Pharmacist

On this week's episode of Real Work, Real Life I’m talking with LaQuita Johnson, about life working as a Pharmacist. We get into all the details about life in this field, like the burnout risk in the retail sector, to the challenge of transitioning from school to actually working in the field. If you’d like to learn more about LaQuita, you can find her at LaQuitaJohnson.com.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy one of the many episodes I’ve done covering life in the medical field:

Chaundria, a Radiologic Technologist
Shannon, and Immunologist
Sabrina, an OB-GYN
Chris, a Registered Nurse

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Transcript

LaQuita Pharmacist

[00:00:00] Welcome to real work real life, where I talked to real people about what they do for work and what that means for their lives. Today, I'm talking with liquida Johnson about life working as a pharmacist. We get into all the details about life in this field, like the burnout risk and the retail sector. To the challenge of transitioning from school to actually working in the field. If you'd like to learn more about Laquita, you can find her@laquitajohnson.com, which I'll link in the show notes. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy one of the many episodes I've done covering life in the medical field. 

Like Sean Drea, a radiologic technologist, Shannon and immunologist Sabrina, and OB GYN or Chris a registered nurse. I'll link all of those in the show notes too. I can't wait to share this discussion with you, so let's get into it. 

Emily: Thank you so much for being here, Laquita.

LaQuita: Thank you for having me, Emily.

Emily: So what do you do for work? Well,

LaQuita: So I am a pharmacist. I [00:01:00] am, I would say I'm a pharmacist just in general, but I have a vast variety of background of what I do. So yeah, I started out in what you know, as you see retail pharmacy, our community pharmacy, what most people see as Walgreens and CVS, Walmart.

That's the retail sector. Then I transitioned to another sector of pharmacy, which is a clinical prioritization pharmacist. That's the whole of the topic that break that down and I had to participate a little bit in the government sector of being just a higher pharmacist for contracts and things of that nature.

And then I decided to be my own boss. And that's what I do. I'm just really a pharmacist, but I always go by the title too. At least part of her the hesitation, because I've called myself a NALPLAT success graduate. And that's like a NALPLAT exam that the pharmacist take to get licensed. And I specialize in helping pharmacists with that exam in career branding and career development and personal [00:02:00] branding. 

Emily: oh, gosh. Yeah. That's so interesting. Okay. So what interested you about it initially? How did you get into this line of work?

LaQuita: Okay I'm gonna just be real. I'll just be honest. It was the money. This is back when I'm gonna date myself in the age back when I early 2006 2007, there was a time where pharmacists were in need. And this is before all the pharmacy schools popped up. And it was like, there's a need for pharmacists.

And they were giving out career bonuses. You start with six figures. I was like, yes, I come from a Underserved community and I was like, this is my ticket. It's most people like you heard some people say you want to go to be a football player, sports arena, academic was my way out. So I was like, I want to be a pharmacist.

And it was honestly the money. I didn't know nothing about it. I was actually working at Wendy's and my cousin, I was a cashier at Wendy's and my cousin said, I want to be a pharmacist. And I said, what is that? And she just went into details like, [00:03:00] Oh, they make that much money? I think I can do that. And that's literally it.

She's like, it's not like a doctor just focus on the drugs. I was like, Oh, okay. That sounds interesting. And that's how I got started. It's like, and I was like, I'm going to go pursue a degree. I told my parents I'm going to be a pharmacist. Went to undergrad and undergrad was like, take out a prereqs.

Cause how you become a pharmacist is you have to go to do prerequisites. Just make out a criteria. Then you go to pharmacy school. That's your professional school. Now you still have the option. You don't have to have a degree to be a pharmacist is with or without a degree, but you can get one. But you don't necessarily have one, you don't necessarily need one to get a to, to become a pharmacist.

You just need to take the prerequisites. Some people take a community college, some people don't. And then you go into, it's not like medical school where you have to have a degree. No, you just, you have the option.

Emily: Really? Okay. So it, let's say, do you have to have a bachelor's degree?

LaQuita: [00:04:00] you do not. You just, you do not have to have a bachelor's degree. You just literally. You can just take pre reqs like if you was going to like community college. Now you take your pre reqs from community colleges and then you go to transfer to a four year university. Sometimes it can be that way. Now I project in the future now, at the time of this recording, it still can happen.

In the future, there may be a requirement for having a four year, well having a degree, a bachelor's degree prior to going. But as of now, in this recording, you do not need one.

Emily: So many people I have talked to that, that seems to be a common trend that more and more education is required for jobs, which is interesting because a lot of them have a real need for people working in the field and yet their educational requirements are moving up from associates to bachelors, bachelors to masters, masters to PhD even.

So it's interesting that that's where so many Professions are going so could we talk just just to give people like a quick overview of what a more maybe a more traditional path would be [00:05:00] you get your bachelor's degree then you go to pharmacy school.

