Conundrum of summer placement’s choice

By Pang Yin Yang, 4th year, University of Manchester.

For first and second year students:-

Thinking of applying for summer placement? My advice is: “Please, go home or somewhere else. Since many of you are likely to work as a pharmacist the rest of your life, please, please get away from summer placement.”

BUT isn’t summer placement important to get a pre-reg?

No, not for the first/second-year summer placement. I didn’t do second year placement (went to work in a kitchen in USA) but I still got a pre-reg in hospital. I did do first year placement with Lloyds but I didn’t get third year placement or pre-reg place with them (not even an interview) even though I spent quite a lot of time writing up Lloyds’s applications.

My housemate did a second-year summer placement but not the first-year placement and he got a pre-reg with Boots.

My conclusion is that you don’t have to do summer placement after first/second year. So go and relax while you can. But if you are worried, then just do one out of two.

If you really insist to do two placements, then don’t be afraid to try out different sectors. If you did community, then try hospital/industry and vice versa. This is to get to know which sector suit you best.

Also nothing to stop you from doing more than one summer placements over each summer but I think you should take a well-deserved rest.

For third year students:-

So it is the time of the year again- applying for summer placement. The difference this time is that this could potentially affect your pre-reg places.

Unlike first and second year, I would STRONGLY recommend that you apply to everywhere and anywhere for a summer placement.

This is because hospital is definitely looking for candidates with summer placement experience (any pharmacy experience. Community is fine)

Want a pre-reg in hospital?

One of the hardest choices is whether to work in hospital or community pharmacy over the summer.

I wanted to work over the summer in hospital because I know that I want to get a pre-reg in hospital but Boots offered me a place in November and I had to reply within two weeks.

And the replies from hospitals? ‘It is still too early to apply. Wait till Easter’. ‘We will let you know next year February.’ ‘We are not sure whether we will take in summer placement students next year. We will let you know if we do.’  Arrgh.

So because I am not sure whether I will definitely get a hospital placement, I decided to go with Boots placement.

I was worried whether I will get a hospital pre-reg  but my fear was completely unfounded. I did get a hospital pre-reg during first round of selection despite not having a first-hand experience about working in hospital.

Also, from many careers fairs I have been to and from the phone calls/e-mails I made to prospective employers (hospitals), experience is less important than your enthusiasm.

The fact is that I score a big ZERO for hospital experience but still got a hospital job because I really, really wanted to work in a hospital. So if you:

(i)                 sincerely want to work in a hospital,

(ii)               have any sorts of pharmacy summer placement experience (community, hospital, industry etc)

(iii)             don’t mind working in less popular area (All pre-reg training bases and tutors are accreditated by RPSGB so you will get good training)

(iv)             spend time writing your application and preparing for your interview (another article will be written when time approaches for this)

you are extremely likely to get a place.

And if you want a pre-reg in community pharmacy? Obviously doing a third year summer placement with the same company you want a pre-reg place is beneficial. However, don’t worry too much . Everyone is after you. Cause they want you to work for them after pre-reg. It is expensive for community to get a locum so they prefer regular employee. I even specify in my Boots summer placement review form that my first preference is hospital but I still got an offer from Boots. I turned down the offer because I got a hospital pre-reg. (Hospital is not necessarily better than Boots/community. My choice is based on my own values. I did have a wonderful Boots tutor, enjoyed very much working with my colleagues and helping out customers but my values are just not compatible with community pharmacy in general)

Again, like hospital, you may have to work in less popular places (usually bigger cities or near school of pharmacy).

Looking at the good side of thing, your pre-reg is only for a year.

Can I tell Boots/Lloyds/etc that I am not going to work for them if I got a hospital summer placement later in the year even though I have promised to work for Boots/Lloyds/ etc?

I think the best way is to call the person-in-charge of Boots/Lloyds/etc’s summer placement programme and get their permission.

I did get an interview from a hospital for summer placement after getting a Boots summer placement offer but because I cannot face my own moral guilt (I don’t want to break my promise), I decided to inform hospital that I won’t attend the interview.

What if they say no?

You can still not go. It is not likely Boots/Lloyds will come after you (this is not a legal opinion) BUT do bear in mind of our Code of Conduct for Students if you want to take this step. This potentially shows that you are not trustworthy. And pharmacy world is amazingly small.

However, it is your career so the choice is yours.

However, under no circumstances you should break your PRE-REG contract without explicit permission from the employer. Cause employer generally view pre-reg commitment much more seriously than summer placement contract. So, don’t accept it if you are not 100% sure.

If asked whether you will accept a pre-reg position (highly unlikely for you to be offered a pre-reg place so early in your year but just in case), say something like ‘Highly likely’. I was very excited when I got my hospital pre-reg but even then I just said ‘extremely likely’. I accepted it only after reading the written contract.

Thank you Yin Yang for sharing your thoughts and experience with us, on doing  summer placement and applying for pre-reg. We believe that many other people have gone through different situations and might have different opinions or even disagreements. with what mentioned in the article above. We’d love to hear from you too!

Edited by: ndwulst

Approved by : nadranadia.

My Nottingham

By Norhafizan Salim,
2nd year, University of Nottingham

Having a deep interest to know more about drugs and their science of action has leaded me to choose pharmacy as my course.  When I studied A-level at KYUEM, I really enjoyed learning chemistry which strengthened my spirit to further my studies in pharmacy. Thanks to Mr. Boler and Mr. Hanson, my chemistry teachers=)

When it came to choosing the universities, I have no idea which university to aim for at first. I got lots of help from my seniors and not to forget, Pn. Kasthuri. After gathering some information about the universities that offer pharmacy course, I decided to choose University of Nottingham as my firm choice. Alhamdulillah I have no regret for making the decision and now I have done my first year in Nottingham. =)

Hey, those are just introduction. Bear with me ya! =P

So now, I wanna talk about pharmacy course here in Nottingham. First thing first, my university is one of the top universities for pharmacy course! Woohoo~=D

Lecturers, labs are superb! The lecturers are really helpful. We don’t have to copy down the notes because they give us a copy already. So we can give full attention during lectures. Even if we missed a class, there’s no need to worry about. We can access what we called here as WebCT to get the notes. There are even some lecturers who have their lectures recorded and put the records in the WebCT. Facilities in the labs are really good which make us the students enjoy doing the experiments. Most of the laboratory glassware are type A glassware and most of the machines are also up to date. The most important part is that I made my own medicine during my first semester!

