margaretwey

Hello everyone, I recently have this question when looking for job opportunities to get internship hours in pharmacy. I came to the States for graduate school, but recently feel that basic science research is not so much what I want to pursue for the rest of my life. One of the options I have been considering is to become a clinical pharmacist. During grad school, as a foreign pharmacy graduate, I was able to pass FPGEE, TOEFL, obtain my FPGEC, and I currently hold an intern license. To become a pharmacist, I need to accumulate 1500 internship hours in the States. I have tried applying for internship positions and emailing around, but no luck in getting a paid position. I do not have visa sponsorship issues, so my guess is that I might be lacking real clinical pharmacy experience with only a few rotations and internships. But I am competing with other pharmacy graduate students who would not have much experience, either. So… What would a hiring person be looking for when hiring an intern? Should I also try applying for tech positions? Although I was lucky to get a volunteer position, I have to keep my current job to pay my bills and can only squeeze so little time to volunteer at the pharmacy to get my hours, which has been overwhelming just for the past two months or so. I cannot imagine living this life for another two years juggling amongst two jobs. So I really hope I could find something to quickly accumulate my internship hours! I recall the manager who looked at my resume told me it didn’t look like I wanted to stay in clinical pharmacy, I wonder if it is due to the research experience I have? Since graduation, most of my accomplishments have been in the research field, including project management, teaching, presentations, and obtaining grant funding. Would any of the hiring person see this as a plus? Or should I downplay my grad school time? If you were the hiring person (pharmacy or HR), will you hire a PhD in your pharmacy? What advice would you give? Thank you for reading through this post and any input is appreciated!

Hello apundir, Where in Texas is the internship opportunity? I have got my FPGEC and currently waiting ATT to sit for NAPLEX and MPJE. Thank you!

It seems really hard to find the MPJE review book by Gary Cacciatore (Kaplan), I would highly appreciate it if anyone would like to sell it or can provide me a place to buy this. Also looking for the Lexis Nexis: Texas Pharmacy Laws and Regulations, The Guide to Texas and Federal Pharmacy and Drug Law by Fred S. Brinkley & Gary G. Cacciatore and Guide to Federal Pharmacy Law by Barry S. Reiss. Thinking of getting the APhA book for NAPLEX, but still looking for any study materials. Any offer are welcomed! Thanks a lot!

OMG~ Most of you got a pretty high score!! I was going to take the pre-test, but felt kinda anxious... I didn't really went through all the materials and I am really worried that I won't pass... Ahhhhh...... God bless us!!

To kateryn76: I think there's only one ECE agency and is listed on the NABP website. You might want to read the procedures and requirements more carefully. It took me about 1 month for the evaluation, but it may vary. To Aussiepharmaer: Well, I don't know how NABP set their criteria on this matter. I still did one year internship before I get my pharmacist lisence. However, I do not think NABP admitts internship hours in countries other than USA, to me it's the same... You still need to finish internship hours in the US. vbmenu_register("postmenu_559245", true);

I finished 5 year pharmacy degree, 1 year internship included.

Hello lightgreen, I already sent my application, so I guess I'm scheduled to take the exam in June. I am not sure if I can be prepared by then, but I think some pressure to force me study would be nice. :p I believe if you send the application after May (there's a deadline for the June exam, you can look it up on the NABP website), you'll be scheduled for the Dec exam.

To Lightgreen, good luck to you!! To Aussiepharmaer, as I mentioned in the first post, I am a 2006 BS in Pharmacy graduate from Taiwan; I had 5 years of pharmacy training (1 year hospital internship included) and also had a lisence.

Just the day after adding a new reply in the "2008 June takers" thread, I recieved a big envelope from NABP!!! It says I have qualified to take the FPGEE, so I guess I don't need to worry about my qualifications anymore :D... Just need to worry about the exams and intern stuff in the future :yuck:

I have a question for all the test takers in this thread: Did you all pass the NABP evaluation to sit in the exam in June 2008?:hmm: I'm still waiting the reply on my qualification for taking the exam (kinda worried)... This is keeping me not that motivated to study at this time, which is really bad for me :doh:

:rolleyes: Got a letter returning my official transcript & Grad. certificate from NABP today. I think they haven't started to evaluate my application yet; still, need wish for the best!!

Situation: 3 Nationality: Taiwan I'm here doing a PhD program, but considering clinical job also... So I'm applying for the FPGEE. As mentioned earlier, I do agree that living in Taiwan isn't too bad, while living in the US is different. And the Pharmacist job in Taiwan, though not super, still is a good career.

Hello everyone :) This is my first post here... and I'd like to share my progress so far: I got my ECE report within one month (which I think is pretty fast). The report says I get a US equivalence in BS degree with a major in Pharmaceutical Science, which I'm not very happy about. I actually graduated in 2006 w/ BS in Pharmacy in Taiwan, it's a total of 5 years training (1 year hospital internship included).:grad: Plus, I did get my pharmacist license & registration. So...:hmm: although I'm kinda worried about the ECE result, I think I'll still try to apply for FPGEE. (I'm actually here to hear some comforting words... hahaha, j/k...) I'll be back to report as soon as I hear from NABP about my application. And hopfully I'll need to start studying for the exam then ;).