Pharmacy careers and other useful information

Scroll to see replies

I was wondering whether any of you think that the salary a hospital, or community pharmacist recieves is worth it. If im not mistaken, out of all the health care professions, pharmacists get the lowest salary.

Reply 41

Jimmocrates

milio

I wouldn't say that. Standard pay in Community is around the £40k mark. You never have to be on call, can leave your work behind when you go home. Thats a better deal than a lot of HCP's get.

Hospital pharmacists do start off on lower pay, but it's an inteersting job and there's Senior pharmacists i work with who are under 30 who will be on salaries of around £40k, and they'll have scope for their pay to increase quite a lot.

Admittedly the public in general give our profession no respect and don't really understand what we do, but within a hospital setting the pharmacists get a fair amount of respect.

Also, locumming enables you to earn well in excess of £50k per year. This includes no "on calls" and means you can pretty much say whenever you don't want to work.

Compared to other HCPs, thats not bad. Similar, maybe slightly worse off than optomotrists, although i think a pharmacists job is more interesting. Better off than nurses, nowhere near as much as dentists, and not as much as doctors, although doctors do have more responsibility.

Reply 42

Fr0z3nfl4m3s

I'm really interested in Pharmacy - but I got a few questions.
1. How easy is it to get a job as a locum? And how much experience/qualifications do u need to be earnin £50k +
2. Would it be really profitable to open a retail pharmacy?
3. Could i get a part time job during higher studies and what would my salary be like for different jobs (pharma related ones of course)

quite vague i know but just want a rough idea.

Reply 43

milio

I would say that pharmacy, out of all the other haelth care degrees has the widest range of careers.

Reply 44

andy_davs

milio

I would say that pharmacy, out of all the other haelth care degrees has the widest range of careers.

theres only community,hospital and industry though and is the pay that good?

Reply 45

Jimmocrates

andy_davs

theres only community,hospital and industry though and is the pay that good?

Two of the pharmacists where i work have recently left to go to work for Medeval (they run clinical trials) and a PCT respectively. There are various options available beyond the main two of community/hospital.

Pay varies, but in general is good (upwards of £35k. Except for lower grades in hospital, where pay starts at ~£25k)

Reply 46

Miaoow

Apothecary

I'm sorry guys but working in retail is really boring. I did a quick poll of all the pharmacists I know, and asked them "do you like your job, and would you choose Pharmacy again if you were starting out" they all said, no and no.

The only pharmacists I have ever met who like their job don't actually work at the sharp end in retail. They are either area managers, and do paperwork etc most of the time, or they work for the PCT or in industry. You can always go down these routes if you like.

I am running a small poll on the pharmacy-forum website, about if you are happy with your job as a pharmacist. Have a quick look. There are only a few replies, but people who use these forums tend to be people who get up and let their views known, if you know what I mean.

If you have already started your pharmacy degree, just stick to getting it done, and then maybe change directions. A solicitor who I know is also a qualified pharmacist. He once said to me "get yourself out of retail, it's for mugs. You are much better then this."

These are good words and sound advice.

I'm sorry but why did you start a needle exchange scheme in the first place? My Dad had his own pharmacy for 35 years and never bothered to ask for trouble in this way. Seems your negative experience is due to bad career management, not pharmacy as a career. Talk to GP's, most feel exactly the same way. Sorry, but the reality is that the more you put into ANY job, the more you get out of it.

Reply 47

Robusty

well..there will always be some old farts like one of my locum pharmacist ( i'm doing a summer placement at my local pharmacy) who doesn't like his job and go on quite a bitabout it...and one of the main reasons is because they've chosen the wrong career in the first place!! that guy wanted to be a pilot, hes in the TA(territorial army..or summing like that), hes been a policemen...and now hes been a pharmacist for like 15 years.

now, hes obviously a very active person, being in the TA and policeforce...so in comparison , dispensing medicine in the pharmacy would seem to be very 'inactive' or boring to him and of course he would go on about being a pharmacist is boring blah blah blah....

so if u meet a person tell you how crap his/her career is, its obvious that he/she's chosen the WRONG career for HIS/HERSELF, and VICE VERSA!

it all depends on YOU and your personality only....forget bout what other ppl say, may be good advices, but thats in their opinions...you need to choose and find your future thats best for yourself.....and obviously if someones in their career for a long time its not surprising that he/she might get a bit fed up of it you know.....we're only human.

hope this would help those who are indecisive about pharmacy - and any other careers.

Reply 48

thinking causes strain

I'm so scared now.

Can I just ask, what are the main differences between hospital and community pharmacy?

I've always wanted to live in Canada so I am thrilled that pharmacists are in high demand there but is it true that you need a phd?

Reply 49

Lollz

i work part time in boots and we have a different pharmacist every week, most of them are such lovely people!
xoxo

Reply 50

Miss_Alice

Apothecary

A lot of pharmacists seem to think they have the right to turn up to a store, open the paper, and just expect the dispensers to do all the work.

