Why do you want to be a pharmacist, really, why?

An interesting point of view.

When I applied to pharmacy the grade boundaries were a lot lower and there was a demand for new pharmacists at the time.

I've noticed that your post applies very much to community pharmacy; a sector that I never had the chance to work in.
The only input I can really put in is that not everyone wants to work as a community pharmacist.

When I was studying for the MPharm programme my intentions were 100% NOT to work in community pharmacy (based on the above assumptions / stereotypes / truths), but to instead work in hospital pharmacy (which is far more clinical and not like running a shop) or industry (which uses more of your scientific skills).
..Although it is a bit rich of me to talk about that, considering I left the profession.

I'm just wondering though, if you had not failed, do you think you would have still persisted with the MPharm course? Or do you think you would have left anyway?

What are your plans now?

I agree that there are a lot of aspects involved in pharmacy! And it's a little rude of me to dump on a whole profession so widely -especially when I've not practiced in them all!

I must say hospital is more appealing than community pharmacy, even if the pay is lower :P. However there is a terribly large amount of competition for hospital places. I was on a course last summer which taught pharmacy students how to get placements in hospitals and how to become a hospital pharmacist. The figures were staggering! If my memory isn't failing me, I believe there were 40 applications per place and only around 30% of people who want to be hospital pharmacists get pre-reg places in hospitals. Alongside that a lot of big industry places require that you do a summer placement with them before you graduate before you can work for them and these are even more competitive (or apparently impossible to get on in GSK's case!).

If I had not failed my plan was to take my degree and run. I was going to slog through, get a 2:2 , avoid doing the pre-reg and get a masters in computer science. Now I've moved onto second year of "Applied Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Bsc" and I plan on doing the same.. Take my degree with OK honours, get a comp. sci. degree and become a developer of some sort. I have been teaching myself C++ at the same time, so maybe I'll be able to get a job post-graduation without a masters, who knows!

Side note: I've noticed that the post I've made probably seems a little combative and maybe a little hard for people to reply to. It was brave of you to reply theepw, I wonder if anyone worried I'd bite their head off for saying that they just love the idea of being a pharmacist... I'd may think they are silly, but I'd accept their opinion

A 4 year course is way too long for a career in pharmacy ...The first year of the course was a complete waste of time for most of us.........it is there to act as a filter ; most people with decent A-level grades could manage 2nd year without doing the first year.

To be honest , I wished I have done better in my A-levels (or repeated them) and went with medicine..... but I guess I will have do apply for graduate medicine next year after Pre-registration

Hello, I am 16 (just finished GCSE's) and I am going to do biology, chemistry, maths and geography at A-level, I am wanting to be a Pharmacist!!
I have just seen all of your comments and I am totally shocked!! (However not swayed away from the job)
Anyway, just wanted to ask is there any good points you can see at all in the job ;plus I'm not the best at chemistry (however, I should get an A*/A at GCSE) just wondered if the chemistry content in the 5 year course is bad? Lastly, is there any advice you can give me as a 16 yr old!!!

Pharmacy as a career is the f*cking pits. I'd say over 95% of the Pharmacists I know hate their jobs. It's tedious, monotonous yet stressful and totally exhausting. Most Pharmacists in Community these days do not get a break, stand for 9-10 hours a day, are subject to harassment from area Managers regarding targets etc, take an awful amount of abuse from the general Public and are generally treated like a piece of sh*t. Trust me it won't be different for you lot, it will be even worse.


It's a trade dressed up as a Profession. Study Medicine.

Hello, I am 16 (just finished GCSE's) and I am going to do biology, chemistry, maths and geography at A-level, I am wanting to be a Pharmacist!!
I have just seen all of your comments and I am totally shocked!! (However not swayed away from the job)
Anyway, just wanted to ask is there any good points you can see at all in the job ;plus I'm not the best at chemistry (however, I should get an A*/A at GCSE) just wondered if the chemistry content in the 5 year course is bad? Lastly, is there any advice you can give me as a 16 yr old!!!

To be honest, some students on the MPharm course have left after their third year with a (BSc) degree and are starting graduate medicine next month. I wished I have followed their advice and applied for graduate medicine last September; instead , I now have 2 more years (at least) before being qualified as a pharmacist.

