The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 266 No 7149 p718-722
May 26, 2001

  RPM
  Packaging
  Disillusioned youth
  GlaxoSmithKline
  Interactions
  Travel medicine
  Seprate register
  Code of Ethics

Disillusioned youth (5 letters)

There are good companies out here

From Mr F. R. Bayliss, MRPharmS

I have just read the harrowing experiences of your correspondent Ian Wood (PJ, May 12, p654). If the picture painted in his letter is a true reflection of the working conditions he has to endure, then I suggest he shops round for a better deal.

He need look no further than the company I work for, who will offer a five-day 37.5 hour week. In my 12.5 years service I have only once been asked to work on my day off, and then on a purely voluntary basis with another day off the following week or suitable payment. The same applies to any requests to work during my lunch hour. I enjoy having five weeks' paid holiday per year, plus one extra day for long service.

When I have completed my 30 hours of home study I show the Centre for Postgraduate Pharmaceutical Education certificates to my line manager, who will arrange another two days' paid leave as my reward or compensation for using my spare time to study.

All Bank Holidays are paid, and anyone volunteering to work these can earn double time. There is a good sick pay scheme, and an excellent company pension. We are paid a realistic salary, with annual reviews; also we have one week's pay for our Christmas bonus, and normally a bonus in June related to company profits. In addition the company pays my annual subcription to the Society, which is somewhat higher than the eight guineas I had to fork out when I first joined!

I am looking forward to my remaining six years, and would be pleased to tell any interested party the name of my company, if they would care to phone me on 01444 455430 in the evening.

F. R. Bayliss
Cuckfield, West Sussex

Soul-destroying and mindless assembly

Mr B. Hewitt, MRPharmS

I write with reference to the letter of Ian Wood (PJ, May 12, p654) with whom I, as a recently qualified pharmacist, totally agree.

The difficulty yet interest of my degree, has been replaced by a soul-destroying, mindless assembly and packing job. The job satisfaction I obtain from this career is virtually nil and I am sure I am not the only pharmacist chained to the dispensing desk. Dispensing should be a technician's role and I consider my four years of training wasted for a job a robot could do!

I feel that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society does little to represent its members and does not stand up for their working rights as it should. I believe pharmacists, after four (now five) years of training with all our responsibilities, lack of tea-breaks, late-night shift-working, etc, should be worth more than the measly £22,000 — £30,000 salaries most of us can expect. The Society should address this issue with employers and the Government. “Pharmacy in a new age” will falter with no pharmacists to implement it.

The Society also needs to take a serious and thorough look into the appalling working conditions pharmacists must endure, where some pharmacists can find themselves working as sole pharmacist for in excess of 13-hour shifts.

To compound the problem of long hours, why should pharmacists go without breaks? These are a basic right afforded to virtually all other workers. This practice is dangerous. If pharmacists are not to eat in the dispensary, then are we to starve? I for one find it difficult to perform a pharmacist's role in the manner I think appropriate when tired and hungry.

“Pharmacy is not a thinking man's job,” one pharmacist told me during my preregistration year. He was right. Pharmacy should come with a warning, “creative thinkers need not apply”. It is because of this, I believe pharmacy will never shake off its shopkeeper image.

I admire companies who are aiming to push the professional image of the career, but more radical steps need to be implemented for this to be taken seriously by the general public. It is time pharmacists stopped using their expertise as a bargaining chip to drive sails, but actually charged for that advice. This would also provide the incentive for pharmacists to enhance their clinical knowledge.

I hope enough action will be taken by the Society in order to avoid the looming demise of the profession.

Ben Hewitt
Bristol

Only you can influence your career

From Mr C. McSorley, MRPharmS

I read, in amazement, the letter from Ian Wood (PJ, May 12, p654) I am stunned that someone so new to the profession is already disillusioned. This is a young man who has the world at his feet. He has a tremendous level of untapped pharmaceutical knowledge and an apparent desire to apply it. Yet already he has accepted that the act of labelling and dispensing prescriptions is his role for the foreseeable future.

