@Farmer_C

what is the landscape of community pharmacy currently in the eastern states (including full time position as a pharmacist)?

warehouse pharmacies are driving independents out of business - affecting the margins. it is happening everywhere but would you say that the competition is worse in the eastern states?

what is the starting pay over in eastern states assuming you managed to secure a full-time position as a pharmacist (newly grad)?

it is true a bpharm brings a lot of opportunities other than the conventional dispensing role eg. working for a pharmaceutical company, involve in creating government health policies, consultant pharmacist, but realistically, most graduates end up being in a hospital or community pharmacy. Thus, i dont see the point of arguing otherwise.

@prophetjul
are you thinking about doing a bpharm?

if you are working in a hospital, then dispensing rights will not be your concern anyway. no?


i guess the bigger question is - where is our profession heading as a whole?

UK are utilizing pharmacists and nurses as supplementary prescribers (supplementary prescribing) to tackle and improve patients' access to medicines but pharmacists in malaysia are suppose to be content with just being able to dispense in the hospital pharmacy? Even nurses are prescribing out there.. I believe the training pharmacists received in Malaysia is not inferior compared to other bpharm program out there.

Ultimately, dispensing right would help to push for more community pharmacists creating jobs and put to use our skills and knowledge acquired during bpharm. Hopefully we pharmacists, could focus on more on helping the patients rather than selling shampoos and toilet papers.

i find the following blog post to be very informative especially for people with little to no idea of the prospect of a bpharm in recent years.

http://pagalavan.com/2013/02/26/the-pharmacists-dilemma/







This post has been edited by jerk: Apr 8 2013, 02:05 AM

@Critical_Fallacy


to answer your question in a very simple way, bioavailability is not taken into consideration most of the time. paracetamol is dosed according to the weight. Use the concept of therapeutic window, not bioavailability.

The dosing for children (1 month to 12 years) in Australia OTC is 15 mg per kg, which can be given every four to six hours as required, with no more than four doses in 24 hours. In hospital settings, 90mg/kg ddd over 24 hours under supervision could be used.

Some would argue that a child is less susceptible to acute paracetamol toxicity than an adult due to how it is cleared from a child body.

@Critical_Fallacy

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=...8,d.dGI&cad=rja

@Adeline.70

It would be incredibly hard to get PR status in australia with a pharmacy degree. pharmacy degree holder is no longer eligible for graduate visa (18 months duration) due to pharmacy is not on skilled occupation list. (they take around 6 months to process your application and that sort of 'extends' the visa to 24 months)

Currently, you would need to enroll in one of the internship programmes (NITP) with one of the providers such as PSA upon graduation to finish your internship. The provider would then sort out a visa for you and I am unsure of the duration, probably a year. Before your visa expires, you would then need to get an employer to offer you a 2 years minimum full time contract / sponsorship, and then after 2 years (the visa is up to 4 years), you could apply to convert your TR to PR.

Your intention for postgraduate over there after a local BPharm could work but there is no guarantee that you would be able to secure a sponsorship in future. You would be facing a lot of competitions especially from those foreigner completing 4 years BPharm in aus, most would have 1 to 2 years working experiences (part time) even before their internship.

Most employers would prefer not to commit and to offer sponsorship and many places only has position for internship but no full time pharmacist position beyond that.

anyone has any past year Q on forensic exam? zstan?

@lonelyy_v

it would be easier for you to decide if you manage to get some experience and exposure in a retail pharmacy. even if you do not like it, at least there is clinical and industrial next time?

4 years are very long and in the end, the initial passion might not be there anymore? thus, i dont think there is a right or wrong answer.

http://pharmacychick.com/
http://www.theredheadedpharmacist.com/
http://www.iwanttobeapharmacist.com/ <-- no longer updated (about a guy who has a lot of retail experience and in the end decided to go for bpharm/mpharm/pharmD)
http://www.theangrypharmacist.com/
http://eric-rph.blogspot.com/
http://fastfoodpharmacy.blogspot.com/

do take note that none of those are locally based.

http://world-of-fish.blogspot.com
https://alvinteo.wordpress.com/category/pharmacy/ <-- look under clerkship too
http://vkvun.blogspot.com/

i dont think physic would give you any advantage in bpharm. possibly you can consider engineering post A - level

@zstan

thank you so much for your help

@polaris91

http://www.talentcorp.com.my/our-work/init...xpert-programme

@antipodean

are you a registered pharmacist elsewhere looking to relocate back to malaysia? if so, where are you based at now?

it is hard to make a blanket statement but generally, it would be easier to secure a position in penang or kuala lumpur compared to place like bagan serai and ipoh. but even ipoh would be considered relatively easier compared to western australia?

pay in aus is dropping as well, with the pbs cut and along with the possible $1 discount on co-payment, i dont see how things are better down under.



@antipodean

you will be surprised with what could happened in a retail pharmacy in malaysia despite not having dispensing separation. it would be a good idea to relocate sooner than later if you are serious with the idea because you might lose the courage to do so in a few years time.

less wwham, less counselling and scripts are pretty much non existent in malaysia. longer working hours too - standard week of 48 hours excluding lunch dinner vs 38 hours.