The Pharmacist’s Café has been hosted through the Medium platform for a number of years. And while the layout for writing is the best I’ve found to date, I’m finding the features aren’t what I’m looking for moving forward. I don’t write regularly, but when I do, I’d like the article to reach my subscriber’s inbox. I don’t want to be drawn into whether I publish it as a article on the page, or in a newsletter (there is a difference as articles are not sent to your subscriber’s inbox, but newsletters don’t show on the webpage in the normal way). I’d found a way to mitigate this, but publishing content twice on the same platform is not the right approach for a blogger.

Unfortunately Medium as a platform has decided to progress in a different direction — one which carters to Medium’s internal publication system and less so on external sharing. I found this most frustrating when publishing my article An analysis of the GB Pharmacy pre-registration exam pass figures from 2011 to 2019. I’ve instead decided to move where I host my blog from Medium, to Substack. The domain is currently set to https://pharmacistscafe.substack.com/ however in time I will redirect the Pharmacists Café URL to this which will enable all who visit the blog to follow my content.

A frustrating thing is that I am unable to transfer my subscribers across from Medium to Substack (whereas Substack allows you to). If you’d like to keep reading my blog posts, please consider moving to the new page and signing up there. You only need your email address and it is a smoother sign up process than it was for this platform. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.

Best regards,

Aditya

We are moving… was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The US has formally requested to withdraw from the World Health Organisation (WHO), leaving the organisation without one of its strongest allies. This gives the UK an opportunity to step up and lead.

The WHO is a membership organisation, with 194 Member States, across six regions, whose role is to build a “better, healthier future for people all over the world.” Formed on 7th April 1948, the WHO leads the international effort to improve public health.

The United States is the leading contributor to the WHO budget of $400 million (15%) in 2019. Furthermore, the U.S provides political support for WHO’s broad programmes, such as the polio vaccination which has been a priority for previous American Government administrations. With the US withdrawing from the WHO, such funding and political will to eradicating polio will likely fail. The programme has been active since 1988 and there has been a reduction in polio cases by 99%, according to WHO. The United States has further contributed by providing strategic support to WHO’s agenda and policies, with some top roles at the organisation being held by Americans.

In light of this vacuum, the UK can step up and fill this void. The UK is a world leader in universal healthcare. In 2017, in an analysis of 11 health systems, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the NHS as the best, safest and most affordable. Public Health England (PHE) is seen as a world leader in public health, and already leads the international effort on Antimicrobial Resistance, a problem which leads to 700,000 deaths every year. The UK is highly committed to the Antimicrobial Resistance, and has appointed a Special Envoy to lead the global effort. There is therefore a credible case for the UK taking over the leadership mantle. The UK has always been a leader in soft power, and given its exit from the EU, leading the United Nations’ international public health arm would demonstrate that the UK is still a global leader and diplomat.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the article please like, and share with a friend. To see more content like this, subscribe here or follow the RSS feed. Check out our social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Speak soon.

WHO To Lead Public Health Next? was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“COVID-19 might be just a wake-up call: let’s use it to rebuild our systems into something more resilient” — Ian Boyd, former Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Takeaway Chai

• The coronavirus has been both a demand and supply shock
• As a system, we have been sacrificing resilience for efficiency
• Contrary to popular belief, the coronavirus is not a black swan event, as a flu-like pandemic had been predicted as early as 2007
• The case for a flu-like pandemic was never if, but when
• The Centre for Disease Control knew the system was woefully underprepared to handle a flu-like pandemic in 2015
• Collectively we can build resilience capability by including a margin of safety into the definition of optimal efficiency.

Introduction

The effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on our normal way of living is nothing short of profound. Economically, COVID-19 is causing both a demand shock and supply shock depending on the service or product. For example, India has reduced exports of medicines, causing a supply shock and increased prices, while has simultaneously seen a reduction in the purchases for sugar, causing a demand shock.This got me thinking, have we been sacrificing resilience for efficiency?

Efficiency versus resilience

If you’re building a bridge to carry a five ton truck, it would be efficient to build the bridge to handle five tons. This would require the least equipment while allowing for the vehicle to pass. The resilient option is to build the bridge to handle 10 tons or 12 tons, allowing for a 40–50% margin of safety. Imagine you were driving the truck, which bridge would you prefer to drive over?

