Continuing on from last week, this time we will covering part time work experiences from students working in hospital and community pharmacies. Community- Chemist Warehouse - 2nd year pharmacy student Chemist Warehouse is a very large community pharmacy chain in Australia. So, in a company so large, I thought that the service provided might be more impersonal than a private pharmacy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I can’t speak for every store, but at my pharmacy it’s commonplace to know all of the regular customers by name. Our priority is putting the health and wellbeing of the customer first, and this is prioritised over selling them products that they might not need. All of the staff, including the pharmacy assistants, are trained in co-therapy. This means that the pharmacist can direct patients to the pharmacy assistants, where any additional products needed to combat side effects (or to supplement their therapy) can be recommended. Working as a student has helped me in so many ways. Working also allows me to see real life cases and scenarios, and to be involved in problem-solving when our pharmacy receives an atypical script or patient. Working has also helped me to develop my counselling skills, as well as my dispensing and drug knowledge. I mentioned earlier that our staff is all trained in co-therapy and S2 products; at university, I can apply my knowledge of these products in the non-pharmacological section of my counselling. So, my university studies help me at work, and my knowledge from work helps me at university. For any student looking to advance their knowledge and practical skills, I would recommend starting a job at a community pharmacy. The training and effort that they put into their pharmacy students has really benefited me and I've found it really valuable. I hope this helps shed a little light onto what working in a community pharmacy is like.
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In this 2 part blog post, we have compiled student experiences from students who went on exchange to Malaysia and also from 3 pharmacy students each representing the 3 main types of pharmacies in Australia: compounding, community and hospital pharmacies. This week, we will focus on the exchange experiences and compounding pharmacy part time work. Have a read below and find out more about what it's like to work in the various types of pharmacies we have in Australia and their similarities/ differences! Visit the blog again next week to read about part time work experiences in community and hospital pharmacies! |