LaQuita: Traditional path. Traditional path. Traditional path. Honestly, the traditional one is, it's not even a bachelor's degree. It's literally you take your prerequisites. Prerequisites are courses that the pharmacy schools whatever pharmacy school you in, typically proclaim that you need to meet all these requirements.

To get into entry, this is going to take you to, I like to say, the main thing they look into is, of course, your GPA is one, and it's a GPA, your overall GPA, as well as your prerequisites and then prerequisites typically are going to be like your sciences, like three or four chemistries, three or four biologies, physics, they like to do sometimes language humanities, but that's like the more the into math, because pharmacy is a lot of science and a lot of math.

That's typically where we live in.

Emily: Yes.

LaQuita: Oh, that's yeah, that makes sure that's right. So you got that prerequisites GPA as well as overall GPA, because most time people think that I have a [00:06:00] 4. 0 GPA or I have a, but it's all depends on your prerequisites, because that's one thing they factor in. Then the other thing is going to be to like volunteerism and things like that.

So that's the key things to get into pharmacy school. Those like the top three things they look at. And of course, like your personal essay.

Emily: Right. So you could just take all of those classes, not necessarily get a degree. It sounds like almost a degree's worth of classes, maybe, or at least two or three years worth of classes.

LaQuita: Yes, it's 2 to, it's based off, it's 2 to 3 years worth of classes, because 

Emily: And then you apply to pharmacy school.

LaQuita: You apply to pharmacy school, and then once you apply, then you got the selection process. You go through the interview, you go through an interview, then you get selected from there. And then you get into the pharmacy school the fall, the fall and fall.

Ideally, you want to apply a year ahead. If you're planning to go to pharmacy school say this next fall, you need to start applying this fall. And they used to, currently actually, used to be required to take the [00:07:00] PCAT entrance exam. But now that's no longer even needed. So it's solely based off your prerequisites.

And it's kind of good now to have that degree 

because PK is not there and you want to stand out.

Emily: Right. Okay. So maybe in the past you could have really aced that exam and gotten in with it without a degree, but that's interesting. So it's kind of preferencing that four year degree. And once you get into pharmacy school, what does that look like? How long is it? If you know, kind of a typical cost range, I know that's going to vary a ton.

What

LaQuita: Tip pins on the school

Emily: Yeah.

LaQuita: pins on the school. That's 1 for us. The timeline is going to be 3 to 4 years. Some schools do accelerated programs in 3 years. Traditional traditionally you do 4 years. So it's always going to be. What do you do for 3 or 4 years? The 1st, Okay, so let's say if it's three years, the first two years will be coursework.

If it's the fourth year, it'll be the first three years, but it's always your last year of pharmacy school is [00:08:00] going to do your clinicals where you go into different settings of pharmacy and you see how they practice and you do different areas of pharmacy because you need to know how to apply the different, the knowledge you learn in different settings as well as learning clinical skills because within the following year, you're about to practice.

So you need to know how to. Act like a pharmacist. What does a pharmacist really do?

So it's the like go transition from student to pharmacist.

Emily: Yeah.

LaQuita: Price, the price range of pharmacy schools depend on where you are because I went to a private university and it was expensive. However, if you went to a public university, it would be cheaper.

So it also depends on to what pharmacy school you go to. If I had an ideal ball range, I'm going to say the minimum 20, 000 per year. So roughly between 60, 000 to 80, 000.

Emily: Mm hmm. Mm 

LaQuita: That's the minimum.

Emily: And if you go to, like, a private college, it could be quite a bit more.

LaQuita: It can be double.

Emily: Yeah. Okay. Sure. 

LaQuita: It 

Emily: [00:09:00] So, once you graduate from pharmacy school, is there a licensing exam at the end?

LaQuita: Yes. And that's the license exam. And that's where I come in and specialize in because I was the one who had trouble passing my licensure exam and I failed and I took it three times. And of course, like they have all these Programs, but I kept my is something was missing and it's something that and that's where I found the gap.

And it's literally what I said, helping pharmacists helping you use transition from being a student to a pharmacist. That's the window I live in it because I was. I knew the information. I was a stellar student in school. However, I wasn't thinking like a pharmacist. I was like, Oh, it's just another quiz. It's another test. So that exam is called a NAPLEX exam. And that's the North American pharmacist licensure exam. All I had to say North American, because if you are If you are international, you have to take another foreign [00:10:00] exam. It's F P L E E, I don't know the, it's Foreign Pharmacist Licensure Exam.

That's the ac, well, the acronym, I'm probably messing that up. And then you take that, then you take the NETPLEX. Because they want to make sure that your knowledge base is ready for the United States.

Emily: Right. Right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So those, I'm always fascinated by those careers where you have a huge amount of schooling and investment going into it, and then you have to pass that exam at the end. And there are quite a few careers where the failure rate is not that small. Like there are people who get all the way to the end and, and don't pass.

