Dreading next shift

I had my first shift at Boots, (trainee pharmacy advisor) honestly debating going back. The pay is much better than my old job and I am genuinely interested in pharmacy work (main 2 reasons why I dont want to quit). My first shift was filling out paperwork for 7 hours, didn't actually mind this because its all new information. My other coworkers were friendly apart from one. They kept belittling me and finding ways to put me down, even saying I shouldnt go "crying to my mummy" afterwards - just a genuine bully. Everyone else there seemed nice enough - but it was very poorly managed. Coworkers were extremely stressed because they were very understaffed and expected to do 3 jobs at once (to me: seems really dangerous because this is medication we're talking about). Hopefully this will improve as the manager hired a couple new trainees (me included) - I havent seen the manager yet so I hope she turns up soon (though she seemed very lovely).

Overall, I'm just completely overwhelmed. The paperwork was at least a few hundred pages - all completely new information. I got disciplined for trying to actually understand it, now I've just signed everything (which literally says by signing this you understand it) even though I don't know any of it and I'm worried they're going to expect me to do it. I also saw a machine used to clock hours and I wasn't taught to use it but realized maybe I should've asked about it - I don't want to have worked 7 hours for nothing.

Anyone else working at boots (preferably trainee with little/no experience in Boots before) struggling, I am genuinely interested in the job which is why I'm going to go back but my anxiety is through the roof.

First off, well done on the new job!

It all sounds like quite a lot for a first day, was your line manager or a supervisor there for it? I'd recommend speaking to a manager/supervisor about your concerns regarding the documents - I imagine they are guidelines for OTC protocol, safeguarding, GDPR etc if you are working as an advisor. It's tremendously important that you're familiarised with all guidelines for medications, common drug interactions and also how to spot a potential safeguarding case should it arise. There is a lot of information for a reason and like you said, handling medication is a big responsibility so don't just go along with things because you're being hurried - you don't want to sell Night Nurse to someone already taking Lemsip at bedtime, or Nurofen and Calpol to the parent of an infant who hasn't sought medical advice. Familiarise yourself with the BNF and common interactions.

Don't let the first day put you off, rarely is the first day on the job indicative of what it will be like further along. When you go in for your next shift, speak to a supervisor and express your concerns re: learning and policy for that branch specifically, ask them for any tips that they may have for someone just getting started and perhaps suggest shadowing a colleague for half a shift so that you can familiarise yourself with procedures. They won't expect you to know how to do the job immediately unless you've come from a long stint in Pharmacy elsewhere, so stick with it, Pharmacy was what got me started on the path I am on now and it certainly taught me a lot.

In terms of workload, multitasking etc unfortunately that's what Pharmacy is like a majority of the time, retail and NHS will more often than not involve being asked to do tasks other than your 'own'. If you don't have much experience in the field it can certainly seem chaotic and dangerous, but if they are familiar with what they need to do and everything is carried out according to policy then doing several things at once is just part of this line of work. Obviously if you see something unsafe such as controlled drugs not being handled correctly or breach of data then you need to raise that concern immediately with a senior staff member but on the whole, yes it is usually a busy and often chaotic environment but that's part of the charm.

Feel free to give me a shout if you want to know or talk about anything!

I had my first shift at Boots, (trainee pharmacy advisor) honestly debating going back. The pay is much better than my old job and I am genuinely interested in pharmacy work (main 2 reasons why I dont want to quit). My first shift was filling out paperwork for 7 hours, didn't actually mind this because its all new information. My other coworkers were friendly apart from one. They kept belittling me and finding ways to put me down, even saying I shouldnt go "crying to my mummy" afterwards - just a genuine bully. Everyone else there seemed nice enough - but it was very poorly managed. Coworkers were extremely stressed because they were very understaffed and expected to do 3 jobs at once (to me: seems really dangerous because this is medication we're talking about). Hopefully this will improve as the manager hired a couple new trainees (me included) - I havent seen the manager yet so I hope she turns up soon (though she seemed very lovely).

Overall, I'm just completely overwhelmed. The paperwork was at least a few hundred pages - all completely new information. I got disciplined for trying to actually understand it, now I've just signed everything (which literally says by signing this you understand it) even though I don't know any of it and I'm worried they're going to expect me to do it. I also saw a machine used to clock hours and I wasn't taught to use it but realized maybe I should've asked about it - I don't want to have worked 7 hours for nothing.

Anyone else working at boots (preferably trainee with little/no experience in Boots before) struggling, I am genuinely interested in the job which is why I'm going to go back but my anxiety is through the roof.

I'm a boots employee and has been working with them since I was about 15 years old.
I have recently went through the pharmacy dispenser advisor myself as I was working on healthcare department anyway so wanted to take it further. Complete mines in early 2020.

I totally agree with you about the amount of paper involved but this is only the start of what you'll have to learn about all the medications available. The job sometimes can be very hectic due to the prescriptions coming in from local GP surgery and then you have to get the ones that are delivered to people homes done for the drivers picking them up at certain time of the day. You'll also have time that you may be quite ( usually only in small branches of boots) as the bigger branches are always constantly busy.

You'll have unfortunately continuous online training schedules to complete which is done online ( you should be given the opportunity to do it in store when you are in or just do it at home - unfortunately there's no set dates for when you'll have to do those online training as its done at random.

