Inside Tomorrow's Pharmacist (2001)
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Careers — Where do you start?
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Inside Tomorrow's Pharmacist (2001) |
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Careers — Where do you start? by Sue Livingston |
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Pharmacists who practise in the community are usually the first port of call for patients who are ill so they need to have a wide knowledge of minor ailments. The pharmacy is a unique environment where people seeking medical or health advice can simply drop in without making an appointment. You will get to know customers who regularly use the pharmacy and build up close relationships with patients. Dispensing a prescription isn't only about counting out the pills and putting them in a bottle. A community pharmacist is expected to check that the prescription is correct and to pick up on any dosage errors or drug interactions. With access to a patient's medication history via the computer, the community pharmacist is in an ideal position to spot any errors in a regular prescription. They have close links with the local GP practices and will often be called upon to advise doctors about new drugs when they become available. Pharmacists in the community are well placed to provide the public with general advice about health. They can become involved in campaigns, such as smoking cessation programmes or healthy eating campaigns. Some pharmacists are more directly involved with patient health and offer blood pressure checks and measure cholesterol levels. They may also become involved in helping drug misusers by supplying free sterile needles and syringes in needle exchange schemes. Many pharmacists are involved in supplying residential homes with drugs and the other equipment they need. Often they will take on responsibility to advise the establishment on how to administer medicines, as well as storage issues. You might be attracted to a career in community pharmacy because of the opportunity to run your own business and become your own boss. Alternatively, you might want to gain structured business training by joining one of the bigger multiple companies. Some pharmacists turn to a full or part-time career as a locum pharmacist once they have gained experience in the community sector. Pharmacists can expect to be well paid in the community and many companies now offer attractive salary packages to woo prospective preregistration trainees. Starting salaries are around £20,000 and can go up to £40,000 or £50,000 in senior managerial positions. Working in community pharmacy can involve long hours but it can also offer flexible working conditions. Many pharmacies are open seven days a week and in the evenings too. This means that one pharmacy can employ a number of different pharmacists doing a variety of different hours. Hospital pharmacists work as members of a team within the hospital. Most hospital pharmacy departments are very sociable places to work and being out on the wards offers opportunities to work closely with other health care professionals and you will have a lot of contact with patients. Pharmacists working in hospitals have responsibility for all aspects of drug use, from procurement and manufacture right through to clinical use and monitoring therapy. The early years of your hospital career will be well structured as you gain the clinical knowledge and confidence required to practise on your own. A junior pharmacist will usually rotate through all the hospital pharmacy specialties so they gain knowledge in all fields. The different branches of hospital pharmacy can provide pharmacists with a specialist career. You might want to specialise in the manufacture of medicinal products, such as chemotherapy or parenteral feeding solutions. Or you might want to specialise in the preparation of radioactive medicines. Some hospital pharmacists will want to pursue a career in medicines information where they become involved in providing vital information to their colleagues and other health care workers.
