![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/bench-to-bedside\/files\/2021\/01\/Picture6.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPre-reg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Being in pharmacy certainly opens your eyes to the variety\nof sectors you can go into in the future. Having currently finished pre-reg\napplications, it\u2019s time to look forward to the pre-registration year which sets\nyou up to become a qualified pharmacist. The main decision here is to look\nbetween hospital and community settings and see what works for you. I\u2019ve been\noffered a hospital placement in Scotland which goes to show the possibilities\nof where you can go to do your pre-reg training. Some places also offer the\nbonus of an interim GP placement in combination with hospital or community\nworking alongside GP\u2019s in clinics with jobs including but not limited to\nmedicine usage reviews, vaccinations, flu jabs and minor ailments. This year is\nalso offered up by major pharmaceutical companies including the likes of\nAstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline which gives you access to the production and\nquality control side to medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research and lab-based work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth year projects give you a scope of the research side\nto pharmacy which incorporates many fields such as biochemistry and\nnanomedicine. This route often requires you to take up a Phd but with your pre\nreg qualification, it\u2019s possible to do part time work (locum pharmacists) to keep\nyour options open. With a pharmacy degree you not only finish with the clinical\nskills, but you have the advantage of being trained to be lab competent. This\nmeans that it\u2019s never too late to pursue a career in becoming a research\nscientist or to work in a lab if that suits your interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hospital pharmacy <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Each year at Kings students receive hospital placement\nopportunities with well-renowned hospitals such as Guys and St Thomas\u2019s or the\nRoyal Brompton. My first-year placement was very brief only about three hours\nlong and was more of a guided tour of the hospital with an idea of the\ndifferent sectors that hospital pharmacy is split into. Working as a ward\npharmacist or in the dispensary were the two most common roles and this\ninvolved being a part of ward rounds, independent prescribing, dispensing and\nprocessing medication requests and being involved in patients treatment plans\nwhilst in and also after their hospital stays. The next role that was\nadvertised was working as part of the aseptics dispensing unit overseeing the\npreparation of sterile medicines and chemotherapy amongst many other\nmedications that require sterile preparation. After this we got a to meet the\nmedicine usage team who are available to see whether certain medications can be\nused for difficult\/unique scenarios not covered by the BNF. Finally, we met the\nconsultant pharmacist who was involved in evaluating practice and running a\nspecialist department such as the cardiac or renal wards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall pharmacy is a very diverse profession and there are\neven more roles than just the ones described above. These give you a flavour of\nwhat the most common areas that most pharmacy students go into but hopefully\nit\u2019s enough to encourage you to give it a try!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nafisul Haque Pre-reg Being in pharmacy certainly opens your eyes to the variety of sectors you can go into in the future. Having currently finished pre-reg applications, it\u2019s time to look forward to the pre-registration year which sets you up to become a qualified pharmacist. The main decision here is to look between hospital and … <\/p>\n