Is Pharmacy really a career to be avoided?

[Cybercubed]

Hi all,

I'm in my mid 30s, and I'm considering a career change to Pharmacy, I particularly have in interest in hospital Pharmacy as oppose to community. I've recently applied for a band 2 NHS Pharmacy Support Worker at my local hospital to see whether its something I would like. I'm single with no dependants and would have almost enough money to fund a second degree for it if necessary.

Does anyone have any experiences working as a Pharmacy assistant? Since I'm not a qualified pharmacist or technician I'm unsure of what my duties will actually be.

There appears to be a lot of negativity surrounding pharmacy online, is it really a career to be avoided?

You’d have to look it up but I think so yes, via a phd.

Why not a second degree that the nhs pays for /you can get a student loan for eg radiology, OT?

I’m a hospital pharmacist and really enjoy it. I did a 4 year undergraduate masters, then a pre-registration year. I am in the process of completing my clinical diploma, however, I have moved up and am currently an 8a for a specialist medicine which is very different as I’m doing lots of regional work too.

It’s very interesting and I personally feel like I do rewarding work every day. We are being integrated into the MDT more by attending ward rounds, post take ward rounds, prescribers running clinics etc. If you start now, you will graduate as a prescriber (I am not a fan of this personally!).

I did my training in community then moved to hospital. I think as a community pharmacist you can affect massive change by being passionate about the role and your patients and forging good relationships with the surgeries. I have patients come in where I wish the community pharmacist had intervened with their medicines as you will be in a good place to see them month on month. Also there are jobs in GP land, nursing homes etc. Overall an enjoyable career with good hours I would say and decent pay (who wouldn’t like more!)

It's a well paid job but is stressful. Think the manager of e.g. Boots has to be a pharmacist if that store has a pharmacy. Friend of mine has a daughter who was fast tracked in Boots and made £££ but she worked hard.

Genuine question - what is the role apart from checking and putting medicines in a bag?Advice to patients which are already on the packet? I'm not being rude - I'm just reading stuff about how it's a lot more than that and don't know what that other stuff is?

You need to understand how the drugs work and any potential interactions with any other drugs the patient is on plus issues like polypharmacy. Plus being able to recognise errors or potential issues in prescribing by medics (things like formulations - eg a capsule or table being ordered for a patient who has trouble swallowing) on hospital charts. (I’m not a pharmacist but I’ve worked with them). There are lots of other behind the scenes roles too but I’ve worked with them in a ward scenario.

We have 2 band 7 pharmacists in our practice. Not full time. They take a lot of work away from me. Do medication reviews, one is doing diabetic clinics. If I have problems finding a strange drug in the computer they help me. They have more time to go over things with patients. I love our pharmacists and would have more if we could get any!!

Well, the wrong dose can kill somebody as can a fatal drug interaction, and that’s where the responsibly lies. Chemotherapy dispensing, for example is extremely precise. You need a really thorough understanding of how drugs work. Where I worked the doctors would ask pharmacists for advice on the finer points of prescribing.

Even so- Mistakes happen!
I received a double dose of CDs dispensed and handed the excess back.
New Pharmacist.
They were very grateful! :)

I worked alongside pharmacists in industry for all my career ( I’m a chemist though). You can find them in all divisions in pharmaceutical companies from Regulatory, research, formulation , to manufacturing roles in quality control, quality assurance and as a qualified person (highly paid role as this is person who is legally responsible for, releasing a batch of medication and will be in dock if anything goes wrong).
many of my pharmacy degree colleagues moved into other manufacturing division roles as they progressed - from production team leaders, supply chain experts, laboratory leaders etc. The pharmaceutical industry is so underpinned with regulatory requirements and pharmacy that you’re never far removed in whatever role you do.

so, great opportunities and varied career options in the industry

However, I have relative that qualified as hospital pharmacist around 3 years ago. During time she was studying it seemed that industrial pharmacist roles and jobs were not being focused on. It’s now apparently Very hard to get placements for pre reg year (or is that post retirement- can’t remember) with industry so that made it a less well trod route. But it seems that courses are more geared to assuming career in hosptial or pharmacy now.

