Entrepreneurship Pharmacy Pathway
Faculty
- Karen Blumenschein, Pharm. D. - Pathway Coordinator
- Trish Freeman, B.S. Ph.D.
What does an entrepreneurial pharmacist do?
An entrepreneurial pharmacist is one who owns and manages their own pharmacy or pharmacies. They may be in partnership with other individuals who may function either as participating partners or as silent partners. The advantage to owning your own pharmacy is that you can make decisions regarding how your practice will function and implement those decisions without obtaining approval from others. In addition pharmacists who own their own businesses and run them properly on the average have done well financially, more so than the average employee pharmacist.
Most commonly an entrepreneurial pharmacist would own a community pharmacy. However they may own other types of practices i.e. a clinic pharmacy, a pharmacy that services nursing homes, a compounding pharmacy, a home infusion pharmacy, or some combination of any of these with a more traditional community pharmacy.
To be successful in entrepreneurial pharmacy you must not only have good clinical and people skills, but you must also have good business skills.
Establishing an entrepreneurial pharmacy may sound like a daunting task, and certainly doing so right out of school would be very difficult. However, individuals with established independent pharmacies frequently look for partners, or individuals to take over the pharmacy as they phase out or retire. Working with such an established entrepreneurial pharmacist and gradually assuming ownership as managerial skills develop is a good way to "phase" into the business.
Intended Outcomes
As a result of participating in this pathway, students will be:
- More familiar with the different types of clinical research conducted in the College of Pharmacy and be exposed to various types of research design and research methodology.
- More familiar with processes and procedures involved in conducting clinical/translational research.
- More familiar with the rules, regulations, requirements and process for conducting clinical research.
- Able to make a more informed decision as to whether a life in an academic or industrial clinical research environment is an eventual career goal, in which case the student may wish to follow up his or her Pharm.D. with a research fellowship, residency or enter a Ph.D. program, depending upon their area of interest.