So it's just so high stress. Yes.

LaQuita: is because that's also what's the thing like I said with my story But then other people heard like saw how I was overcome I was able to overcome the exam and start practicing and then you can hear other stories and There are pharmacists people with doctor and that's the thing you have become a doctor and i'll say this Because people will tell you let me just say [00:11:00] about pharmacy why it's interesting.

Okay One thing because I think if I tell you how I'm coming for it. Let me tell you what the pharmacy is Pharmacists are medical experts. We are the only ones that take three to four years of school. I'm sorry, but your nurse, your doctor, they only took one or two semesters of learning about drugs and pharmacology.

We spent the last three to four years learning them. This is why we are needed because they can prescribe a drug and you go to a safe, for instance, you can go to your primary care doctor, get a drug, a medication. You go to your Specialty, specialty drugs, say like your cardiologist, they prescribe a drug.

You go to this other place say your foot is hurting, you go to a podiatrist. They all prescribe the same drugs. So then we, we, as the pharmacy looks, say you got three of the same drugs or this prescribed this drug and that drug, and this is interacting. So this is why we are like the medication experts.

we are clinical professionals. That's why degree is needed because. At first, people saw us as just the [00:12:00] assistant to the doctor, or we just put pills in a bottle, but we're so more, we're, we're further, that's why the more education is needed, because it showed that we are clinical individuals.

We are in five states so far, well, we are listed as healthcare providers, so that is needed, like we, for us to get our MPI, that was needed, because people don't see us as healthcare providers. They don't see us as just assistants to everyone else. And we are doctors of pharmacy. So this is the thing that sends us

Emily: I'm so glad you mentioned that because that is something I as an adult have like come to realize more as I've interacted with the medical system that how important pharmacists are and what a advanced, you know, level of training and understanding and what an important kind of safety and patient care feature you have in the medical system.

I actually was talking to a Radiologic technologist, and she actually had the same feedback that that's one sort of challenging thing about the [00:13:00] careers. People don't understand how trained they are, what an important role they have in the overall. system that they're more than just kind of pressing the button to take a picture.

We're so conditioned to see like, doctor, nurse, and everyone else is sort of the,

LaQuita: The help.

Emily: the help around the medical system, yes, but there's so much more training and work and compensation available for that training and work that people don't really think about and

LaQuita: Yeah. Yes. Because once you, because once you, you become licensed, then we have the option. I said, that's why pharmacists, I love about being the profession because I didn't know much about it. Honestly, when I got to pharmacy school, I learned majority about the profession itself. So when I got there and afterwards, we are at a profession where you can either go directly into practicing.

You don't have to do a residency. Like, Like doctors, you can have, you have an option of doing a residency options to do a fellowship, or you [00:14:00] can go directly into practicing. So that's the three options you can have. And with that, so residency, you have to apply. This is on process within that you apply for that.

You can apply for that whenever I'll say that, because I've seen people who go into practicing three, two years and didn't decide, I want to go back and get a residency, I need something to be more, because they feel like a residency, you're more clinical fellowship depends on what type of fellowship. So residencies, typically they're going to be.

Amatory care that's more clinical. You also have like then you do one year just general and then a second year do specialty. Like you have doctors, like you have a pharmacist who only focuses on hypertension, diabetes, the warfarin, warfarin. You have our infectious diseases, HIV prevention. You have pharmacists only focused on that particular disease state.

Or you can go into fellowships where that can be more of the pharmaceutical companies because the ones who [00:15:00] make the drugs, you can go into the government agencies, FDA, CDC, you can get into those public health service. You can get into all of those different sectors of it. Or you can go into practice, which means you could be in those kind of levels, because sometimes they have jobs for those type of levels, fresh out, very rare, but could happen.

But most of the time it's going to be like hospitals, clinics, and of course, the community pharmacy that your big chains are, are independent pharmacies.

Emily: Right. Yeah. Okay. That's really helpful to kind of think about all the different ways you can go. Lots of paths available, which is always nice. So to go back a little bit, you mentioned about that gap that led you to what you're doing now, seeing the gap between being a student and actually working in the field.

I know you could probably talk for days about this, but can, is there anything that sort of really stood out to you or that you think would be really relevant to share about what you're doing? You felt was missing between those, between school and work.[00:16:00] 

LaQuita: School and work, because You are okay. Think about when you were a student. Think of let's just think let's go even go back to high school, right? Let's just do high school. So in high school, you probably don't have a History class a math class a science class and English class, right? And you got three subjects every teacher teaches different Every subject is different.

So, you learn to how, well, Mrs. Miller, she likes for us, she's very meticulous on knowing the details. Mr. Johnson, he likes to know broad screen. Can you connect the dots? Can you see the big concept? So, you're learning Throughout these years to study the preference of each teacher, but then that's fine. You that's how you pass the grade That's how pharmacy school is.

