I think personally you should do pharmacy. As a PA, you work "under" a Doctor. You would be your own man as a pharmacist. Also as a PA, you would still have to see some patients in bad condition and maybe even do minor "surgery". I have had a PA remove several ingrown toenails, which is technically a surgery. Or so I here. There many types of pharmacists you can be: the widest categories being retail or hospital. As a tech, I like retail because I like dealing with customers as opposed to just other medical workers. But if you don't wanna deal with the general public directly, hospital might be your thing. As far as stress goes, I'm a tech, but I can imagine that both types would have their fair share of it. I know that some of our pharmacist are immunizers(they can give shots), some are compounders(they can make lotions,etc.). That is ,of course ,in addition to doing their normal pharmacist duties.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to completely answer all your questions, but I hope what little knowledge I have helps some. Good luck, study hard,

Ha, neither of those are low stress jobs. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with PA.

Pharmacists are responsible for peoples' lives . . . not low stress at all. They also usually work 50+ hours a week, standing the entire time.

Also, hospital pharmacies usually look for pharmacists with at least 5+ years of retail experience. Good luck with all those miserable, screaming customers.

Uh...PA's are responsible for peoples lives also. Check out www.physicianassistantforum.com for more information on PA's

With both jobs there is alot of responsibility, with responsibility to you are going to find stress. Its absolutely depends on where you are practicing. If you are practicing at a CVS as a pharmacist I'm assuming your job is much less stressful then working as a pharmacist on critical care floors. Also pharmacists on oncology unit i have heard have a large role. As a PA your lowest stress job would be something like in dermatology for example. more stressful would be like internal medicine, family medicine, emergency med, surgery, etc. Both are great careers and I can tell you there jobs will be less stressful then if you decide to go the burger king career choice or a job somewhere where security is never stable and your working paycheck to paycheck...

The pharmacy tech is an idiot. remember to be a pharmacy tech you only need a 6 week degree (or a weekend if someone is willing to teach you). PAs see all kinds of patients. PAs do not work "under" doctors. They have their own patients and practice medicine with supervision by a physician similarly to how a resident physician is supervised by a physician. I'm currently planning on doing my elective in heart and lung surgery. Sorry to say but there are no ingrown toe nails in heart and lung surgery

I would say go with being a pharmacy technician, They tend to work at local drug stores and their hours are more stable than a Physician Assistant, and it would be less stressful than a PA,