Pharmacy Training Organisations Irresponsible In Their Lack of Business Training

[gstrong]

A while ago I posted a thread on the forum asking if anyone had done any business training to help them build a stronger business for themselves and of-course their family. I noted that there has been over 1,600 views of the commentary for that so far, clearly showing an interest in this side of the life of a Pharmacist.

The reason I asked was that a good friend of mine who is a Pharamcist and I were talking about his business and I was blown away by the fact that he had received only 2 lectures of business training the entire time during his study. I was absolutely stunned. Here he was an incredibly sharp Pharmacist, with immense technical skill, expected to go out and run a business with next to no training at all. I'm amazed that such highly skilled and important healthcare providers to the community are in effect left short by the organisations that train them.

True, not every Pharmacists want to own and run their own Pharmacy and I'm sure not every organisation lasks this commitment... but it seems to me that Pharmacy Training Organisations are for the most part completely irresponsible in their lack of business training for Pharmacists. At least provide them with some skill to help Pharmacists reduce the risk involved in starting or buying into a Pharmacy business.

As you may have guessed, I'm not a Pharmacist, but a Business Owner (in a field unrelated to Pharmacy) and Advisor. Working together, my friend turned his business around (the fundamentals of business are the same no matter what area it's in). I don't doubt that the care provided by Pharmacists is and will become more important for the future. I feel very strongly about this and am keen to help Pharmacists where I can. If you have a concern about your business - feel free to respond to this and me your question and I'll be happy to answer them where I can (and in case you're wondering there no costs: consider it on me).

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheers,
Graham

[DavidS]

I trained in Liverpool, where courses in communication and some business skills were incorporated (at that time). That qualified me for membership of the institute of pharmacy management, and some more postnominals! So when I left college I wasn't completely ignorant, I knew some of the questions, and, strangely, how to look at the best place to site a factory.

My family were predominantly professionals, rather than business people, and I had absolutely no idea about business or how to do it. I believed that if you did the job then you made a living. That was the way, I naively felt, the world worked. Further, I had no idea of what I didn't know. Reading the IPM journal gave me some leads, and I subscribed to a management journal that was full of good, elementary ideas.

I had the great good fortune to go into business with my boss, who was an entrepreneur who showed me by example what needed to be done. That was my education. Payment for him was that I made him a fair amount of money. (Thank you Harvey!)

Having learned enough to become a millionaire, I lost interest - I'd always earned a fair bit more than I spent - and became interested in other fields of human endeavour and great personal satisfaction which don't involve paperwork and money. But that's another story.

There are many pharmacists who have been brought up in families where the basic rules of business are learned in the cradle, and I didn't have that. But even so, I think Graham is absolutely right. Bad habits can also be learned within the family, and at least I was able to choose a winner to tie myself to, when I was learning.

One only has to look at the mess pharmacy is in to realise that the profession has lost sight of basic business principles.

[gstrong]

Hi David,

You've hit it right on the head. For the most part in my experience many Pharmacists do well because they have a mentor or entrepreneur who's been in the game for some time, who can show them practically what to do. And as a consequence help them achieve that balance of marrying the skills of business and pharmacy skills together for a great result.

Which in your case is to become a millionaire. It seems and please tell me if I'm off base here, by becomming a millionare through the combined skills in business and pharmacy you then had options and the freedom to choose other things that were of great interest to you? Which in my mind is the real goal. That's an outstanding result and one I'm sure many Pharmacists aspire to acheive for themselves.

The trick there is to find such a person who's not only prepared to help you but with whom you can build trust and confidence over time.

Cheers,
G.

[DavidS]

Hi Graham,
in todays terms I made it, yes, but this was some time ago when perhaps half a million was the same value! And yes, I decided to do other things rather than just make money that I wasn't really interested in spending.

What did I do: I organised 24 hour care for my mother for several years before she died, I got a divorce from my long-suffering first wife and paid off her mortgage, I had a few years of therapy to sort my head out, I took a couple of university courses in applied psychology so I could undderstand more deeply what the hell was going on in my therapy, and I had two and a half days off a week to do all that and see my children and friends.

It was much better value than shovelling cash. But that was easy for me to say, because I had enough.

[johnep]

I attended a lecture given by a Mr H Tomski at which he founded the Institute of Pharmacy Management.
Unfortunately, as a youth I was influenced by the 'do gooders' who told me that money was not important and I should strive for a 'career'. Even the dean at uni (Prof Linnell) told us that the Ph.C. was for 'money grubbing retail pharmacists' and that we, who were taking the then relatively new B Phm, should go into industry or academia. If only I had known what I know now, I would have started up a pharmacy from scratch or taken over an ailing business with potential. I now understand that money does not buy happiness, but it makes misery a lot more bearable and gives you freedom as davids says to do something else.
johnep

[gstrong]

I agree, one of the greatest key barriers in the way is the opinion and perhaps pregudice of those who hold senior positions within academia as you've highlighted. We once tried to incorporate a corporate entrepreneurship programme within another organisation. The aim being to take internal resources (time, $, expertise) and combine that with great ideas from staff who were entreprenuerial in nature that were keen to implement new ways to either make or save money for the business. It got killed at the senior management level...for no other reason other than several key staff weren't in favour of the idea. The lesson here was, even if it's the best idea in the world, if senior staff don't buy in, it'll never get off the ground. And if you are senior staff at least stand aside to see if it works before taking it apart. I suspect that business training doesn't get the attention it needs to, because those doing the teaching either have no idea what to do...don't actually think it's important...don't wish to pass it onto someone who does know what to do or believe there's a natural conflict between making money and delivering quality healthcare solutions. In my view a sound business, that's profitable, supporting it's owner and his/her staff effectively, will provide a superior platform for the Pharmacist to deliver the best of healthcare to their patrons. Happy to hear if someone thinks differently.

