Becoming a pharmacist: in numbers

The Pharmaceutical Journal26 NOV 2020By Dawn Connelly

Dawn Connelly

Dawn Connelly is an award-winning features editor at the Pharmaceutical Journal. She has worked in both hospital and community pharmacy and has over 10 years of experience in pharmacy journalism. In 2015, Dawn took the Data Journalism prize for an impressive info-graphic charting The Ebola virus outbreak.

The path to becoming part of the profession can be a rocky one for some. Here are an aspiring pharmacist’s chances at each stage of the process, based on the best available data. Would you make it now?

Nov 20 Infographic Becoming a pharmacist in numbers

Download the full print version of the infographic here.

Becoming a pharmacist pt 1

Becoming a pharmacist pt 2

Becoming a pharmacist pt 3

Becoming a pharmacist pt 4

References:

Sources: General Pharmaceutical Council; Office for National Statistics; Higher Education Policy Institute; Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

Editorial advisers: Andrew Thompson, deputy head of department at the school of pharmacy, University of Bath, and chair of the admissions sub-group of the Pharmacy Schools Council; Katrina Bicknell, head of the school of pharmacy at University of Reading.

Graphic design: Mariangel Gonzalez

Citation: The Pharmaceutical Journal, Vol 305, No 7943, online | DOI: 10.1211/PJ.2020.20208592

Readers' comments (3)

Praful9 DEC 2020 15:35
Interesting and informative article. I wonder whether the advisers can enlighten the readers on the following points:

(1) I did my pre-reg in early 1970s: six months in hospital setting and six months in industry. Is it still possible to split the pre-reg year? Is it possible (now) to do the WHOLE pre-reg in industry?

(2) How many schools of pharmacy are there in the UK?

(3)The article states: some 50 to 100 UK graduates fail for the third and final time the registration assessment. What happens to these graduates? Are they eligible to take the assessment again the following year?

(4) What percentage of registrants go back to their home countries?
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Dawn Connelly11 DEC 2020 14:46
Glad you enjoyed the article Praful. I can answer some of your questions:
1) You can split the preregistration year but 26 weeks must be spent in a patient-facing role, so you can't do the whole year in industry.
2) There are currently 32 schools of pharmacy in the UK.
3) No, if a student fails the registration assessment three times they are not permitted to take it again.
4) I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to this one.

Thanks for your interest.
Best wishes,
Dawn (features editor)
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Praful15 DEC 2020 17:27
Dawn Connelly, thank you for answering my questions. Take care.
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