I need help on what to do about my pre-reg

[Nik]

Pre-reg problem stories are frequent, however hospital ones are generally infrequent. I have PM'd you. I suggest you also get in touch with laurabuk who is the bpsa graduate officer for further advice.

[sparkybw]

Hello everyone. I am nearly at the end of my pre-reg in hospital and it has been the most miserable and depressing year of my life and this is due to the following:
• Poor quality training: I did very little clinical work (such as ward rounds), and I spent most of the time in the dispensary. I learnt very little during my pre-reg, as a result of which I'm not confident I can work as a pharmacist on my own.
• Racist, resentful, patronising, chavvy techs who think they are more knowledgeable than you (especially the ACTs) even though I have a degree whereas they don’t even have GCSEs.
• Uncaring and unsympathetic management who rather than bend the rules to help you, stick to the book even though it’ll make the pre-reg experience more unpleasant. An example would be not being given revision time during the work day in the weeks leading up to the exam. When I approached them about this they tell that I’m being paid to work, not to revise.
• Unhelpful pharmacists who are no different from the techs.
• Poor exam preparation: We didn’t have any revision sessions, nor were given any revision time during the day in the weeks leading up to the exam. The study days we were sent to were absolutely useless
• A meddling dispensary manager who would recommend to the management that the pre-regs spend as much time as possible in the dispensary because she claims they’re short staffed, which would leave very little time for any clinical work for the pre-regs. The fact of the matter is that the dispensary isn’t short staffed, but the stupid, lazy techs would spent their time gossiping rather than working on the prescriptions which are piling up on the inpatients bench.

I qualify in a few weeks (provided I passed the exam) and I am scared of working as a pharmacist because of this.

Words fail me!

[aspiring]

I recently started a summer placement in the hospital, was suppose to last for a month nd was voluntary......on day one i was given a time table of proceedings, so i had 2 weeks in the dispensary, 1 week in stores and 1 week in clinical(ward rounds). i was taken around and introduced to everyone and after tea break, i resumed in the dispensary. it was quite funny cos i had very high aspirations......walked into the dispensary and no one spoke to me, i was standing around a bit confused, i later walked up to a lady who looked a bit ok and was shadowing her while she did control drugs and when she finished she told me to take a sit and do some reading, after about 2hours i decided to sit at the reception and do drug history, so i spoke to some one else to teach me wat to do........ day 1 ended. Day 2, i walked into the dispensary and said goodmrn.....no answers, i then walked up to individuals and repeated my greeting, i later asked a lady what i could do and her exact reply was" there isnt much to do, just stand around and keep looking pretty" could have been a joke, or not. i smiled and took a sit and started reading my BNF again...... after about an hour i stood up again and started looking around for wat to do.......there was nothing, everyone i walked up to had an excuse nt to have me standing behind them. And then after about 2 hours, an asian pharmacist came in and was speaking to me....... i noticed the atmosphere in the dispensary changed...they didnt like her, there was gossiping, laughters etc, then the pre reg student came in and he passed, so congratulations and stuff was going on for a while and then the guy started to talk to me, show me how to print labels, and dispense drugs, say for about 1 hour and the day dragged on with me reading and so on.........after day 2, i was so sad and felt so down. i have had a lot of placements and experiences both in hosp and community, so i kind of know how it works...but i didnt get the problem this time.................i woke up on day 3 and my heart was beating so fast, i was panickin, i just couldnt do it, so i didnt go in and i have decided that hospital pharmacy isnt for me....... i just cant deai with the hate. So my pre reg nxt yr is going t be community.

[Nik]

Sad to hear that this experience has tainted your views on hospital pharmacy. Not all dispensary staff are like that, honestly. Perhaps they weren't used to having summer placement students around, or were expecting you to be shadowing the pharmacists on the wards doing clinical stuff. I wouldn't call it hate, as you've described, but of course there's no excuse for not saying good morning or hello. I would suggest you keep a hospital pre-reg in mind despite what's happened. Dispensary based work is only one facet of the hospital pharmacist's regular duties, and in the vast majority of hospitals dispensary staff are friendly, approachable and always willing to help. Don't know whether you had time or not, but you could have spoken to the pre-reg there to find out more about his experience in dispensary.

[aspiring]

Thanks Nik, i do feel like i should have spoken to someone but this pple made me feel so small i just wanted out...... and if i knew i was going to feel that bad on day three i would have spoken to the pre reg guy cos he was so nice to me but then he had survived it for a year so there was a very high probability that he would have tried to encourage me.

And i am quite determined to survive this career and so if i had to listen to encouragements then there definately was a problem.

I had another placement in hospital about 3 weeks ago and the pharmacists were really nice but in the dispensary, the staff also had a bit of attitude thou not as bad and so i completed that placement, but the hospital is a little far away from my home otherwise i would have applied to them.

[spartacus]

I know exactly how you feel. It felt so good when I passed the pre-reg exam!!!

[aspiring]

Spartacus, did u do your pre reg training in the hospital or community? and how was it like from day 1

[montblanc]

I did two weeks cross sector in a hospital and i absolutely loved it. all the staff were wonderful. Everyone was happy and chirpy. The prereg at the hospital loved it aswell. Their was soo much free time. So much to learn. It was brilliant. Unlike in community where you stand around all day, in hospital you have soo much freedom, you can sit down in the office to learn or go around the wards.

My prereg in a community was a different story. I hated it. Staff kept talking about one another. No study time and no staff. Had to make up 40 methadones a day, 5 mds trays a day, all the prescriptions from the surgeries (rpsc). I was like a headless chicken running up and down the shop and controlling both dispensary and counter at the same time. Also had to rewrite all the sops and complete 2 audits. plus only got 2 weeks holiday, because no staff to cover holidays. complete nightmere. even for appraisal i needed 10 evidence sheets for each thing. Plus i couldnt talk too long with patients, otherwise i would get shouted at. If was like if a patient comes in and asks for nytol, i would just have to give it without any questions. only one till and only one dispensary computer.