Newly qualified: what's your experience so far?

[kl06229]

To the newly qualified pharmacists out there, how have things been so far? Let's hear your stories for the past week since registering.

Day 1:
A small-ish but busy pharmacy. Staff were friendly and welcoming, a good kick start to my first week as a pharmacist.

Day 2:
A most lovely seaside town. Stuck in the pharmacy working most of the day though! Regular pharmacist and dispensers couldn't be nicer. Managed to grab a lovely lunch by the seaside. Seriously considering a life there.

Day 3:
OMG, this has got to be the worst pharmacy I've worked in so far. So disorganised. Found myself being rushed to check repeat prescriptions dated from 2 weeks ago which hadn't even been started yet! Isn't the whole point of repeat prescriptions to let you plan the pharmacy's workload? Spent 10 minutes at a time trying to locate prescriptions, stored away in a higgledy-piggledy manner.

Day 4:
S**t, same place again!

Day 5:
The only pharmacist for the day, plus one dispenser. 20 methadones to be supervised. Survived the day, so I think I'm a bit wiser as a pharmacist now!

Roll on week 2!

[orangiey]

Welcome to the rest of your (working) life!

Okay, we moan and groan but deep down we love it and survive on caffeine and the adrenaline rush!

[vanquish s]

'rest of your working life'- only if you choose it to be so

[Nik]

Coming from a hospital angle here but...

Monday: OK - new ward, new specialty, double checking everything I was signing off on the charts.
Tuesday: Better - got into the swing of things and patients were more familiar.
Wednesday: Manic - new jr docs starting who don't know how to prescribe a GTN spray or glycerin suppositories.
Thursday: Better - getting on well with jr docs but consultant surgeons couldn't care less about medical problems pts have. Once hip or knee has been fixed their job is done. New docs struggle with medical issues meaning loads of chasing around.
Friday: Best day of the week - Complete the ward round in record time, docs seem to be heavily dependent on me being there but I don't mind, and most importantly patients drug therapy safe for the weekend.

[johnep]

'docs seem to be heavily dependent on me being there'
That sounds great. being appreciated for once.
johnep

[Nik]

It is a strange feeling - as a pre-reg, I always wondered how other staff members perceived my role on the wards. I was always called a pharmacist by the nurses, but the FY1 and FY2's knew that I wasn't qualified but generally took on board any interventions I tried to make. Now it's weird as I'm teaching them not just about how to prescribe, but also about where to find trust guidelines and policies, how to monitor certain drugs, and querying things a lot with them. Now more than any other time during my pre-reg do I actually feel that I'm getting stuck in and making a real difference to patients' drug therapy.

[kl06229]

Things going pretty well so far.

[Shop Designer]

Welcome to the world of crappy shops and hopeless layouts by hapless shopfitters,,,,,,,,

I am glad that on balance more shops were workable than not for you. Look forward to hearing about week 2

[Tony Schofield]

Things going pretty well so far. My biggest gripe recently was working in a pharmacy in a certain town near Paisley.

The pharmacist filed a complaint against me for not arriving at least 10 minutes before work to prepare the pharmacy. Fair enough, a pharmacist should arrive a bit earlier but I did try and phone ahead. Hmm, no answer. Apparently they don't answer calls before 9am.

Funnily enough, I was in other pharmacies as relief and one of the topics that came up was "have you worked in the store in x? The pharmacist there is a control freak. Other pharmacists have refused to work there."

All names and places have been kept anonymous to ensure no one cries because of trash talk.

Referring to places you work narrows down who you are. Be careful what you say as you can be identified. A pre-reg (Raphael I believe, was sacked because of comments he made on one of these forums)