One of the great attractions of hospital pharmacy is that pharmacists get a lot of contact with patients and other health care professionals. A big part of the job is liaising with doctors and nurses to ensure drugs are used safely and correctly. Pharmacists get out on to the wards where they become a valued member of the health care team. There is a very good career structure in hospital pharmacy. Pharmacists are graded using letters to describe each grade. Hospital grades start at Grade A and go up to Grade H. Starting salaries can be as high as £19,000 and go up to around £50,000 in some cases, if you are talented enough to become a director of pharmaceutical services! Extra payments are given to pharmacists who work extra hours or who are on-call. These extra duty commitment payments (EDC) can add a couple of thousand pounds on to a salary. Have you thought about industry? The pharmaceutical industry offers a wide variety of choices of career. Some pharmacists who want to study for a higher degree will want to consider the industry as a place to carry out drug research. More pharmacists enter the field of drug research than any other sector of the industry because the pharmaceutics component of the undergraduate course makes pharmacy the most appropriate course for anyone wanting to become involved in medicine formulation. Another area of interest to pharmacists within the industry is clinical trials. Pharmacists will become involved in co-ordinating clinical trials and organising the supply or medicines. Or you might want to pursue a career in production or quality assurance or become involved in drug information. The registration and approval of new drugs is a lengthy and complex process. Information about the chemistry and formulation of the drug along with the results of toxicological and clinical studies has to be collated. This role is ideally suited to a pharmacist. You might be interested in the marketing of new drugs and want to become a medical representative. Medical representatives are involved in explaining the important features of new products to health care professionals like doctors, nurses and other pharmacists. It is difficult to be specific about salaries in the industry. A guide would be to say that starting salaries are in the region of £20,000. On average, you can expect to earn around £40,000 and salaries in senior management positions will exceed £60,000 pa. Prescribing advisers co-ordinate pharmaceutical services, offer advice to GPs and community pharmacists, analyse prescribing practices and patterns and help to achieve cost effective use of medicines. In some areas, prescribing support pharmacists work with PCG pharmacists or the health authority carrying out practice based work. Salaries tend to be similar to those of the middle to higher grade hospital jobs because this type of role demands a certain level of experience. However, some pharmaceutical advisers work as independent consultants. More often than not, the posts are filled by pharmacists who have a hospital background but community pharmacists who have a number of year's experience would also be suited to this type of post. Prison service Some pharmacists choose to work within the prison service. Prison pharmacists tend to have a lot of responsibility and the role can be quite a challenge. The type of work is very varied being somewhat of a cross between community pharmacy and hospital pharmacy. Most prisons have a hospital wing where acutely ill patients or those with mental health problems can be managed. But on the whole, the prison population would suffer the same common ailments as people in the community. There is usually only one pharmacist in each prison who works with one or more pharmacy technician. In the prison service you are very much a member of the health care team as in the health service. You will liaise with medical officers as well and hospital officers and nursing staff. Prison pharmacists are usually recruited at hospital grade D and above so salaries can be quite high and there is usually an environmental allowance added on to the salary. Health-related organisations Many pharmacists work in organisations like the Department of Health, the Medicines Control Agency or the NHS Executive in areas such as quality control, medicines licensing or policy making. Again these types of role would usually be open to pharmacists with experience in the particular field. Salaries usually reflect the senior level of these types of job. Teaching and academia Some pharmacists are employed in schools of pharmacy and other university departments in teaching or research. Research fellows earn between £16,000 and £20,000 with lecturers earning more depending on their grade. There are also a number of teacher-practitioner posts, which combine practice and academia. Writing and editing There are numerous scientific, medical and pharmaceutical publications, as well the lay press that employ pharmacists as writers and editors. Drug and public relations companies also need medical writers. Agricultural and veterinary pharmacy A small proportion of pharmacists work in this sector. Some work in veterinary pharmacy, others work in the veterinary products industry or the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (formerly the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods). Getting a holiday job in a community pharmacy or hospital department is a good way of getting a flavour of what the work is going to be like. Some drug companies will also take on students in the summer. Apart from gaining valuable experience, it's worth remembering that future employers will look favourably on candidates with relevant work experience. Most of the big retail companies have websites where you can find out more information, for example: Lloydspharmacy www.lloydspharmacy.com Co-op Pharmacy www.co-oppharmacy.co.uk Boots The Chemists www.recruit.boots.co.uk If you want to find out more about careers in community pharmacy you can also visit the National Pharmaceutical Association's website at www.npa.co.uk. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's website
contains career information www.rpsgb.org.uk
and provides information about the various specialist groups If you are interested in agricultural or veterinary pharmacy, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also has a website that can give you an idea of this sector www.defra.gov.uk. If you want more information about the pharmaceutical industry and the types of careers on offer you can log on to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's website www.abpi.org.uk. A new website www.pharmacyinthefuture.org.uk might be a good starting point for finding out more about what is going on in the primary care sector. Careers fairs are another good way of finding out more about the available opportunities. During October there is a careers fair at Pharmacy Live www.pharmacylive.co.uk, which you might visit. What are the reasons for your choice? Community pharmacy Hospital pharmacy Industrial pharmacy Primary care pharmacy |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
Over
the past 10 years, the NHS has increasingly employed pharmacists to work
as pharmaceutical advisers in health authorities, primary care trusts
and primary care groups.