Was COVID-19 a black swan event?

In a world where resources are finite, is stockpiling efficient to maintain resilience through a pandemic? This depends on the probability of a pandemic occurring and its predicted severity. COVID-19 has been likened by many to be a black swan event (Sequoia example, Negotiator example). Popularised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, a black swan event is an unpredictable incident that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences.

Was COVID-19 a black swan event? The short answer is no. The question of a pandemic was always when, not if. Published in 2007, Taleb’s The Black Swan had this line “As we travel more on this planet, epidemics will be more acute”, see below for an excerpt.

In 2015, from his reading on epidemics, Bill Gates published an article, We’re not ready for the next epidemic’, which also includes his famous TED talk on the subject. A stark point from his article is:

Also, last month I was lucky enough to have an in-depth discussion with Tom Frieden and his team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

What I’ve learned is very sobering. As awful as this epidemic has been, the next one could be much worse. The world is simply not prepared to deal with a disease — an especially virulent flu, for example — that infects large numbers of people very quickly. Of all the things that could kill 10 million people or more, by far the most likely is an epidemic.

The quote shows awareness for how underprepared we were (and still are) for a pandemic. The probability of a flu-like pandemic occurring may have been low, but it wasn’t zero. Therefore, COVID-19 is not a black swan event. In fact, in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Taleb referred to COVID-19 as a “white swan”, while defining 9/11 as a true black swan event. In his book, Taleb defines a white swan event as a highly certain event with three principal characteristics: it is certain; it carries an impact that can easily be estimated; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that recognizes the certainty of occurrence, but shifts the focus to errors in judgment or some other human form of causation. The financial crash of 2007/8 was also not a black swan event, the tell signs were there — excuberrent greed leading to poor financial resilience.

Can a COVID-19 type pandemic be planned for?

The answer for this is more complicated. In a post by the Collaborative Fund, the below was said:

Think of risk the way California thinks of earthquakes. California knows a major earthquake will happen. But it has no idea when, where, or of what magnitude. Emergency crews are prepared despite no specific forecast. Buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes that may not occur for a century or more.

Risk gets ugly when you think it requires a specific forecast before you start preparing for it. It’s better to have expectations that risk will arrive but you don’t know when or where than to rely exclusively on forecasts — almost all of which are either nonsense or about things that are well known.

In the case for many organisations, it’d be interesting to know how many supply chains were tested for resilience to a pandemic, especially one which strongly impacted the manufacturing of exporting countries.

The complication with this however is justifying to the public or shareholders, that every penny is being spent efficiently. How do you justify increased production costs, resulting in goods being priced less competitively for the same margin? However this hides the real question, can your organisation afford to have little/poor resilience? If in the future, there was a different situation in China or Germany, forcing all factories to close for a month or longer, how would this impact your organisation?

So how do you build resilience?

Ensuring there is a sufficient margin of safety. Enabling economic efficiency sounds great from a political perspective, but practically this provides for little resilience when things outside of your control do inevitably go wrong.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world’s reliance on a tiny minority of countries to function, and many organisations have seen the cost this has had on them, with some going out of business. In the future, I suspect companies will build a margin of safety by no longer accepting that a function is simply outsourced but explore deeper, their exposure to certain regions.

One can hope that we learn.

As Warren Buffett said, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.” And the tide has just gone out like never before. — Paul Graham

Further reading

• Joseph Norman, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Systemic risk of pandemic via novel pathogens — Coronavirus: A note, New England Complex Systems Institute (January 26, 2020).
• Emergency Preparedness collection of writings by Bill Gates
• How we must respond to the coronavirus pandemic by Bill Gates
• Coronavirus and Credibility by Paul Graham
• Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service
• Should we prescribe longer repeat prescriptions for patients with long-term conditions during a pandemic?
• A telegram group on all UK pharmacy discussions on COVID-19

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the article please like, and share with a friend. To see more content like this, subscribe here or follow the RSS feed. Check out our social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Speak soon.