I think a good idea for the pharmacy degree course would be to have a section on self defence, and conflict management. Maybe they have it now I don't know. Since being a pharmacist I have: -

1. Been spat at full in the face
2. Had two physical fights
3. Been threatened with a syringe full of blood lots of times
4. Performed a citizens arrest on lots of shop lifters
5. Restrained a violent drug addict for 15 mins before the police arrived
6. Been to court three times to give evidence
7. Had people waiting outside to "beat me up" after work on about four or five occasions
8. Oh, last week a girl said she was coming back with a can full of petrol to set me on fire (I caught her stealing)
9. Have seen three friends have breakdowns due to the stress of the job
10. Never had a job that I actually like

I rang my friend, who runs a needle exchange scheme pharmacy, before I put up this post. He has just resigned due to the fact that most of the week he is left with no dispenser. He only has 200 methadone addicts to look after!

My best advice to anyone considering studying pharmacy is not to work in retail. Go into hospital or industry, but unless you can find yourself a nice quiet shop, keep away from retail, especially in the inner cities.

Looking back, studying pharmacy was the worst decision of my life. None of my friends like their job. I would not do it again.

If you want to be involved in the management of illness - be a doctor

If you like putting tablets in bottles and sticking labels on them - be a pharmacist

If you want to not be a doctor but prescribe drugs - be a nurse

This is only my opinion, there must be a pharmacist somewhere who likes it. I just don't happen to know any, thats all.

Apothecary
pharmacy-forum.co.uk

I am a qualified dispensing technician, and I have to say that when I have locums that do nothing but moan about checking Rxs I’ve assembled, and then read the paper in-between, I formally request the manager/regional manager NOT to have them back. I have even struck some locums off our contacts and cancelled their bookings after exceedingly poor performance and a bad work attitude.

Pharmacies are often under-staffed because the supporting technicians are not A) paid fair wages B) supported by or respected by the pharmacists.

I settle for a measly £8 an hour as a fully qualified experienced technician, and the job is exceedingly stressful at times, especially when given a locum who is not even prepared to pitch in and put a little stock away in a drawer while I’m assembling a tidal wave or prescriptions. I have a mountain of other duties I’m expected to complete at the same time as dispensing, so anyone out there intending to locum, please please remember it is not the lazy man's option. You really have to work up a good reputation, which you will be rewarded for. We have some good locums who really enjoy their work, and the supporting staff are always happy to go that extra mile when the pharmacist is.

So why do the MPharm? Because despite all that, I enjoy my job! I do work in a busy retail store, and yes people can be aggressive and nasty. But others are exceedingly grateful and you really do have the chance to make a difference to them.

By the way, you can avoid a swath of abuse simply by working in pharmacies that do not treat addicts or run a needle exchange. Naturally many retail stores don’t offer this service as they are thinking about the safety of their other customers. In return you may have to deal with a heavy workload, but if I can do it on £8 an hour, I can sure as hell do it on £25.

Reply 51

yotech

well, i must say thanks to the OP for the resource. I need some serious information on pharmacy career and jobs. May be i'll try to be pharmacy technician.

Regards, Pharmacy Technician

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 52

Danni_1

Hi , For careers in Pharmacy discussion .
Please see the content of SWS.edu website about pharmacy . sws having good information ,everybody want to establish his/her career in Pharmacy

Reply 53

petzneo

There are a few videos produced by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society about the various career paths in pharmacy:

Hospital Pharmacists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxqVFchQpco

Academic Pharmacists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlAcUbqLi8Y

I'm hoping that there will be more videos soon! So subscribe to the Youtube Channel and good luck for the future :smile:

Reply 54

GLLN

Original post by Jimmocrates

Right, seeing as every month or so questions pop up asking about industrial pharmacy, and usually i don't have anywhere near as much idea about it as hospital or community, i thought i'd put these links up. The first one gives info on where you can get summer placements and stuff like that:

http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/members/society/ipg.html

This second one is an updated version of a survey we got given the results of whihc shows what sort of pay industrial pharmacists get and what sort of age/gender split it is:

http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/pdfs/ipgsurvey03.pdf

Hope some of you find them useful

I'm guessing you need to be a member to see those links? :frown:

Because I'm wanting to work in the pharmaceutical industry, but from my search on the web, I can barely find information for pharmacist jobs in big companies like Pfizer or GSK. Does anyone know what the path of becoming an industry pharmacist is like? Judging from this sheer lack of information, I'm assuming there is scarcely any jobs within industry (or is it just the UK)?

Reply 55

petzneo

Original post by GLLN

I'm guessing you need to be a member to see those links? :frown:

Try this, it is a general overview about industry pharmacists:

http://www.resourcing.uk.com/pharmacists/pharmacy-resource-centre/industrial-pharmacist.aspx

Reply 56

GLLN

Thank you! :biggrin:

Some very helpful information there. Looks like there's a lot of options in industry, which is good seeing as though I'm just starting my AS and am unsure whether pharmacy is for me.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 57

PotterLover

Has anyone managed to secure a pre registration place in industry or is working in industry? I'm a first year Pharmacy student but I have no idea as to how to go about gaining placements etc in industry as my university focuses only on hospital and community! Help anyone?!