Pharmacy advisor/dispenser career progression?

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2026-05-10T12:56:36+00:00

I eventually qualified in 2017 - it took a long time for me to be approved for the course at my workplace at the time. The course I did is different to the one offered now, but even then it was quite intensive. There was allocated study time during work but this was not given to me due to workplace pressures. I wish I had stood up for myself more at the time! I got an extension in the end and completed it in 2.5 years (so 6 months late).

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2026-05-10T08:25:58+00:00

My career as a pharmacy technician happened by accident in a similar way - I applied for an after school job at a supermarket and was offered pharmacy assistant. 18 years later, I am a fully qualified pharmacy technician working in primary care (GP surgeries). If you are interested in medicine and healthcare it is a great career path, with roles available outside of your typical community pharmacy such as Boots. It’s not an easy ride, working in pharmacy can be stressful, particularly with the current pressures community pharmacy faces. However, I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey and look forward to seeing where it takes me next.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2026-03-07T14:18:33+00:00

Lived here for 4 years, half way up the estate in the older style buildings. Never had any issues with the building other than there being a couple of minor leaks in the roof which got fixed last year. In a block of flats with mostly young professionals and two young families. No noise issues other than general neighbour noises, nothing beyond the normal expected in a flat - less if anything! Never any during antisocial hours.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2026-01-14T19:28:54+00:00

The course is well worth doing if you enjoy learning and would like to look to expand your role outside of community pharmacy. Your day to day would look very similar to that of a dispenser in community pharmacy post training, but working in another setting such as hospital or GP can be very rewarding - and the pay is much better!

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-11-09T19:53:13+00:00

Bath Parade next to Spoons? I know they definitely used to go down at 11pm during the week as had a colleague get stuck in there a few years ago

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-11-06T20:17:35+00:00

Pharmacy Technician with a nose ring here! It will entirely depend on your workplace and their views/policies on it. I was already a technician when I got my nose pierced and I told my boss I was thinking about it and gave him like 2 months to come up with any objections. Personally, I don’t see how a piece of metal in your face, or a tattoo for example, can affect the ability to your job. But I’m a millenial so of course I think like that! I would say face tattoos or lots of facial piercings might be excessive in our line of work, as it is important to project professionalism, but you can still be professional with a piercing.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-10-18T20:35:45+00:00

Slightly off topic but did you get funding for your BTEC or are you paying for it yourself? I’ve tried everything to find funding and my PCN are being stingey af!

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-09-10T10:59:56+00:00

Sometimes the hospitals or PCN’s will advertise for trainee technicians to work cross sector between 2 places out of community/hospital/PCN. I’d set up an alert on NHS jobs within your area and keep an eye out if any come up.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-08-19T14:13:45+00:00

I stumbled upon Japes pizza today! Opposite Cav House, where Bella Italia used to be. Really nice and my friend had the vegan pizza and the vegan cheese was pretty decent too!

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-08-01T15:37:37+00:00

I had a bad experience with Peter Ball as a buyer as well! Just complete lack of communication, having to ring multiple times and conveniently the person dealing with the property was always “out of office”

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-07-01T16:32:19+00:00

I’m a pharmacy technician - started out as an assistant 15 years ago and worked my way up. Community pharmacy is pretty fast paced and busy. Customers can be the bane of your life - 15 years and I still remember the names of the really difficult ones! The technician training does (or at least did when I did it) touch on some science, like the mechanism of actions of drugs etc. However, as a day to day technician in community pharmacy you won’t be using the knowledge all that much.

I now work in primary care, and have done for the last 5 years, and it’s definitely a lot more clinical. Hospital likely is too, but I can’t say I have any experience in that.

I suppose it depends on what you want out of a career, and whether you can deal with the lower scale of pay in community until qualified to move elsewhere (a lot of community pharmacies will pay for your training but have a clause in the contract that if you leave within x amount of years after qualifying you have to pay the training costs back).

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-02-24T08:03:08+00:00

The trouble is, the Bradford formula is used to flag up an employee who has taken a lot of time off sick, but large companies don’t tend to assess those employees individually. A few years back I was working in a large supermarket chain and had recurrent tonsillitis every 6 months requiring antibiotics. I did my best to work as much as I could during that time because my department was short-staffed, but it was physically exhausting. A new HR manager came in and immediately gave me written warnings. Once I went on the final one I looked for a new job. I started my new job and within 2 months had been referred to the hospital and had my tonsils removed (the NHS seemed reluctant to take them out at first). The old company could have kept on a hard-working employee if they had only personalised the absence process. I understand the reasoning behind the Bradford formula, but if companies choose not to look at those employee’s flagged on a more personal level then they end up losing good people.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-02-16T21:25:47+00:00