Chai with Aditya #3 was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“COVID-19 might be just a wake-up call: let’s use it to rebuild our systems into something more resilient” — Ian Boyd, former Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Takeaway Chai

• The coronavirus has been both a demand and supply shock
• As a system, we have been sacrificing resilience for efficiency
• Contrary to popular belief, the coronavirus is not a black swan event, as a flu-like pandemic had been predicted as early as 2007
• The case for a flu-like pandemic was never if, but when
• The Centre for Disease Control knew the system was woefully underprepared to handle a flu-like pandemic in 2015
• Collectively we can build resilience capability by including a margin of safety into the definition of optimal efficiency.

Introduction

The effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on our normal way of living is nothing short of profound. Economically, COVID-19 is causing both a demand shock and supply shock depending on the service or product. For example, India has reduced exports of medicines, causing a supply shock and increased prices, while has simultaneously seen a reduction in the purchases for sugar, causing a demand shock.This got me thinking, have we been sacrificing resilience for efficiency?

Efficiency versus resilience

If you’re building a bridge to carry a five ton truck, it would be efficient to build the bridge to handle five tons. This would require the least equipment while allowing for the vehicle to pass. The resilient option is to build the bridge to handle 10 tons or 12 tons, allowing for a 40–50% margin of safety. Imagine you were driving the truck, which bridge would you prefer to drive over?

Was COVID-19 a black swan event?

In a world where resources are finite, is stockpiling efficient to maintain resilience through a pandemic? This depends on the probability of a pandemic occurring and its predicted severity. COVID-19 has been likened by many to be a black swan event (Sequoia example, Negotiator example). Popularised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, a black swan event is an unpredictable incident that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences.

Was COVID-19 a black swan event? The short answer is no. The question of a pandemic was always when, not if. Published in 2007, Taleb’s The Black Swan had this line “As we travel more on this planet, epidemics will be more acute”, see below for an excerpt.

In 2015, from his reading on epidemics, Bill Gates published an article, We’re not ready for the next epidemic’, which also includes his famous TED talk on the subject. A stark point from his article is:

Also, last month I was lucky enough to have an in-depth discussion with Tom Frieden and his team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

What I’ve learned is very sobering. As awful as this epidemic has been, the next one could be much worse. The world is simply not prepared to deal with a disease — an especially virulent flu, for example — that infects large numbers of people very quickly. Of all the things that could kill 10 million people or more, by far the most likely is an epidemic.

The quote shows awareness for how underprepared we were (and still are) for a pandemic. The probability of a flu-like pandemic occurring may have been low, but it wasn’t zero. Therefore, COVID-19 is not a black swan event. In fact, in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Taleb referred to COVID-19 as a “white swan”, while defining 9/11 as a true black swan event. In his book, Taleb defines a white swan event as a highly certain event with three principal characteristics: it is certain; it carries an impact that can easily be estimated; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that recognizes the certainty of occurrence, but shifts the focus to errors in judgment or some other human form of causation. The financial crash of 2007/8 was also not a black swan event, the tell signs were there — excuberrent greed leading to poor financial resilience.

Can a COVID-19 type pandemic be planned for?

The answer for this is more complicated. In a post by the Collaborative Fund, the below was said:

Think of risk the way California thinks of earthquakes. California knows a major earthquake will happen. But it has no idea when, where, or of what magnitude. Emergency crews are prepared despite no specific forecast. Buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes that may not occur for a century or more.

Risk gets ugly when you think it requires a specific forecast before you start preparing for it. It’s better to have expectations that risk will arrive but you don’t know when or where than to rely exclusively on forecasts — almost all of which are either nonsense or about things that are well known.

In the case for many organisations, it’d be interesting to know how many supply chains were tested for resilience to a pandemic, especially one which strongly impacted the manufacturing of exporting countries.

The complication with this however is justifying to the public or shareholders, that every penny is being spent efficiently. How do you justify increased production costs, resulting in goods being priced less competitively for the same margin? However this hides the real question, can your organisation afford to have little/poor resilience? If in the future, there was a different situation in China or Germany, forcing all factories to close for a month or longer, how would this impact your organisation?

So how do you build resilience?

Ensuring there is a sufficient margin of safety. Enabling economic efficiency sounds great from a political perspective, but practically this provides for little resilience when things outside of your control do inevitably go wrong.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world’s reliance on a tiny minority of countries to function, and many organisations have seen the cost this has had on them, with some going out of business. In the future, I suspect companies will build a margin of safety by no longer accepting that a function is simply outsourced but explore deeper, their exposure to certain regions.