And now, I wanna tell you guys why I chose Nottingham over the other universities in the UK. The very first reason is because it is a campus university. I love campus-styled university because it would be very convenient to live within for four years. Teaching facilities, leisure places and student accommodation are all situated close to each other. Nottingham city is quite big and you can find almost everything here. We have lots of halal restaurant.

Do you remember Robin Hood? The guy who stole things from the castle to help poor people in the wood. Hey, he’s from Nottingham!hoho..

So people, do come to Nottingham! Either you want to study here or you just want to have fun, just come…

~My Robin Hood~

Editors: Everyone has their own reasons when it comes to choosing their universities. Here, Norhafizan Salim shares with everyone why she chooses Nottingham University and how much she enjoys being over there. We hope that she will continue to have fun and make full use of her coming three years in Nottingham. On a side note, we are sure the University is glad for her kind publicity =P

Edited by : Kappax2

Approved by : nadranadia

One too many?

By Min Ven
University of Cardiff Graduate Class of 2009

On 15th June 2009, the UK Border Agency announced a newly revised shortage occupation list (SOL). For people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and had the aspiration to be a registered pharmacist in the United Kingdom, the new SOL is not something to look forward to. As the name suggests, SOL is a list of occupations which the UK government wants to fill urgently and is willing to open those jobs up for qualified foreigners. In other words, a foreigner will more likely to be granted a work permit if the job is in this list. In the revised list, community/retail pharmacist was no longer included, which means, getting permission to work as one in the UK maybe difficult to obtain. It is not all doom and gloom, at least hospital pharmacist remained in the list.

The change can translate into the imminent over supply of pharmacist in the United Kingdom, primarily in the community or retail setting. This is obvious if one keep track on the number of school of pharmacy mushrooming all over the UK over the last few years. From around 17 four years ago to 22 fully accredited universities providing the MPharm courses. This number excludes five other universities that had yet to churn out any graduates and also two universities that twin with Malaysian counterparts. The number of collabaration courses will inevitably increase in the near future.

If you plan to work in the UK after graduation, this information will be useful for your consideration or reconsiderations. If you plan to do pharmacy, the fact is that you will need to be more than a brilliant student to be able to survive in this profession in the near future, the days of pharmacist having a job for certain will be ending soon. In the UK and eventually in Malaysia.

Editors: The decision of Migration Advisory Committtee (MAC) of UK Borders (UK Immigration Dept) to remove community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from SOL came as a surprise to both students and RPSGB. Apparently RPSGB, the body that represents pharmacists within the UK was not consulted for the decision. However, this decision will be reviewed in September 2009. Hopefully by then, there will be a favourable outcome. Meanwhile, it will be hard to non-EU pharmacy graduates to apply for working visa even if they are offered a place in pre-registration. As an alternative, (as far as we know) they will have to opt for post-study visa which allows them to work in UK for a maximum of 2 years. Below are several links for readers’ references:

Community Pharmacists no longer in shortage, says MAC
RPSGB News Release: Community Pharmacists No Longer on SOL
Council Concern at Decision to Remove Community Pharmacy from SOL
Pharmacy Bodies Call for Reinstatement of Community Pharmacists to SOL

Posted by: Minven

Edited by: kappax2

Approved by: kappax2

Applying for Pre-Registration in Malaysia

By Lim Ka Keat
IMU-University of Strathclyde Graduate Class of 2009

It’s summer!!! Hope those who are still in UK are enjoying their summer. As you can see, all blog editors are having their own summer vacation as well…haha…

But anyway, I’m back roasting in Malaysia. Realised many of us who just came back from UK to register for pre-reg in Malaysia have no idea how to go about the procedure, including myself.

I have just gone through the whole process. So I took some time to prepare this guide for students coming back the home country to work.

The guide is modified from an existing one obtained from SPA with additional information added by myself based on my friends’ and my experience.

Hope this would be useful for you. The same procedure should apply to students who study locally in Malaysia too, but as far as I know local Schools of Pharmacy do arrange briefings for their final year students on this.

Do comment if you find any mistakes or outdated information.

Thank you and good luck!

Click to download

Registering as PreReg Pharmacists in Malaysia

Posted by: Kappax2

Approved by: nadranadia

How Much Do You Value Your ‘Pharmacy’ Title?

Who is a pharmacist? What is a pharmacy?

Would you mind if someone else who did not study for the degree call himself a pharmacist?

What about a shop with no pharmacist being named a “pharmacy”?

What would you do, if you see someone without qualification calls himself pharmacist? Or a shop without pharmacist call itself pharmacy?

Below is an article written by a practising pharmacist in Malaysia, Mark Cheong, voiced out his opinions on what he has seen recently. Mark has previously written an article for our blog HERE.

Do share your opinions after reading it!!

**********************************************************

Farmasi Cosmetics, as displayed at Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya. Picture courtesy of Mark Cheong.

Dear all,

As some of you may be aware, there is a brand of cosmetics out in the market called ‘Farmasi Cosmetics’. The cosmetics can be found in many major shopping malls and outlets in Klang Valley.

The use of the title ‘Pharmacy’ and its equivalent in other languages is restricted only to pharmacists and premises with a pharmacy that is operated by a pharmacist. This restriction can be found in the Registration of Pharmacists Act 1951 under Section (7) subsection (3).

As the company selling these cosmetics is not a pharmacy business and neither are the owners pharmacists, I strongly believe that their use of the word ‘Farmasi’ is illegal.

I have performed a search on the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau’s website and to my dismay, there are more than a 100 products registered under the ‘Farmasi Cosmetics’ brand name. It is beyond me why our product regulatory agency would allow the registration of a cosmetics brand that is illegally using a restricted title as its brand name.

