Absolutely torn between pharmacy and medicine

weirdspider

I know this is quite a common question amongst Leaving Cert students but I truly can't decide! Pharmacy attracts me because I have a genuine interest in science, particularly chemistry. The course itself seems managable from what I've read, job hours are nice and salary isn't bad either apparantly. These are the only reasons. The actual job sounds quite monotonous and uneventful and I'd feel unmotivated and bored.
Medicine on the other hand also has the benefits of pharmacy and more. I feel I'd actually enjoy the job, as stressful as its hyped up to be. I'd like to meet and help new people every day with things constantly happening around me and I enjoy a busy environment! Obviously job hours are outrageous but only for juniors?
If anyone can give me any guidance or direction I'd be incredibly grateful! Its a decision I've been trying to make since 5th year and I'm currently repeating 6th year. Thanks!

locum-motion

Some of your points re; Pharmacy would have been true a few years ago (hours, salary, etc), but not any more.
Between 1973 and 1996, an average of about 70-80 pharmacists were added to the register each year in Ireland.* Between 1996 and 2010, it was about 270. There are now simply too many pharmacists in Ireland, and there isn't a days' work for all of them each day.
My hourly earnings are now less than 2/3 of what they were 6 years ago (and, both then and now, I was and am earning at the top end of the range of what an employee pharmacist can earn), and during a recent stint of Locum work in between two full time jobs, I was able to find about 3 days' work a week.

Despite the horror stories about the Junior Doctor years, I couldn't in good conscience advise Pharmacy over Medicine if you think you're interested in the latter.



* These figures are calculated by subtracting the registration numbers of pharmacists who registered in those years from each other, and dividing by the number of years in between. In both cases, the actual annual figures would be skewed very much towards the more recent end of the gap. An analysis of the registration numbers of more pharmacists, say at 5 yearly gaps, would paint a truer picture.

weirdspider

locum-motion wrote: »

Some of your points re; Pharmacy would have been true a few years ago (hours, salary, etc), but not any more.
Between 1973 and 1996, an average of about 70-80 pharmacists were added to the register each year in Ireland.* Between 1996 and 2010, it was about 270. There are now simply too many pharmacists in Ireland, and there isn't a days' work for all of them each day.
My hourly earnings are now less than 2/3 of what they were 6 years ago (and, both then and now, I was and am earning at the top end of the range of what an employee pharmacist can earn), and during a recent stint of Locum work in between two full time jobs, I was able to find about 3 days' work a week.

Despite the horror stories about the Junior Doctor years, I couldn't in good conscience advise Pharmacy over Medicine if you think you're interested in the latter.



* These figures are calculated by subtracting the registration numbers of pharmacists who registered in those years from each other, and dividing by the number of years in between. In both cases, the actual annual figures would be skewed very much towards the more recent end of the gap. An analysis of the registration numbers of more pharmacists, say at 5 yearly gaps, would paint a truer picture.

Thank you very much your answer was of great help! Although I'm still unsure I'm definitely swaying more towards medicine. It's the course itself that frightens me most!

partyatmygaff

weirdspider wrote: »

Thank you very much your answer was of great help! Although I'm still unsure I'm definitely swaying more towards medicine. It's the course itself that frightens me most!

When it comes to course difficulty it really isn't a huge deal more difficult than Pharmacy. The most you can say is they're both very different courses.

Job prospects for Pharmacy and Medicine aren't great at the moment in Ireland (Nowhere near as bad as other sectors but not as good as in the past). Junior doctors have awful working conditions here in Ireland and from what i've heard actually progressing in your career to get a reasonably good job is next to impossible unless you're willing to emigrate. Pharmacy isn't *as* bad. The main difficulty is finding a job.

As for excitement and challenges, you're thinking of community pharmacy which isn't the only branch of pharmacy you can enter. There's a whole host of paths you can take from hospital pharmacy (And all its specialties) to industrial pharmacy and all that entails.

weirdspider

partyatmygaff wrote: »

When it comes to course difficulty it really isn't a huge deal more difficult than Pharmacy. The most you can say is they're both very different courses.

