Is there any hope for pharmacy students??

Can I ask the The student room why they are blocking my response? We’ll just have to leave the platform if you have started censoring certain posts.

The BMA figures are misleading?

CPs also do additional hours etc. If I did regular anti-social additional hours, my pay will rock up to £100,000/year.

Could you provide a link for these figures?

Is there any point to comparing pharmacist wages to Drs?
If you want Dr's wages, go do Medicine.
That's what I would have thought???!

If you haven’t done so already I most strongly suggest you read the Guardian expose on Corporate pharmacy by Aditya Chakrabortty. A few years old but still very relevant as the underlying issues haven’t changed. If anything things have got worse.

Google “How Boots went rogue”. Free to view with no paywall. Be sure to read the follow on articles and especially the comments from individual pharmacists, most working in the Corporate world. Many in a desperate state physically and mentally because of their working conditions. For Boots you can substitute the name of almost any pharmacy multiple.

Do read.

Pharmacy has been in the doldrums for donkeys now, you’d need to be an imbecile not to have heard anything about the dire state of the “Profession”.
There’s quite a bit of talk on here from a few contributors about exorbitant salaries, salaries that are unrealistic for the vast majority of Pharmacists. Of those Pharmacists that are earning them, they’re working all the hours God sends, which truly is a miserable existence in my book. I heard one poster mention 100hours a week...yeah try that long term and you’re Physical AND mental health will invariably break down, that much is GUARANTEED! Besides there is way way more to life than being stuck in a crumby community Pharmacy, my motto has always been about working to live, not the other way about. I’ve never once met a Community Pharmacist who’s been in the game over 10 years who’s actually liked their job, heck anybody who’s been in the job over 5 years! They’re worn down, jaded, disillusioned and demoralised. I’m talking about shop based Pharmacists here...I think perhaps the Pharmacists based in GP practices (like hospital) derive more satisfaction out of the job, but that is increasingly competitive to get into and I’m hearing reports of GP’s lumping more and more work on to the Practice based Pharmacists.
If you work for a Multiple, you’re nothing more than a pawn in their game. They can subject to the most horrendous working conditions, ie little to staff, no breaks, etc and if you make a mistake under those conditions they’ll hang you out to dry and the GPHC will come down on you like a ton of bricks. Let’s be honest, that’s why the Responsible Pharmacist legislation was enacted...it was a piece of legislation at the behest of the Multiples, so that there was no ambiguity around who was accountable in the case of an error...the responsible Pharmacist in charge. So there’s the pressure of the GPHC breathing down your neck together with the fact that “Patients” don’t really respect or value your contribution. I say Patients but I really mean customers, that’s how the Multiples see them. Go for any interview with a Multiple and you’ll be asked questions about the customer not the patient. How to keep the customer happy, how to keep them coming back etc...retail pharmacy isn’t a hair different than any other retail outlet. If you like the thought of working in a shop the rest of your life, by all means go ahead and study Pharmacy...because that’s most likely where you’ll end up!

Can I ask the The student room why they are blocking my response? We’ll just have to leave the platform if you have started censoring certain posts.

The BMA figures are misleading?

CPs also do additional hours etc. If I did regular anti-social additional hours, my pay will rock up to £100,000/year.

Hi. I'm following this thread as my 24 year old son really, really wants to be a pharmacist. He's changed his mind so many times about what he actually wants to do. When he was doing unpaid placement in a primary school he thought he wanted to become a teacher. Before this he thought he would like to work with alcoholics, until a placement in the addiction unit which used to be his father's second home, and he realised he hated it ! He then thought about Social Work, briefly. He has done a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care, and Adult Access Diploma in Social Science and Humanities, as he was going to study Liberal Arts with History. Now in September he wants to study PT an Adult Access Diploma in Science, which will hopefully get him a place on Ulster's MPharm course. This will be his THIRD Level 3 course, if he does it. It's like he's on this endless carousel, yet never progresses any further. The FT Access course is free, but he will need to continue working. So he is going to study the PT one day a week route. It is over two years and will cost £650. But atm, he absolutely loves his job. This is the second pharmacy he has worked in. There's a part of me that secretly hopes he changes his mind and just settles for being happy doing what he's currently doing. At this stage, the "novelty" of him wanting to study this or that, wanting to become this or that, is wearing a bit thin. ( Not that i'd ever say that to him of course.)

First and foremost, people need to do what they enjoy and not do something just for the salary involved because that will lead to unhappiness. That’s easier said than done because at 18 years of age most THINK they know what they’ll enjoy but don’t really have a clue. I was as naive as any student when I was 18 years of age and thought I’d enjoy Pharmacy because I enjoyed Chemistry. I was really that innocent, the vast majority of students are. I also bought into he notion that if you went to a Russell group Uni (like I did) it would open more doors than a low ranked Uni, when in reality it didn’t matter a damn what Uni you went to.
It’s really only as you advance in life that you truly discover what you enjoy. I think it’s the wisdom you acquire as you age. You also become very cynical about the rat race you’re supposed to enter at 22/23 years of age and come to realise it’s all a crock of shite. Choosing careers at 17/18 years of age is a complete shot in the dark.It’s pot luck as to whether you’ll enjoy the career you’ve chosen at that age.

Ps I’d rather work with animals any day of the week than listen to the abuse you get from the public in Community Pharmacy. No contest.

Mods.

Is this post and subsequent comments possibly worth “sticky” status? A couple of current stickies are a tad dated.

It’s generally newly or recently qualifieds who are more likely to say Pharmacy is the best thing since sliced bread. No chance with those qualified a long time. People are bound to see the correlation by this stage.

It’s generally newly or recently qualifieds who are more likely to say Pharmacy is the best thing since sliced bread. No chance with those qualified a long time. People are bound to see the correlation by this stage.

In saying that, I’m always sceptical of posts above...they could just as easily be from University lecturers or people affiliated with the Multiples trying to portray the career in a positive light. It’s akin to polishing a turd. 😂🤣