requirements) and most residencies require that you have graduated from a US accredited school with pharmD. However, I think some residency programs may consider foreign grads if they have a green card or visa that allows you to work legally in the US and equivalent hospital experience. You get paid for a year at about 1/2 the rate of pharmacist (or less) and this experience leads to more opportunities if you want to be a clinical pharmacist. It is pretty much an advanced degree and is a very rigorous year of learning and applying the skills learned in pharmacy school. After doing a year of pgy-1 residency, you can then apply for a pgy-2 residency which allows you to specialize (eg. critical care, infectious disease, oncology etc).

Hope this helps!