Your pay is based on yearly -( every April you'll get a rise) when you have completed your trainee pharmacy dispenser advisor then your pay will eventually rise to about £11.60 per hour ( maybe more when you add your pay rise yearly). It's better than some of the customers advisor positions.

Just bear this in mind that although you are initially employed as a trainee pharmacy dispenser advisor you will be still asked to work on the shop floor or checkouts and sometimes other departments when short staffed, don't refuse to do those things as just go and do what is asked of you.

You'll hopefully find that about 99% of the staff in boot are brilliant and you'll also have a few who won't wish to talk to you but don't let this get to you okay as its how they are I'm afraid. If you have any issues with any staff members then discuss this with your manager. Plus similar to irritate customers shouting all the time asking when they getting there prescriptions so remember you are not there to take crap from customers.


I would strongly recommend that you continue with the job as once you are fully qualified as a pharmacy dispenser advisor then you can work in any pharmacy you want to after this. If you having any issues with your anxiety then I would certainly speak with the manager or pharmacist and see if theres anything that they can do for you with it....( Most are generally good in helping other staff members okay).


Best of luck with the job 😃😃😃

Thank you so much, it's really reassuring to hear advice from someone whose worked at Boots (I've struggled to find any sort of advice apart from 1 video and loads of advice for the interview - well I passed the interview, what about the actual job loll). Also, it helps that I work in a small boots - we dont have any customer service/assistants at all its purely people that work pharmacy because the store is so small. However the area I work in is very busy, there is another boots around 10-15 minutes away by drive but a lot of our customers are elderly. My main anxiety comes from messing up someones medication and harming people, aside from that I'm excited to learn more. I'm totally fine with online courses/classes.

I have to ask, did you find it really hard/difficult and overwhelming at first? It seems like everyone else knows what they're doing and I have 0 clue. I'm always having to ask questions about where things go and what I'm doing loll I feel like an idiot. Thank you again

Hi thanks for your reply back 😊

It's no problems trying to assist another fellow boots staff who just starting the job 😀😀😀 yes it's daunting for anyone at first when you first start the job but as time goes on you'll hopefully learn lots more and I know it's hard to take it all in but you'll soon keep the information in your mind.

( boots the chemist trainee dispenser advisor video youtube ) - if you type this in Google you'll hopefully get a list of different videos you can perhaps look at and see if it helps you.
It's actually better working in a small store of boots because I think you'll actually learn more about the job quicker than if you were working in a superstore of boots like myself is.
I would personally stick with the small store until you are finally qualified as a pharmacy dispenser advisor and eventually if you want apply for to work in the bigger stores when you have enough confidence.



What you'll probably find is that there will be customer advisors still in your store although they are perhaps qualified pharmacy dispenser advisor. They will do the day to day stuff while yourself and the other pharmacy dispenser staff will be making up the prescriptions. This is what happens in my store with staff who are not fully qualified they work on the tills and serve the customers with required medicines off the shelves and our pharmacist brings the prescription to the person and give them any required information about the medications.


Your role is pharmacy dispenser advisor but you'll also find that you'll have to clean the shelves, stock up the shelves, serve customers and give advice where possible but remember if unsure you take advice from the pharmacist usually before giving the customer any medicine 💊.


The prescription is usually double checked by the pharmacist and sometimes again before you hand it over to the customers so any mistakes you unfortunately make will be picked up by another staff member. I thoroughly understand mistakes can happen but if they are properly checked then there shouldn't be any mistakes.


You'll be absolutely fine as you won't learn everything in a day as its takes time reason why you will probably be a trainee for about 6 - 12 months depending on how many days per week you are working as can take longer to complete if only working one or two days per week.


No I didn't find it overwhelming when I first started the pharmacy dispenser advisor job because I had many years of experience working in boots behind me which probably made it easier to work on the pharmacy department. I had experience working with medications with my university degree as this was main reason I wanted to work in the pharmacy department to further underground medicine's.

Yea you'll find majority of people who start with the likes of boots etc with 0 experience in any sort of retailing but you'll soon learn the job.
I would say that most departments in the bigger boots store's are easy to do compared to working in the pharmacy department as you have lots more responsibilities when dealing with people prescriptions.

Don't feel like a idiot okay as this is the reason you keep asking other staff members for help until eventually you'll be able to work on your own putting things away.

I tried sending you a PM but for some reason it was flagged as spam, idk why.
I'm still feeling really anxious about it; for the past 2 shifts (around 12.5 hours since I went home early last shift) I've been doing paperwork - I've finished it now. I only just got my boots login but it seems like theres a lot of logins? I've got one thats called Onboard and I'm doing all the tasks on there but I'm not sure what I'm doing after this? I heard I'm doing online training, can I not do some of this at home? I'm fine going to work for a couple of hours but going to work makes me really anxious - I'm hoping I'd have gotten over it by now but I've still got no idea what's going on.

I've only just received my contract a few days ago even though I've worked 12.5 hrs already, I'm worried they won't pay me for these even though I didn't know I was mean't to get a contract until my 2nd shift when the line manager told me I was mean't to get one before I even started. The store manager is on holiday and although shes lovely seems very disorganised - my line manager who I think is taking over as store manager is much more organised but has little to no control over things until she takes over.
Overall, I'm just really worried about going back - I don't know if this is worsened by me being Autistic and if I should've clarified that before starting this job, it was never asked so I didn't think to say but I'm already feeling overwhelmed. Thank you for any advice you can give me