That's how you get to Semester one year one year two However, you've taken an exam that [00:17:00] accumulates the entire Four years three years of learning all the information you learned you have never done that they have a lot of materials out, a lot of different prep books and things of that nature.

You get the prep book and you treat it just like the form, I'm going to read, I'm going to take my notes, and I'm going to take the quizzes. And most people stick, stick with. The information becomes overwhelming. Because the Preble is typically this 

thick. Like, well, like, you can't see it, but it's like, 3 inch, 5 inches thick.

And you gotta flip it over, and it's thick. And it's and you get overwhelmed. Because now, I got all this information. You forget that you saw the information before. That's one. Two, mindset. I'm afraid of feeling. I can't learn all this information. These are the things you're saying to yourself. Then, on top of that, you get with people, and you [00:18:00] like, you start negotiating.

Think about how, especially if you're a college, college students people, this is for the college students, where, I would say high school, not so much for college students. Think about how you know, When you pull those all nighters, all nighters result from procrastination. You procrastinate in studying, so y'all put all night to get it done.

So then, that's what happens when I learn all this information, I procrastinate because I'm overwhelmed, and then it's come a short period of time, it's like, okay, I just gotta think smart, I gotta do something smart, so let me just read, take the quiz, let me take the quiz, and then you take the quiz like, oh, I'm going to take this quiz x amount of times.

To say I passed. If I got a nine, that means I know the information. But sometimes you can memorize quiz answers.

Emily: Right.

LaQuita: And that's the thing of it too. Knowing how to like, knowing the concepts, knowing why everything works, like study smart, not hard, and that was the gap and trying to make it simple. It's just like basically a cake.

You got [00:19:00] this ingredient, that ingredient, you treat it as separate ingredients. Like when you're baking a cake, let's say the basis of it is eggs, flour, butter vanilla extract, a little salt. All individual ingredients are nasty. And that's it. But when you put it together, they're good. And that's the thing of it is, you're trying to do all, like you're treating disease states all like they're separate.

Instead of they're, when you put it together, they really interconnect and understand the interconnections of them all. And really thinking like, but how does really apply to a patient, like, for instance, let's just say this one of the common hypertension medications is lisinopril, very common hypertension, blood pressure medication, and one of the key side effects of it is cough.

If someone comes into the pharmacy, local pharmacy, I got this cough, it won't, I can't get rid of. If you're just a student, you're saying, oh, we'll just get some Depsium or [00:20:00] Detrimentifam, a cough suppressant. But you become thinking like a pharmacist, clinical. Okay, what kind of medications are you taking?

Because I know that the cough could be, are you taking any kind of hypertension medications or blood pressure medications? They say yes. Okay, what kind? Lacinopril. Oh, well, it may be your lacinopril is coughing. See, it's that transition of, that's the gap. I wasn't thinking like that. 

I'm just trying to answer the question. Not necessarily taking the time out to think like the pharmacist.

Emily: Yes. Oh, that's such a good point. Such a good example. And yeah, I can see how, I think there's probably a lot of professional degree tracks that have that sort of missing piece of getting from one step to the other. So you mentioned, you know, that you kind of thought about this career initially because of compensation, which I think is a Perfectly valid.

Great way to consider a career path. Can you talk a little bit about what compensation in this field looks like? Maybe, you know, I know it's [00:21:00] going to vary a lot on where you are and what you're doing, but sort of high, low ranges, what areas are higher, what areas are lower, that kind of thing.

LaQuita: Yes. Conversation. Highest is going to be the ones you see. CVS, Walgreens they are the highest ones. They typically, because it's the, it's a lot of factors. One, the turnover rate. Because they, you burn out quickly in that sector. Because it's all about metrics and it's the quickest thing to realize. We, as all people, we, you, any profession, you come out because you want to help people.

You want to give them, you want to better their life, their quality of life, their health. But then you realize that this is a business. And when you realize how much of a business it is and less clinical surgery you're really doing, because being honest, retail, pharmacy, community, we probably only use a fraction of our [00:22:00] brain.

The fraction of our clinical skills is only a small fraction of it because it becomes redundant. Everything makes sense. So those high costs and when I started out every year, it gets lower when I, again, we, when I, when I decided I'm going to be a pharmacist, they were starting off a melee six figures, you were like high, mid six figures, and that's like 160, 170.

right out of school. If it was low, they'll give you bonuses, 10, 20, 000 sign on bonuses, all that. Even a hundred thousand dollar sign up bonuses because we were in need. Then from school, start popping up. Everyone, everyone start producing. Not so much. So when you're in pharmacy school, you automatically become, you automatically get your pharmacy intern license. So you can go practice as an intern. In any set, this automatically is part of your curriculum as a pharmacy student. So you won't be a technique, you'll be a little bit higher.

