Quote:
Originally Posted by the old merlin  At the moment you will have to take the qualifying exam, which normally means spending a year at one of the Uni's which offers the course. I did once know a S African pharmacist who did the exam without the course, but she was very bright and was working in Drug Information so had access to an enormous amount of current info. And she had very supportive colleagues who were anxious to see her qualify and join them, so spent time with her. Also it was several years ago.
There is then a post-graduate pre-registration year which I have never heard of anyone getting exemption from! There's a structure to it, with competencies to be signed off. It is possible, although unusual, to fail it. There's an exam as well, which has to be passed.
I'm not sure of the costs of the Uni year; Sunderland or Robert Gordons, who both offer the course will tell you. For the pre-reg year you should be able to get a placing in either hospital (admittedly getting fewer and further between) or community pharmacy. While the pay won't allow you to live it up, it should bring in enough bread to keep the wolf from the door, unless you've a family.
Might change as a result of the licensing changes in 2011/12 but the new authority will take, I suspect, a while to get going. |
I believe that it is only recently that all non-EU pharmacists have to do the OSPAP regardless of where they trained. Most of the overseas pharmacists I have met or heard of here came before 2004 and just did an interview and pre-reg (or mostly part of pre-reg: in the early 00's it was 4 weeks) or the OSPAP if they failed the interview.
The tuition fees were around £7000 (Robert Gordon) to £8500 and living shouldn't cost more than £7000 for the OSPAP year but I found myself spending more than that I think. Pre-reg year you get a livable salary but apply early as places are limited too many pre-reg pharmacists. Also look round the universities that offer the course there are some major differences.
I think you will enjoy the OSPAP year if you don't take it too seriously but if you take it very seriously you can get a post grad diploma with distinction whatever that means. :-)
Best advice though is to get your application in now and apply for pre-reg by end of June (i think) as latest. From experience getting your application in at the end of May, then applying for a place and pre-reg in August is quite stressful and carries some risk.
Regards,
Paul