Things I wish I had known, before I started.
The first is the importance of the relationship between you as a student, and your tutor. This really is the corner stone to you pre-registration education. Make sure you initially breakdown barriers and resolve any issues, as you will be pretty close for nearly a year. Understand the ways of producing evidence, you will need to do regular reviews, so make sure your have you competencies sorted.
The second piece of advice, is to plan your time well. Make sure you have a week by week structure, if you are a hospital pre registration student, makes sure you rotate between all of the specialist blocks. Make sure when you do your competencies, always remember, it is better to have few quality competencies, opposed to many poor quality ones.
The third bit of advice, is to maximise your learning opportunities. Often, people learn better if they are genuinely interested in the topic, ask yourself what parts of pharmacy interest you. It may be that you enjoy talking to people, so ensure you are on the counter as much as you can, or that you enjoy the pharmacy science, so delve into drug interactions. Although the pharmacy profession on the surface is quite mundane, it can get quite interesting if you specialise.
The fourth bit of advice, is the audit. Make sure you start early and attend any workshops on the subject that are available. Although you may think the audit is just another piece of work, it is used by your tutor and more importantly the GPhC to ensure that you meet their stringent requirements.
The fifth point, is to look out for your 13 week appraisal. Make sure you plan which competencies you want signed off. They can be as simple as first aid work or certification or even just dispensing accuracy. If you do want to do a dispensing accuracy test, do 100 items in a controlled environment, but make sure you are prepared before hand!
The sixth point, is to schedule your annual leave. Appropriately. There are many different ways you can go about this, however, PharmacyCPA recommends that you only consider leave after christmas, and that you only have two weeks personal leave. You should reserve a minimum of around two weeks to dedicate to your study. Do not leave any leave, you may have, till after the exam.
The seventh point is about the exam itself. Make sure you tag your BNF. Make sure you do as many courses and questions throughout the year. And make sure that you know your OTC and licensing directions well. This will not only help you in the exam but help you in you future profession aswell!
The 8th point, is about after the exam, and considering future employment. Yes, the long road of student hood will end, and you need to consider entering the harsh reality of the real workplace. However, don’t get bogged down. If you want an NHS job make sure you register early, and make sure you make the best impression. The PharmacyCPA website has lots of pharmacist C Vee’s which you can use as templates.
The last point, and probably most importantly of all, is to enjoy your year. People have a tendency to learn better when they are enjoying something, and pharmacy is no exception to this rule. Enjoy the banter of patients, the rapore with other medical professionals, the funny little incidences that happen with patients, and you will be fine.
Good luck.
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