You'd be like the [00:23:00] ultimate assistant for the pharmacist. So you can counsel, you can take transfer, you can do some of the things pharmacists can do. So you get that. Now back, let me just do a timeline because it may, may, it may, may be different. So. I would say the next five years, it probably won't change.

So I can say that for us conversation. So you can start off weird. I started out, I got a tech and I got my intern license tech. You probably start out with like 10 an hour or 10, 13 an hour. Then you get an intern that's a bump up for like five to ten dollars more, which is good. So then that's pre intern.

When you graduate, you get a post intern license in between you if you want to work while you're studying. So if you're in retail, let's just stick with retail because it's the most time I'm often seeing in retail. They will compensate you for a post intern grad. So I went from 15 an hour to 30 an hour, then that, that's post grade income.

And then for [00:24:00] that, you still use that until you take the exam. And once you take the exam, you get the farm to salary. Like I said, it's low balling now. When I started out, some classes gain like 50 an hour. Some classes gain 65 an hour. Now, you may get 40 an hour, but this is at the time, it's just, it just changes.

 So then now today, time is recording. You probably get, let me do math real quick.

You're probably going to get starting off about 80, 000 this at this current time. 80,

Emily: That is a tough, I mean, you know, 80, 000 is I think above most many median household incomes in many states, but considering the, let's say you get your four year degree and then you do three or four years of school, and if you're going private universities all the way, it would probably be tough to start paying those loans off on 80, 000 a year.

LaQuita: 000 a [00:25:00] year and that, and in honestly, in the sector for now, it's starting to 80. In healthcare, traditionally, hospital clinics, they were more of the 80, 000 range, so now it's like 80, 000 is coming to base now, overall. And it depends on, too, the thing is, when you're in retail, you get the highest pay, but if you're in any other stuff, you're probably going to get low, unless you are in retail.

Pharmaceutical industry. And that's when I was saying, like I said, you can go into fellowships and go into those pharmaceutical companies. You can get paid. There's this title called Medical Science Liaison. A lot of pharmacies get into that. They can make anywhere from Mid to 200, 000, like mid 100 to 200, 000.

I've seen, I've heard some stories of people making, they make bank for that one. Or you can do, it's just, it's pinned on where you are. Typically, the ones that you like, use your clinical knowledge will probably pay you the least.

Emily: Mm [00:26:00] hmm. 

As you're working, like, for the retail sector, do you continue to make more money with more experience, or is it sort of a, like, this is how much we pay pharmacists?

LaQuita: this is how much you pay pharmacists. You make it a, I think when I was in retail, I got a whole quarter as a raise. One 25 cent raise.

Emily: She is. Oh my gosh.

LaQuita: That's funny if I'm saying it right.

Emily: Within those sorts of jobs, would you have kind of typical health, retirement, leave benefits or those often not benefit positions?

LaQuita: Health retirement, of course, it's going to be like to any other farm, any other company where they want you to contribute to you have the option of getting HSA, you have the option of starting 401k. That's just it. And you want to get into like investments, things of that nature, probably like a advisor for that to tell you different ways to invest your money.

For us. If you get into the government sector or any kind of government [00:27:00] education, those are some, you know, you work for 10 years, you get that public service forgiveness loan, you work for 10 years, and then you can forget your student loans, make consistent payments, but that, that program kind of has gone away with our previous president, he didn't saw it was fit, so it changed, he had counseled out, but then During COVID it came back, but then it went back again.

So it's kind of those things that you're gonna have to wait till that window comes if you're in that sector to get it paid off and forgiven.

Emily: Right. You might want to be careful about like really counting on it too.

LaQuita: Yes.

Emily: Yeah. So what are, you know, kind of thinking about maybe the retail pharmacist as an example, what is, what are the hours look like? Are there a lot of schedule options? Is there any degree of flexibility or is it pretty kind of clock in clock out that sort of scenario?

LaQuita: It all depends on you. Some [00:28:00] pharmacies are saying, just say retail. I'm going to hire you at 40, it is 64 hours pay period, but you're probably going to work 80 hours a week. And I can say, you become a worker bee and like, I want to show them, commit, I'm dedicated, I'm available.

And you bring your stuff out working and all depends on the store and the hours and things of this nature. But once I learned how. This job, because if you also do the caveat, if you do not pass your exam within a time period, you will fire you through your contract. They will fire you. So I got fired and I was like, I was trying to be a worker bee.

Being a worker bee. I'm here, I'm available. And I got fired because I couldn't pass my exam. Because I was no help to you. So then I realized that was the blessing for me because I said, okay, I'm going in knowing my, what I want. So I set my needs of, I only want to work 64 hours a week being paid per year every two weeks.

So I work 64 hours. [00:29:00] You figure out how that goes. That's the time I work. So that's what it all depends on. Clock in, clock out. There's no set schedule. Some farm, it all depends on your farm. You're in retail, you know, some pharmacies close and have certain hours they work. And it all depends on what it is, like I have worked schedules where it's 2 to 8, I mean 2 to 10, 7 to 3, 10 hour shifts, at one point I was working even 12 hour shifts one time.

