Pharmacy FAQ (1 Viewer)

[profernity]

Hello all.

I am a third-year pharmacy student at USyd and I have noticed a few people on this forum who may have some questons about pharmacy and what it's all about. In the spirit of Christmas and the festive season, I am willing to answer any questions anyone may have about particular subjects in the course, what type of practicals/tutorials are involved, what you do in these pracs, how you are assessed, what is expected of you, etc. Hopefully, this will help you understand pharmacy more clearly, and perhaps I may see you next year.

Fire away!

 

[absolution*]

Thats right. Sing for me.

Is the workload difficult? Is there a heavy demand for gfraduate pharmacists? Which uni is best for pharmacy? Do you enjoy doing it? How much science is involved?

 

[profernity]

Thats right. Sing for me.

Is the workload difficult? Is there a heavy demand for gfraduate pharmacists? Which uni is best for pharmacy? Do you enjoy doing it? How much science is involved?

1. Going solely on the number of contact hours involved, I would say, yes, the workload is quite heavy. However, if you're just looking to get a pass/credit average, then the assessments aren't so bad - in general the assessments are few and far between (meaning that the final exam is almost always worth a lot), but they tend to be mostly MCQs and short answers.

2. Demand for graduate pharmacists is high. There is always a pharmacy out there looking for a registered or pre-registered pharmacist.

3. Pharmacy is a science degree in every sense of the word, besides the one subject you do every year dealing with professional behaviour and patient interaction - and even that subject requires you to know your drugs well.

 

[absolution*]

Why is it that pharmacy at USYD requires a combination of UAI and additional selection criteria and what is this additional selection criteria?

 

[wind]

Are there alternative pathways to enter pharmacy? That is, oher than making it through with the right STAT and UAI scores.

Is a postgraduate course worth considering? Say:
http://heifer.ucc.usyd.edu.au/pgcou...culty=Faculty of Pharmacy&-recid=33213&-find=

Would completing a degree in Science and Mathematics suffice? Thanks in advance and happy new year

 

[profernity]

Are there alternative pathways to enter pharmacy? That is, oher than making it through with the right STAT and UAI scores.

Is a postgraduate course worth considering? Say:
http://heifer.ucc.usyd.edu.au/pgcou...culty=Faculty of Pharmacy&-recid=33213&-find=

Would completing a degree in Science and Mathematics suffice? Thanks in advance and happy new year

1. The MPharm degree is a very new addition to the faculty's repertoire, and as a result, the first year (2004) appears to have been squeezed around the existing BPharm degree. I assume that in the future, the faculty will arrange the MPharm students such that they are not inconvenienced with having to watch a live feed of our own lectures. However, it *is* two years shorter than BPharm, and upon its completion MPharm students are free to go into training as a pre-registered pharmacist.

2. Technically, the faculty is very tough with its selection criteria, what with all those very specific prerequisites that are required. Whether they will consider subjects done in Science and Mathematics sufficient is something I don't know.

 

[tech.knockout]

I really want to know the answer to my following question , but the pharmacy office is closed until the 4th Jan. I hope you can answer this for me, but pretty unlikely.

Say I finished a standard 3 year science degree majoring in pharmacology or something related alot to pharmacy.

I want to transfer to B pharmacy. Is it possible for me to gain a Bpharmacy in only 3 additional years? I.e. Can I do the exclusive(not offered in any other degree) 1st and 2nd year pharmacy courses in one year? Everything else offered by Bpharmacy in 1st and second year I have already done in my science degree.

The reason why I want to do a 3 year science degree first is because I want to try out for grad medicine after 3 years. I choose Pharmacy as my safe backup if I dont make it into medicine after two tries.

You may be thinking why not go for Mpharm.
To get into Mpharmacy you need work expereince and to pass an interview, and of course a nice GPA. The entire course costs $46000 on top of my HECs burden. Entry into Mpharm seems seems more complicated and hard to get in than a medical degree. And of course it is a very expensive course.

Im suspecting they(the pharm faculty) are going to say no to me even when they can, because then it is a much less incentive for me to go for Mpharm, where they can suck money from me.

 

[profernity]

I really want to know the answer to my following question , but the pharmacy office is closed until the 4th Jan. I hope you can answer this for me, but pretty unlikely.

Say I finished a standard 3 year science degree majoring in pharmacology or something related alot to pharmacy.

I want to transfer to B pharmacy. Is it possible for me to gain a Bpharmacy in only 3 additional years? I.e. Can I do the exclusive(not offered in any other degree) 1st and 2nd year pharmacy courses in one year? Everything else offered by Bpharmacy in 1st and second year I have already done in my science degree.

The reason why I want to do a 3 year science degree first is because I want to try out for grad medicine after 3 years. I choose Pharmacy as my safe backup if I dont make it into medicine after two tries.

You may be thinking why not go for Mpharm.
To get into Mpharmacy you need work expereince and to pass an interview, and of course a nice GPA. The entire course costs $46000 on top of my HECs burden. Entry into Mpharm seems seems more complicated and hard to get in than a medical degree. And of course it is a very expensive course.

Im suspecting they(the pharm faculty) are going to say no to me even when they can, because then it is a much less incentive for me to go for Mpharm, where they can suck money from me.

There is only one way in which it is possible to do all the pharmacy-specific subjects in one year, but this has two strict provisos:

1. The subjects don't clash.
2. All of the 2nd year subjects have first-year subjects as prerequisites, so it is impossible to do, say, Social Behavioural & Professional Pharmacy (from first year) and Pharmacy Practice 2A/2B in the same semester simply because the faculty demands that SBP be completed first before you are able to continue. So you can't do it all at once.

 

[ameh]

is it possible to transfer from pharmacy to graduate med?

 

[Lexicographer]

That depends on what you've done before pharmacy. If pharmacy is your first degree, then no (Graduate Medicine by definition requires you to have at least one complete bachelor or higher level qualification). If you take pharmacy after completing another degree, you are no more or less eligible to sit the GAMSAT and apply for entry to a graduate medicine course.