Job prospects for Pharmacy and Medicine aren't great at the moment in Ireland (Nowhere near as bad as other sectors but not as good as in the past). Junior doctors have awful working conditions here in Ireland and from what i've heard actually progressing in your career to get a reasonably good job is next to impossible unless you're willing to emigrate. Pharmacy isn't *as* bad. The main difficulty is finding a job.

As for excitement and challenges, you're thinking of community pharmacy which isn't the only branch of pharmacy you can enter. There's a whole host of paths you can take from hospital pharmacy (And all its specialties) to industrial pharmacy and all that entails.

Well I suppose it's a relief to know it's about the same level at pharmacy in terms of the course. I know the jobs are very different but I want to do a job in science that's practical instead of say working in a lab or teaching and I genuinely would like to help people and both pharmacy and medicine would allow me to do that.
I know there's job shortages in both areas but I'd imagine pharmacy is more hard hit than medicine.
Thanks for your post!

spagboll

you seem reasonably well informed

There's a few people on here who are both qualified as pharmacists and doctors, maybe one of them will have some further advice

Nonoperational

Currently I'm a pharmacist and also doing med. I'll preface my remarks by saying that I always wanted to do med so I could be coloured by that...

If you have any inclination or desire to be a doctor do med. The more clinical exposure you get in pharmacy the more you will be frustrated and sorry you didn't do medicine. I found pharmacy very very limited. You're the last link in the chain and generally unless there's a mistake then there's not a whole lot you do only dispense what's on the prescription. There are of course other options like industry or academia but doing pharmacy for those reasons is a slightly different discussion.


Pharmacy is every bit as difficult a degree as medicine (so far) if not harder. That could be because I'm older this time round but pharmacy is tough.

You've said it yourself in your post that pharmacy sounds monotonous and boring. Personally I found that to be the case big time. I don't want to be too extreme because I understand there are pharmacists here that are perfectly happy and do a great job. I sometimes wish I could like it, it would certainly be easier, but I couldn't.

On the plus side the money is good, locum work is relatively plentiful and you are in control of your hours. These things are very important to some people and you need to think about that.

Being a junior doctor can be tough, but it's not all bad. If your doing what you like it can be interesting and rewarding. That's the impression I get around the hospitals anyway. I'd rather work 16 hours doing what I like than 9 hours behind the pharmacy counter with no lunch or break and watching the clock wishing the minutes away. At least you can pop out for lunch or a coffee etc. In most pharmacies your not able to leave all day which can make 9 hours seem like double that.

Good luck in whatever you decide and remember there are probably plenty of pharmacists who would put up just as strong an argument pro pharmacy so this is only my take on it.

opinion guy

gpf101 wrote: »

Pharmacy is every bit as difficult a degree as medicine (so far) if not harder. That could be because I'm older this time round but pharmacy is tough.

I'd imagine knowing mroe about the drugs than any of your classmates or even the people teaching you probably makes things alot easier ??

weirdspider

gpf101 wrote: »

Currently I'm a pharmacist and also doing med. I'll preface my remarks by saying that I always wanted to do med so I could be coloured by that...

If you have any inclination or desire to be a doctor do med. The more clinical exposure you get in pharmacy the more you will be frustrated and sorry you didn't do medicine. I found pharmacy very very limited. You're the last link in the chain and generally unless there's a mistake then there's not a whole lot you do only dispense what's on the prescription. There are of course other options like industry or academia but doing pharmacy for those reasons is a slightly different discussion.


Pharmacy is every bit as difficult a degree as medicine (so far) if not harder. That could be because I'm older this time round but pharmacy is tough.

You've said it yourself in your post that pharmacy sounds monotonous and boring. Personally I found that to be the case big time. I don't want to be too extreme because I understand there are pharmacists here that are perfectly happy and do a great job. I sometimes wish I could like it, it would certainly be easier, but I couldn't.

On the plus side the money is good, locum work is relatively plentiful and you are in control of your hours. These things are very important to some people and you need to think about that.

Being a junior doctor can be tough, but it's not all bad. If your doing what you like it can be interesting and rewarding. That's the impression I get around the hospitals anyway. I'd rather work 16 hours doing what I like than 9 hours behind the pharmacy counter with no lunch or break and watching the clock wishing the minutes away. At least you can pop out for lunch or a coffee etc. In most pharmacies your not able to leave all day which can make 9 hours seem like double that.