So it all depends on clock in, clock out. If you go more into like clinical that's why people like clinical, they want to transition out of retail because they have a more consistent schedule than 9 to 5. 

Emily: Yeah. So are our pharmacist overtime eligible or they paid a salary? And if they work, that's a lot of hours a week. 64 is your base is a, 

a lot of,

LaQuita: period, no, it's 

Emily: Oh, 

LaQuita: That's how I catch

myself, 

Emily: sorry. I'm sorry. I was like, 

okay, [00:30:00] okay. I'm back. I'm back with you, but yeah, still. Wow. Okay. That's really interesting. So that's important to know, right?

That you, You're kind of working for free is a, is a, not the right word because salary is kind of intended to encompass a full year's worth of work. But, but yeah, it's interesting to know that you can sort of get sucked into working more and more and more throughout that.

LaQuita: it's like a thing that they will suck you into, they will say, hey, I want you to become a pharmacy manager. They love giving pharmacy managers titles to like recent grads because they want to climb that ladder and they don't realize what they're signing up for. And for me, I said to myself, Because I realized when I was an intern, I realized the difference between the staff pharmacist and the pharmacy manager was one or two dollars an hour difference and a bonus, an annual bonus.

And I was like, I'm not about that. When you're a pharmacy manager, Any kind of mistake that happens falls on you and your license. The [00:31:00] state board know has your license as the one. I have seen, I have seen a pharmacy manager who was working for a chain pharmacy for 20 years get fired all because a pharmacy technician did not get licensed. 20 years, family had a family of three boys, one was in college, 20 years at a company and get fired all because a technician she hired was, did not get licensed in time.

Emily: So, so frustrating. And yeah, I mean, we talked a little bit before we started recording about, you know, kind of finding joy in your work life. I, from my perspective is about knowing yourself. And I do think when I started work, my initially I was sort of like, well, you'll just, you just keep going to the top as far as anyone will let you go.

You keep going. And I think that's not a bad approach to work, but it is worth. [00:32:00] The further you go up, the more you have to be really thoughtful about is that dollar an hour or bonus worth it? And if the answer is yes, like go for it. But for many, many people, there is a time when the answer is no and they keep going anyway and then they're sort of stuck in this role that makes a little bit more money, but the responsibility and the headache and the risk is too great and they get burned out.

Yeah.

LaQuita: Yes. That's exactly what happens. And that's the thing you have to know what, because, because I got fired. In the midst of me getting fired I had to learn, I had to study, I had to go through that journey. And then once I passed the exam, it was hard for me to find a job. I had to learn how to brand and market myself.

And that's why my company formed me to RPH. We specialize, it's literally 4MD. You graduate from pharmacy school, you get a 4MD to RPH, you become a registered pharmacist. And it's, we're going to help you with the [00:33:00] exam. We also want to make sure that, hey, How do you market yourself, especially someone who failed?

How do you market yourself to say, I'm not a failure. I'm really a clinical pharmacist. You can hire me and take a chance on me. And that was another frustration. So by that time, and I had read this great book in that it was called don't dumb down your greatness because I was dumbing down my greatness. And I realized these are my non negotiables, and also to, which I totally forgot to mention. In the midst of me failing the exam, because in my mind, I was going to pass the exam after graduation. I decided to get into graduate school and go get my master's in public health. So I'm studying for the exam, getting a master's.

And then once I passed, I was like, I only can work 64 hours because I need the extra 16 hours a week to dedicate to school. So that became my thing for me. So you have to know what you, what you want to do is just like with any career, knowing what you want to do, what [00:34:00] matters to you the most, it can be very feasible for especially for women, it can be very feasible.

You can climb your and then like, of course, like with me and too, less for women, more family. It can be feasible for that because you can have the option of having a weekday off because some people don't realize yes it's good to have a Monday through Friday job nine to five but you gotta take out work to go to the doctor.

A lot of times the retail they will at least give you a weekday off.

Emily: Yeah.

Yeah. 

LaQuita: big benefit. Like today

Emily: So is, is full time pretty much, would you say it's typical that full time is considered 64 hours of pay period or 32 hours a week in this career? Or is that, is, is that,

yeah, 40 hours. Okay. Yep.

LaQuita: it's 40. It depends on Retail how they trick you they will say less. I'm going to start you off with 32 year contract or someone say 32 But ideally it's 40. Are these going to be safe for the idealist going to be 40 hours of the paper [00:35:00] It'll be 40 hours a week

Emily: Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. And I totally, I, I think the having a weekday off is a very, very valuable benefit to most adults. Cause there's just so many things you need to do during the work week. Things you cannot do any other time. So yeah, I think that's a understated benefit for sure.

