Pharmacy Intern

CVS Health•Highland Park, NJ

17d•Onsite

About The Position

This role is for a 3rd year Pharmacy Intern at CVS Health, focused on transforming healthcare and making the company a great place to work. The intern will support pharmacy teams in retail locations, helping to deliver on the brand promise and develop their own skills. The position involves applying pharmacy school learning to real-world practice under the direction of a preceptor, following a comprehensive training roadmap. The intern will gain hands-on experience through Key Learning Experiences (KLEs), activities, and interactions with district leaders. Responsibilities include assisting the pharmacy team to ensure smooth operations, prompt, safe, and accurate prescription fulfillment, and exceeding patient expectations with caring service. The intern will learn to operate as part of the pharmacy team by consistently applying Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), best practices, and effective communication. They will demonstrate empathy and genuine care in all interactions, contributing to a safe and inclusive culture. The role involves completing a training roadmap focused on KLEs that build aptitude in various areas, with increasing responsibility for the safety and effectiveness of pharmacy operations as tenure increases. Specific duties include following SOPs at each workstation, adhering to pharmacy workflow procedures, contributing to positive patient experiences through empathy and personalized service, offering immunizations and other services, counseling patients, fielding medical questions, soliciting medical history, taking telephonic prescriptions, clarifying prescriptions with prescribers, providing in-the-moment coaching and mentoring, completing basic inventory activities, contributing to a high-performing team, embracing a growth mindset, remaining flexible for scheduling and business needs, traveling to other stores as needed, and understanding and complying with all relevant laws, regulations, professional standards, ethical principles, and company policies. The intern may also support immunizations, which includes completing additional licensure and training, educating patients, monitoring for adverse reactions, and reviewing/collecting patient information.

Requirements

Accepted into, or actively enrolled in, an ACPE accredited college or school of pharmacy
Must possess, or be in the process of obtaining, valid intern and/or technician licensure as required
Regular and predictable attendance, including nights and weekends
Ability to complete required training within designated timeframe
Ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time
Ability to pivot quickly from one task to another to meet patient and business needs
Ability to confirm prescription information and label accuracy, ensuring patient safety
Actively look for ways to help people, and do so in a friendly manner
Notice and understand patients’ reactions, and respond appropriately
Use and understand verbal and written communication to interact with patients and colleagues
Utilize active listening by giving full attention to what others are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times
Ability to use math to solve a problem, such as determining the total number of tablets to dispense, day’s supply, and/or number of full bottles and additional bottles needed to fill a prescription
Identifying challenging patient or colleague interactions and choosing the best course of action when faced multiple options
Be mobile and remain upright for extended periods of time
Lift, scan, and bag items
Reach overhead; stretch or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs to grasp items
Move fingers repetitively; picking, pinching, typing, or otherwise working primarily with fingers rather than whole hand or arm
Extend hand(s) and arm(s) multiple directions to place, move, or lift items
Control precision; quickly adjust machines to exact positions
Stoop to a considerable degree, requiring full use of the lower extremities and back muscles to move items between low and high positions, including bending spine at the waist
Close visual acuity to perform activities such as: transcribing, viewing a computer terminal, reading, visual inspection involving small parts
Occasionally lift of up to 20 lbs and/or exert up to 20 lbs. of force; Frequently lift of up to 10 lbs and/or exert up to 10 lbs. of force; Consistently lift and/or exert a negligible amount of force to move objects.
Express or exchange ideas by means of spoken word where detailed or important spoken instructions must be conveyed accurately ; Have the ability to receive detailed information through oral communication

Nice To Haves

1+ years of related work experience in pharmacy, retail, medical, or customer service setting
Ability to become immunization certified: Once state regulations are met, pharmacy interns should be striving to provide patient immunizations as this is an essential pharmacist function
Ability to work in home store, and across the market in other locations, to meet business needs
Proficiency in Microsoft Suite (Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.)

Responsibilities

Living our purpose by following all company SOPs at each workstation to help our Pharmacists and Technicians manage and improve patient health
Following pharmacy workflow procedures at each pharmacy workstation (i.e., production, pick-up, drive-thru, and drop-off) for safe and accurate prescription fulfillment
Contributing to positive patient experiences showing empathy and genuine care: creating heartfelt and personalized moments while serving patients at pick-up, drive-thru, and over the phone; keeping patients healthy by offering immunizations and other services at the register and over the phone; and demonstrating compassionate care by solving or escalating patient problems
Offering to counsel, fielding medical questions, and soliciting information on a patient’s medical history to provide optimal care, when appropriate under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist
Taking telephonic prescriptions from the prescriber, and calling the prescriber to clarify prescriptions or facilitate medication changes, where allowed by state regulation
Maintaining the highest level of self-awareness and providing in-the-moment coaching, training, and mentoring to pharmacy team members while sharing best practices
Completing basic inventory activities, as permitted by law, and as directed by the pharmacy leadership team, such as accurately putting away medication deliveries and completing cycle counts, returns-to-stocks, waiting bin inventories, etc.
Contributing to a high-performing team, embracing a growth mindset, and being receptive to feedback; actively seeking opportunities to expand clinical and technical knowledge needed to better assist patients
Remaining flexible for both scheduling and business needs, while contributing to a safe, inclusive, and engaging team dynamic; voluntarily traveling to stores in the market to work shifts as needed by the business
Understanding and complying with all relevant federal, state, and local laws, regulations, professional standards, and ethical principles.
Complying with CVS policies and procedures to ensure patient safety, compliance with controlled substance dispensing and recordkeeping, and to protect patient privacy and security
Delivering additional patient health care services (e.g., immunizations, point-of-care testing, and voluntarily staffing offsite clinics), where allowable by law and supported by required training and certification
Completing additional licensure and training requirements, in compliance with state Board of Pharmacy regulations, to obtain Technician Immunizer status to support preparing and administering vaccines
Educating patients about the importance of vaccines and referring patients to the Pharmacist-on-duty for vaccination questions
Monitoring for, and responding to, adverse reactions; reporting adverse reaction events per public health requirements
Reviewing and collecting patient information; tracking and documenting for each applicable patient