If you are reading this as a qualified pharmacist, then at the beginning of your career you would have completed a 12 month preregistration year. So you will appreciate the importance of this year for a pharmacy graduate who has successfully completed their studies. With 22 schools of pharmacy in the UK, student numbers are projected to rise by 20 per cent over the next few years so the demand for preregistration placements will increase.
The choice facing pharmacy undergraduates is: in which sector do they want to carry out their preregistration training – community, industry or hospital? Some students may even wish to have a split placement of two six-month periods in different sectors. Historically, community pharmacies have taken the lion’s share of preregistration students, with a high percentage carrying out their training here. With a finite number of placements in the hospital and industrial sectors, there is a real need for the projected increase in demand for placements to be met in the community.
This article focuses on why a community pharmacy should decide to take on a preregistration student. And once you’ve decided to do this, how do you go about finding one?
Can you afford it?
We have already highlighted the continuing demand for preregistration placements. However, each individual pharmacy needs to justify the internal business case of hiring a student. Generally a preregistration grant is available, the level varying according to where your pharmacy is located. In England and Wales the grant has recently been increased from around £6,500 to £16,440 per annum; in Scotland the grant is about £12,000 and in Northern Ireland around £6,000 per annum.
So the salary you need to pay is, to some extent, subsidised by the grant. The salary depends on many factors. For example:
- Demand from students in the area, which consequently depends on the cost of living, cost of accommodation, transport links, whether there is a school of pharmacy in the area etc.;
- Other benefits you’re offering the student, e.g. holiday allowance, staff discount, time off for study leave etc.;
- Will you be offering to pay the trainee to go on any courses e.g. first aid course, specific preregistration courses such as Drug Tariff course etc.?
An analysis of salaries from the NPA Preregistration Service shows that the typical basic salary offered to students in 2006 was in the range of £12,500 to £16,600 per annum. Therefore, once you have calculated how much a preregistration student will cost, how do you calculate whether employing one is a positive step for your business as well as for the pharmacy profession as a whole?
Benefits
Calculating the financial benefit to your business is difficult. However, the following illustrates the effect of the soft measures of success. Before we go through these points it is important to note that a preregistration student is not ‘an extra pair of hands’. Think back to when you were a prereg. Did you have a good experience? If not, why not? Use these learning experiences to make sure the preregistration year will be enjoyable for your prospective student.
New dimension
Employing a preregistration student will bring a new dimension to your business. A fresh pair of eyes can give you valuable insights into all aspects of your pharmacy. For example, how efficiently are you running it? Can the trainee recommend ways in which dispensing procedures could be improved?
Training your staff members
A preregistration student can prove invaluable in supporting the training and development of your staff, having gained a high level of pharmacy knowledge during the undergraduate years. For example, you could get your prereg to support/mentor any member of staff who is on a medicine counter assistants’ or dispensary assistants’ course. Or the prereg could hold a training session on certain product groups (e.g. coughs and colds) for your staff.
Projects
During the preregistration year, your student may be required to complete a piece of project work. Even if there is no requirement for this, why not ask them to work on a specific issue for you? This project could help improve your pharmacy business as well as benefiting the student. Examples could include:
- Audit the advice given to patients collecting prescriptions and recommend improvements to the standard of counselling.
- Review what common ailments customers ask about in the pharmacy including standard of advice given and product(s) supplied.
- Review the types of prescriptions dispensed in the pharmacy in terms of therapeutic groups. Does the pharmacy have the appropriate product knowledge? Does the pharmacy have the appropriate stockholding to meet patient demand?
Pharmacist employment
If you are part of a group of more than one pharmacy then taking on a preregistration student could lead to employing that student as a qualified pharmacist. You may have a vacancy for a pharmacist in the future, you may have one pharmacy employing locums or you may be looking to buy another pharmacy. Gauging the suitability of your students during their six or 12 month placement with you could reduce your recruitment costs in the future.
Your own self-development
Becoming a preregistration tutor can not only provide you with the satisfaction that you have helped develop a preregistration student into a qualified pharmacist but it can also provide an opportunity to develop your managerial and interpersonal skills, e.g. one-to-one appraisal skills, objective setting skills, motivational skills etc. This may also help contribute to your continuing professional development (CPD).
 Table 1. Key requirements for being a preregistratioin tutor. How to find a trainee
Before you embark on the recruitment process of hiring a preregistration student you must ensure you are able to comply with all the requirements of the relevant registration body. Table 1 summarises the key requirements. The simplest and cheapest form of recruitment is to place a poster advertising the vacancy in your pharmacy window. If you are an NPA member, another effective method is to use the free NPA Preregistration Service (log on to www.npa.co.uk ). This service is advertised extensively to all the schools of pharmacy in the UK and receives over 200 student log-ons per week.
No matter what method you choose, the most important thing is that you start the recruitment process early. Towards the end of the third undergraduate year is the time students start thinking about applying for a preregistration placement. Therefore advertising must happen at least 12–18 months before the job start date. Another reason why it is crucial to start recruiting up to 18 months in advance is that the hospital sector starts looking for preregistration students this far ahead, as do many large multiple pharmacy chains.
Summary
 Hiring a preregistration student has both direct and indirect benefits to your pharmacy business, although it is difficult to quantify these benefits in financial terms. The decision-making process can prove difficult but once you can justify the decision to recruit a preregistration student, the key is to start looking early.
|
