Passport to nowhere
In some circles, pharmacy is the flavour of the month. New universities, and those that have established medical and medicine-related departments in the past few years, are queuing up to provide undergraduate courses in pharmacy. Earlier this week, Kingston University was given the go ahead to open its doors to students of pharmacy in September, joining Medway and East Anglia, both recently established departments, which are either on the brink of taking in students or have done so in the past 12 months.
We can understand the appeal of pharmacy for universities. With the Government
keen to increase the number of young people having a university education,
pharmacy seems a safe bet. With no end in sight to the shortage of pharmacists
in practice — particularly in NHS posts — graduates, once
registered, can be sure of a job. Moreover, for people armed with a professional
qualification such as pharmacy, the range of career opportunities is
seemingly unlimited. Portfolio careers will remain in fashion and pharmacists
need rarely fear unemployment. As increasing numbers of women enter pharmacy — many
of whom may want a career break or wish to reduce their working hours
to look after children — the need for pharmacists will always be
there. Universities will, therefore, always be able to attract pharmacy
students. Students bring money with them and that means a steady income
for the university. Everyone is happy.
However, a word of caution comes from Robert Dewdney, head of education
at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Among his concerns is a worry that
if the expansion is too rapid, or uncontrolled, there simply will not
be enough teaching staff to go round (see p531).
And that is not all. A degree in pharmacy is only the first step towards
a career as a pharmacist. The next, crucial, step is to find a suitable
preregistration placement — and here is where problems may lie
in the future.
A year ago, there were rumblings that some recent graduates were finding
it hard to find a preregistration placement at all, let alone one that
was in a sector of interest or preferred part of the country. How will
the profession cope with extra graduates in four or five years’ time
if there are already difficulties? Around Norwich, where the University
of East Anglia is based, local pharmacists have been keen to be involved
in the undergraduate course — students in that part of the country,
as in the Medway region, are still a novelty. But whether this enthusiasm
will still be there to support preregistration trainees remains to be
seen.
Without doubt this is a problem that can be anticipated and there is
time to deal with it. Is current preregistration training right for the
future, or should it undergo a radical rethink? If this is not resolved,
there could come a time when a pharmacy degree becomes a passport to
nowhere.
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