One can hope that we learn.

As Warren Buffett said, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.” And the tide has just gone out like never before. — Paul Graham

Further reading

• Joseph Norman, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Systemic risk of pandemic via novel pathogens — Coronavirus: A note, New England Complex Systems Institute (January 26, 2020).
• Emergency Preparedness collection of writings by Bill Gates
• How we must respond to the coronavirus pandemic by Bill Gates
• Coronavirus and Credibility by Paul Graham
• Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service
• Should we prescribe longer repeat prescriptions for patients with long-term conditions during a pandemic?
• A telegram group on all UK pharmacy discussions on COVID-19

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the article please like, and share with a friend. To see more content like this, subscribe here or follow the RSS feed. Check out our social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Speak soon.

Chai with Aditya #3 was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Reading is a great past time; an opportunity to learn by immersing yourself into a different world, even non-fiction. Leadership is a hotly discussed topic; many people who aren’t leaders , claim to be one and vice versa. I can’t say I’m a leader, but I feel we all demonstrate certain characteristics of being a leader, some express it more than others. To help people in their development towards becoming a leader, here are five books I’d recommend current and aspiring leaders should read.

How to make friends and influence people — Dale Carnegie

A classic book which changes the way you think when it comes to people. Carnegie is a known genius when it comes to personal development. His book explains in simple terms how to influence effectively and how anyone can reach there. There are many topics in this classic which appeal for all, for example how to deal with criticism, how to win people over with your thinking, and how to change people without offending — all topics which are important in leadership.

“Everybody in the world is seeking happiness — and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.”

Good to great — Jim Collins

The culmination of a rigorous five year project, Collins led a research team to determine, why do some companies make the jump from being good, to great. Distilled into a few key lessons with plenty of examples, this book summarises 2000 pages of interviews and 600 articles into an easy to read book, which every leader can learn from.

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”

Leading — Sir Alex Ferguson

The most decorated football manager of all time. Over a 26 year career at Manchester United, Ferguson took a below average team to the best team in Europe, numerous times. In this book he explained the key to building high performing teams, and the principles he found effective in leading his team to success, both on and off the football field.

“My job was to make everyone understand that the impossible was possible, that’s the difference between leadership and management.”

Who moved my cheese — Dr. Spencer Johnson

We all know change is inevitable. We spend much of our time trying to change other people’s behaviours. But what do we do when we find ourselves in the situation where people are trying to change us and we don’t want to? Who moved my cheese is a fantastic short read (took me an hour) which teaches us how to deal with change.

“Sometimes, Hem, things change and they are never the same again. This looks like one of those times. That’s life! Life moves on. And so should we.”

Other People’s Shoes: 40 questions for leaders and managers— Ken Jarrold

In the UK pharmacy scene, Jarrold is known for being the Chair of the Rebalancing Medicines Legislation and Pharmacy Regulation Programme Board. In other spheres, Ken is known for his distinguished NHS career, leading to become the Chair of North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust. Jarrold’s book is a reflective read, to encourage the reader to explore their own practice and way of working to become a better leader. Recommended to me by a senior pharmacist, it did not disappoint — I’d recommend this to you.

These are five books I’d recommend, which books would you recommend?

Thank you for reading, let me know your thoughts on this, and what else you’d like to see in the future. All views presented are the blogger and not representative of their employer.

If you enjoyed the article please show your support by liking and sharing. Consider subscribing to the Pharmacist’s Cafe and following on Twitter and Facebook for updates and new content — Aditya.

5 books every leader should read was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How can you, as a young professional, or a student influence policy and strategy? This is a question I see come up a lot, from a growing number of frustrated individuals and one in which I will answer in this article.

1. Read a lot
2. Attend events
3. Network
4. Maintain professionalism
5. Be authentic

Read a lot

The idea is simple. You can’t talk about ideas if all your evidence is from sketchy Telegram polls and questionable journalistic articles. Make sure you read from the primary source:

• NHS England
• Government
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society (incl. the Pharmaceutical Journal)
• General Pharmaceutical Council
• Parliamentary Select Committees (Health and Social Care Select Committee)
• Journal papers

Most of these documents have an easy to read version, and simple executive summaries which explain the spirit of its contents, but there is no shortcut for detail besides reading it yourself. Other organisations may summarise the contents, but remember they will intertwine their view alongside it which can prevent an informed opinion. There have been many cases where the original facts have been misrepresented, and then this misrepresentation has gone viral. Many times people make up facts when there are little to none available!