Good luck in whatever you decide and remember there are probably plenty of pharmacists who would put up just as strong an argument pro pharmacy so this is only my take on it.

Thank you, this is exactly the type of post I was looking for! I realised just two days ago that I can't apply for medicine this year as I have an incorrect subject combination. Doing pharmacy and a postgraduate in medicine like you is most likely the route I'm hoping to take. Can I ask did you do 4 years of pharmacy and an intern year or just 4 years? Also did you launch straight into medicine after graduating from pharmacy? And how did you go about applying for a postgrad? Thanks.

bluewall

if it helps in any way...

I know plenty of people who have switched careers from pharmacy to become doctors. I have yet to come across anyone moving in the other direction.

SpiderP

weirdspider wrote: »

Thank you, this is exactly the type of post I was looking for! I realised just two days ago that I can't apply for medicine this year as I have an incorrect subject combination. Doing pharmacy and a postgraduate in medicine like you is most likely the route I'm hoping to take. Can I ask did you do 4 years of pharmacy and an intern year or just 4 years? Also did you launch straight into medicine after graduating from pharmacy? And how did you go about applying for a postgrad? Thanks.

I am pretty much in an identical situation to gpf101 and his post sums it up very nicely.

If you're torn between the two I would recommend trying to get some work experience. This is a lot more difficult to do in a hospital setting (shadowing a doc or a clinical pharmacist) but it's worth investigating. I was like yourself in that I like chemistry/biology at leaving cert and felt that pharmacy would be a good course choice for me. In retrospect, I accepted a place without really knowing very much at all about what roles pharmacists had or even what their basic day to day work involved. I've worked as a hospital pharmacist and a community pharmacist and from my own experience, community pharmacy just isn't for me. I know lots of great community pharmacists who enjoy their job, I know lots of great pharmacists who don't enjoy their job - but that's something you'll find in every profession so I wouldn't hang your coat on that particular point. Hospital pharmacy is very interesting work, and I really enjoyed it. However, as time went on I felt that it wasn't something that was going to be a long term career option for me, which is why I decided to make the move back to do medicine.

Job opportunities in community pharmacy in Ireland aren't as bad as people make out. All of my friends who are community pharmacists have never been out of work since we qualified. Fair enough the pay isn't what it used to be but the work is there. Hospital opportunities in Ireland are limited at the moment but they are getting better, slightly. If you want to work as a hospital pharmacist I'd advise going to the UK, after my pre-reg here that's what I did and it was a fantastic experience.

If you want to do pharmacy - go for it. But don't do it with the plan that you'll do medicine straight after it. It's a really long route, take it from me and all the other people here in similar circumstances. It'll also be quite frustrating doing something for so long when you really want to be elsewhere. Another point to consider is that the graduate route is not cheap. Do medicine first time around, it'll be "free".

If you haven't got the right subjects to apply for medicine, taking a year to repeat or to do these subjects is really small change in the grander scheme of things. At the end of the day you'll lose a year, but if you do pharmacy you'll lose 5.

Nonoperational

opinion guy wrote: »

I'd imagine knowing mroe about the drugs than any of your classmates or even the people teaching you probably makes things alot easier ??

It is a huge help in certain areas, but for the first 4 years therapeutics is actually quite a small part of the course. The emphasis is history and exam and making a diagnosis. Obviously prescribing will be easier (and safer) as an intern and junior doctor.

weirdspider wrote: »

Thank you, this is exactly the type of post I was looking for! I realised just two days ago that I can't apply for medicine this year as I have an incorrect subject combination. Doing pharmacy and a postgraduate in medicine like you is most likely the route I'm hoping to take. Can I ask did you do 4 years of pharmacy and an intern year or just 4 years? Also did you launch straight into medicine after graduating from pharmacy? And how did you go about applying for a postgrad? Thanks.

I did 4 years, the intern year, and then about 9 months work.

Applying for the post-grad for me was just a case of getting a 2.1 degree and then doing the gamsat. Pharmacy will prepare you well for it. At the end of the day 4/5 years is nothing. If you really want to do med you can do it and if you have the ability to get into pharmacy you will have no problems!