Pls read if you're considering pharm (warning: very lengthy)
Ok, so now that I'm on the cusp of finishing (hopefully), I just want to share my experience with any of you who may be interested in pharm. Some bkgrnd on me--I started pharm in 2006 at USYD, BUT it was not my first choice. I actually wanted to do med science, and I considered being a music teacher for a while. I chose pharm because I was interested in science, wanted a stable job, and pharm was the highest UAI course I could get into that satisfied both criteria.
I thought I would grow to love it. How wrong I was. Basically, my disillusionment came about when I started working in a pharmacy in late 2007. I realised that you learn so much crap only to use, at best, about 5% of it. A monkey could do the work we do--stick labels on boxes, and know which books to look up should that rare customer who's actually more interested than simply how to take their meds, ask a curly question. And basically the instructions are given by the doctor, and any extra stuff that needs to be said, e.g. don't take grapefruit juice if you're on certain cholesterol-lowering drugs, those are all programmed into the computer anyway.
I'm not opposed to learning for the sake of learning, in fact, far from it, but it really disappointed me that I was learning all this stuff, never to use it. If I had gone in knowing that I would never grow to love this course, or that I was going to learn a lot of stuff that I would never use, at least the disappointment wouldn't have been as great.
And trust me, it's not for the lack of trying. I've been a member of the immediate past SUPA committee, I've attended two student conferences, I attend all my lectures very diligently, I've been an ambassador for the uni trying to promote a degree I hate, in the hope I could at least fool myself for a further two years that I enjoyed this degree, but my conscience will simply not let me rest--this degree is not for me.
So what I'm saying is, just know that you'll be put through four years (actually five, with registration) of crap and will hardly be appreciated for it. Note I never said you'll never be appeciated, because there will be the odd customer that will, but they are rare and far in between.
I will admit I haven't had any hospital experience, and it may be different there, but from what I've heard from my friends who have done hospital placements this semester, you are really unappreciated too, by the hospital, the doctors (some hospitals don't even have a pharmacist on ward rounds!), and there's a massive hierarchy to navigate, not to mention you're on call, the office politics...yadda yadda yadda.
This experience is not unique to me--just from casually talking to many, many people (both students and working pharmacists), many feel the same way. The newly registered pharmacist at work has gone back to do a Masters in Commerce and International Business, and a very experienced pharmacist (40 years in the profession, owned a pharmacy in Newtown, is a guy at the Pharm Guild) said he too was very disillusioned after finishing--he went back to study psych but dropped out after a year and returned to pharm merely because he had gotten married, a kid was on the way and he needed the money. This older pharmacist, many of his friends also did other things afterwards too, and he estimates about 2/3s of graduating pharm students will not be working as pharmacists 10 years out.
Yes, I'm bitter and disappointed. My first exam is for a subject I failed (this is how much I hate pharmacy) which is Monday week, I can't prepare for it but even if I could I would leave it probably till next Saturday. I have just under two weeks to prepare for my first exam that can be prepared for, and I think...no, I know I will leave the study till Saturday anyway, cram and finish Friday morning at 3am when my exam is at 12pm. Trust me, I wasn't always like this. I was a conscientious student who always constantly studied, and to procrastinate and cram so badly, this is what pharmacy's done to me.
for the tl;dr crowd, aka conclusion
So, the take home msg is very carefully consider whether you really want to go through five years (four yr degree + one yr rego) only to use about 5% of what you know and be generally unappreciated for it. As for me, I'm planning to go back to uni in 2011 and do not medicine *shock, horror* but...science/arts.
Ok, so now that I'm on the cusp of finishing (hopefully), I just want to share my experience with any of you who may be interested in pharm. Some bkgrnd on me--I started pharm in 2006 at USYD, BUT it was not my first choice. I actually wanted to do med science, and I considered being a music teacher for a while. I chose pharm because I was interested in science, wanted a stable job, and pharm was the highest UAI course I could get into that satisfied both criteria.
I thought I would grow to love it. How wrong I was. Basically, my disillusionment came about when I started working in a pharmacy in late 2007. I realised that you learn so much crap only to use, at best, about 5% of it. A monkey could do the work we do--stick labels on boxes, and know which books to look up should that rare customer who's actually more interested than simply how to take their meds, ask a curly question. And basically the instructions are given by the doctor, and any extra stuff that needs to be said, e.g. don't take grapefruit juice if you're on certain cholesterol-lowering drugs, those are all programmed into the computer anyway.
I'm not opposed to learning for the sake of learning, in fact, far from it, but it really disappointed me that I was learning all this stuff, never to use it. If I had gone in knowing that I would never grow to love this course, or that I was going to learn a lot of stuff that I would never use, at least the disappointment wouldn't have been as great.
And trust me, it's not for the lack of trying. I've been a member of the immediate past SUPA committee, I've attended two student conferences, I attend all my lectures very diligently, I've been an ambassador for the uni trying to promote a degree I hate, in the hope I could at least fool myself for a further two years that I enjoyed this degree, but my conscience will simply not let me rest--this degree is not for me.
So what I'm saying is, just know that you'll be put through four years (actually five, with registration) of crap and will hardly be appreciated for it. Note I never said you'll never be appeciated, because there will be the odd customer that will, but they are rare and far in between.
I will admit I haven't had any hospital experience, and it may be different there, but from what I've heard from my friends who have done hospital placements this semester, you are really unappreciated too, by the hospital, the doctors (some hospitals don't even have a pharmacist on ward rounds!), and there's a massive hierarchy to navigate, not to mention you're on call, the office politics...yadda yadda yadda.
This experience is not unique to me--just from casually talking to many, many people (both students and working pharmacists), many feel the same way. The newly registered pharmacist at work has gone back to do a Masters in Commerce and International Business, and a very experienced pharmacist (40 years in the profession, owned a pharmacy in Newtown, is a guy at the Pharm Guild) said he too was very disillusioned after finishing--he went back to study psych but dropped out after a year and returned to pharm merely because he had gotten married, a kid was on the way and he needed the money. This older pharmacist, many of his friends also did other things afterwards too, and he estimates about 2/3s of graduating pharm students will not be working as pharmacists 10 years out.
Yes, I'm bitter and disappointed. My first exam is for a subject I failed (this is how much I hate pharmacy) which is Monday week, I can't prepare for it but even if I could I would leave it probably till next Saturday. I have just under two weeks to prepare for my first exam that can be prepared for, and I think...no, I know I will leave the study till Saturday anyway, cram and finish Friday morning at 3am when my exam is at 12pm. Trust me, I wasn't always like this. I was a conscientious student who always constantly studied, and to procrastinate and cram so badly, this is what pharmacy's done to me.
for the tl;dr crowd, aka conclusion
So, the take home msg is very carefully consider whether you really want to go through five years (four yr degree + one yr rego) only to use about 5% of what you know and be generally unappreciated for it. As for me, I'm planning to go back to uni in 2011 and do not medicine *shock, horror* but...science/arts.
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