To date, I have complained twice to the Enforcement Division of the Pharmaceutical Services Division and twice to the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society. Unfortunately, I have yet to see any action being taken and all the while the cosmetics are still being sold widely. I have also written letters of complaints to the management of Summit, Parkson, Amcorp Mall and Jaya Jusco but I have also yet to receive any answer from them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe there is something very wrong with the state of our profession if we simply allow and condone the illegal use of our professional titles. I believe that we must complain to the authorities when we observe such crimes – yes, crimes- being conducted. I believe that while one pharmacist complaining may not get any response, a thousand pharmacists complaining should be able to force the hand of the authorities.

I do not ask that you simply send in a complaint based on what I have said here. However, if you have actually seen this misuse with your own two eyes, I would implore you to go over the the PSD website (www.pharmacy.gov.my) as well as the NPCB website (www.bpfk.gov.my) and lodge your complaint regarding this matter.

I ask this of you because I believe that the professional image and future of our profession lies in all of our hands. Don’t let ‘Farmasi Cosmetics’ be the precedent in a chain of events that destroys the pharmacy profession in Malaysia.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Mark Cheong, RPh

**********************************************************

Pharmacy Restaurant, Notting Hill, London. Picture taken in 1999.

A  similar scenario has taken place in the UK  in the last 10 years.  In 1997, a restaurant and bar  named Pharmacy was opened in Notting Hill.  It was designed like a chemist’s shop with bottles of pills on medicines cabinets. The medical theme saw cocktails with names such as Formalin Martini and Voltarol Retarding Agent. To a further extent, the urinal in gents was designed as a glass case filled with syringes, plasters, and rubber gloves. This created a dispute with Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain  ( RPSGB ) which claimed that the name and medical items displayed could confuse people looking for a real pharmacy. The name itself was breaching The Medicines Act 1968 , which restricts the use of `pharmacy’. The restaurant’s name was subsequently changed to “Army Chap”, an anagram of “Pharmacy”. However, the restaurant itself  was closed in 2003.

The artworks and original design of Pharmacy Restaurant, Notting Hill. These were about to be offered at auction on October 18, 2004, after the restaurant's closure in 2003. They look like real chemist shops, right? Or better?

Now, readers, especially  fellow Pharmacists & Pharmacists- to-be,

What do you think?What should we do?Where should we be in this kind of situation?

For further information and follow up  on this issue,  click here : 

Dispensing with Sanity.

References :

Guardian : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1442226/Artists-Pharmacy-restaurant-closes.html

Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacy_(restaurant)

Pharmacy restaurant  : http://www.panoramio.com/photo/20852867

Artworks  :   http://www.life.com/image/72563257,  http://www.life.com/image/51478388

 

Posted by: Kappax2

Edited by : Nadranadia.

Approved by:  Committee members,  MPS -UKSC.

My Wonderful Summer Placement

By Siu Sien (University of Nottingham)

It is such a pleasure for me to write something here about my experience being a pharmacy student in the UK. I hope it helps you to gain more understanding about student life in the UK and on how you can make it even more interesting than mine! Even though I’ve just been here for not longer than 3 months, UK has been giving me a very good impression ever since I landed here. Besides the cold weather and lack of some delicious Malaysian food, I seriously can’t think of anything (yet) to complain about. All I have to say about UK is just simply one word – ‘AWESOME’! All the great things about UK definitely can’t fit into just one article and you know how much I love UK/ Nottingham! In this post, I would mainly focus on the summer placement that I had during the past summer.

Just before I came to the UK for my final 2 years of pharmacy course, I applied for the summer placement programme. It is held in most community pharmacies in the UK every summer. Pharmacy chains such as Boots the Chemists, Co-operative Pharmacy, Llyods Pharmacy, Tesco Pharmacy and many more have always been very supportive in organising the placements for pharmacy students in order to provide them an opportunity to have a first hand experience in a retail pharmacy and also to train them to be competent pharmacists in the future.

If you would like to secure an offer from them, apply online! The online application is actually fairly simple and all you have to do is just to be aware of the due date for each pharmacy as they are often different from each other. Most of the time it falls between November and December. Do show them your very best in answering their questions. An impressive CV is helpful as well. And of course, do keep yourself alert of the due date!

I didnt put much hope on it. But I was really delighted to be offered a summer vacation programme with Co-operative Pharmacy. It was an extremely good news for me as I was still clueless how to spend the whole summer holiday in Malaysia before heading to the UK. I was also lucky enough to be allocated at the branch in Nottingham (where I’m studying now), which really helped me a lot in saving time moving around and looking for accommodation.

My lovely colleagues Dawn and Andrea, It’s been great working together with them.

Throughout the four weeks of placement with the Co-operative Pharmacy, I spent quite a lot of time completing the trainee booklet which was full of exercises, activities and case studies. The workbook has helped me a lot in understanding the task flow in a community pharmacy and also in knowing the health service system (NHS) in the UK. Practically, I was trained for dispensing of medicines which includes analysing of the prescription and labelling of medication, I’ve also got the opportunity to deal with Control Drugs dispensing and making entry into the CD record. Besides working behind the counter, I’ve also worked at the till and sometimes responding to symptoms in the pharmacy. Probably in the beginning you would find a bit difficult to deal with patient coming in asking for medications to cure certain conditions, it would get better as you go along with the guidance from your tutor.

Oh yea, I was so glad that I’ve met a really good tutor who was assigned to guide me throughout the placement. He was actually the branch manager. He has indeed spared a lot of time and effort in training me to make sure that I learn every possible pharmacy-related stuff. He is really a good role model of pharmacist! & I would like to really thank him for his patience and guidance all the while

The branch manager a.k.a my tutor who has taught me loads of things during the placement. It’s been my pleasure to have trained by him!

The summer placement programme has not only given me extra knowledge and experience in pharmacy but has also built up my social network at the same time! Therefore, I find no reason not to apply for summer placement for next year and the year after! It’s all gain with no loss. More importantly you get paid! Other than that, you could also spend your summer holiday with something really meaningful and educational rather than ‘mould’-ing in your room, right?

So, don’t you wait any longer! It’s now the right time to start looking at the websites of those pharmacy companies and get ready for their recruitment for summer placement in year 2009!

About author:

Siu Sien is currently studying Year 3 Pharmacy in University of Nottingham. We thank her for sharing with us her experience on summer placement.

Edited by: KK

Approved by: Nadranadia

P/S: Want to share your experience as well? Do write to us! Thank you very much in advanced!

Why Pharmacy?