David's discussion is important too I think. as he's really shown that there really is no difference between your business life and your personal life. While they might be separate legally, in reality what happens at work can affect home and what happens at home can affect work.

[weeneldo]

I've just finished my MPharm degree at Strathclyde and I don't think we got any lectures on how to actually run a pharmacy in the whole course. We had dispensing classes during third year, clinical content in the final two years mainly, some extemps in second year and the rest was all formulation and other subjects with very little application outside of industry. It was a course 60% geared towards industrial pharmacy, 30% towards hospital and 10% community. Many, if not most of the students will likely eventually become pharmacy managers, yet they might as well have studied the NVQs to be a dispenser, then done their pre-reg year. In fact, that probably would have been more use as the dispenser course is more practical.

[johnep]

Pharmacy training was initially 4 years apprenticeship and evening classes,the Old Minor and Major exams, then 9 months full time for C & D, then 2 years for Ph.C., 3 years for B Phm and now 4 years. There was virtually no industry at first, then rapid expansion. Pharmacy educators were anxious that pharmacists should be able to work in industry alongside B.Scs. In my day if you wished to have a pharmacy you did Ph.C., more ambitious students could take B.Phm and aim their sights at academia and industry. Indeed that is precisely what my Dean (Prof Linnell) espoused at the time.
Now with the decline of industry and the fact that majority will work in community or hospital, perhaps it is time to return to the old Diploma. I confess I only took the degree because Essex County Council would only fund courses in which honours could be obtained. I could not have funded the Ph.C course (in those days at Chelsea Polytechnic).
johnep

[gstrong]

Weeneldo has highlight a crtical failure in the system I believe...that there's a disjunct between what is being taught and what is actually needed to support pharmacists when they decide to run their own business. I think in many respects that the training organisations main focus is to train students to become employees and not necessarily business owners or entrepreneurs unfortunately. I'm not sure this is an easy fix to be honest. As Johnep said perhaps it's time to return to the old Diploma - I wonder whether a major cultural change within the training organisations would be needed to do that?

Of-course there's nothing wrong with an employee focus, except where, as in the case of Pharmacists, the outcome is often not an employee but a business owner, which for the most part is an entirely different skill set that you have to get your head around. The problem is that becomming a business owner it's often not by design, but rather by default for many Pharmacists.

My advice for Weeneldo would be. Firstly, ask yourself what you'd really like to acheive for yourself...personally (e.g. be a multi-millionaire; freedom to choose what you wish to do). Then ask - does my current training give me the skills to do that? If it does...magic, that's great, if not then identify what skill sets you need to have to achieve that (or leverage from someone else e.g. employee). If it's to be a multimillonaire - I doubt achieving that as an employee would be easy, but as a business owner - that's another story I feel.

[weeneldo]

Weeneldo has highlight a crtical failure in the system I believe...that there's a disjunct between what is being taught and what is actually needed to support pharmacists when they decide to run their own business. I think in many respects that the training organisations main focus is to train students to become employees and not necessarily business owners or entrepreneurs unfortunately. I'm not sure this is an easy fix to be honest. As Johnep said perhaps it's time to return to the old Diploma - I wonder whether a major cultural change within the training organisations would be needed to do that?

Of-course there's nothing wrong with an employee focus, except where, as in the case of Pharmacists, the outcome is often not an employee but a business owner, which for the most part is an entirely different skill set that you have to get your head around. The problem is that becomming a business owner it's often not by design, but rather by default for many Pharmacists.

My advice for Weeneldo would be. Firstly, ask yourself what you'd really like to acheive for yourself...personally (e.g. be a multi-millionaire; freedom to choose what you wish to do). Then ask - does my current training give me the skills to do that? If it does...magic, that's great, if not then identify what skill sets you need to have to achieve that (or leverage from someone else e.g. employee). If it's to be a multimillonaire - I doubt achieving that as an employee would be easy, but as a business owner - that's another story I feel.

Never mind becoming a millionaire, I don't even feel my degree has trained me to be a community pharmacist. Apart from the clinical content of the degree and the few dispensing classes in 3rd year, there was no focus on how to do a community pharmacist's job. How do you manage your time effectively in the pharmacy? How do you ensure you get the most out of 2 dispensers and a counter assistant? How is medication supplied to residential homes? What's a MAR sheet? What's a dosette box? How are prescriptions endorsed? How do you deal with someone trying to buy co-codamol every day? What brand name does losartan come as? How do you ensure you get the best price on generics? Where would you find a list of dressings prescribable on the NHS? What's in the Drug Tariff? How does the Minor Ailments Scheme work? Who is exempt from the prescription charges? None of these things were answered by my degree, but I can tell you all about Non-Newtonian fluids, mass spectrometry and 3D molecular imaging.