Also, notice how none of those mentioned above are tabloid journalisty sources…

Attend Events

If you want to meet the movers and shakers of pharmacy and learn of the latest developments, you need to go outside of your comfort zone and attend the professional events. Events I’d recommend to attend:

• NHS England’s Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Conference
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Annual Conference
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s National Board meetings [members only]
• Clinical Pharmacy Congress [pre-registration onwards]
• British Pharmaceutical Student’s Association (BPSA) Annual Conference [student up to pre-registration unless you’re an alumni]
• Alternative Pharmacy Careers Conference

The BPSA conference may be the most shocking on the list; however it is at this conference I’ve found the greatest discussions of ideas among attendees happen. Motions are laid, they are discussed, then voted on.

Furthermore, attending events and asking good questions is how you distinguish yourself, it could make the difference between getting that coveted job or not. To ask the good questions, you need to read. Read up about the speakers, their research, the companies which are presenting etc. What are they going to be speaking about? Why is this topic important and how does this relate to the theme. You’ll then start to build a picture of the interconnectedness of things enabling you to ask out of the box questions.

Network

Many people find this daunting…the fact you have to actually speak to people. If only everything in the world could be done without communicating…

Networking is the process of meeting people, professionally. It’s a fancy word for professional socialising, usually at events. Imagine you’re going to the pub with your friends. The conversation may be far from professional, but many things which are discussed, like holidays, politics, upcoming ideas etc. are still acceptable in a professional networking setting. Networking happens at all events and it is actually accepted practice to simply walk into a conversation and simply stand there with a glass of something (doesn’t have to be alcoholic) in your hand and listen. The best part however if you’ve followed step 1 is you can actually contribute to the professional discussion on ideas and what is currently happening as you understand the facts. When you contribute this idea, people will respect you for this as you’ve shown proactiveness and driven forward the conversation. Yes, people may retort with some comment, but rest assured the fact someone so young came up with a very valid, factual point will not go amiss. Do this in enough conversations and you’ll start to become recognised. The trick is, you have to make it come across natural and not as though you’ve been holding this cracking one liner for this exact conversation.

Networking can be done in many ways, but for the best results should be done in combination.

1. Social media (GPhC guidance on Demonstrating professionalism online)
2. By attending events
3. Arranging coffees with key interested individuals

Maintain professionalism

At this point, I feel obligated to link you the GPhC’s current guidance demonstrating professionalism online and their Standards for pharmacy professionals. This is important, especially for social media, where the temptation is to respond vigorously and aggressively within a public forum. This’ll actually do far more damage than you realise. If an argument is getting heated and you feel unable to respond as you would to someone’s face, then don’t post it. How would you feel if another fellow professional, or a patient saw what you posted?

Also, when it comes to face to face networking and professionalism, ensure you don’t drink alcohol more than you can handle. Many professional events have free wine available. Although many students could easily down 4 tequila shots in a row, I somehow doubt your tolerance for wine is as refined yet. Start low, go slow. Sip the wine, don’t shot it.

If you don’t drink, then the above comments regarding alcohol need not apply.

Be authentic

This one is tricky to write about as it’s obvious. Be yourself and talk through your values. Most of the current world seems to thrive from in-authenticity (Instagram?) and very little is actually meaningful. To be meaningful, means to be honest, and to be honest means to be real. Here’s an article which explains this point in further detail.

Do or do not do

Lastly, do not be scared to get involved. If you have an idea, find a few others who share your vision and make it happen. If you’re a student, that could also mean running for a BPSA Executive role. If you’re qualified, perhaps for a position on the RPS National Boards.

Thank you for reading, let me know your thoughts on this, and what else you’d like to see in the future. All views presented are the blogger and not representative of the employer.

If you enjoyed the article please show your support by liking and sharing. Consider subscribing to the Pharmacist’s Cafe and following on Twitter and Facebook for updates and new content — Aditya.