By Ven (Welsh School of Pharmacy)

Spare a few minutes. Think. Can you give yourself a reason why you are reading pharmacy or why are you contemplating pharmacy as a career?

Any fellow colleagues who know me in person would have faced the said question from no others but me. Why are we doing pharmacy?

One too many times, answers such as “because I failed to get into medic school”, “I don’t want to be a doctor”, ” I want a career that pays OK but I don’t have to slave myself”, “my family owns a pharmacy, I can take over the business after this”, “it’s a professional course, one of the shortest professional course around” and last but not the least, “I don’t know”.

Do they sound familiar? I have to admit, sadly, me myself fall into some of those reason above. How many of us actually inspire to be a pharmacist because we love the daily routine of a pharmacist? Wait, do we even know what are the roles of a pharmacist in the first place before we made the decision to join a school of pharmacy?

No, I am not trying to discourage anyone from pursuing a career as a pharmacist, my years as a pharmacy student had transformed the “me” of yesteryears to the changed “me” of today.

The message is quite blatant, look before you jump, make pharmacy an informed choice. Chat with people in the field, talk with the students (for example, us!!), have a tête-à-tête session with your family. Ensure it is a course and a career that suits you and make sure that it will turn into a lifetime of enjoyment and not one filled with regrets. Make pharmacy an informed choice.

Posted & Edited by: Min Ven

Approved by: Nadranadia

An Insight into Rising Medical Cost

By John Chang
Immediate Past President, Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS)
President Elect, Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Association (FAPA)
For Mr Chang’s congratulatory note to our Blog, visit here.

This 14th November, I am invited to speak in a Breakfast Forum on Rising Medical Costs.  Such invitation is useful to make our presence felt as a pharmacist and also to speak out our professional perspective on a subject concerning health. I append a sypnosis on the points that I would be addressing:

“An Insight into Rising Medical Costs”.

Pharmaceuticals is an important component of any healthcare system. In most medical consultation, pharmaceuticals are inevitably being prescribed, judging by the medications that patients often bring home with them after each visit.  In any national healthcare insurance scheme, the cost of pharmaceuticals is closely scruitinised and often managed through special drug formulary to contain costs.

The perception that the pharmaceutical cost itself, whether it is high or rising contributes to higher medical cost must be looked at from a more holistic view. Let us take a look at the various elements that can influence and contribute to higher medical cost.

1. Just like healthcare, pharmaceuticals is supply driven and its demand can often influence by healthcare providers
2. How our medical care is provided and paid for is contributing to the greater use of pharmaceuticals
3. Healthcare funding, whether it is public or private or even mandatory opens to abuses
4. It has often been raised that irrational prescribing is not just harmful but also contributes to undesirable prescribing habits that raise pharmaceutical usage and costs
5. Doctors being most influential in the use of prescribed medicines should pay greater attention to prescribing skill and drug knowledge
6. Pharmaceuticals have become more potent and costly and greater emphasis should be on the quality use of medicines.
7. Pharmacists should be given more visible role to provide professional medicine management especially in support of the Malaysian National Medicine Policy
8. Current pharmaceutical distribution and market do influence the use of costly medicines and at times unwarranted use as well.

I welcome comments from readers.

I shall report on another encounter with doctors in a Medic-Legal Debate on “Dispensing Separation” on the 14th November afternoon.

Editors: Thank you once again to Mr John Chang for his time and effort.

Posted by : KK

Approved by : Nadranadia

Involve Yourself in BPSA!

By Yin Yang ( University of Manchester )

BPSA stands for British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association. As the name suggests, it represents all pharmacy students in Britain (England, Scotland and Wales excluding Northern Ireland). It is also the official student body of RPSGB (Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain).

I joined BPSA in my first year for a five-year membership. That was actually quite a big decision for me as £25 was (and is still) a really huge amount for a Malaysian who just arrived in England a week before. But, do I regret my decision? No.

There is a common notion that BPSA=social events, which not everyone enjoys. I won’t deny that BPSA does involve social events but it is actually a small part of BPSA activities. The only social event (by that I mean having informal/formal dinners) that BPSA offers is actually dinners for six nights during BPSA annual conference. Surprisingly, I did enjoy those dinners despite my introvert personality.

What does BPSA do besides that? It organizes 1-day area conference twice a year. Activities include talks from pharmacists, workshops and debate on diseases management. I have just attended an area conference in Pennine area (Manchester, Liverpool John Moores, Central of Lancashire uni etc) focusing on ‘Cancer and Palliative Care’. There  was no social event there (but of course you can be nosy and chat with others ) . I learnt really a lot which I doubt I will ever learn from my course. Listening to what practicing pharmacists say about their own experiences, about mistakes they have seen in their colleagues, and to your peers’ views which you might not have thought about are really important to widen your views and to prepare you to face these real life scenarios, which could sometimes be difficult, especially those that involve ethical issues.

In addition, BPSA holds career fairs throughout the year, usually in conjuction with other events like its annual conference. From there, I know what to put down for my application for summer placement and pre-reg and which companies/sectors I really like to join (not telling you here as my potential employer might Google and read this ). And of course you can buy books (e.g. Pharmaceutical Press PhP) at a discounted price. I think it is 20% off and free delivery too. I bought my physicochemical book from there.

There .are also many free competitions to join as members. One of the major ones include “McNeil Responding to Symptom“, which could potentially improve your communication skills besides getting paid if you are in top three in your uni and bigger prize if you get into regional and national level. On the other hand, Reckitt Benckiser MCQs will give you an opportunity to win an all inclusive trip to attend International Pharmaceutical Students Federation (IPSF) Congress (click on IPSF). Next IPSF Congress will be in Bali in 2009 (wow…that’s so near home isnt it? You could probably de tour to your house after the congress…LOL) Look more about IPSF 2009 here. Meanwhile, the runner up will win money towards an European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA) Event of their choice (click on EPSA). To take part in any of these, contact the pharmacy student society in your own university

Besides me, many other Malaysian pharmacy students have involved themselves in BPSA too. Some have even made it big. Last year, a Malaysian girl made it to final round of BPSA McNeil Responding to Symptom Competition. You can read the news here. It does not mention the nationality explicitly, but you can guess from the name. Nadiah, our founder of MPS-UKSC won cash prize for the same competition. Yip Jui, also founder of MPS-UKSC also involves herself in BPSA and is enjoying it very much.

