Learn more about the duties, practice settings, typical workdays, and educational opportunities, as well as personal advice from pharmacists in this practice area.
What is the academia / internal medicine pharmacy field?
Faculty members who practice in internal medicine have a very unique role. Pharmacists in these fields spend part of their day rounding and working directly with physicians to provide care for general medicine patients while also spending time teaching students and residents. Providing care as internal medicine pharmacists means they need to have a broad scope of knowledge. Patients can be in for an oncologic emergency, COPD, heart failure, renal failure, etc. A given day is always different with the diversity of disease states for which these pharmacists provide care.
Where does an internal medicine pharmacist in academia work?
An internal medicine pharmacist works within hospitals, but there is also a large subset working in ambulatory care clinics. Internal medicine pharmacists are trained to take care of patients across a large scope of disease states, making them able to practice wherever needed. Clinicians with this training are highly skilled to move into transition of care roles, and many also work for surgery groups, helping to manage the patients more acute or chronic, non-surgical, disease states. For those within the hospital setting, internal medicine pharmacists are generally out of central pharmacy and up on the general medicine wards, often rounding with the clinical teams or working in a de-centralized model helping cover floor-based medicine units.
As far as being a clinical faculty, clinical faculty practice in all specialties at any location, from hospital to community practice and ambulatory care to industry.
What does a typical workday look like?
For internal medicine pharmacists in academia, a typical workday involves both roles on a daily basis. For example, they can start their morning by tackling some emails or starting to pre-round at about 7 A.M., while ensuring that they are ready to round on 12 to 15 patients by 9 A.M. with a multidisciplinary team. When there are students or residents, the pharmacist can meet with them around 8:30 A.M. to discuss the patients they covered prior to those 9 A.M. rounds. Rounds tend to run around two hours, though can run up to three hours. Following rounds, these clinical pharmacists may head back to campus where they do some post-rounding patient discussions with students or residents. After that, they may be busy preparing lectures, attending institutional meetings at either their practice site or university, or working on one of many ongoing research projects. Days they lecture at their university may impact their usual schedule at the clinical setting if the class clashes with the time of rounds, but even on those days they make sure to touch base with the medical team to ensure patient care is always covered.
What educational opportunities are available for pharmacists in this area?
- Many pharmacists in this field complete work toward being BCPS certified. To find out more about board certification, you can visit the Board of Pharmacy Specialties Board Certification webpage.
- In internal medicine, you need baseline knowledge in almost every area. Resources such as ASHP’s annual BCPS review text are very helpful.
- ASHP’s CE offerings at Midyear are helpful to keep up with all the different aspects of this practice.
How can I learn more about this career path?
- ASHP has a dedicated Section of Clinical Specialists and Scientists. By joining the section, you can learn more about the unique needs and practices of this specialty area.
- Additionally, ASHP has internal medicine roundtable discussions at Midyear, as well as internal medicine discussions on ASHP Connect.
Member Career Profiles
Branden D. Nemecek, PharmD, BCPS
Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice
PGY2 Internal Medicine Program Director & Director of Residency Programs
Duquesne University School of Pharmacy
Internal Medicine Clinical Specialist
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – Mercy Hospital
What interested you in pharmacy and this career path?
“Internal medicine was interesting to me, mostly because I liked being a ‘jack of all trades.’ To me, it is more fun to know a bit about everything and to see a very diverse patient population than to know all the details about one specific area. I enjoy the fact that internal medicine patients range across all disease states. It ensures that no day is the same and that every day is a challenge to keep up with best practices. This keeps me engaged and constantly learning to ensure my patients receive the best care possible.
For academia, had you told me that I would be in this role as a student, I would have laughed at you, but as I grew in residency, I realized that explaining therapies and disease state management to others was the most interesting part of my job. I love helping others have that “ah ha” moment where they understand something and I helped them get there. Growing up, I really enjoyed coaching youth sports, and this is just an extension of that. If any of you have ever helped mentor someone and felt that pride when they did well on an exam, or helped someone learn a new sport and appreciated the glow in their eyes as they got that first hit in baseball or scored a goal in soccer, then teaching may be for you. Once it clicked with me that I could experience this feeling as part of my career, I was hooked!”
What advice do you have for someone interested in this career field?
“If the interest is in internal medicine, then my best advice is to get out there and experience as much as you can and keep your experiences as broad as possible. If you’re a student or resident, sign up for the most diverse rotations you can. Experience critical care and transplant and oncology and cardiology, knowing that as an internal medicine clinician, you will see all of this. In addition, try and shadow an internal medicine clinician if you can.
For those interested in academia, start by mentoring a colleague or teaching your peers a topic. Coach a sport. Take advantage of opportunities and ask for opportunities to work in a mentorship role, and when you’re on rotations (as a student or resident), ask to give presentations to your peers and the medical team you work with. The best advice for either role is just to take advantage of opportunities. Give them a chance; you learn if you love something or not by doing it. So just give it a shot!”