Graduates Webinar - Advice for Trainee Pharmacists

On the 8th of September, the BPSA held the second webinar of the year and the first graduate webinar. The speakers were last year’s pre-registration pharmacists and discussed their experience during the pre-registration year in each of their sectors. They also shared some of their top tips to go through the year. Read all about it here...

The Speakers:

Sean Brannen: Sean did his pre-registration year in community with Well pharmacy. He was also the previous President of the BPSA.

Wendy Dadeboe: Our previous Treasurer and now one of our Annual Conference Organisers for this year. She did a split GP/community placement 

Sebastien Bailey: who did his training in Hospital and was our previous IPSF Officer

Each speaker described what a day during their pre-registration year was like in each of their sectors..

Wendy:

I Initially wanted to do a hospital placement but I got a GP-community split, and I’m glad I did! I worked in each sector on alternate weeks. In the GP, I worked as part of a large pharmacy team which cared for over 10 care homes in Ealing and covered about 5 GP surgeries.

At the beginning of the year, I mainly processed repeat prescriptions, performed medicines reconciliation for patients being discharged from hospital, liaised with community pharmacies and care homes when needed. I also answered a lot of queries from the care home staff. The queries were anything from, confirming the correct paracetamol dose for patients below 50kg to stepping up the treatment dose for constipation. 

As my confidence and clinical knowledge developed, I started answering medicine related queries from other healthcare professionals, particularly doctors, which were usually more complex. I also had the opportunity of doing face-to-face NHS health checks with patients who fell in the 45-75 age group. My first consultation was nerve-wracking but I quickly developed the skills needed to perform these consultations effectively. In the community, I found contact with patients the most satisfying.

My advice to any foundation trainee is to complete every task to an excellent standard, even the little things. Your employers pay attention to these, and are more likely to offer you the opportunity to stay on. Be curious and seek opportunities. 

For the exams, my advice would be to not panic. You know more than you think you do and the GPHC is not out there to catch you. You made it through pharmacy school so you are more than capable of passing the registration exam. Give yourself enough time to prepare and don’t compare your learning style to others. For calculations, my only tip is practice, practice and practice some more. Don’t be afraid to ask for working out methods in whatsapp and telegram group chats (if you are not in a group chat, join one).

Sean:

I did not apply through Oriel as I wanted to do a community placement, I worked for Well pharmacy as a pharmacy technician and they gave me the place. I worked with a small team of 6 to 7 people, who I worked very closely with. It’s a different experience; You will work as a dispenser, serve on the counter, and help the pharmacist run the branch. I triaged every person who came to the pharmacy and wanted to see the pharmacist. As the year went on, I gained more responsibilities like managing the branch. Not everything you do will be relevant for the exam but it’s a learning curve and it will be beneficial for your career and help you understand all the processes and the jobs that are required. A good thing with big corporations is that you get good study days inhouse. I had study time every week without fail. But do study during this time and don’t just take it as time off! Plan and prepare for these days well in advance.

People worry about doing pre-registration in community pharmacy, and you will need to work harder.you won’t get the clinical experience and exposure you get in hospital. But you get more exposure to the OTC and legal side of things, and these things come up in the exam. For example, age restrictions on products, paracetamol and ibuprofen doses for children. Don’t worry too much about statistics with pass rates in different sectors, or with age, ethnicity, gender, etc. It’s just stats numbers and you have the power to revise and put in as much effort as you want.  The more you put it, the easier you are gonna find the exam and the better chance you will have in not being in the statistics. If your placement is mainly dispensing, which can happen, don’t try to be the fastest dispenser, and take your time. Look up the drugs, find out what they are used for. If a prescription has 5 or 6 items on it,  try to work out what the patient has got. 

Sebastien:

My hospital placement was a bit different to other people. We had a lot of ward time, we did medicines reconciliation, medication histories were mainly led by technicians.

In the mornings we did orders and clinical screening and in the afternoon we would go on bleep. This was when we had 6 wards and we would go round to these wards once they needed something to be ordered or checked. In hospital, you get lots of clinical exposure. As someone who likes to learn on the job, that helped me alot. My tips are, start practicing calculations early to bring up your skill. Also, be aware that practice papers are harder than the actual exam paper. If you want to stay in the hospital ask band 6 pharmacists what kind of questions come up in interviews, you will usually be asked to screen a drug chart as well. Finally, enjoy your training and enjoy the experience, while the ultimate responsibility and decision making is not on you yet.

Here are some more useful tips that were given during the webinar about preparing for the registration assessment:

• Resources are individual, best to learn which one is good for you is by trial and error, do the free trials. For example, you get a one month free OnTrack trial with RPS membership. There are good instagram pages, find out what works for you. Some people just learn from the BNF straight away, but know what is important. Pharmeducate is a resource that summarizes the important sections of the BNF. There are podcasts that break down the chapters of the BNF.

• Speak with your friends and share knowledge and resources. For example, you and other trainees working with you could ask each other questions during lunch! Contact students you went to university with, they will be doing their training in different sectors and companies and you can share knowledge and resources. Arrange your own study sessions together, if you can.

• Study throughout the year. The study days help you know where your strengths and weaknesses are which will help you know what to focus on at the end of the year when you need to revise.

• Some people find calculations tough; Best thing to do for them is practice! There are 9 different structures, find the method for them and memorize them, then practice doing them.

• Have little support networks, check in on each other!

• Test your knowledge as you go.

Finally, it’s your exam, it’s your result, and it’s your career at stake so put whatever it takes to get a pass in that exam!

Good luck to all trainee pharmacists with their foundation year training!