Then , to be working underneath them within the hospital , I hope they would not forget their root when they become fully qualified medics and shown their respect to all pharmacists which our profession deserve

'Working below them'? How dare you. The amount of times a pharmacist has to tell a medic to change a prescription in hospital because it could potentially either give very bad adverse reactions or kill the patient is obviously something you have no seen. The reason you have probably not seen this is because youre a failed medic who has no interest in pharmacy. Thus, youve probably reached your third year and still haven't managed to secure a decent pharmacy hospital placement.

I personally got a scholarship as undergrad to study pharmacy and my grades would have easily sufficed for medicine.

People that think people are 'below' them don't even deserve to have the opportunity of education. So youre saying nurses are 'below' pharmacists because they require lower entry grades?


I suggest you educate yourself on the world of pharmacy. oh by the way in Canada for example (and many other parts of the world) pharmacy is at doctorate level so you become a Dr of Pharmacy.. I wish it was like that in England because people like you wouldnt get into medicine ... then not get into pharmacy either because its the same grades.


Rant over.

I think the thing with pharmacy is that it really isn't for people who aren't passionate about it, and part of the stigma surrounding pharmacy is because a sizable portion of any pharmacy intake is usually comprised of people who didn't get into medicine. One of my friends pointed out that if it weren't for the fact they didn't get into medicine, there would be hardly any males on our course, which seems quite true actually judging from a lot of the guys I've spoken to. So now everyone thinks we're failed medics. From what I've heard and seen of community pharmacy, I really don't fancy it, so I'm determined to get into hospital somehow, there's the potential to specialise in that. I'm also really interested in vet pharmacy, a MSc in it is going to start in 2014, so when I (hopefully) qualify in 2017 the first new vet pharm postgrads will be unleashed, I like the idea of going into that. But I do agree that community isn't an attractive prospect at all, at least at the moment for me.

Hey there.

I'm currently sat in a flat a short distance away from LJMU's Byrom street campus. I've spent two years on LJMU's MPharm course and am currently leaving it for a few reasons. This could be called my break-up letter with pharmacy, it could be called a desperate cry for attention, but I like to think of it as an insight into a world that you are probably very interested in.

I -like you- want to help people, I feel like I want a career where I'm not stuck in a little cubicle and would love to feel like I've made a difference in someone else's life... Well, that's what I thought at least.

Being a pharmacist is basically a cross between being the assistant-manager of a shop and head librarian. You take in a load of stock, sort it and then give it out to the right people and try and make sure that everything goes to plan .. Oh and make sure you don't get sued. This is the job for most of your day, a job that required you to get a masters degree.
Whilst you may say that there are many aspects to pharmacy, with aseptics, medical information, industry, hospital and academia all working alongside each other, the majority of MPharm graduates go into working in the retail side of the business (working in a chemist such as boots or lloyds).

Let me tell you about an interview at a pharmacy I had a little while ago: I was invited to interview for the position of pharmacy technician at an unnamed supermarket near me that rhymes with "Jamesbury's".

I was told to meet the pharmacist in the pharmacy, yet after walking around the edge of the store and seeing the large and spacious butchers, clean and stylish opticians and very fancy cafe, I realised I could not see the pharmacy in this store!

"Gosh" I think "maybe I'm at the wrong store!". Whilst I head back to the front of the store to find someone who can help, I see it; the pharmacist is stuck in the shelves.
Well... To be exact the entire pharmacy was in the space of a shelf, and not even half of an isle. This is how retail pharmacists are viewed and this is the life of many a pharmacist. Crammed into a little hole, surrounded by people who want to talk to you -quite literally- about their **** and who probably have two screaming little ****s with them (not literally).

You spend 5 years in higher education for the privilege of being a pharmacist and while it may once have been a privilege, it certainly cannot be seen to be one any longer. The MPharm program is becoming increasingly irrelevant with aspects such as compounding still being taught today (ask your pharmacist today if they can make you something in the pharmacy and they'll probably look at you as if you're crazy). The lack of regulation on the admissions into pharmacy schools means that many universities are using them as "cash cows" (and believe me, they really are cash cows). Which just means that within a few years there's going to be many, many unemployed pharmacists, it's just simple macroeconomics.

With the medical world becoming a nightmare of litigation, when you are probably so bright in order to pursue this career (I mean, AAB/AAA as predicted grades for most pharmacy schools!?) when you could do *anything* else; I have to wonder, why? Why would you want to be a pharmacist?

As an aside, if anyone has any questions about MPharm/LJMU I'd be happy to answer them! PM me / Post here