Working in a community pharmacy as a pharmacy student

My name is Jasmin Kaur Parmar and I am an incoming 4th year Pharmacy student at the University of Kent. I am also a Healthcare Partner at Lloyds Pharmacy and a NICE student champion. I am a highly motivated and hardworking individual who always aims to achieve any task at the highest possible standard. With over 5 years of experience in customer service, I have developed skills such as community, team-work, problem-solving, and taking initiative.

I am currently working with Dr. Sukvinder Bhamra (Principle investigator from Medway School of Pharmacy, Kent) and Prof. Michael Heinrich (UCL School of Pharmacy) on a research project looking at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the personal wellbeing and professional practice of community pharmacy teams in the UK.

Jasmin Kaur Parmar

 I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in patient-care and working directly with patients. During my years at school and sixth form, I carried out various placements in the healthcare field such as GP placements shadowing doctors, dentistry placements and pharmacy placements. During these placements I quickly realised that I loved to learn about drugs and how they work and why a specific drug is more beneficial for a patient compared to alternative therapy. I always really enjoyed studying chemistry at school and was my favourite subject in sixth form too. One of my personality trait is that I thoroughly enjoy interacting with people. Pharmacy is a profession that entails both aspects together in a beautiful way. I particularly really love the consultations aspect of the job where you get to provide the patient with not only medical, but also lifestyle advice tailored to the patient’s health condition.

I started working at a Lloyds pharmacy towards the end of my first year of studying Pharmacy. I decided to find a part-time job in a pharmacy setting to gain more exposure and to be able to gain and apply my clinical knowledge in a real-life setting. I had two interviews for local pharmacies and got the offer from two different Lloyds branches. I chose the branch that was busier and had a higher footfall with the aim of getting more exposure. It was one of the best decisions I have made at university and I have not looked back since. I have now been working at Lloyds for nearly 2 and a half years (where has the time gone!). Due to the store being based in a supermarket and being incredibly busy with OTC sales, I was able to learn and develop skills incredibly quickly. I work with an incredible team who I now call my “extended family” with whom we celebrate every occasion (birthdays, engagements, etc) as well as our annual Christmas dinner.

Some of my daily tasks include dispensing prescriptions, carrying out OTC sales, advising patients on minor ailments under pharmacists’ supervision, ordering stock medications and processing repeat prescription queries to the surgery. I am also trained to conduct blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, and glucose testing. Community pharmacy really allows you to build a relationship with the long-term customers (as you see them very often) and they start to feel like your extended work family. Every year, when I come back to work after taking some time off, my patients always ask where I have been during my time off and its very rewarding to see that patients not only notice my absence, but also appreciate my hard work.

I started working 16 hours per week and that gave me enough time to balance my university lectures and projects. However, second year of Pharmacy required more study time outside of contact hours. As a result, I started to notice that I was getting overwhelmed as I was struggling to manage both university work and my part time job. I expressed my concerns to my manager and particularly emphasised on how much the job has benefitted me clinically. My manager was kind enough to find a solution for me and offered to reduce my contracted hours to only one day a week (6 hours). This meant I only worked Sundays which gave me all weekday evenings and the Saturday to focus on my university work. For students that are working part-time during term-time and are struggling to balance the two together, my advice would be to talk things through with your supervisor/manager and express your concerns honestly. Very often they will listen and work with you to find a resolution.

Community pharmacy is a lot about problem solving, communication and taking initiative. Community pharmacy is the only place where a patient can come at any time of the day without an appointment and the pharmacy team will provide them with the best possible advice and support immediately. Currently our most common prescription issues are related to medication shortages. This means the pharmacy team must find an alternative drug or dose (which is available from the suppliers) to recommend to the doctor so that the prescription can be changed, and the patient can receive their medication on time.

I strongly recommend all pharmacy students to find some form of placement or a part-time job in a pharmacy setting. Being able to apply the knowledge that is being taught at university is crucial; it allows one to retain the information better and be able to apply it effectively in a clinical setting. This is a skill that will be crucial as a pharmacist as you will need to be able to consistently make good clinical decisions and problem solve effectively. A bonus is that it will also help a lot during your OSCEs and other competency exams too.