Pharmacists in Australia?

Premier!

Ok so what's the story??
Im a pharmacist here in ireland and seriously thinking about heading to oz. But does anyone know if there are jobs out there? It's a big commitment to make as the process to get registered over there seems long, complicated and expensive! you'd want to be sure!

Is it possible to go over and work as a technician or something first to see if you actually like it, then go about getting registered maybe?! What are people doing or what have people done??

Help!!

Zambia

Yes there are jobs

The wife is a dispense tech. She just did a quick course and she says it best to do it though a Pharmacy as they pay for it.

No problem with getting work once qualified.

Premier!

thanks for that! i'm starting the process today anyway, lot of paper work to be done before i go anywhere near the place yet!

Vorsprung

Zambia232 wrote: »

Yes there are jobs

The wife is a dispense tech. She just did a quick course and she says it best to do it though a Pharmacy as they pay for it.

No problem with getting work once qualified.

Getting a job as a tech isn't a lot of trouble.

My GF is a pharmacist but the hoops you have to jump through are many. You have to do a few exams (google COAP) which cost about $1200 and a lot of arsing about with the Australian Pharmacy Council. There's also a new registration agency called AHPRA which only set up shop about 6 months ago, replacing all the state registration boards - once you have those exams done, the new inefficiencies of the board mean that it can take upto 6 months after you've done the exams to get your ticket to practice. The exams themselves are held in London and the state capitals over here, and it's a bit like the Pre-Reg exams, so there's a bit of work in them. If you've been doing hospital pharmacy it should make it easier, the OH was a community pharmacist for a few years before coming over and had forgotten most of the relevant stuff.

Zambia

Maybe I should be cleaerer there is not a problem getting work once qualified as a Pharmacist

Premier!

Vorsprung wrote: »

Getting a job as a tech isn't a lot of trouble.

My GF is a pharmacist but the hoops you have to jump through are many. You have to do a few exams (google COAP) which cost about $1200 and a lot of arsing about with the Australian Pharmacy Council. There's also a new registration agency called AHPRA which only set up shop about 6 months ago, replacing all the state registration boards - once you have those exams done, the new inefficiencies of the board mean that it can take upto 6 months after you've done the exams to get your ticket to practice. The exams themselves are held in London and the state capitals over here, and it's a bit like the Pre-Reg exams, so there's a bit of work in them. If you've been doing hospital pharmacy it should make it easier, the OH was a community pharmacist for a few years before coming over and had forgotten most of the relevant stuff.

Ya i see that alright about the new registration agency. Was thinking this might lead to delays! handy to be registered all over the country though rather than just one state! will hopefully be worth it!

carinabean

Hi does any1 know about being a qualified pharm tech and moving to Aus and getting a job as a tech there? Is it also necessary to get registered or whatever over there, or can you walk straight into a job???
thanks so much

Zambia

You have to do a transition course in Vic anyway. Sorry

Cooperspale

http://www.pharmacycouncil.org.au/examining_streamB.html

An Irish pharmacist would be in stream B.

It is a very big commitment to make, both money and time wise.
Get your papers recognized, do the exams and pay the fees before you ever even get your license.

Where do you want to work? In the cities there is a lot of competition. There are 8 pharmacy schools and a lot of graduates who want to pay off their HECs (student loan) ASAP. City rates for shop can vary 28-35$ ph M-F, even less. A lot of these urban shifts can be 10-12hrs long for private owners. If you work for a Company like National you will get paid a lot less per hour
but enjoy breaks, shorter hours and usually an RDO.
You get paid an awful lot more if you decide to work in regional areas, like 2-3
hrs minimum from a city. Rates start about 40$ph.
I have done both.
Ravens are the best crowd for organizing locums, but in regional areas mostly.

City jobs or should I say good city jobs are hard to come by. Pharmacist employers are tight wads and don't really advertise so much. You're better off on foot with a resume. A lot of city jobs that are advertised may focus on the Friday or Saturday/Sunday late shift only like 3-10 or 3- 12 midnight only. You can always see whats on offer on seek.com.au

There are a few agencies that you go in and do interview with etc but they can
be very very slow. Ravens are based in Brisbane, I've only ever dealt with them over the phone.
Also not every store has security, so it can be real interesting some days.