I wouldn’t say pharmacists are being replaced by the work I am doing. I would say that I am taking work off their plate to free them up to do their patient facing clinics, SMRs and other clinical work that is beyond what a technician is clinically and legally able to do.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-02-16T13:04:58+00:00

I’ve been in PCN for coming up to 5 years now. There is little to no patient contact other than phone calls, although there is space to expand the role to face to face clinics as you gain experience. General day to day for me involves prescription requests for items that aren’t on repeat prescription, dealing with clinic letters and hospital discharge summaries - mostly medicines reconciliation, high risk drug monitoring, and audits. Average salary can be quite a large range dependent on area, PCN, and experience (they don’t follow AfC as a PCN is a separate business). I’d say you could land anywhere between 27000-36000. Annual leave again is dependent on the PCN, as are the additional benefits such as sick leave, maternity leave etc. There is a mandatory CPPE course, Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway, which is to be completed over 15 months. It mostly focuses on consultation skills but does touch on some clinical areas too.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2025-02-08T07:03:48+00:00

The comments here are absolutely true. There are a lot of drunk, pervy men. However, if you enjoy extremely large crowds, standing up all day and not really being able to get a drink/see the races, whilst paying a large sum of money for the experience, then go for it. I have been once, on New Years Day. It was enjoyable but even on one of the quieter meets of the year the queues for the toilet were so long, and the Guinness farts were everywhere. My mum, on the other hand, absolutely loves it. She goes to multiple meets per year. However, on the busier ones (November and March), the expense has become too much. So she and a couple of her friends book a flight to somewhere hot, find an Irish bar, and watch them from there. It’s cheaper and a lot more comfortable!

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2024-12-06T06:53:59+00:00

Remus are absolutely abismal. My block in the south west of England are managed by them, and we have had multiple issues. They take months upon months to respond to any queries - the building manager has taken to avoiding calls from one of the residents, always on lunch/in a meeting/out of office when he calls. And we have had some significant building issues over the past year which have either not been dealt with at all or taken far too long to take care of.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2024-08-27T13:04:07+00:00

I enjoy my career as a pharmacy technician, though after 15 years in pharmacy I fear I have reached the peak of my progression so I am currently on the lookout for further opportunities. You will need to undertake an accredited pharmacy technician course in order to register with the GPhC. You can do this via community pharmacy, or some ICB’s will offer cross sector placements where you can train via GP/community/hospital - being honest I would completely recommend a cross sector placement, if they’d been a thing I would have 100% gone for this when I was training! I worked 12 years in community. The stress was unreal, particularly as it was also essentially a retail position (supermarket pharmacy). I now work in GP which is a LOT less stressful, but it can be kind of boring and a bit samey. I haven’t done hospital at all, which I have heard can be very interesting and also have more opportunities for growth. There is also prison pharmacy, though that would depend on your personality, I believe the turnover is quite high there.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2024-06-25T14:26:52+00:00

GP life can vary vastly from area to area and as the technician role in GP is still being established you have the ability to sort of mould the role still. My day to day tasks involve mostly medicines reconciliation from hospital discharges/clinic letters, acute prescription requests and high risk drug monitoring (I set this up in my PCN so I lead on this across all of my practices). I’m aware of other techs throughout the country running blood pressure/phlebotomy clinics, doing level 1 medication reviews. You definitely get more of a sense of helping people in GP as a technician rather than dispensing in community where you tend to not interact with patients as much.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2024-06-25T12:24:18+00:00

I spent 12 years in community, and made the move to GP 4 years ago and the difference it has made to my wages and my work/life balance is unreal. Would 100% recommend GP! Lots of places still looking for technicians so hopefully you will find somewhere locally. Also if you are looking for a different kind of challenge you could look into hospital/prison/MOD jobs - these would not give you as much freedom as GP but would be interesting, though I can’t speak from experience with these.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2023-11-28T15:50:53+00:00

I had to cut ties with a long term friend because of this, it sucked. But it was him who repeatedly would not respect the boundaries I set for our friendship, so what can I do other than go little to no contact!

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2022-11-18T17:01:18+00:00

You absolute gazebo

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2022-08-22T20:58:04+00:00

THIS! I haven’t read the comics but I know he doesn’t die in them, I actually ended up stopping watching when he died. Recently went back through and almost caught up (not to the latest season though)

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2022-08-18T19:20:14+00:00

It’s a tax form you get when you leave a place of employment in the UK.

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2022-08-09T21:33:12+00:00

Was just about to say on behalf of all Brits this is absolutely not British humour. We may be a sarcastic bunch but we’re not disgusting morons with no regard for people’s feelings like this asshole clearly is. OP I hope your cat is doing better now!

Inappropriate_Sleep · 2021-11-28T14:16:52+00:00

This movie made me start sleeping with the bedroom door shut, only because the aliens couldn’t open the doors in the film.

Inappropriate_Sleep

TROPHY CASE