I ask myself why he does not get enjoyment from his role as a pharmacist, why he does not apply his knowledge of pharmacology, physiology or toxicology, and why he accepts that his job is to solely label and file prescriptions? Why is it that he feels that someone else needs to bring his vision for pharmacy to reality? Why does he not feel he himself can change that which has always been done? Why can he not rise above the norm and deliver the kind of pharmaceutical service to which he aspires?

There are already a plethora of opportunities to deliver a better pharmaceutical service. How about ensuring that the patient has a full understanding of their medication and how it should be taken to maximise its effectiveness. How about talking to patients about their repeat medication — when was it last reviewed with them? Are their medicines effective for them? Are they suffering from any simple adverse reactions that can be removed or eliminated by changing when or how they take their medicine?

Then there are the interactions with other healthcare professionals. What about taking a trip to the local surgery to introduce yourself and tell them of the services that you are already providing? How about asking them to tell you what their needs or wants are? You may be able to use the knowledge gained during the undergraduate degree in pharmacy to help them.

Rewards, both professional satisfaction and financial, will come from your involvement in providing services that your training gave you the ability to deliver. You will need to identify the type of service you want to be involved with and then seek out like-minded individuals or those who can see the potential in your idea. Do not expect this to be a simple process, but you may find on your journey there are some others who are there already. If you have a vision of the type of service you should be delivering, then you and only you can influence whether you achieve it.

Ciaran McSorley
Balsall Common, West Midlands

If it is broken, then help fix it

From Mr N. Wicks, MRPharmS

I was interested to read the comments from Ian Wood (PJ, May 12, p654), a newly qualified pharmacist who finds his practice neither interesting nor exciting. Mr Wood voices the opinion of some young pharmacists, who having qualified with many of the skills of a “new age” pharmacist, find pharmacy practice on the whole sadly lacking. It is also true that many young pharmacists are seriously looking at a career change and that urgent action is needed.

I do not however believe that it is constructive or even fair to unload the blame for all of pharmacy's shortcomings at the feet of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. If urgent action is needed then it is we, the youth of the profession, that need to be spearheading it, not abandoning it. If we do not do something, then we shall be the ones to blame when our profession disappears in 20 years' time. I would encourage the newly qualified not to be like the Harry Enfield character “Only me!” continuously saying “you didn't want to do it like that!”

If it is broken then help fix it. Pharmacy has many groups to become involved with, all of whom further practice and the profession in their own way, eg, the Young Pharmacists Group, the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, the Society's local branches, the Industrial Pharmacists Group, the National Pharmaceutical Association and the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association.

There is one thing that I have learned by being part of a group, the people you meet and the things you learn can all help to give you that seemingly elusive job satisfaction. Ian Wood may even find out how to spend less time at his computer and more time with patients, thus promoting our profession in the best way possible, directly to our patients. So join in and be inspired!

Noel Wicks
Stirling

Get stuck in

From Miss J. E. Peacham MRPharmS

Although I empathise with the disillusioned young pharmacist (PJ, May 12, p654) I must write to disagree with the view that pharmacy is neither interesting nor exciting.

I am also a newly qualified pharmacist but believe that I have joined the profession at an important and exciting time. Through involvement with local branch affairs and by working with the local pharmacy development group, I have met many other enthusiastic and well-motivated pharmacists. Through these groups I have seen how the role of the pharmacist continues to develop locally beyond that of merely dispensing prescriptions.

The number of services provided by pharmacists continues to increase both within the pharmacy and as part of the wider multidisciplinary health care team. I believe that pharmacy can be an extremely stimulating and rewarding profession and that pharmacists do make a difference to the quality of health and general well-being of patients on a day-to-day basis.

It is the responsibility of every pharmacist to take control of their career and to find an environment that enables them to gain the job satisfaction that they deserve. Perhaps rather than writing to The Journal with tales of woe, pharmacists' efforts could be better spent getting involved with local initiatives and developing the profession, rather than waiting for someone else to do the hard work for them.

Joanna Peacham
Hull

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