Fees are annoying.
At least it's now under one banner of APHRA. Think that's about 250$ odd. You have to have your own indemnity insurance, it's about 250$. And you must maintain a CPD record, the
easiest way to do this is pay 650$ to PSA and do their monthly assignments, though they do offer lecture weekends etc for a fee.

In 13years the hourly rate here has increased between 3-10$ depending on where you work in shop.
Hospital is a totally other story, start at about 21.50$ ph and you would be extraordinarily lucky to be on 30$ within 5 years. But you do get other benefits in lieu.


Re: taking an Irish pharmacist on as a technician, an employer would probably take you as a dispense tech and either have you work alongside dispensing pharmacist or packing dosette/websters for nursing home etc. Depending on where you are, that would be anything from 16-21$ph. There has been a few changes since July 1 so they may not and might make you undertake the QCPP training, a bit tedious.....reading and workbook. All to get $$ incentives for the 5CPA agreement with Medicare. I know of an Irish qualified pharmacist packing websters at the moment, the guy took her on because he knows she will do the job well and he doesn't have to pay a pharmacist rate.

They will not take Irish technicians on as techs. Full stop.
You will get a job as an assistant and possibly handle OTC queries but you will not be stepping foot in dispensary.

I would have a good long think about it before deciding to come over as a pharmacist
Feel free to pm

carinabean

Thanks for your reply! I may go back t the drawing board!
Do you know why Irish Pharmacy Technicians aren't hired over, or whether any other countries like New Zealand or America do??? thanks so much!

Cooperspale

As far as I know the Irish tech qualification doesn't travel well.

You will need to undertake some course or programme in Australia, NZ and most definitely in the USA (completely different ball game altogether) In the US, you're probably looking at 2 years to get qualified.

For Victoria,

http://www.pharmacybd.vic.gov.au/cmsdocs/disp_courses.pdf
That has a 2009 date on it, but you get the idea

In fact even to work in the UK you have to have NVQ3 qualification and be registered with the GPhC

Cooperspale

Cooperspale wrote: »

As far as I know the Irish tech qualification doesn't travel well.

You will need to undertake some course or programme in Australia, NZ and most definitely in the USA (completely different ball game altogether) In the US, you're probably looking at 2 years to get qualified.

For Victoria,

http://www.pharmacybd.vic.gov.au/cmsdocs/disp_courses.pdf
That has a 2009 date on it, but you get the idea

In fact even to work in the UK you have to have NVQ3 qualification and be registered with the GPhC

Hi Cooperspale,
For getting a job in Australia as a Pharmacy Technician there any distinction drawn between the on-the-job IPU course for Pharmacy Technicians :
http://www.ipu.ie/ipu-training-courses/ipu-pharmacy-technicians-course.html
and the (relatively new) full-time Higher Certificate in Pharmacy Technician studues such as that offered by DIT:
http://www.dit.ie/study/undergraduate/programmes/pharmacytechnicianstudiesdt425/

http://modulecatalogue.hosting.heanet.ie/catalogue/streams/800/

Or is it just a blanket 'NO - YOU'RE NOT RECOGNISED HERE'?

Thank you.

Cooperspale

To be honest, I don't know details of those Irish courses and their reciprocity here.
In Australia, there isn't one pharm tech course fits all.
Community and hospital are pretty much separate.
It would be a lot easier to get the community/shop qualification

In Victoria, the Guild is responsible for technician courses for community jobs
http://www.guild.org.au/VIC_Branch/Training/Courses.page?
There's a phone number at the bottom, try and contact them.

Hospital is different again and it's a specific course at TAFE/Uni
You need certs 3 & 4 before hospitals would consider you anywhere in Oz

http://www.csu.edu.au/enterprise/csutraining/scope/cert_health
...just to give you an idea of what hospital requirements here are

As far as I can figure out for community, VIC and QLD are quite rigorous and want someone with their specified qualifications, the other states are very vague about technicians.
It wouldn't be that difficult to get the qualifications, but would take a few weeks and some cash if an owner wasn't going to pay for it for you. It's essentially 16hrs class time and completing the required workbooks