Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

[kemzero]

pharmacists want to be doctors
Pharm techs want to be pharmacists
Pharmacy dispensers want to technicians
Pharmacy assistants want to be dispensers


Why do people always think they are better than what they actually are?t...I believe people should strive to be better ...but why do some pharmacists think they are too clever or over qualified to work in pharmacy....why didn't such people just get 3 straight As and study medicine (by the way I got 1A an 2 Bs and I have never wanted to be a doctor, so I didn't aspire for 3 As)
IMHO these people are destroying pharmacy ,because they think they are too "posh" (posh being used loosely) for the job at hand and that trickles down the pharmacy pecking order

Its a crying shame....hundreds of clinically inappropriate medicines are dispensed every day in the UK; elderly patients are admitted into hospital due to adverse drug rxns etc,OTC drugs are eing prescribed/sold inappropriately yet some p'cists moan that we are overqualified for comm.pharmacy....are we? I certainly don't think so

Some p'cists can't even be bothered with minor ailments smoking cessation or EHC supply,they'd rather delegate to a tech, whislt some techs hate dispensing they would rather label or check and get the dispenser to dispense.....and the list goes on...why can't we all be proud of what we do and do it to the very best of our ability

I think community pharmacy has been abused by the big corporates and the PharmSoc and most comm p'cists have becone disillusioned and maybe iP'cy will continue to die a slow death, but only time will tell, but on the other hand maybe we can all give it the kiss of life , raise our profile and continue to do the best we can ....
Some of our colleagues Pharmacists / ACTs are happy to dispense Movicol 3sachets BD for over 2 years, or tri-adcortyl ear drops for over 12 months the list is endless ...

Pharmacists who want to be doctors should do a fast track MBBS
Techs who want to be pharmacists should do a fast track MPharm etc

Pharmacy practice has to change for it to be taken seriously,,,,,rant over!

[Pharmanaut]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

I don't think that we are over-qualified, just under-valued.

You can break any job down into a set of flippant statements, such as are we overqualified to get a box off a shelf.
Yes if it didn't matter which box it was.

Our value is the fact that we are vigilant and take the time to check our PMR for irregularities and question what we see. To do this you need pharmacist education.

[lamzee]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

by the way I got 1A an 2 Bs and I have never wanted to be a doctor, so I didn't aspire for 3 As)

OK. I got 3 As and pharmacy is what I wanted to do. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being in a commercial profession or in "trade".
All the people I know who are well off are builders or "tradesmen". QED.

[Raju]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Kemzero -

With due respect, I think you are off the point about many pharmacists aspirations. Personally I do not believe that most pharmacists want to be doctors. The thing is though, we have the training to bring something new into healthcare that is not being done at the moment, and we are not empowered to do that.

I no way think that pharmacists should get too involved with diagnosis

On the other hand there is a lot more we could do in improving healthcare than our current role allows.

For example, when we have to dispense medicines that is blatently not in the patient's best interest, I think to myself that a pharmacist would be better off handling manipulation/tweaking of therapy than doctors who often do not have the attention to detail and understanding of guidelines and interactions that we do? When we see bucket loads of miscalculated quantities runing the NHS budget, why shouldn't a pharmacist aspire to become the authority for the exact amounts prescribed and deciding when to give "prn" medicines rather than them being blindly repeated by a receptionist and signed unthinkingly by a GP?

Furthermore, with your example with Movicol - don't you think it is sad that a vigilant pharmacist who intervened wouldn't get paid extra for the intervention rather than a lazy ass who just went ahead and dispensed it. And this isn't necessarily requiring an MUR - just a good old fashioned intervention - which is not recognised in our remuneration. So the point is that the bullshit contract that we work to needs a total overheaul in fee structure so that it actually rewards positive work that we do. Don't you think it is totally pathetic when you carry out a lengthy intervention that prevented serious NHS wastage and also possible patient harm, and your service was worth 90p.

Anyway, I could go on for ages... but to some up... no way do I or most pharmacists I know want to become doctors but rather we know that we could fill a serious current gap in healthcare and that our qualitative work is mostly unrewarded as compared with quantitative work.

I don't think this means that we think we are too good to do a traditional pharmacist's job - but rather that the the pharmacist's job and potential is misunderstood and the qualitative aspect totally undervalued.

