Pharmacy summer placement student Review

At times I was a bit bored, especially when the shop was quiet, I tended to be stood around quite a lot and I like to be busy therefore at these times it wasn't as enjoyable as I'd liked.

Everyone working in the shop was very friendly, from day 1 I felt welcomed into the shop , everyone made an effort to talk to me and by the end of the six weeks I was getting on well with all my colleagues and it was a shame to leave. At one point I did describe working in the store with the others as like being 'with family'. I like that there's not that many staff so you get to know everyone well, whereas in larger stores there are so many staff with different roles you don't get to know them all, only the closer ones with the same job role.

If I ever had any problems or queries then my pharmacy tutor would assist in solving the problem, for example when filling in my workbook. But again at times when there was little to do I wasn't given anything to do other than just to stand and watch.

In the morning I tended to be more busy as there was the stock to put away and I sometimes helped on shop floor helping with promotion change & price change which was all done in the morning. Then in the dispensary there was repeat prescriptions to make up. But in the afternoon all the daily jobs were done and so there was much less to do, all there seemed to be for me to do was fill in my workbook which doing every afternoon gets a bit tedious. I would break this up by making up a prescription if one was brought in, but the pharmacy isn't very busy with walk -in's so there wouldn't be that many. So overall not very busy.

I was given responsibility to dispense but I was not allowed to work in the shop and assist the healthcare staff in serving customers. Therefore I had little interaction with the customers.

Any experience in a pharmacy will help me for the rest of my life, everything in the workbook I was asked questions about I will need to know in further life, this is a good way of learning. I constantly used the BNF to find out what drugs I had never heard of before do, things like this I will always need to know and will constantly be tested on by customers. I do feel I gained a lot of knowledge about pharmacy and the different drugs available from the placement which is very useful and will assist my learning in the next 2 years of my course.

There would be a joke and a bit of chatter every now and then when the shop went quiet but everyone would work and get what needed to be done done at the same time and for when it needed to be done. This is how it should be, it definitely was not dull.

The staff seemed to be expecting me on the first day and knew how long I was there for. But they didn't seem to know what I was supposed to be doing, when I arrived they asked me what I wanted to do, whether I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I'd have preferred to have been told what I was going to be doing, they maybe needed a few more instructions of the things I could/should be doing. The way the placement is set out with the workbook is good though, active learning!

I read the SOPs and the health & safety booklets including the ones on fire over my first 2 days. The other staff then showed me how the till and the computers and labelling machines worked.

I would definitely come back and work with the company, they did nothing bad to discourage me, the placement working with them went well and was an enjoyable experience and the company is a large organisation that is well known. The staff seemed to be treated fairly by the company which is what you want in a company. I could carry out my third year placement with Lloyds and I am well considering that.

There were no other placement students.

I lived at home and travelled to work each day, I did not go out in the area. The only money expenditure was travelling to and from work.

I do not know I did not go out at night.

There was only one activity outside of work arranged during the time I was working there, so not endless opportunities but then again not none.