The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7159 p151-153
4 August 2001

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Pharmacy education (2 letters)

Return to a pre-university apprenticeship

From Mr P. L. Taylor, MRPharmS

Congratulations to Ian Wood (PJ, 12 May) and Ben Hewitt (PJ, 26 May) for recognising and stating what the practice of community pharmacy is. The rebuttals from others wishing to dress it up as something else are amusing and will only beguile other unsuspecting students into taking it up.

I have been in practice since the 1950s and, frankly, see little or no change in all that time. I am still counting, pouring, licking and sticking now as then.

We older practitioners had the advantage of an apprenticeship before university so we at least had two years of before-hand experience, during which time we could change careers and suffer little damage.

Why not return to a two-year mandatory pre-university apprenticeship, then Mr Wood and Mr Hewitt could have taken up more suitable careers long ago.

Or do the powers that be know that this would be the death knell of the retail trade?

Paul Taylor
Toronto, Canada

Preregistration training should be kept

From Mr A. Phillips, MRPharmS

Although I see no disadvantages to the profession of allowing individuals to follow a part-time pharmacy degree course, as suggested by Maria Matthews (PJ, 28 July), I question the idea of doing away with the preregistration year for such students.

I appreciate that part-time students would probably be already working in a pharmacy environment and could apply their knowledge as it is picked up. However, until the completion of a pharmacy course, students, whether working or not, are not in a position to carry out the work expected of a pharmacist. It is the preregistration year that allows students to develop the skills required under the supervision of another pharmacist.

Alun Phillips
Liverpool

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