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Is community pharmacy losing student fans?
Blogs are not edited by PJ staff*. The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Pharmaceutical Journal.
*Blog pieces that have previously been printed in the PJ and Clinical Pharmacist are edited.
By Sara Valente
11 Oct 2012
Most of the students in my year have been spending the past couple of months applying and securing their pre-reg placements. What struck me as strange was that many of them who showed little interest in hospital pharmacy in the past, applied and accepted places to do their pre-reg in hospital. In fact, I think many students have applied to hospital pharmacy in preference to community.
This could be because of community pharmacy having a lot of bad press at the moment due to self-selection of P medicines causing a lot of complaints and negativity. Including fears that large chains and supermarket pharmacies are ruling how community pharmacy is run.
Speaking to some students; they said that they were put off community pharmacy whilst spending their summers doing placements with them, particularly large chain pharmacies. They expressed how disappointed they were when told they had to meet certain sales targets in order to be sure of a pre-reg place. To me this seems completely wrong because students do the pharmacy degree with aspirations of improving public health, not to make sure that companies can meet their daily quotas.
Other students seemed to apply for hospital because they realised they could improve their clinical knowledge and use more of what they have learned at university. And finally, some students seemed to apply for hospital purely for prestige. Hospital pharmacy has less places than community and maybe being offered a place would be a well-deserved ego boost. But then does this mean the rest of the students who didn't get a hospital place are then 'stuck' with community? It probably won't help the situation if community pharmacy is alienating students and then being filled with those who don't really want to be there.
Pre-Reg Recruitment
Sara, you are welcome to e-mail me at jonathan@rightmedicinepharmacy.com if you feel able to discuss (in confidence) further the points you raised about sales targets for pre-reg recruitment purposes. Myself and some other pharmacists were quite shocked to read this & perhaps there will be something that pharmacy leaders and bodies could do to discourage/prevent such practice if it indeed does exist.
Kind Regards, Jonathan
Jonathan Burton MRPharmS Head of Professional Standards Right Medicine Pharmacy
Other Reasons?
I agree with Jonathan that companies should not be putting pressure on students, preregistration trainees, or even pharmacists to meet sales targets. Please do contact him as action need to be taken about this.
However, I wonder how many people have chosen hospital simply for the fact they get paid more? The wage in Hospital is £21,100, whereas the median average wage in community is £18,400. I know some people chose hospital for this reason in my year.
selfish to chase the pound signs
It is very selfish for students to pick a hospital pre-reg based on making a couple of extra grand (after tax). With only 20% of available pre-reg places being in the hospital sector, you will be denying somebody that genuinely wants to become a clinical pharmacist the opportunity to do so.
This should be thoroughly frowned upon, and will only make their lives difficult when trying to break into the community sector in search of the money when they will lack a years experience over their fellow applicants.
Students who chase the slightly higher prereg salary in hospital
...are extremely shortsighted...unless they leave hospital and move into the community sector once they've registered. It is common knowledge that community pharmacists command higher starting salaries than a band 6 pharmacist.
Benedict Lam
Editor, Tomorrow's Pharmacist
Vote now and add your thoughts!
We are running a poll on this controversial issue. Click here to go to the poll and cast your vote now.
Student opinion, money isn't everything
Hi, both myself and my close friends on the MPharm course have all decided to apply to hospital and all were successful. Our motivations were not money as several people have been commenting about.
We are going to become pharmacists, which compaired to so many jobs is well paid and money was never ever our motivation. Since our first year we have considered hospital despite us all having experience in both community and hospital, and having enjoyed both.
We have decided to go into hospital because we feel that it will challenge us to use what we have learnt in our 4 years at uni, and because we chose to do a professional course, so that we could be a healthcare professional and to work in secondary care.
Personnally I felt having done a summer placement in a community pharmacy that I didn't know what else I could gain from spending the year there. Hospital sounds so much more interesting and gives you the oppotunity to specialise which we think is a major advantage.
I realise that some within our cohort are money motivated but I think it is unfair to tar us all with the same brush.
True reason might lie somewhere else?
Dear Sara,
You mentioned that some of the students initially did not intend to apply for a hospital post but then changed their mind after a placement in community, and you implied that it was due to the sale targets set by companies. It would be interesting (for me) to know why those students initially make community their first choice (or not consider hospital as first choice).
While I agree with Jonathan and Ryan that it is unethical to put sale target above professional duty, or in a way that cause a similar impact, I must say that sale target is the nature of every business, and community pharmacy is a business. It certainly involves clinical aspects, but at the end of the day, it needs some sales for the pharmacy to be open and maintained open. Hospital pharmacist in rural area may see, for instance 2-3 patients on the morning and relax for the rest of the day, yet there is no need to worry about the paycheck or the future. NHS and taxpayers foot the bill. While if the similar situation happen in a community pharmacy, there would be no time for the pharmacist working there to feel relaxed at all. He would have to advertise to get more patient, think of more ways to deliver services, go to the surgery and do some 'diplomacy', etc.. News on reduced item payments and category M adjustments while there is still a cap on numbers of MURs per year and low income from other services (i.e. Methadone service is making pharmacies with programmed pumps lose more money on machine maintenance than that earned from NHS, by and large in low populated regions) further pressurise on hitting the sale target. It should be made clear to the students that they should expect it as a part of their career, then the choice is still theirs, whether to face the challenge or not.
I imagine one solution is to separate the pharmacists out of the community pharmacy. The 'pharmacy' should be run by counter staffs and dispensing technicians. The pharmacists are paid separately by the NHS 'to supervise' the operation of the pharmacy, but mainly to focus on providing the advanced and enhanced services. In this way, hitting sale targets will be the job of the manager and the rest of the staff. The pharmacist acts 'as a locum' from the “NHS company” and should not be restrained by sale target as he/she is paid already. The pharmacy/chain may have to pay back to the NHS 'the fee' to have a pharmacist working there.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for your post
Hi,
Thank you for your post, I think the reason why students initially consider community is because community placements are offered to students earlier on in their studies, for example, community summer placements takes students from their 1st/2nd year. Whereas hospital tends to only accept 2nd/3rd year students for work experience. The reason why students finally opt for hospital pre-reg is the current debate and by the results of the poll it seems that it is because more clinical knowledge is gained in hospital.