[_Rob_]

Hi Students & people,

Hospital Pre-reg.

After a few years of being a Saturday boy in a community pharmacy, when it came to my pre-reg, I decided to join the NHS and do my service in a small District General Hospital. As a general rule, I rotated around the different areas of the department spending my first 3 months or so in the dispensary, working as a technician. The next 3 months, I spent doing aseptics (which I wasn't so keen on). Then, I spent 3 months doing clinical work (ward based pharmacy and medicines information), then exam preparation, passed exam and then they treated me like a proper pharmacist (although I wasn't qualified) - this really helped once I was qualified.
Good Points:
1. Variation - If I didn't like something, the most amount of time I usually spent doing it was about 2 months. (No stocking the shelves etc...)
2. Teaching - I had 12 pharmacist plus numerous very knowledgeable techs all who were very willing to help and advise where they possibly could.
3. Time - I was given loads of study time to write up evidence etc... Talking to community pre-regs, they usually have to do most of it in their own time.
4. Peer Support - There were other pre-regs/basic grades around, who had or were having the same kind of problems.
5. I lived in nursing quarters - I was like being in the middle 'No angles' (channel 4 soap about nurses)!!! Good if you like a laugh and a beer.
Bad points:
1. Pay - although this has changed with agenda for change.
2. The dug tariff.....what is it, why do I need to know about it....why, why ,why???? On a more serious point, I felt that some of the evidence standards were skewed towards community pharmacy (but perhaps some were skewed towards hospital), these were often difficult to achieve in the hospital setting.