The Student Room Group

Physician Associate worth it?

I'm currently taking a gap year, just completed my A levels got AAB in chem, psych and bio.
I'm thinking of applying to pharmacy next year to become a GP pharmacist as my goal is to be able to prescribe, talk to patients and work in a GP surgery. However, I am not the biggest fan of chemistry.
And I have recently discovered a career as a Physician Associate, and it seems that they also have the ability to work in a GP surgery and have 1 to 1 sessions with patients. However, I'm not sure which one to chose. I want a career that isn't too stressful, has flexible work times and don't have to work extensive shifts like night shifts.
Is there anyone who is currently a GP Pharmacist or studying to become one or if anyone is a Physician Associate or studying to become one, if you have any advice at all or opinions. I'd appreciate knowing your views.

Thanks
Reply 1
Original post by anonymous9089
I'm currently taking a gap year, just completed my A levels got AAB in chem, psych and bio.
I'm thinking of applying to pharmacy next year to become a GP pharmacist as my goal is to be able to prescribe, talk to patients and work in a GP surgery. However, I am not the biggest fan of chemistry.
And I have recently discovered a career as a Physician Associate, and it seems that they also have the ability to work in a GP surgery and have 1 to 1 sessions with patients. However, I'm not sure which one to chose. I want a career that isn't too stressful, has flexible work times and don't have to work extensive shifts like night shifts.
Is there anyone who is currently a GP Pharmacist or studying to become one or if anyone is a Physician Associate or studying to become one, if you have any advice at all or opinions. I'd appreciate knowing your views.

Thanks

Not studied either but just wanted to redirect you these pages if you haven't already
So you plan to be a Clinical Pharmacists within a GP Practice then
https://www.england.nhs.uk/gp/expanding-our-workforce/cp-gp/
https://www.rpharms.com/resources/careers-information/career-options-in-pharmacy/pharmacists-in-gp-practices

From the news it looks like the govt are promoting Physician Associate roles and courses more than previous years

All the best with whichever course you pick.
Original post by Ash1234
Not studied either but just wanted to redirect you these pages if you haven't already
So you plan to be a Clinical Pharmacists within a GP Practice then
https://www.england.nhs.uk/gp/expanding-our-workforce/cp-gp/
https://www.rpharms.com/resources/careers-information/career-options-in-pharmacy/pharmacists-in-gp-practices

From the news it looks like the govt are promoting Physician Associate roles and courses more than previous years

All the best with whichever course you pick.

Thank so much, I appreciate it I'll give them a read x
As a former physician associate student, I DO NOT recommend this path. It feels pointless as you cannot prescribe, and I felt useless during training as all I learned was to be the Dr's scribe. I would follow your heart more, however know that pretty much all jobs can be stressful, and, especially in any medicine facing roles, the hours are not as flexible and you will always be doing more than your 9-5 due to all the admin etc you cannot complete in the work day.
Original post by acuriouscurio
As a former physician associate student, I DO NOT recommend this path. It feels pointless as you cannot prescribe, and I felt useless during training as all I learned was to be the Dr's scribe. I would follow your heart more, however know that pretty much all jobs can be stressful, and, especially in any medicine facing roles, the hours are not as flexible and you will always be doing more than your 9-5 due to all the admin etc you cannot complete in the work day.

Thank you for sharing your opinion, what are you currently studying/working in, and would you recommend it? Do you have any opinions on pharmacy?
Original post by anonymous9089
Thank you for sharing your opinion, what are you currently studying/working in, and would you recommend it? Do you have any opinions on pharmacy?

I don't know anything about pharmacy I'm afraid. I stopped studying, but have been running the admin of a covid test site over the last year, now moving into data science :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by anonymous9089
I'm currently taking a gap year, just completed my A levels got AAB in chem, psych and bio.
I'm thinking of applying to pharmacy next year to become a GP pharmacist as my goal is to be able to prescribe, talk to patients and work in a GP surgery. However, I am not the biggest fan of chemistry.
And I have recently discovered a career as a Physician Associate, and it seems that they also have the ability to work in a GP surgery and have 1 to 1 sessions with patients. However, I'm not sure which one to chose. I want a career that isn't too stressful, has flexible work times and don't have to work extensive shifts like night shifts.
Is there anyone who is currently a GP Pharmacist or studying to become one or if anyone is a Physician Associate or studying to become one, if you have any advice at all or opinions. I'd appreciate knowing your views.

Thanks


The PA course is a 2 year full time masters costing £18500 and you get £11800 post grad student finance (which you pay back at the same time as the undergrad loan, so pay double per month) and £5000 NHSBA grant so you still have to cough up for the remainder of your tuition fees. Its an intense course so working is out of the question- Don't do it. Do the nursing degree, you get an extra £5k a year bursary plus if you work in a surgery they will pay you to do your non medical prescribing course so you can assess patients.
Reply 7
Hello I’m a pharmacy student. The MPharm degree has been changed, so once you qualify, after 5 years (4 at uni 1 trainee), you’ll be an independent prescriber which is pretty much essential for working as a GP pharmacist. From what I understand you do a similar job to the GP’s, you get your own office and everything. You do alot of medication reviews to make sure there are no problems with patients meds and this can be done over the phone so you won’t necessarily be seeing patients for 8 hours straight each day.

However, you can only prescribe within your specialty (you get to chose this) so most GP pharmacist specialise in the areas with the most common conditions e.g. cardiology since lots of people have heart/ blood pressure issues.

I’m not sure what the hours are like, but you could always become a locum if it was too much. If you don’t like GP pharmacy you can always move to community/ hospital/ industry whenever you want.

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