by Navinder Singh MRPharmS, Newly Qualified Pharmacist
A challenging year
After a long and challenging year, I passed my registration assessment to become a fully-registered pharmacist; all of the sleepless nights, countless hours of revision and placements had finally paid off! As a newly qualified pharmacist, I quickly discovered that my study as a pre-registration and provisionally registered pharmacist was only the start of my learning and that there were many opportunities and fields of work to get involved in.
It can be very easy to become overwhelmed with the volume of work and information available; which is why I chose to upgrade my RPS membership to become a full member of the Society.
Improving competence, growing in confidence
In my experience, RPS membership grants access to a multitude of well-written, up-to-date resources and activities that you can incorporate into your normal practice as a pharmacy professional. This helped improve my competence in a variety of areas and in turn, my confidence. One of my personal favourites is the RPS e-Library. This resource provides fast and reliable 24-hour access to a large collection of popular pharmacy textbooks that you can use to enhance the care you provide to patients.
In addition to this, the RPS has recently started a new programme of webinars which allows members to join live sessions from anywhere or watch replays online later. The topics discussed cover a wide range of useful categories, including:
· Clinical updates and CPD
· Safer use of medicines
· Careers advice
· Science & Technology
From my experience, I've felt that this resource provides a fresh, new perspective to learning as it provides you the opportunity to actively listen and learn about popular clinical topics and new pharmacy services from an array of experienced professionals – a perfect way to give my eyes a rest from work!
You're all likely to agree that the pharmacy world is rapidly evolving, with new treatments and changes to clinical guidance being released regularly so it can be hard to keep up-to-date with everything. The Pharmaceutical Journal is a concise, reliable source of news adapted for pharmacy professionals and I have found it (together with The Pharmaceutical Journal Podcasts) to be a fantastic aid to help me stay in the informed of the changes to the pharmacy profession – also included with RPS membership!
A network of talented pharmacists to learn from
The RPS mentoring programme is another useful resource as a newly qualified member; I've been able to use this resource to network with several, very talented pharmacists and gain advice on how to achieve my future goals. This facility provides you a reliable line of communication to engage in structured conversation and makes career progression a whole lot easier – especially if (like me) you are the first in your family to have attended university.
Overall, many experienced pharmacists have advised me that though the first few years as a registered pharmacist can be challenging, they can often also be the most rewarding in both experience and learning. For this reason, I'd highly recommend that all newly-qualified pharmacists take up membership with the RPS – even better, membership for newly qualified pharmacists is available now for half-price all the way until February 2023!