In a nutshell, BPSA is for all pharmacy students studying in the UK, regardless of which country you originate. What really matters, is your active participation and enthusiasm, which will at the end of the day, benefits you.

Posted & Edited by : Nadranadia, KK, Yip Jui

Approved by:KK

Editor’s Note:

There is an equivalent of BPSA in Malaysia, called Malaysian Pharmacy Students’ Association (MyPSA) which is just recently set up last year and hence you probably havent heard of it yet. It offers similar advantages as BPSA if not the same. For your information,  MyPSA organises National Gathering of Pharmacy Students (NoGAPS) every year and next year (2009), it will also be hosting the 8th Asian Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) in USM. While Yin Yang encourages UK students in take part in BPSA in his article, for you who are (still) studying in Malaysia, we would also like to encourage your participation in MyPSA.

From Graduating in UK to Practising in Malaysia

By Mark Cheong
IMU-University of Strathclyde Graduate Class of 2006

The first thing that hit me literally as I stepped out of the airport was the rolling wave of heat. After one year in the chilly gloominess in Scotland, the humid heat was the first message i tookfrom my beloved country. She was telling me, “Welcome home.”

The temperature wasn’t the only difference I had to get adjusted to. I had now completed my degree in Pharmacy and the differences between being a pharmacist in the United Kingdom and being a pharmacist in Malaysia would soon be apparent to me. With that thought in mind, I applied to the government for a pharmacist post in order to complete my pre-registration year as well as the three-year compulsory service for pharmacists. The entire process and the guidelines concerning this can be found at the Pharmaceutical Services Division website (http://www.pharmacy.gov.my). Just as a side note, let me say that it is extremely difficult to get exempted from the service and to my knowledge, no one has yet succeeded.

My own pre-registration training was done in the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau (NPCB) which is the regulatory centre for pharmaceuticals in Malaysia, where I was mainly attached at the Good Manufacturing Practice and Licensing Division. There, I spent most of my time following senior pharmacists to audit pharmaceutical manufacturers and to see if they were complying with standard regulations. Exciting stuff if you like traveling, pharmaceutical technology and meeting with members of the industry. At the end of the year, I was evaluated on my knowledge and performance as well as two audits that I performed on pharmaceutical premises. After my pre-registration, I was transferred out to a hospital to serve my three year service which gives me the unique experience of seeing both the clinical and non-clinical work of pharmacy.

Most of my batchmates underwent their pre-registration training in hospitals where they were rotated through several departments, such as Outpatient Pharmacy, Ward Supply, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Total Parenteral Nutrition & Cytotoxic Drug Reconstitution, Drug Information Services and the Pharmaceutical Store & Procurement department. At the end of each rotation, they were evaluated by their preceptor based on how well they performed their duties and whether they gained the knowledge required. They were required to be on-call and had research projects and clerking assignments to complete as part of their evaluation.

Once you have completed your pre-registration year, you can apply to become a fully registered pharmacist in the civil service. There are a few things to note about being a fully registered pharmacist and undergoing the compulsory service.

As opposed to the UK system, pre-registration pharmacists do not have to take an exam in order to become registered pharmacists at the end of the pre-registration period. All you have to do is to pass your preceptors’ evaluations and get a Certificate of Satisfactory Experience from your head of the training institution. That being said, there is a forensic exam that you will have to take which involves the Malaysian Poisons Act and Dangerous Drugs Act. For those of you that have been taught only the UK legal system, please do not despair for if yours truly here managed to pass the exam, so can you.

Another hotly discussed issue about becoming a pharmacist in the civil service is your placement after pre-registration year which unfortunately, is not your choice to make and neither is it usually open for discussion. This is a particularly frustrating aspect of working in the civil service and unfortunately the official line to this is that we are professionals and professionals should be able to serve to the fullest of their abilities wherever they’re needed. However, if you do have particularly compelling reasons to be placed in a certain area, you are free to submit an application for transfer and the matter will be evaluated by a committee in the headquarters during which I suggest you keep your fingers crossed.

Now becoming a pharmacist in the civil service means you will be working in generally three areas: the clinical area (hospitals, community clinics etc), pharmacy enforcement and regulatory pharmacy. Now many people have asked me which area of pharmacy is the best and I normally struggle to answer that question as I am not sure what ‘the best’ means to each individual. However, I believe that each area has its own pros and cons and being a pharmacist in either area will not make you less of a pharmacist.

Speaking generally, clinical pharmacy work means you will be practicing what you were trained for in university which is a plus. You will also get lots of patient contact and feel good that you’re directly responsible for their wellbeing. It also means you will have to work on-call, deal with irritable patients and deal with other irritable health professionals which on a good day, I’m proud to call my colleagues. Working in regulatory pharmacy normally means a steady 8 to 5 job in generally comfortable surroundings and it can give you a lot of exposure to the pharmaceutical industry as most of your work will involve them. Unfortunately, it also involves a lot of paper shuffling and working with higher ups that can easily squash you like a bug. Finally, working in enforcement generally means a lot of traveling, dealing a lot with the law and legal processes as well as flexible working hours. Flexible working hours however, is a two-edged sword. While it can mean that your boss isn’t too particular over what time you come in, it also means that if there is a raid going on at 2 a.m. in the morning, you’re going to have to be there.

In conclusion, every job has its pros and cons and most of us have come to love, if not tolerate, our jobs very well. Pharmacists in Malaysia have a large role to play in healthcare whether others notice it or not and we need every pharmacist we can get to help us fulfill that role. Therefore, I would like to say that for those of you that are considering coming back to Malaysia to practice, please consider it strongly. I’d like to believe that those of us before you have made things a bit better and more tolerable and we’re here to welcome you with open arms.

Thank you.

Posted by: Nadia
Edited by: KK

Editors’ Note:
Thank you so much to Mark for spending his time to share his experience with us. It is particularly useful and meaningful for us to hear from someone who were in the same shoes and have walked the path. To all readers, do drop comments or questions if you have any

Happy 2009!

Count down 2 more days before the whole new year! Hope everyone is enjoying their lives there…Happy 2009 in advanced peeps!

