No placement.........

[Timothea]

I am a third year student and I could not find any placements. Boots rejected me and some other hospitals rejected me either. I still keep looking for the summer internship. Hopefully I can get one before the summer holiday starts.

The only pharmacy- related experience was working in a foreign country hospital. I do not think they will count it as a proper summer placement. I have no other pharmacy-related experience afterward. I doubt whether I still have hope for my pre-reg year.

What can I do ?
Do I have any chance to get a pre-reg placement if I do not have enought working experience?

[rch777]

off course!!! am in my fourth year now, i and a number of my friends did not have summer placements but we have all sorted out our pre reg's even until now i am still gettin emails from large and small independent pharmacies concerning pre reg to start this year.

It is only if you want a pre reg with boots that you need to have a summer placement. If i was in your position, if you are not successful with summer placements hunt then i ll advice you try and get a job, voluntary or paid, with an independent.....it is quite competitive out there and they want to know you have experience, some people say it is not important because pre reg is all about training so there is no need for experience....well.....they are wrong!

Experience shows commitment, desire, passion for the profession...and also they don't want some guy who on his first day will be gettin in the way of everyone, spilling things, looking clueless....etc

So in short, the moral of the story is....its not too important to get a summer placement but quite important to get experience within the field you are interested in, by any means necessary........

[Nik]

It is only if you want a pre reg with boots that you need to have a summer placement.

Not exactly true - majority of co-op and lloyds pre-regs have done a summer placement. However the bit about independents is a fair point. Even now there are some places who have vacancies to start this summer. If you want to go down the hospital route try voluntary work at a local hospital.

[Timothea]

Thank you rch777 and Nicolai.
I am still looking for the possibilities of the placements...I wont give up until June!
I am going to apply for working in a research project in my uni.
Hopefully I can get this job!