The Student Room Group

Pharmacy a dying profession

I say this with great sadness but pharmacy seems to have entered rigor mortis.

1) Every so often you hear of new pharmacy schools opening to the point you have an overwheliming number of pharmacists. As a result job prospect is diminishing and so is pay, there are even cases of pharmacists getting paid as little as £9/hour....

2) Studying pharmacy is incredibly challenging, it takes 5 years of endless endevours to become a pharmacist only to enter a saturated market where companies pay peanuts, you are short stffed and pay rates are declining. Ten years ago it wasn'tout of the ordinary to see locums getting paid £30-40 an hour,....however due to the influx of overwhelming number of pharmacists and the government has refused to cap the nmber of pharmacy schools...within the next 5 to 10 years this career will be dead like law in the seventies.

My advice to all pharmacy students pursue other careers upon completing try scientist position or a science teacher where there is a demand, and prospective pharmacy students stay away far away!

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Reply 1
nooooooo don't say that I'm a first year :colonhash:
As long as theres people dying, i doubt Pharmacy will be dying lol.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 3
Original post by z33
nooooooo don't say that I'm a first year :colonhash:


Don't worry, Pharmacy is crucial in our world today it won't die anytime soon.
Reply 4
Original post by S2M
Don't worry, Pharmacy is crucial in our world today it won't die anytime soon.


maybe the OP is referring to community
but im looking at hospital *___*
Reply 5
Original post by z33
maybe the OP is referring to community
but im looking at hospital *___*


Ah, I see. :smile:
One would assume that Pharmacists would take a more active role in primary care, they are trained for 5 year and undergo a similar training course to medics, therefore why can they not in time and with further training become GPs?
Reply 7
if your happy to study five years and then get paid £8 hour kudos to you for your pilanthropist attitude.
Reply 8
Original post by Cyclosporin
One would assume that Pharmacists would take a more active role in primary care, they are trained for 5 year and undergo a similar training course to medics, therefore why can they not in time and with further training become GPs?


Its absurd..pharmacist do not have detailed knowledge on anatomy and pathology like doctors, but hvae excellent drug knowledge. I would say a pharmacist is a like a boxer they have mastered one art..i.e pugilism-hands...but a doctor is like an mma fighter..yes the pharmacist has better hands but the doctor has a far broaderdepth of the knowledge across many areas not only drugs.
Hmm, do I believe some random poster on TSR, or UNISTATS, which is a government approved website showing that 100% of pharmacy graduates end up in professional jobs after 6 months?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Yes it is.

I have been working as a dispenser in a Pharmacy for 1.5 years now (it's a part time job, my real job is PhD student- in economics)

Pharmacy is basically this.....

A factory which churns out prescriptions to increase sales for fat cats at the top, while at the same time breaking your legs from standing all day and giving you customer abuse.
And goodluck guys on getting a decent wage.

Where I work, the locums are on £19 an hour (which is below 40K net). There are talks of this dropping to £17 an hour.

I highly recommend no one go into pharmacy, or if you do, try to find a nice quiet one (if it hasn't been shut already).

The people to blame are boots, asda etc and their retard managements. They want to up sales, with no regard for humanity. Also the bastards at GSK, Pfizer, Reckitt Benckiser and other big Pharma, are to blame as well, increasing drug prices way above inflation just because they can.
Original post by jh7687
if your happy to study five years and then get paid £8 hour kudos to you for your pilanthropist attitude.


Lol pharmacy is one of the best paid degrees out there. In the US it is even coming into the top 5 if I recall correctly.
Guys, you should keep in mind that pharmacy students can go into other jobs as well, like scientific research or finance. I know a relative who actually did a pharmacy degree and went into accounting. If you don't like pharmacy or feel that it has no future you can do other stuff with your degree I think
Original post by Metalfros
Lol pharmacy is one of the best paid degrees out there. In the US it is even coming into the top 5 if I recall correctly.


Yes but this the UK, not the US

In the UK, Pharmacy is dying.

It has been shot several times and is in the process of being runover now.

In the US I agree, Pharmacy is still a decent profession. But our lovely NHS and benefit scroungers have driven Pharmacy to the ground.
Original post by GradeA*UnderA
Hmm, do I believe some random poster on TSR, or UNISTATS, which is a government approved website showing that 100% of pharmacy graduates end up in professional jobs after 6 months?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.


UNISTATS employment after 6 months indicate the pre reg year which everyone must do.

Not employment.
A lot of pharmacists struggle to get full time work, so they usually locum around for 3/4 days a week.

The ones that do get full time work, end up work 40 hour weeks for 38K a year give or take. Usually churning out prescriptions
like a robot (get the numbers up! more EPS! more MURS! we need more money!), working with equally tired staff. You will be standing all day, taking abuse from customers (where is my prescription! why can't you find it! don't you just pull medicine off a shelf!).

It takes a bloody long time to do a prescription, so when someone gives a stack of 5 with 4 items on each and then say to me "10 minutes", I look at them with that WTF look. You do realise I need to find the items, so that's 20 items I need to find at least (multiple boxes means I need to put together probably 30-40 items). If there are missing items I would have to tell you, potentially count what we do have. I need to label them all, put all the info on each ONE by ONE, I might have to fill out all your details since you are new, all your address, date of birth etc. I then need to attach the labels while making sure no one dies in the process. Then the pharmacist needs to check each item ONE by ONE. So 10 minutes, yeah, piss off mate.

So the next time you go into a pharmacy think about this
(edited 7 years ago)
What it comes down to is, Pharmacy is dying. The OP is 100% right, some research would confirm this. For example; http://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/comment/with-no-control-on-student-numbers-tomorrows-pharmacists-will-have-a-bleak-future/20067055.article

People who are surprised clearly did zero research when applying for their degree.

However if you're extremely passionate you shouldn't even care. You should try even harder to make yourself employable. You should be studying because you enjoy the role not because of the "high pay" as you will be extremely disappointed when you enter the real world.

- An ex pharmacist.

A similar thread https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2029340 (Miss Alice brings up great points)
(edited 7 years ago)
Remember it takes me long to do a prescription even though I'm using shortcuts:

1) I use short codes, "tds" is three times a day, "1" is take one, "pres" is as directed by your prescriber
2) I am using past history, so I don't need to find drugs as fast
3) I have memorised where every single damn ****ing drug is
Original post by Cobalt_
UNISTATS employment after 6 months indicate the pre reg year which everyone must do.

Not employment.


Aren't you paid so for doing it?

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