Just qualified as a pharmacist, AMA

Hi I’m going into second year pharmacy and was just curious if you could elaborate/explain the process on how to become an independent prescriber? Thanks!

Sorry just saw this message.

Well done for passing year one.

Let me start by saying this, it is highly probable that in the near future the independent prescribing (IP) regulation will change. The GPhC had a consultation on this matter not long ago.

Currently, for you to become an IP , you need to have been practising as a pharmacist for a minimum of 2 years. When you apply to an IP course, you need to get a medical practitioner to supervise you and it generally takes 6 months for the course to finish. Once you successfully passed the course, you are an IP. The course itself varies in content but generally involves you going to clinics and seeing patients etc

The changes are going to be come about (potentially), will scrap the 2 year practising requirement and the need for supervisor to be a medic. Any appropriate prescriber can be your supervisor (including an IP pharmacist).

Hi, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. This was very informative and something i definitely want to pursue. Sounds like a great change if they scrap the 2 year practice requirement! (Tho maybe some experience in community and then doing this might benefit me knowledge wise?)

Im worried for the step up of how 2nd year will be compared to 1st, I’m not the smartest :/ but try hard aha.

Thanks again!

You will! And why do you feel you're not enjoying university?

I think the universities should be doing alot more to encourage their students to start developing a "prescriber" mentality, they don't seem to be doing that yet. They should be doing alot more in this regard. Pharmacist must become prescribers right after university if you ask me, because at the end of the day, they're the experts in therapeutics.

There is not a big jump between year 1 and year 2. In my course, the big jump was from year 2, to year 3.

There is no such thing as "smart" in my opinion. People just have different skills. What is important in courses like pharmacy is having a smart revision strategy. If you do that, you'll ace any course.

You hardly see white Brits do this type of course now. Thats how much our society has been degraded.

First year was similar to later years just at a basic level. Clinical therapeutics etc.

Pharmacy is a hard course if one is not properly prepared. It is very intense in terms of amount you need to learn and also in the difficulty of the contents. But if you have a smart revision strategy, you'll ace any course, and I mean any.

This year the pre-reg exam had an almost 80% pass rate,. But bear in mind they reduced the pass mark considerably, otherwise I feel, many others would have failed. But like I told you, don't worry about "difficulty", focus on having a smart learning/revision strategy.

Recently I received my results and I am happy to say I passed my pharmacy pre-reg exam with flying colours (got 91% ). After 5 years of hard work, I can now call myself a pharmacist. I will be happy to answer any question you have.