LaQuita: Yes And I will say to depend on your company And especially like retail you, you have good benefits because it's a pharmacy. So a lot of times you can get medication at a cheaper cost because you work at a pharmacy. So that's another benefit to it. And I will say stock is really good for investments in that, like you can invest into the stock of the company. Pretty good there. So that's always a great option as well. And because and then too you also look into like other companies because people they want like these chain income. That's just I'm gonna say CVS because CVS is a very great example of this. [00:36:00] CVS. They wanted, they saw it as a pharmacy, what you see in the community, just giving, like, dispensing medications, but they decided it wouldn't be more.

That's when they pop up those CVS clinics. So now you have a clinic. This is like the public health sector of it, too, because public health sector, you look at the whole thing. You have clinics, they have a pharmacy, they bought Caremark. Insurance company, now they merged with Aetna, insurance company, Caremark, your public, your pharmacy benefit manager, that means they set the drug formularies as well.

They manufactured, they have a CVS, when you go on the store, they have CVS braided drugs. They are manufacturers, they manufacture their own drugs. Good stuff. They got their hand in all forms of the healthcare.

Emily: Yeah. 

Ooh, that's important. Go 

buy some some CVS. You heard it here first. So let's see. So you mentioned sort of that it was it highly in demand. It's gotten a little more saturated. How would you say you view the prospects for people entering the [00:37:00] pharmacy field right now? Is it still like, yes, there's a need, yes, you can find a job, or would you kind of caution people thinking about going into it?

Right.

LaQuita: okay, most people say they want to help. I want to help people. How do you want to help people? That is my take because I talk all this good things about pharmacists explaining to you, but my last year of pharmacy school, I realized I didn't want to be a pharmacist.

Because a pharmacist wasn't how I wanted to help people. I didn't want to treat them with a medication. I realized I want to prevent the disease from even happening. That's why I went and got my masters in public health at the pharmacy school. So I'm going to, I'm going to say it depends on your situation.

If we're looking for a money family some, some, I will say some of these are just have the prestige [00:38:00] profession. Okay. You're going to have that, they're going to have money, however, when it comes to money, you can climb your way to corporate ladder and if you're okay with 80, 000 plus, sure. But also limitations of pharmacy is going to be being seen as a clinical professional, healthcare providers, and we're still fighting, I would say we are the underdogs. Nursing has advanced so much further than pharmacy has. They can run clinics, pharmacists cannot. Even some states you can't write certain prescriptions, but you can't necessarily write prescriptions. You have to have a doctor. You have to have, it's a lot of stipulations. And even with pharmacy. With pharmacy being a pharmacist, every state is different, has its own law.

You have to be licensed every state versus like a nurse. You could just be licensed, take this tristate licenses and be licensed or some type of re registration you can do. With [00:39:00] pharmacies, you have to be licensed in every single state because every single state regulates different. So, those are limitations that you gotta have.

You're gonna, that's gonna happen. You may be in a city where I want to go to a major city. It may be too saturated. You can't find a job. You're gonna take pay cuts. Those things, but I'm always gonna revert back to the typical answer of, I want to help, I want to help someone. How do you want to help?

Emily: I totally get that. I think that is a really good way of thinking about it. So you've mentioned a lot of things that, there's, you mentioned things that you really liked about this field. Is there anything you would add that you really loved about working or working kind of around this field?

LaQuita: When I really would add. And it's kind of hard it kind of defeats the purpose if i'm honest But really on the prevention side I would add that, can we prevent, but I understand you need the medicine [00:40:00] because that's how people make their money. But can we prevent the medicine, prevent the need for the medicine first?

Because I believe diet and exercise, that's the first form of medicine there. Can we prevent that? Getting more to prevention with the profession, then let the drugs be our second, our last resort. But let's try to prevent first and it's hard because like I said, we have medication experts and we know and that's how pharmaceutical companies make their money by making the drugs.

But here's the big thing about this though. A lot of times when the pharmaceutical companies are making a drug, a lot of time, history. Most drugs were formed, they went to countries like Philippines, Korea Nigeria, they learned how they had medicinal properties, herbs and things, and they decided to put those, those properties into a pill form. Can we learn about the one before we put in the [00:41:00] pill form? Can we just learn those things? Because that's how a lot of drugs were even developed. Through the pill form, or it would be like how our body. How our body processes, and they'll say, Hey, let's figure out a drug that can do that, mimicking that body process.

So, yes, that's the thing of prevention is hard to see. And I want to see us more in clinical, not just. Really owning clinics and really managing the cormorants because I believe it is hope it's a hope and a dream of mine to like open a pharmacist lead clinic that because because we can manage and you are you like you often see this in the veterans.

The VA, Veteran Affairs, you have pharmacist led clinics that pharmacists help you with. They can adjust your hypertension levels, your diabetes, the warfarin clinic, the cholesterol, all those big corporate bills that everyone has all the time. We can [00:42:00] do that and I want to see pharmacy led clinics there. I want to see that in the prevention and just being a collaborative practice.

