Original post by RealisticPharmYou haven't heard of that?! That's the case in most hospitals....I even did it as part of my pre-reg.
What year of study are you in neldee95? Your username suggests maybe first or second? With respect to the role in industry; inadequatejusticex is probably more correct about the role of the respective degree courses and feeding into industry. Of course there are Pharmacists who go into industry, however it's few and far between, and invariably requires either PhD study, or good old fashioned knowing someone. In most decent university more students will be going into Pharma industry from the Chemistry department than the Pharmacy school. If you think I'm joking go around the careers fair and talk to a few of the 'Pharma' companies, or the others who take on 'science degrees'. They'll all know what to do with a Chemist, they'll probably have roles for a Nat Scientist, Chem Eng etc. They'll probably look at you blankly as a Pharmacy student, please don't base your future around the idea that you'll waltz ahead of the specialists in this field, you just wont.
I'm not talking PharmacISTS down, as I think that we're highly qualified and capable, and could be taking on a number of more important clinical roles within the NHS if we had any leadership and vision as a profession, or even if Pharmacists held the reigns of Pharmacy, rather than Boots, Lloyds and Co-op. I feel I was misled in 2005, it certainly sounds like they're pushing the same thing now. It's just a case of reading up on it - visit the C+D and see how Pharmacists talk to each other about the future. We had the one chance in 2005 and blew it spectacularly. We're in no position to argue with anyone anymore - maybe this GP pilot scheme will take off? I certainly hope so, my career would be a lot brighter if I could actually return to 'the Profession', and even if I didn't not having floods of desperate Pharmacists looking for anything they can get their hands on would only be a good thing. It MIGHT work, I can think of plenty of obstacles, but it could happen. That's what you pray if you're already in Pharmacy, you just don't join if you're a 'triple A' student who could do something else, you've no need to gamble with your future.
I also don't understand where the general disbelief comes from. Some fairly cursory searches about the future of Pharmacy on professional forums paints a picture even bleaker than that which I have outlined! Normally given anonymity online people tend to paint themselves as better than they are, boast and big themselves up. I haven't been on the student rooms since 2005 and I was investigating Pharmacist salaries (not even joking!) - I remembered it was somewhere that a lot of UCAS questions got answered, figured it was somewhere to warn others. Why, other than I feel pretty annoyed at how ill-informed I was making my degree choices, would I bother coming on here aged 28 to try and convince people that the degree that will define my career for the rest of my life is a terrible choice.
It's pretty hard on the fingers, typing half a bible every day to try and warn people off, and I'm not sure what more there is to add. Really, I think if just a few A-Level students research their choices a bit better and leave it, or if a few first year Pharmacists apply for some summer placements outside of Boots, and if Pharmacy students as a whole stop undertaking this degree with fantasies of 'working in industry, then branching out' as if that's something more than 5% of them will ever get close to, then maybe the Pharmacy schools themselves will actually start trying to take part in shaping the professional future of Pharmacy. I went to an 'established' Pharmacy school, only of the originals....and they were just as happy to shovel another load of graduates onto the pile, having taken their money. That's what they're going to do, with armies of people believing the nonsense, they've got no incentive to liase with other sectors, or use any of their power to improve the profession at all. At the minute you're being lied to from Prospectus to pension!*
* Ohhh that's a sweet line. I think I'm going to go into marketing. Pretty sure because I came up with that sweet phrase I am better at marketing than anyone who has studied marketing.