Well, sorry for the recent inactivity. Everybody been rather caught up with studies and the festive season. Coming 2009, besides trying our very best to maintain this blog for the benefits of everybody, we are also looking for more fresh young blood to our editorial team

And of course, we still welcomes contributions in the forms of articles or ideas from all of you!

On behalf of the editorial team, thanks for your support in the past 3 months and hope to see you more often in the future.

Happy New Year!

Posted by: kappax2
Approved by: Nadranadia

My Glasgow Experience

By Fionna Tan
IMU-University of Strathclyde Graduate Class of 2008

Glasgow was indeed a blast for me!! And the weather really did not reflect my time spent there, contrary to what others usually complained about (including the locals). I somehow didn’t find the weather cold & gloomy…I find it rather enjoyable! Haha…probably because I was too busy having a blast with my buddies and mates…and I simply love the cold weather compared to the heat!

I am currently melting back here in KL!! I want the snow! XD

Anyway… everyone knows about the academic part…and no point talking about it…since I ain’t a major fan of it but no matter what you still gotta pass and get your degree! That’s why you were there in the first place…or rather I was supposed to…hehe
gotta study hard nonetheless especially for the less fortunate ones (like me) who have to really study in order to pass…some people don’t have to…oh well…that’s life everyone’s good at something…and academics are just not my thing ^^
but yea…studies aside…

Things that I had done during my one year in Glasgow, Scotland:
I made tonnes of new mates and buddies…from all over the world…

I had seen a lot of Scotland and beyond with my new mates & buddies…I saw quite a fair bit of Scotland till I can’t remember all the places I’ve been…hehe

I joined this group called Friends International Glasgow, which organized all the great trips at a very very affordable price!! PERFECT =) Contact them here.

I learned a whole lot…experienced a whole lot…and grown up a whole lot
and still a whole lot more to learn, to experience and to grow

Life is all about choices is the frequent tagline I use…if you want to have a great time, you’ll just have to make a choice to have a great time and it’ll come to pass..once you’ve made the decision and follow it through =)

So go out and live life! No one else can live it for you =)

I was asked to further add in more details but I have no idea what else to write…so I shall leave it as it is :p and if you have any further queries or anything else, feel free to drop me a email at fionna.tan@gmail.com

Editors’ Note:
Fionna spent one year in Glasgow to complete her twinning Mpharm Degree with University of Strathclyde and is really a person who knows how to have fun. Haha…Thanks for sharing your experience.

Posted by : Kappax

Approved by : nadranadia

MOH Guide to Pharmacist Career Development

Have you been wondering?

How much is your salary when working with Ministry of Health Malaysia?

How to apply for pre-registration in Malaysia?

Benefits of working under Malaysian government?

Your leave entitlement?

Types of work you can involve in as pharmacist?

& probably most importantly, which hospitals in your home town you can apply to do your pre-reg?

If your answer is yes, then this is the right document for you. Click to download.

MOH Guide: Career Development of Pharmaceutical Officers

Content:

Introduction p1
Roles & Responsibilities of Pharmaceutical Officers p2
Appointment p3
Terms of Services (Saary & Benefits) p5
Career Opportunities in MOH p9
List of Graduate Training Hospitals p13
Incentive Payment & Other Benefits p17
Calculation of Emoluments & Allowances of Pharmaceutical Officers p19
Application to Pursue Postgraduate Programme p21
Subfields Offered & Recognised p27
Diagrams of Possible Promotion Opportunity p31

* Changes effective 1 January 2008 (p10 of PDF):
Grade U41: Fixed Housing Allowance = RM250.00
Grade U44: Fixed Housing Allowance = RM400.00
Critical Service Incentive Payment = RM750.00 for all grades of pharmaceutical officers

Thanks to JPA London for the Information!!

Posted by: kappax2
Approved by: nadranadia

Nottingham Malaysian Games (NMG) 2008

By Ka Keat
4th Year, IMU-University of Strathclyde Twinning Programme

One of the things that many UK Malaysian students look forward to each year is to attend this one-day annual sports event organised by University of Nottingham Malaysian Student Society – Nottingham Malaysian Games (NMG). It has been around since 1985 and is attended by thousands of Malaysians in the UK every year. It was even attended by several ministers once several years ago. Given its scale, you can imagine how big a Malaysian student population they have.

I heard about it from friends who came to UK before me. For my first and only year in the UK, of course I cant miss the opportunity to attend it. Moreover, I have got friends representing our university in several sports – football and volleyball. With our semangat-ness, 7 hours of bus ride from Glasgow was nothing

Our volleyball team in Action, well done for entering semi-finals!

Glasgow Football Team in NMG 2008. Proud of you guys!

I think the whole event aim to serve as a gathering for Malaysian students around UK rather than becoming a real sporting event.

For me, besides getting to cheer for my friends, I also got to eat lots of Malaysian food at affordable prices *yum yum*. There were lots of Malaysian food stalls in their hall in conjuction with the event, e.g. nasi lemak, tau fu fa, rendang curry, etc etc, which made me drooling. Haha…

And, I got to meet my NoGAPS friends back in 2007. For your information, NoGAPS stands for National Gathering of Pharmacy Students, organised by Malaysian Pharmacy Student’s Society (MyPSA) annually. I was fortunate to be one of the participants and made several good friends from Nottingham Pharmacy. It was nice to meet them again, this time in their university in England. They even brought me around Nottingham town! Thanks Siu Sien especially and Chien Hui, Wei En, Pek San and Chin Hong

NoGAPS07 friends. From left, me, Siu Sien, Chien Hui, Wei En and Pek San.

Dont miss this opportunity to meet other fellow Malaysians while you are in this foreign land. You do feel a bit “at home”, especially when you see those food! LOL…It normal falls on october or november each year…contact your local Malaysian Students Society for bus rides down to Nottingham next year!

p/s: Several links that are probably useful:
1. Nottingham Malaysian Society Blogsite
2. NMG 2008 Promo video

Disclaimer: The organiser does not pay me for this article…LOL

Posted & Edited by: KK
Approved by: nadranadia

Summer Placement at Cohens Chemist

By Siti Nadiah ( nadranadia ),
3rd Year MPharm ( Hons ), University of Manchester

As I entered second year in September 2007, I started to apply for summer placement at numerous community pharmacies, which included Lloyds, Boots, Rowlands, and Cohens Chemist. Yet towards the end of the year, I started receiving rejectance letters and emails, which turned me hopeless.It was quite frustrating , since my friends and I spent plenty of time completing the application form for each. However beyond my expectation, Cohens Chemist rang in February 2008 to arrange for an interview, and finally, after months of waiting, I secured a 2-month placement!