That is my hope for the profession as well. We continue to try to be clinical, like be professionals

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a beautiful dream. And yeah, what an interesting kind of future idea just for that profession to go that way. I, not to get too negative, and if you don't have anything to add to this question, I'll, I'll take it out. But is there anything you would add that has been tough about this work that you either didn't expect or you just didn't anticipate how challenging it would be?

LaQuita: One. Why do pharmacists have to be licensed in every single state? Can we have a collaborative theme? Because, let's be honest, let me tell you this process, this tedious process when you decide to be a pharmacist and say, Hey, I'm a wife, and my husband job, Oh, you have a military husband who relocates every two to, well, every four years.

If you don't have a government job, a [00:43:00] government job is the only job you can have when you license one state and it's fine. You have to be licensed in every single state. In that one state, you have to file for an application that costs about 300, transfer your NAPLAC score, the one you originally took, transfer that score, that's another, that's a couple hundreds, on top of taking the application taking the, the licensure exam, and that is, that test is like 200.

200, 300. It's going to cost you anywhere between 7, 000 to 1, 000 just to get licensed in an estate. That's a lot. 

That's 

one. It is. It's the most frustrating thing. Like I, like here it is now. Currently I reside in Mississippi. I would like to move to Texas. I have to now go apply to the process. Right now I'm looking at a hundred about 800 now.

That's the, the cost of just to go get, just to get a license, not to say to get a job, just a license to apply [00:44:00] for jobs in Texas because you have to have a pharmacist licensure license to get there. That's one. Two, I'm frustrated about Like again, you have to be aware of this is a business. This is not, that's one of the frustrating things I hear from all, like all my friends, whether they are doctors or physical therapists, this is a business and they want you to, they, they treat you like you are a machine or you have all these metrics.

Like, It's a lot. It's the unsaid demands you have to do and three is just really being shown and just being on the level like we are doctors. We are doctors of pharmacy. We know information. We are clinical. We are healthcare professionals and being seen as such treated as such because even with patients, I'm just going to call my doctor and I'm like, sometimes that doctor can't tell me what to do over here.

Emily: Right.

LaQuita: Your insurance company, they have to pay for the drugs. It's like one that's called [00:45:00] prioritization. Like that's a whole task in itself and realizing that. So it's just different things. And notice is aware. Like I do not, that's a annoyance of the comp of the profession itself. That's definitely it

Emily: Yeah. Oh, I can totally see that. Yeah. Well, this is the last question I have for you. And then I want to leave time at the end so people can find out more about what you do. What's one piece of advice generally about work that you would give your younger self?

LaQuita: Don't dumb down your greatness, don't deny your greatness. What do you want to do? How do you want to help people? And do just that. Create the life you dream of. Like, that's literally it. have the end goal in mind.

Like, what do you truly want to do? It was money when I first started out as a pharmacist. When I got into pharmacy school, I was like, I want the world to know how we are the most undervalued professionals ever. [00:46:00] I want the world to see the value of a pharmacist. And now it's, I want to educate the next generation of pharmacists.

I want them to transform this American healthcare system to a better place. That's my mission. It's like, it all stands up with who I am, what I want to know, my value system, what I want. So that's literally the advice is to, how do you want to leave your impact on this world and go forward?

Emily: That is beautiful advice. So how can people find out more about you? How can they read you?

LaQuita: I'm on all social media platforms at Dr. Laquita J dot, which is Dr. Laquita J. That's D R L A Q U I T A J. Laquitajohnson. com if you want my website. And how can I help you? If you are a NAPLEX, you're a pharmacist studying for NAPLEX, we specialize in that. But you're also a pharmacist that says, Hey I passed my exam, but I can't really find a [00:47:00] job. I, I'm, we do personal branding. We do one we do more so private coaching for that. We are a coaching practice, a coaching firm. So we do that as well as personal branding because people say, I don't want to do retail. And I want to do, I want to, I want to maximize my chances of not in the retail. Let me show you how to brand yourself because this is a thing.

This is the thing that I will say, I did lead it with this, but I failed the exam. I took the exam three times. To most people, I'm a failure, I'm less than all the things. However, within the first year and a half of practicing, I went from retail to clinical prioritization pharmacy to the government. That is unheard of.

Most people take five to 10 years to do that in a collective time. To do what I'm doing is unheard of, and I show you how to do that. So definitely. I'm on TikTok. YouTube. I like, I like to live in the land of YouTube and LinkedIn. That's where most you can find me. I'm mostly in those two areas. [00:48:00] I'm on all platforms.

So if you want to see consistency and see me often showing up, going to be LinkedIn and

Emily: Great. Great. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoyed this discussion.

LaQuita: Yes, thank you. 

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