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Hospital pharmacy Pre-registration Applications (Pharmalife) 2017/2018

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Original post by MeredithGrey13
I didn't think there was interest on student fee loans! goodness me, what a disaster! What if people move abroad? How does paying back SF work then?
Can I also ask how did pharmalife contact you and how long after the deadline?


1st point: no idea about moving abroad tbh (speak to hmrc to befrank).

2) it varies from hospital to hospital, the earliest response I got was 1st september -a rejection from my home hospital (jerkwads). I do know as a general rule of thumb, wait up to 2 weeks (3 for certain hospitals) to hear back from a variety (usually, in my case it was within 10-12 days). I should also mention that sometimes, the hospital correspondants tend to reply before pharmalife is aware, so keep an eye for emails (this was certainly the case with addenbrookes and papworth interviews and offer rejections post-interview for me). also make sure your phone is fully charged as a lot of hospitals will phone you to tel lyou the results of interviews (be prepared for someone calling you around 9 at night or 5-6am)
Anyone have any advice on how to prepare for interviews?
Original post by usernamenottaken
Anyone have any advice on how to prepare for interviews?


speak to lecturers and ask to practice with them / career people. even practice with friends who are not going to same places u apply.

also revision and commonsense tend be important as revision helps with clinical content and commonsense with personal questions.

also practice in front of a mirror or a camera to record body language and make sure you dontspend too much time (5-10 seconds) thinking before you answer certain questions. above all dont panic in the interview / think of anxiety prevention methods which suit you in case you do have anxiety related issues
Original post by quasa
speak to lecturers and ask to practice with them / career people. even practice with friends who are not going to same places u apply.

also revision and commonsense tend be important as revision helps with clinical content and commonsense with personal questions.

also practice in front of a mirror or a camera to record body language and make sure you dontspend too much time (5-10 seconds) thinking before you answer certain questions. above all dont panic in the interview / think of anxiety prevention methods which suit you in case you do have anxiety related issues


Thanks for the reply but I meant as in something more specific, like how to go about preparing for clinical and ethical questions
Original post by usernamenottaken
Thanks for the reply but I meant as in something more specific, like how to go about preparing for clinical and ethical questions


What kind of ethical things could be asked?

I was thinking maybe like common drugs? Some clinical stuff and then like why pharmacy etc.
I don't know if I should start prepping stuff now then get 4 rejections! Or wait until an interview is confirmed?
Original post by usernamenottaken
Thanks for the reply but I meant as in something more specific, like how to go about preparing for clinical and ethical questions


ethical questions are in all honesty quite easy to answer if you think about certain aspects logically / with common sense. generally speaking, repeat the scenario out loud, mention possible routes to take in said scenario and pros and cons of them, and what you chose and why. also try using as neutral language as possible. I personally wasnt marked down for any ethics questions and generally tended to do well in ethics-based exams at uni (coursework not so much as I generally tend to lose a lot of marks via referencing). also make sure you quote journal names or articles you read.

regarding clinical, id say cram!. but in all honesty, clinical questions tend to be either reading from a semi-obscure drug chart and determining what conditions patients have/errors in charts and how to amend; or for you to describe a drug in detail (or drugs). if your going cambridge, narrow therapeutic index drugs played a big part in addenbrookes interviews pre-trust merging (addenbrookes and papworth were separate trusts till last year).
Original post by quasa
ethical questions are in all honesty quite easy to answer if you think about certain aspects logically / with common sense. generally speaking, repeat the scenario out loud, mention possible routes to take in said scenario and pros and cons of them, and what you chose and why. also try using as neutral language as possible. I personally wasnt marked down for any ethics questions and generally tended to do well in ethics-based exams at uni (coursework not so much as I generally tend to lose a lot of marks via referencing). also make sure you quote journal names or articles you read.

regarding clinical, id say cram!. but in all honesty, clinical questions tend to be either reading from a semi-obscure drug chart and determining what conditions patients have/errors in charts and how to amend; or for you to describe a drug in detail (or drugs). if your going cambridge, narrow therapeutic index drugs played a big part in addenbrookes interviews pre-trust merging (addenbrookes and papworth were separate trusts till last year).


Right sorry but can you think of any examples of ethics questions? Do you have any idea what west midlands questions/interviews are like?
Regarding semi-obscure do you mean like too much of a drug because I need a BNF to check doses! Or would it like an allergy and then that drug on the chart?
Original post by MeredithGrey13
Right sorry but can you think of any examples of ethics questions? Do you have any idea what west midlands questions/interviews are like?
Regarding semi-obscure do you mean like too much of a drug because I need a BNF to check doses! Or would it like an allergy and then that drug on the chart?


of the top of my head...I cant really remember exact ones of the top of my head to be honest. but usually it involves stuff like withholding treatment, or dealing with staff behaviour. like I said just think it out.

I have no idea about west midlands im afraid but I guess you can always check online.

hit the nail on the head about semi-obscure to a certain degree. usually, it can be in the form of al lthe drugs on the chart are listed but no indication of what it is being used for (and you have to say based on drugs / doses on chart) - this requires bnf. also you may have to do calculations about suitable doses of drugs based on renal function (which you need to calculate based of serum CRCL, age, weight and gender). also remember to bring childrens BNF as well as adult as children have a different formula for renal function (as well as doses)
the application page has updated omg.
Good luck to all, hope it goes well for everyone!!
Am I the only person feeling incredibly anxious? I have literally had about 3 hours sleep because it's all I can think about.,
good luck everyone!!!
Original post by quasa
good luck everyone!!!


Thank you! I haven't slept and every 5 minutes refresh emails and pharmalife 😟😶
Anyone know if we hear from hospitals sat and Sunday?
Original post by Farmacee
Is there anything specific to NES that you're aware of please :smile:))


I am on the list of few hospitals and community pharmacy too.
In MCQ you have to know things about PRPS like when it was launched and what their values are. Plus MCQ will involve calculations and clinical questions. There will be another MCQ but it will involve I think checking prescription or drug chart and find mistakes etc. In verbal you will get a scenario and you have 15 minutes to prepare for the answer. Then they ask you question about this scenario like how would you explain it to a patient for example. It can be literally anything! Dont worry if you finish earlier the verbal part cause a lot of ppl do finish earlier. It is likely to be straightforward and you have bnf. It is more handling stress I guess :biggrin:
Original post by holistic_pharm
I am on the list of few hospitals and community pharmacy too.
In MCQ you have to know things about PRPS like when it was launched and what their values are. Plus MCQ will involve calculations and clinical questions. There will be another MCQ but it will involve I think checking prescription or drug chart and find mistakes etc. In verbal you will get a scenario and you have 15 minutes to prepare for the answer. Then they ask you question about this scenario like how would you explain it to a patient for example. It can be literally anything! Dont worry if you finish earlier the verbal part cause a lot of ppl do finish earlier. It is likely to be straightforward and you have bnf. It is more handling stress I guess :biggrin:


Forgot to add you need to know sth about Prescription for Excellence as it is big thing in Scotland :biggrin:
Anyone heard from a hospital yet?
Can't take the nerves and anxiety rn
I have got the same profile for every hospital I applied to.. Is it okay?? 😭😭


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Original post by Miss Dior
I have got the same profile for every hospital I applied to.. Is it okay?? 😭😭


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I did too but changed a bit in the last question! Where have you applied for?

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