The Life And Time Of A Day Of A Pharmacy Student In Nigerian University

Gaining admission to study pharmacy in the university is one thing, graduating is another. Both task are not friendly at all. For some of us, we never knew what we were venturing into.
It was like every other course. In-fact, I can say it was a gradual process that eventually turned out to be a monster. The whole tempo changed in year two.

Pharmacy have a lot to play in the life of the citizens of any country. That is the main reason they have to know every bits and details of the profession. This is to prevent damages to citizens. According to a popular saying ‘while a medical doctor can kill one patient at a time in the case of medical error, a pharmacist on the under hand can wipe out a generation in case of mistake’ especially during drug production.

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To avoid all that, the profession have to step up the game to encompass all details in the curriculum. This is covered in a space of 5-6 years divided into two semester per year that spam a period of 4 months each.

What Pharmacy Students Do On A Day

Pharmacy student reading

A typical day in the life of a pharmacy student are similar from one school to the other. This is because the curriculum is same everywhere within the shores of Nigeria. So let us look at what those guys pass through on a day-to-day basic. We shall start the day of a pharmacy student from 06:00 A.M. of any day of the week. Remember, most students have received lectures on Sundays and Saturdays including late night classes a late as 08:00 P.M. before graduating.

The students wakes up as early as 06:00 A.M. just to get set for the professor class by 08:00 A.M. The time for waking up may be earlier especially for girls that need extra time for makeup. In addition, most lectures start by 08:00 A.M in the morning.

He rushes down to the park to catch the next available bus to campus (I stayed off-campus). This may take up to 15 minutes off his time. Fortunately, he was able to get to class before the professor came in.

Morning Lecture

Pharmacy student receiving lecture

He takes his seat besides his course mate who may be less than 15 in the class when the professor will come. The door is shot. All late comers can kindly wait outside for the next class. Phew!

The prof. lectures for two hours which is his schedule time in the supposed time table. He pleads with the next lecturer coming for an additional 30 minutes. He leaves by 10:30 A.M. Now the other students troop in like bees coming to their honeycomb. Lol.

The next lecturer starts his lecture and go on and on until other students start falling asleep. He ask ‘are you tired?’ and the reply is always ‘yes!’ The next thing is ‘am also tired, but we must continue.’ Immediately he leaves, it is time to go to the next lecture, which may be pharmacology, which is some block away.

Afternoon Lecture

Tired and hungry looking pharmacist to be moves sluggishly to the next lecture venue of the next lecture. As the lecture gets to a close by 02:00 P.M., everyone comes back to the faculty for one meeting or the other as lectures may have ended for the day. However, it is possible that an adjunct lecturer will just be on the way coming to take an evening class with us.

In addition, sometimes schedule can change and conflict arises in which schedule must be adjusted to work around or accommodate the change.

The afternoon break in the timetable is one of the big joke of pharmacy school. It is there but never exist.

Since practical classes are in the afternoons, the next place to head to is the laboratory. Luckily, for many of us, the practical classes is divided in to groups, which makes it possible for those whose groups are not doing the practical that day to go home. However, those who have been scheduled for the practical class must attend. The practical can last up to 2-3 hours closing around 04:00 P.M.

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Pharmacy students most time gets home around 05:00 P.M. it is time to prepare an afternoon meal after which he checks what the professor as thrown at him. This can last for hours. Evenings are usually shared mostly between reading and having some few hours of fun with neighbors and friends. Shopping in the evening is usually short live.

Sleeping may start around 10:00 P.M. That is not the end of the day for him, as he most likely will wake up in the dead of the night to finish any paper work undone. The night is divided into sleep and study.

This continues until the time ticks 06:00 A.M and the circle starts all over again.

As you all have seen, the life of a pharmacy student is not an easy one. Mondays are worst while other weekdays follow similar routine. Days without laboratory practical can be fun, a little bit. However, every day comes with its own challenges. Nevertheless, it is all worth it at the end.

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