Clinical Experience

Is any clinical experience built into the Pharmacy degree course or is it necessary for Pharmacy students to arrange their own experience/placements?

Thanks,

Lottie.

Reply 1

Xenon

Hmmm, speaking from LSOP experience, youdo have some patients visit in the 1st year, visit hospital patients in the 2nd and have a whole clinical sort of consultation with a patient in the 3rd. Also, you have the oppoutunity to apply to hospital pharmacies for summer placements, information of the hospitals are given out. And in the 3rd/4th year, there is a project option of clinical pharmacy (pharmacy practice in the hospital), and an option of doing advanced therapeutics (which is an option based in a hospital). I'm doing advanced therapeutics next year and I can't wait! You can always ask for unpaid experience in a hospital pharmacy from 2nd year onwards as well.

Reply 2

Random.Girl

We get a hospital placement in the third year, it's only short but it's a good taster if you've never had hospital experience before.
I've heard that it's really hard to get hospital summer placements until the 3rd year, which is why I'm surprised I got one last year.

Reply 3

HannahD

At Manchester, we get to go to hospitals and interview patients during our third and fourth year. It's good to get lots of practical hands-on experience and I'm glad it's built into the course.

Reply 4

Xenon

We went to visit heart patients in the 2nd year. It is apparantly very difficult to get a hospital placement until the 3rd year but a few of my friends did get it in the 2nd.

Reply 5

Lotts

Thanks for all the replies.

What does a summer hospital placement actually involve? - Are pharmacy students observing/shadowing Pharmacists or do they themselves do some work?

Thanks,

Lottie.

Reply 6

HannahD

From what I've heard from people who have done a hospital summer placement, it mainly involves shadowing the pharmacist on their ward rounds although you do get to do some dispensing in the hospital dispensary.

Reply 7

Random.Girl

I got to go on lots of ward rounds and talk to the patients, take medication histories etc, went on a TPN round with a pharmacist, doctor and dietician, did inpatient and outpatient dispensing, medicines information, observed aseptic dispensing ... I did lots of things :smile:

Reply 8

Lotts

Emmz - was this during a summer hospital placement?

Reply 9

Random.Girl

Yeah it was.
On my placement from uni I got to go on two ward rounds and do medication history taking, work in the dispensary, medicines information and have a look around the aseptic production unit.

Reply 10

Valleygirl84

It's now a requirment of the Society that in your third year you do a 2 and a half day placement in a hospital. Apparently, according to some friends who want to do Hospital Pharmacy, it is quite difficult to get placements aside of this. I would definitely recommend ringing around yourself and organising placements/saturday/evening work in local community pharmacies. Even though when it comes to doing second and third year summer placements you have to apply, by showing you already have experience (and maybe getting in with the large companies), it really does stand you in good stead. And regardless of this, experience really is invaluable when it comes to the course itself. You will find you learn so much more in practice than in theory. I started working in a community Pharmacy when I was 16, and I really cant stress enough how helpful it has been. My advice: go out of your way to get as much experience as possible, don't rely on summer placements and compulsory experience arranged by your university.