The ultimate reward is that I am helping to improve the quality of patients’ lives. It doesn’t get much better than that.”A degree in pharmacy not only equips people to be pharmacists, but opens the door to a career in pharmacology, biochemistry, forensic science, drug discovery, toxicology and many other scientific disciplines. Consultant pharmacist Mark Tomlin says the attitude of other heath professionals towards hospital pharmacists has completely changed. We have 1,400 outlets ranging from very small community health centres to huge department stores employing hundreds of people, so you can be a big cog in a small wheel, or vice versa.”The role of hospital pharmacists has also evolved. “In the past you reached a ceiling in clinical pharmacy quite low down and you had to go into management. But the new consultant pharmacists are at the top of the clinical tree,” says David Pruce.Hospital pharmacists regularly engage with patients on the wards. Peter Gibson began his career with Boots as a pharmacist in the 1970s and is now the head of UK and EU public affairs.

He says: “Pharmacists are ideally equipped to become good managers because they manage healthcare and teams of staff within a pharmacy Communications skills are hugely important If you can prove you have ability, you can get to the top. Pharmacists have much more responsibility now than they used to. This is a great time to become a pharmacist if you want to be at the forefront of a changing health service,” says Hulme.Boots is another company that has created new career pathways for pharmacists. “We are always trying to attract the right pharmacists to our business. He started out as a branch manager, then became an area manager, regional manager and Director of Operations before becoming HR director two years ago.The company is constantly looking for new blood. We are providing a better service, we communicate with patients, we are now frontline healthcare providers It is no longer about putting pills in bottles.

Pharmacists have to give quality advice and it’s my job to provide skills and knowledge training.”Mr Hulme has enjoyed steady career progression in Alliance Pharmacy, the retail division of Alliance UniChem, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the UK. Employers want permanent staff as top-flight personal and executive assistants. Lastly, there is salary.Even a senior secretary is unlikely to earn more than £17 per hour in London, while team secretaries could earn £14. If money is important , it pays to choose an employment sector carefully Financial companies offer the highest salaries..

For anyone with a combined interest in health, business and management, community pharmacy is the ultimate career. But with few pharmacy degrees traditionally offering any in-depth business training, where do pharmacists learn how to run their own stores?

Barry Shooter, whose chain of five pharmacies was voted as the fourth best small company to work for in a recent poll, says the amount of business training on his degree back in 1969 was negligible. “I gained my business skills from family influence, from observing other pharmacies as a customer, from critically evaluating my own bosses during my pre-registration period, and from trial and error when I decided to head up my own business.”

While he insists all these methods are still valuable, he says that today’s pharmacists have access to a far greater range of opportunities. “In 1992, many years after I’d started running my own pharmacies, I decided to do a Masters in health management Others do MBAs. This kind of postgraduate business training has much to offer and has become a popular option for community pharmacists,” he says.He adds that there are a growing number of workshops, correspondence courses and classroom-based courses on the entrepreneurial side of pharmacy.

“If you look around, they are there, but you have to seek them out rather than expect them to be presented to you,” he says.The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is one such skills provider. Offering road shows, seminars and individual telephone support for members, the organisation also provides a range of written resources on issues such as “How to write a business plan” and “Negotiating skills.” Meanwhile, the Pharmaceutical Press has recently published a substantial book on the subject, entitled Pharmacy Business Management, by Steven Kayne.The best news for today’s trainees, says Shooter, is that schools of pharmacy are finally beginning to recognise the need to provide skills in areas such as accounting procedures, staff recruitment and training, marketing and business expansion. “This year we have seen the biggest upheaval since I became a pharmacist. The revolution sweeping through pharmacy is turning it into a more challenging profession, according to David Pruce, Director of Practice and Quality Improvement at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain “There are so many new opportunities,” he says. Now community pharmacists will liaise with GPs in overseeing patients’ use of medicines, and provide clinics on smoking cessation, obesity or minor ailments.Simon Hulme, HR Director of Alliance Pharmacy (previously Moss) says after a lot of talk about change within pharmacy, change has finally come. Pharmacy has become such a diverse career.”

Under the new community pharmacy contract, rolled out in April this year, pharmacists will be paid according to the quality of their services, not the number of prescriptions they dispense.

The idea is to encourage them to put their clinical skills to better use. “You can apply all your skills in the community, work at the cutting edge of new developments in industry, or become an expert clinical pharmacist in a hospital.