[SolomonQ]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

in my opinion, pharmcists do wanna be doctors, but only because the pharmacy profession is almost non-existant i the public domain. everyone more or less knows doctors have to study for over 5 years for their qualification and its a damn hard course to get on to. any bad doctors are just shrugged off as being lazy. on the other hand, I had a barber once question me, when i informed him i had a masters degree, he was more bemused at the fact that ive been to university, maybe because im an asian but still ive had others ask me if im training to be a pharmacist (maybe mostly those who were regular to the store and knew who the pharmacist was), most were surprised when i told them the trainign one had to go through to become a pharmacist. I bet most people think anyone can open up a pharmacy.

Also pety things like odctor forgetting to sign the Rx, common sense dictates that the pharmacist should ring up the doctor in this situation and if the doctor gives the go ahead then the pharmacist should be able to sign it and dispense it. but this isnt allowed. also occasions where say doctor has left off the date or missed a strenght of the drug. In all such situations the comm pharmacists are treated like immbaciles and must return Rx back to the doctor to be authoried for them to be dispensed.

undervaluation is a big understatement, situation is a bit better but still not ideal in hospitals where the pharmacist must run afetr doctors ryin to get every change they make signed and "authorised",

peace out, a-town

[SolomonQ]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

oh yea i forgot to mention the countless number of students on my course who were failed medics or those that couldnt get on to a medicine or dentistry course. reading the C+D i occasionaly come across pharmacists who say they couldnt get onto a certain course or wanted to do something else.

Just to put the record straight I myself couldnt get on to a certain course not medicine or dentistry as is the case with most but Physics (I neva had maths A level), although I have to say Pharmacy ws always the second never the M or the D courses (too long, ones gotta a life to get on with)

[johnep]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Oh dear regret I never considered anything else. did not do medicine as a bit sqeamish, and maths reckoned not good enough for pure chemistry.
johnep

[lamzee]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Is it getting easier to get into pharmacy these days then, if other course "drop outs" are getting in? Is it because of all the new pharmacy schools?

When I was applying a few years back, I was told they wouldn't interview anyone with predicted grades of less than aaa or aab, and that pharmacy had to be the only choice on the UCCA form.

[Robatcymraeg]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Airline pilots have an easy job. The planes take off and land almost automatically and in between just run on autopilot.

Then, a short while ago the fuel system failed on an Airbus just as it came in to land at Heathrow and a cool head and superlative skill by the co-pilot got it down to a skid landing just inside the airport boundary without injuring a passenger (one broke a leg getting out, but that wasn't down to the co-pilot).

So was the co-pilot overqualified?

[johnep]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Excellent example, someone needs to have all the background knowledge and that is us. Blind faith in a system is perfectly illustrated by terminal 5 at Heathrow.
johnep

[Robatcymraeg]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

The shambles at T5 fills me with foreboding as regards Connecting for Health and the lectronic Transfer of Prescriptions. But at least it is not (yet) planned to introduce thses as a Big Bang -- but hold your breath for election year

[Zoggite]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Rob,
I just hope that by the time they roll out ETP in Wales, all the teething problems will have been sorted out by testing it on the English!

[Robatcymraeg]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

So do I, and I hope that we are told when it is rolled out. Two weeks ago I did my first Repeat Script in Wales, didn't even know those had been implemented, must have missed the announcement, but isn't that an indictment of the Powers That Be.

[Tony Schofield]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

Pharmacy practice has to change for it to be taken seriously,,,,,rant over!

Your own words sir and I agree with them. It must change form licking, sticking, counting and pouring. Oh yes and checking!

The government, since 1997 has said on countless occasions that dispensing income will reduce as cognitive services develop. They want more from Master's degree holders than they are getting. There is much that can be done to develop within the dispensing process and I acknowledge some of the examples quoted on this thread.

However, as Galbraith and the white paper both say, there is too much work to be done managing the health needs of our ageing population to fight over who does it.

Doctors clearly are more experienced at diagnosis but there are clinical skills courses that nurses do access and pharmacists could access. I agree with you myself that doctors should diagnose but I believe pharmacists should prescribe and that was first suggested to me as a student 30 years ago. It is reality now.

To me, prescribing is an essential component of the supply process. I prescribe. I prescribe methadone and subutex in my pharmacy for substance misuse patients. Am I one of those you are aiming your rant at?

[Pharmanaut]

Re: Is being over qualified fact or fiction?

I prescribe methadone and subutex in my pharmacy for substance misuse patients.

This is a genuine question, not a troll.
How do you manage aggressive patients demanding supplies, and all the 'my dog ate it so you have to give me some more' stories.