Cohens Chemist might sound unfamiliar to most of you. It is a chain pharmacy, like Lloyds, but not as extensive as Boots. It operates over 80 branches, across the North of England and Wales, with majority of them localized in South Manchester. I was posted to a branch at Cheadle Heath, Stockport, Manchester, which took merely an hour on bus from university. Lucky me since I didn’t have to hunt for temporary summer accommodation which could so-called `reduce’ the incoming wage!

Cohens Chemist, Branch 027, Cheadle Heath, Stockport, Manchester

I worked primarily as a dispenser at the pharmacy.There were two Medicines Counter Assistants who dealt with incoming customers at the counter, a pre-registration(pre-reg) pharmacist, pharmacy supervisor, and of course the pharmacist herself. Oh ya, there were only ladies in our shop, but the shop’s part time driver is obviously a male. They were very supportive especially when I first started working. I was so quiet   ( which is not my nature ), I took some time to adapt to the environment, trying to understand every single thing, especially when dealing with customers on phone who spoke very strong north accent. Yet my colleagues in the pharmacy really helped me along the way, and I’m glad that I found myself improving towards the end of the placement.

Frm  left :  Christ ( Counter Assistant ), Me, Jose ( Supervisor)

As a dispenser, when patients came in, my main job was to analyze the incoming prescriptions, key in the data in patient’s medication record, prepare the label, and dispense the items before being checked by the pharmacist.

I also checked incoming daily medications supply and shelved them. It might sound a bit boring, but that’s one of the effective way to learn the name of drugs, which did help to some extent when I study pharmacology now.Oh ya, Cohens Chemist offers free delivery service, which in my own view, would help to improve compliance. As such, I routinely answered phone calls when patients rang to order their prescriptions, sending the orders and collecting the prescriptions from the nearby surgery, and of course dispensing them. The driver would then send those medications away, or patients can choose to collect themselves.

Me and Sarah, the pharmacist

At the same time, I was fortunate that the pharmacist encourage me to explore and tried every single thing in the pharmacy, though, because of lack of skills, I only tried them once. . The pre-reg pharmacist once taught me to measure compression hosiery for a patient with moderate oedema. Well, I learnt that in school as well, but it was interesting because I saw the real patient with that condition! You don’t get the same opportunity in school, the best you would get is a simulated patient.

An example of tray for MDS, but not the one used in Cohens Chemist

The supervisor at once, allowed me to prepare trays for a patient. It is actually under a service called Monitored Dosage System ( MDS ). Most elderly patients take multiple drugs, with more than 10 tablets per day.Most tablets are white and looked similar.Some patients just could not cope with the drugs load. MDS is to help them. I analyzed the prescription and prepared the tablets that they need to take into the correct time slot on the tray. There are four time slots on the tray : breakfast, lunch, dinner, bed. It might sound simple, but it is very tedious, I took such a long time to ensure that I did not confuse myself with all those tablets. That’s why I tried for once only, and normally, only the supervisor would prepare it, not other dispenser.

Cohens did not put the middle name on the nametag, that’s  y I was  first called  Siti.

How about responding to symptoms skills? Aha, another good thing about Cohens Chemist is, they funded me to follow a short course to become a Medicine Counter Assistant! The course is called Chemists & Druggists ( C + D ) Pharmacy Assistant Development Programme, co-sponsored by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, certified by College of Pharmacy Practice, RPSGB.

They were 14 modules on minor ailments, and for each module, they were exercises to be completed, and quiz to be answered on phone. You could actually apply for this course yourselves, but you need to pay some money, about 40 GBP. Yes, I am now qualified to work as a Medicine Counter Assistant, dealing with over the counter medications, but the skills at the counter largely come from experience, not the quizzes.

My cert as a  Counter Assistant. It arrived a day before my  role-play exam in fifth semester. What a booster.

In short, I was, and still am, very grateful that He gave me this wonderful opportunity. It was like a complete package – knowledge, skills, experience, fun, friends, all encompassed in one job. I made friend with the customers, people at the surgery, and even the people from the food shop nearby where I used to buy lunch. It was sad to leave the shop at the end of August 2008, after 2 months of working. That’s why, I’m looking to forward to work with them again this summer.

Update :  The author has just secured another placement with Cohens Chemist this summer at Reddish, Manchester.

The application for summer 2009 has been closed. Yet, if you would love to for 2010 summer, you could obtain the application form from your school of pharmacy. I’m afraid there’s no online application for Cohens Chemist. Then, if your form attract them, they would call for interview. The interviewers would mainly ask you to explain in greater extent on what have you written in your application form, so do remember your own form’s details! May you succeed and secure the place you want.

Disclaimer : Cohens Chemist does not pay a single pence for this testimony.

Posted by : nadranadia

Approved by : Kappax2

Should pharmaceutical companies give gifts to doctors?

As you might have noticed, all our previous articles were factual rather than encouraging discussions and sharing of idea. This week, we shall try something different. Our first discussion topic on healthcare issue:

Should Pharmaceutical Companies Give Gifts to Doctors?

*****************************************************************

Background to the issue:

It has been a common practice by drug companies in all countries to give small promotional gifts relevant to doctors’ work such as pens and surgical gloves. In fact, some larger drug firms also pays for doctors’ travel expenses and accomodation to medical education conferences and even give free trips to resorts.

Recently in the UK, there is a call by medical experts to pharmaceutical companies to stop giving gifts to doctors. A report has been published by a working group, which advises against the  culture that is deemed to affect clinicians’ judgement. The working group is led by the Royal College of Physicians, involving General Medical Council and representatives from leading pharmaceutical drug companies.

