Work experience in a pharmacy???

nenni

Hi...

18 yr old DS is currently in 6th form and through doing Chem A level he become very interested in Pharmacy. He would really like to go and do some work experience in a pharmacy after his exams are over.

Does anyone know how much he would be allowed to be involved in the pharmacy side of things?

My friends dd is interested in the same thing. Last year when she was 16 she went to do work experience in a large chemist but ended up very dissapointed as they wouldnt allow her anywhere near the pharmacy side of things. She ended up stacking shelves and standing around on the shop floor like a lemon.

Friend can't fully remember reasons given but thinks they said it was to do with her age and something about needing to be licensed to be near any of the pharmacy side?? He really doesnt just want to end up stacking shelves as he does that part time anyway at local supermarket:D

oscarward

Suggest you talk to the student manager at somewhere like Lloyds or Boots. With Lloyds I was told it's down to the individual shop manager who they have in the shop but I am also told the head office will sometimes sponsor a student through university. Basically you have to sell your soul to them though.

My niece works in a Lloyds branch but with no qualifications she isn't allowed any where near anything that involves patient safety, as you say she is a shop assistant.

My son was considering Pharmacy but is now doing a Chemistry and Forensics Degree at Keele. CSI here we come !

Oldernotwiser

I think he's left it rather too late to arrange something for this summer, I'm afraid.

hellokitty08

I am sure Lloyds offer some sort of scheme, I remember sending the details to a friend some years ago, or was that the NHS?

http://www.lloydspharmacycareers.com/

For the NHS one try looking at your local NHS website

atypical

nenni wrote: »

Does anyone know how much he would be allowed to be involved in the pharmacy side of things?

He will be able to do very little. To dispense (pick and label medicines) you need to have passed a course. I think it's an NVQ.

He obviously wouldn't be able to recommend OTC products as he doesn't have the knowledge (and you need to have been trained anyway). The pharmacist can't test his knowledge of prescription medicines for the same reason. Ideally the pharmacist would try and involve work experience students when they're clinically screening prescriptions but they often don't have the time.

As far as I know none of the pharmacy chains have a formal scheme for non-university students. If he hopes to do a pharmacy degree in the future he'll need to have the experience! Yes it's boring but he'd still get a feel for what it's all about. Whether he likes what he sees is a different matter...

brunutti

I'm not sure whether you mean in an actual pharmacy in the community or in a hospital setting. I completed 2 weeks of work experience in the hospital pharmacy and it was absolutely fine- it does its job (which is to show whether or not you might like a career in it). Whilst most of the day is watching, observing the technicians etc. you do get to do some things (especially as he is 18 I'm sure he'll have more freedom than I did).

HTH

Jami74

nenni wrote: »

Hi...

18 yr old DS is currently in 6th form and through doing Chem A level he become very interested in Pharmacy. He would really like to go and do some work experience in a pharmacy after his exams are over.

Does anyone know how much he would be allowed to be involved in the pharmacy side of things?

Why doesn't he just pop in to some local pharmacies and speak to the pharmacy manager about some work experience?

There is a lot to learn and not much to do until you've learnt it. Like someone else said you can't sell otc products until you know what they're about, it's not like on a cigarette counter where you just hand out what they ask for, similarly for in the dispensary. But if he was going to be there for a while then he would learn stuff and with it would come more interesting tasks, maybe it would even lead to a Saturday job.

Putting stock out might sound boring but if you are interested in medicines then it is a good chance to handle the products and have a quick read of the packaging which would help him to learn all sorts of valuable stuff like which active ingredient a product contains and which symptoms it treats, side effects, dosages, who can't use the product etc. All stuff that he'd have to learn at some point if he were to become a pharmacist. He'd get a chance to help customers by showing them where items were, explaining the directions to the ones who had forgotton their reading glasses and being able to show an alternative brand of the same thing. I'm guessing if he showed interest and motivation he'd soon be doing different things whereas if he stood around looking bored the staff would just give him more stock to put out. It would be up to him what he made of the experience, it isn't the staffs responsibility to entertain students on work experience.

muddled_midget

Does the supermarket he work in have a pharmacy at a different store that he could arrange some work experience in? I'd be far more likely to say yes to having a work experience student if it was someone who already worked for the company and was therefore of more use to me (till trained/could be multiskilled for the future), although as previously said there's not a lot you can really do while on work experience, and date checking/shelf stacking all have to be done by someone (even the pharmacist in my store!)

skintsaver_2

i was a dispensing technician in a pharmacy and there is not alot he would be able to do really, he could get a saturday job but would still need to do the chemist and druggest exam which is really easy but they would prob have him stacking shelves, in pharmacys there is nothing fancy going just picking tabs off shelves and printing labels but it is highly unlikely he would be able to do anything as he is not qualified and to be qualified you need to work there and do on the job training or go to college which is a bit of a catch 22

if he did go onto do a pharmacy degree then he could get placements and work as a dispenser and get a summer internship

best of luck for him in the future