How to make an impact was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The June 2017 exam, in my opinion, went so bad, Arsenal had a better chance of winning the Premier League than me passing. Thankfully luck was on my side! Looking forward post — registering, the next stage is to complete the relevant courses needed for employment or locuming but more importantly to provide greater patient care. Here is a list of 9 courses every newly qualified pharmacist (NQP) should do before their first shift.

1. Indemnity Insurance — Professional insurance to protect yourself in case anything happens (Okay so it’s not really a course, more of an action. But very important nonetheless!). You are only covered for an incident if you had insurance before the incident happened.
2. Child and Vulnerable Adult Safeguarding
3. Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) programme and assessment
4. Medicine Use Review (MUR) certificate and send to NHS England teams where you’ll be working
5. New Medicine Service (NMS) self-assessment form — a prerequisite for this course is MUR certification
6. Dementia friends programme and assessment
7. Flu and Declaration of Competence for Flu — Requires face to face training
8. Healthy Living Champion training — Not essential right now, but with the growing role of pharmacists, this may become a mandatory in the future
9. Minor ailments services programme and minor ailment assessment

There are multiple different providers for the courses above — ensure your selected provider is fully registered and compliant with regulations.

In addition there are ‘Foundation Pharmacy’ programmes which support you in your first year(s) of being an NQP. CPPE’s programme is a 12 month intensive through their various courses, whereas the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s course supports NQPs for their first 1000 days of practice. Explore the links below!

• CPPE — Deadline to apply is 25th Septmeber
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society — Need to be a member to access

Being an NQP can mean the feeling of stress or isolation which can take its toll. But you don’t need to feel alone. Pharmacist Support is a fantastic charity working for pharmacists and their families, former pharmacists, pharmacy students and pre-registration trainees to provide help and support in times of need. They provide a range of self-help fact sheets and confidential services to help NQPs and their families during difficult and challenging times.

Thank you to Ben Merriman for helping me write this. If you haven’t already, check out “Ben Merriman’s summary of the Drug Tariff”.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the article please show your support by liking and sharing this post. Consider subscribing to the publication and following on Twitter and Facebook for updates and new content.

9 courses every newly qualified pharmacist should do before their first shift was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Interviews are daunting. We’ve all been there — you spend hours Googling potential questions and perfecting your answers. Shortly after arriving you are called in to sit on what can only be described as the a chair taken from Guantanamo Bay. After what feels like an eternity you leave the interview feeling annoyed with yourself for slipping up on some questions which ultimately lost you the job. You suffered “The Gerrard Effect”.

With the recent change in hospital pre-registration placements, it has never been more important to get your interview preparation right to secure your preferred destination. Below I’ve outlined my approach to interviews.

Point 1: Know yourself and the role specification inside out

The interviewer wants to know who you are and how you fit the role. That means you need to be able to articulate and present yourself in the best possible light. To understand the role, network and speak to current and former pre-registration students.

Point 2: Research the organisation thoroughly

Research all things possible in the last 6–12 months about the firm and identify their keywords (and know what they mean). So for pre-registration it’d be words such as patient-centred care, SCR, Fraser Guidelines, medicines reconciliation etc. Has the organisation won an award recently? Have they recently come in the news for a project?

Knowing answers to points 1 and 2 will help, should the interviewer throw a curve ball question. You’re already half prepared, now all you need to work out is what are they actually asking for then slip in a few buzzwords where appropriate!

So how do you actually prepare for the questions?

Point 3: The 3 document plan

For every interview I prepare three documents:

1. A pre-prepared question and answer sheet using examples presented in the STAR format. The questions are derived from the competencies in the role description (and a few from researching) and I try to have 2 examples per competency and explain my role in the task/example. This helps me know myself (Point 1) and allows me to relate my examples to the role specification.
2. An organisation factsheet with all the information from my research in an organised manner (Point 2).
3. A market landscape of where the organisation fits in and the space within the market it has occupied. For example, Guys and St Thomas’ hospital has a brand new, state of the art cancer department. How does this department fit within the UK cancer units (Point 2)?

Thank you for reading. Hope this helps and best of luck for your interviews!

This article was written to feature on the British Pharmaceutical Student’s Association (BPSA) Website as part of their articles on the pre-registration programme.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the article please show your support by liking and sharing this post. Consider subscribing to the publication and following on Twitter and Facebook for updates and new content.

How to prepare for a Pharmacy interview was originally published in Pharmacist’s Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.