I know a coupkle of people who had barely set foot in a pharmacy before starting their pre-reg! One of them landed their pre-reg with a large multiple infact.
Yes it is possible. I had no pharmacy experience outside of my MPharm and got loads of interviews and accepted a place at a hospital. However, to be fair it wasn’t my first choice, and my first choice did tell me it was lack of pharmacy work experience that cost me a place. Therefore it is properly easier with experience. However, I don’t regret not doing work experience. My second choice turn out to be perfect for me. I also hated the idea of wasting my summer away working in a pharmacy (you have a whole life as a pharmacist ahead for that), and refused to be bullied into it by the pharmacy establishment. Summer placements are worthless experiences, you don’t need them to be a good pre-reg, you soon catch up if you haven’t done any.
It is properly worth declaring that I did have extremely good MPharm marks, and had won academic prizes etc. So it may have been a different story if I had had mediocre MPharm marks. I had also done a research project over one summer.
However, if you are going to have to work for money over the summer anyway, you might as well work in a pharmacy, because there is no doubt pre-reg interviewers are seriously turned on by a few weeks work experience, no matter how little difference it actually makes in the long run, and they have very little interest in anything academic, particular community interviews, that often tend to be non-pharmacist regional mangers.
So in summary, do it for money, but if you really don’t want to don’t feel you have to, just make sure you get good marks in your degree, and have something to show for at least one summer.
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