The pharmaceutical industry still has a strong manufacturing and research base in uk ..but I think we’re seeing signs of that diminishing with brexit - particularly in manufacturing due to the requirement for qualified person to be based in EU country to ship to Eu, and the whole movement of the centralised regulatory authority for Eu out of london and into remaining EU countries. An inevitable result of Brexit that the industry saw coming, sadly.

in my experience pharmacists are usually smart people who have taken an actually very underestimated and difficult degree. It is hard work and a long time to qualify. You have to be comfortable with a huge and demanding level of study, be very analytical and numerical, and require a solid foundation and confidence in chemistry as well as biology at A level. Even as a retail pharmacist you’ve got to have a strong working foundation of medicine to be able to advise patients who come in to shop for consultation. I think these pharmacists, and their knowledge, are a very underused resource for the NHS in primary care - not enough people know that they can walk into a chemist and ask pharmacist for advice in private room as a first pass before going to Gp. I do think there are si*nhs the government is begging to realise that these pharmacists could help alleviate some of issues with GP availability if we only set up systems to do that. Pharmacists have the knowledge and training to do that.

What is your education level and how recent? Pharmacy degrees are not that easy to get in to.

I work in a community pharmacy... a lowly counter assistant... the one who gets shouted at... a lot... by customers.

My daughter looked into becoming a pharmacist, but her Chemistry was not good enough.

Begging= beginning

Good doctors have always deferred to pharmacists when it comes to drug interactions, prescribing doses etc. I like it when a Gp actually bothers to refer to the BNF rather than just relying on their memory when prescribing anything other than the standard stuff.

I'd absolutely tell anyone
To go for it with a vocational job - good luck

I have a pharmacy degree, worked in community and hospital.

I left pharmacy in 2017 and have transferred my skills to the regulatory side and international pharmaceutical distribution. Making this move doubled my earning power overnight and after 4 years I now earn just shy of 110k.

@PlanetNormal not true at all. We are never involved in shop floor or retail queries unless a customer stops us on our way back from a break.

Honestly, it has its pros and cons and it depends how far you want to go with it. There are some fantastic career opportunities within the pharmacy field.

I am a community pharmacist and luckily I only work part time, full time is hard, hard work. The pay doesn’t reflect the job. We have a lot of responsibilities and we are only getting lumbered with more and more but no pay rise to reflect this. The clinical side of pharmacy is great, it’s interesting and challenging and I have to say there is never a dull day!

My daily duties include checking prescriptions, patient consultations for blood pressure checks, medication enquiries (viagra, contraceptive pill, antibiotics), vaccinations for flu and pneumonia, chasing up doctors to query medications (quite often), travel clinics for anti malarials, triaging 111 referrals and much more. Every day you really do learn something new.

Like I said, the pay doesn’t reflect the work we do and sometimes as a pharmacist you can feel massively under appreciated. Hopefully that will change soon, as they are desperate for pharmacists in all sectors! But overall if it’s something you really felt like you had an interest in then definitely go for it!

*table should obviously read tablet

@Eeiliethya

Did you have to study a phd for this position? Is it difficult to transfer as a practising Pharmacist into Industry?

I'm always amazed by the vast knowledge pharmacists have. But it seems a deadly boring job. I'm a nurse though.

I'm interested in this too, because I don't think the reward would be great enough unless you don't actually need the money too much. Well, you can eat £50k a year, but is that worth it at your stage?

For industry yes you will need a PhD

They definitely are suddenly desperate for pharmacists even though there's more being churned out from uni than ever before. I remember around 2005 etc there were lots of Spanish pharmacists coming in and rates went down. I guess a Brexit benefit is that pharmacist rates are really good now

Absolutely. I have the utmost respect for the guys in Pharmacy.

I'm a hospital pharmacist specialising in cancer and it is hard hard work. the specialty is fascinating, but it's relentlessly stressful. Core hours are 'good' on paper but no breaks, often working (unpaid) overtime, late shifts, weekends, on call from home overnight etc...

You need to be extremely dedicated. I love my patients but I'm wondering how much longer I can keep going like this. Pharmacists rarely get a 'thank you', and do get a lot of blame for things out of their control. You need thick skin!

I'm now wanting out of it. Although there will be less stressful specialities- cancer and intensive care may be the worst... very high levels of burnout