The prevalence of the culture was thought to be a result of the failure of the NHS (UK current healthcare system) to value doctors, which cause the doctors to turn to pharmaceutical industry which is good at expressing this value. The working group argued that,  even though doctors need to receive information about new treatments, they must never be, or seen to be, influenced to any extent by any promotional incentives. It is afraid that the massive expenditure on gifts from the pharmaceutical industry could distort the drug purchasing practises in the healthcare system.

On the other hand, some people might think that doctors are professionals and are unlikely to be unduly influenced by the drug companies.

Meanwhile, in the US, such ties between doctors and drug companies have been said to have eroded public confidence. In view of that, some hospitals have already banned such practises within their own hospitals such as Stanford University Medical Centre, click here, not just among doctors but also among medical students.

Although most of us are not studying to become a doctor, we will all be exposed to this one day when we start working.

*****************************************************************

Here comes the £100million questions. As a (future) healthcare professional,

• Do you think the gift-giving culture do any harm / has any potential harm to a healthcare system, regardless of which country, UK or Malaysia?
• Do you, think that the drug industry should put a halt to the gift-giving culture? Why?
  OR
  
• Do you, on the contrary, think that no one will be so easily swayed by a pen or a calendar with someone else’s name on it? Why?

Share your opinions with us, whoever you are, whichever course u r studying!!
It is the expression of opinion that is important

Reference: BBC article posted here and a (Malaysian’s) The Star article posted here.

Posted by : KK
Approved by :  Nadranadia.

Pre-registration Troubles

By Emily Teng
4th Year, University of Nottingham

During your 3^rd year in pharmacy, you will be bombarded with the fact that you need to prepare to apply to various pharmacies at the end of the year for a pre-registration placement. If you have your eye on certain pharmacies, you might have to think about it even earlier as they require you to do a 3^rd year placement in order to qualify for a pre-reg. And if you did not secure one before the start of 4^th year, you would need to worry about it when term starts as well.

I, for one, did not have much trouble with securing a placement, and I am thankful that I did and do not need to go through what my friends are going through. Take a friend of mine for example (let’s call her R), who has gone through a bit of tough times just to get the placement that she is finally happy with.

R did a 3^rd year placement with X pharmacy, which was a pre-requisite for a pre-reg. When she applied for her 3^rd year placement location, she did not realize that the pharmacies in the northern region actually bonded a pre-registration student for 2 years – meaning the pre-reg year plus one year as a qualified pharmacist. If you were going to break that bond, you had to pay a huge sum of money. She had her own reasons for not wanting to be bonded, so started searching for alternate arrangements by asking for advice from the university tutors, who were happy to help her in trying to find a new location.

In October 2008, she had an offer from Z pharmacy, which she had gone for an interview for during the summer (yea, long time ago), and thinking that she could not get a better location with X pharmacy, she verbally accepted the offer, not knowing what will happen next.

R heard back from X pharmacy, offering her a location that she was happy with. Whilst comparing X and Z pharmacy, she found that X was more attractive and rejected Z though email, and thought nothing more about it.

She got a call from Z pharmacy early in the morning, asking her why was she rejecting their offer. Being too honest, she told them that she had another offer from another company, with better conditions than Z. The caller from Z (let’s call her T) then said that they can still negotiate for better conditions, but R stressed that she really was rejecting their offer.

As it is too long to repeat what was being said in their conversation, I’ve decided to extract and edit what R had wrote in her blog (I feel that it’s better than she remain anonymous so excuse me if I do not put her blog address in). Below in blue is what was being discussed and in red is R’s explanation of what really happened. (“She” in the extract is T, and “I” is R)

She said I had been unprofessional because they actually sent me two offer letters since September but I took long time to reply their offer.This isn’t true because Z Pharmacy had only made an offer to me recently. I was on hold since August.

She said there were actually two offer letters but first offer letter was lost on its way. After a second check, she found out the offer was made on 10/10/2008.

T then changed topics and she said since an offer had been made on 10/10/2008, why did I take so long time to reply?
I said I had only received offer letter from them after two weeks, which was on 28/10/2008. I received offer from another company (X) after I had received offer letter from them. I took about two weeks to reply them because I needed time to make my decision. (She later found out that she only had the letter for 8 days.)

SHE SAID TWO WEEKS WAS TOO LONG TO MAKE A DECISION.
I replied her saying that I think I have the right to make decision in two weeks. Even for first round candidates, RPSGB also mentioned that they must given enough time to decide, how come I can’t have that TWO WEEKS?

Fact: There wasn’t a reply-by date stated on the offer letter.

She said because of me they had to turn down other candidates.
I explained to her that I was told by her manager that the place I was offered to already have enough students and my offer was by special arrangement. So, I had taken it for granted that no other candidates are waiting for my post.

That phone conversation ruined her whole day. Imagine waking up to a call like that. She was also told that she was being unprofessional and a complaint would be submitted to the university about her. She again went for advice from her tutor and staff in the school and was told that they would support her and that Z pharmacy had no grounds to do anything to her, but to email them regarding what had happen so a response could be given if and when a complaint letter was submitted.

I would not say that my friend was totally blame-free. She was being a tad unprofessional by verbally accepting and then rejecting Z pharmacy but I would say this is due to naivety about how the world is. How can it be that they expect students who are in their last year of pharmacy, to know all about the working environment? This just discourages students when they think about having to work soon.

The caller from Z, on the other hand, was also being unprofessional herself when she made groundless accusations.

I would like to commend the School of Pharmacy for standing by their own students first and in helping R a lot in her decisions.

Take home message from here:

1. Do not give a verbal agreement if you are not sure. Tell them, “Thank you very much for the offer, but I would like several days to consider this offer.”
2. Be sure that you are happy with any decision you are going to make.
3. Be sure that you are able to back up your decision with valid reasons and that you can stand firm in your decision even when faced with accusations (especially when those accusations are false). This is something you would have to do when you are working.

I wish everyone the best in their applications for a pre-registration placement and may what I have told you help you in what not to do when applying. It is good to keep options open but do not respond in the affirmative when you are not sure about it.

Good luck

Editors : Many thanks to Emily for sharing her friend’s experience with us, and for the tips on accepting pre-registration offer. We believe  this post would be very useful especially for current third year students whom would start hunting for pre-registration place this summer.

Posted by : nadranadia

Approved by : kappax2