Priced Out of the Market?

[openmind]

Originally Posted by Zoggite

The principal one, yes; but not the only one...

Sorry if I appear to be a bit "touchy" about this subject, but I have experienced linguistic bullying & extremism first-hand (not in the UK), and am now very wary of any moves to restrict access to professions on the grounds of language alone...

Fair enough, Personally speaking I couldn't work in another country and not have a clue of how to converse at least adequately in the local language-I'd be a nervous wreck!.

On another point I have always found the common recognition of professional qualifications directive in the EU (different states, different languages, different laws, different practices yet no further validation required) a bit bizarre when you compare it to the US - Different states, one language yet different license exams in each state e.g. for a Pharmacist to practice in diiferent states would require him/her to pass separate state exams.

I often wonder if patients would prefer the common recognition of qualifications or some sort of re-validation for EU pharmacists?

[silnarnin]

Yes, the interview was without a calculator (despite the fact that in the university I was always able to use one in the exams.).

Yes, I would check the box of Panadol Actifast because I don't know the composition by memory. I don't think I've ever passed through the till a box of Panadol Actifast, and of the top of my head, I don't know if it contains anything more beyond paracetamol.

Pharmacy in the UK is very different from in Portugal. However, it wasn't difficult to learn, specially because all my books in university were in English. The hard part was the communication with the patient; they don't use the scientic terms for their symptons, do they? I've heard things like a cold stomach, a cold in the belly, a sore any part of the body... And in the beginning the accent was difficult as well. I was used to BBC english, and I started to work in the north east of england. It was very hard for me to understand the patients' names in the first month. And the first time that I heard thrush, I though I had understood throat! The English word I knew was candidiasis, thrush was never mentioned in the books. The fact that so much codeine is used also surprised me. In Portugal, it is very rarely prescribed. So the terms like co-codamol and co-dydramol I had never heard before.

I think that with Spanish pharmacists, the main problem is the language. But, at least with the ones I've met, their main objective in coming here is to learn English, and then go back to Spain.

It would be good for the profession that English pharmacists could also spend a year working in another country. I bet that they would come back with a different knowledge than they would have if they had stayed, and also new ideas to develop here!

I'm staying a few more years, but I want to go back. I've learnt so much here, and I would like to copy some of the services we have here in a pharmacy in Portugal. However, there are also things we do in Portugal that it would benefit patient if we could do here.

[Zoggite]

Originally Posted by silnarnin

.

Pharmacy in the UK is very different from in Portugal. However, it wasn't difficult to learn, specially because all my books in university were in English. The hard part was the communication with the patient; they don't use the scientic terms for their symptons, do they? I've heard things like a cold stomach, a cold in the belly, a sore any part of the body... And in the beginning the accent was difficult as well. I was used to BBC english, and I started to work in the north east of england. It was very hard for me to understand the patients' names in the first month. And the first time that I heard thrush, I though I had understood throat! The English word I knew was candidiasis, thrush was never mentioned in the books..

So now I'm trying to imagine what "Candidiasis" sounds like in a Geordie accent, it sounds like a football player's name!

Originally Posted by silnarnin

I think that with Spanish pharmacists, the main problem is the language..

Endless hours of fun trying to teach them the difference between "teats" and "tits", and how both words are pronounced differently! And how ringworm isn't a worm at all, why they can't find "thrush" or "stools" or "whitlow" in their pocket dictionaries...Not to mention getting their tongues around some of the placenames here in Wales, like Dwygyfylchi and Llanfairtalhaiarn...

[Roving Relief]

The Durham area PCT has produced a guide to the local language for doctors who may not be familiar with it.

[Roving Relief]

It is called, 'Do you know your neb from your hunkers?

[admin]

Originally Posted by Roving Relief

It is called, 'Do you know your neb from your hunkers?

No I don't! What does that mean?

Today someone said to me "now then, it's bloody mafting in 'ere!"

I'm not sure if mafting is used anywhere else? This kind of thing must be very tough if English isn't your first language. How do you explain to someone from Spain/Poland etc what the experession "I'll go to the foot of our stairs if............"

[Roving Relief]

Neb=nose
Hunkers (as in 'sitting on your hunkers')=a squatting position.Miners did it a lot.

[admin]

Originally Posted by Roving Relief

Neb=nose
Hunkers (as in 'sitting on your hunkers')=a squatting position.Miners did it a lot.

Thanks for clearing that one up!

[Smithy]

Its the little things that sometimes get them eg "an itch down below" was assumed to be athletes foot!! Me "they want to have their cake and eat it" (reference to employer) reply "how do you know they eat cake."

[Hello]

kemzero

I don't consider myself to be" a know it all" but in this day and age pharmacists/techs can't afford to be bog standard or below!

We can afford to be bog standard pharmacists when we get bog standard wages.