Pharmacist

[IWannaRock]

After the last year, Covid, 2nd child, family bereavement and house move, I decided to take a career break and try to focus on finding a new career path that I want to do, not just continue with what I've fallen in to doing.

I've seen a job advert for a trainee pharmacy dispenser (they'll assist with the training and qualifications and further progression) and it's piqued my interest. Are there any pharmacists who could give me a clearer idea of the role?

I've wanted to move into something more medical based but I only have experience as a PA.

As a dispenser you’ll be labelling prescriptions, fetching the correct box from the shelf and checking drug name/strength/quantity against the prescription. Once you’ve settled into the role you can go on to train as a technician.

Better brush up on your cryptology skills. Some doctors have appalling handwriting, one prescription got passed around two dispensers, one technician and two pharmacists before we figured out what was actually written!

It’s a good job, always interesting, sometimes a bit stressful and occasionally heartbreaking but I’d recommend it. I trained as a dispenser three years ago and it’s the best thing I ever did. Once DS is a little older I’m going to look into technician training, and improve my skills and knowledge a bit more

The job involves serving customers, taking in and handing out prescriptions, giving over the counter medicines advice, safe supply of medicines. You would be expected to put out stock, price tickets, planograms, date check items. You would then learn how to label prescriptions, dispense them, label dosette boxes and make them up. You will learn how to query a prescription with a prescriber if a dose is inappropriate or to clarify what the prescriber will wanting. You would be expected to follow this up, pass on any notes and be responsible for your own work. Any medication that is out of stock would need to be chased with suppliers, sometimes you would seek an alternative from the prescriber or contact the patient so they could take the prescription elsewhere.Depending on the area in which you work you might have to dispense methadone or buprenorphine for people on addiction programmes. In a smaller chemist there would be other jobs like cleaning, emptying bins too.

It is a varied job as involves science and retail if you were to work in community pharmacy. Depending on where you work it can be very fast paced and does involve a lot of learning. Some will be on the job learning but you will be enrolled on a course to study in your own time with the support of a supervising pharmacist. It is a lot of learning for not much more than minimum wage and more stressful if you make a mistake as the implications can be serious.

During the pandemic, particularly the first lockdown working in community pharmacy was very stressful with queues around the block and people panicking about their medications, supply issues from manufacturers and we had to deal with a lot of concerned but sometimes irate and rude customers. It really isn't a job for the faint hearted. You need to have a thick skin and really be interested in pharmacy to succeed. Many chain pharmacies are short staffed and unable to give new starts the training they deserve. If you are thinking about applying for a job with a group like Boots or Lloyds for example I would pop into your local branch and speak to a member of staff about what it is like to actually work for the company or even have a nosey at how many people are working there.

I don't mean to be pessimistic, I'm a pharmacist and love my job but dispensers are leaving pharmacy in droves because the pay isn't great for the amount of responsibility they have (at least in my area).