Best Success Tips For Pharmacy Interns To Excel

To get an internship position as a pharmacy student is difficult. This is pushing interns into applying for companies they don't really like that does not suit their passion. At the end, they end up frustrated. I am not here to advice if it is proper to apply for just any internship center or focus on the center that meets your career need. Whatever situation you find yourself, you can learn and grow your career if you do it well. As an intern most likely without any prior experience, you may feel like the world should just open and swallow you because everything seems rotating while you stand in one place. Not to worry. We all felt that way. However, with the right approach you can get things right
 As an intern, you are  here to learn. To make the learning easy, be focus and determine. No matter where you found yourself you will have to learn from all the staffs. You can't know everything. You can't even know about client more than those who have been there. As this is your last phase to learn about the profession, do not loose sight. If you miss it, you will not be presented with any opportunity to learn again.
Read Also: All about pharmacy internship programme

Success Tips For Interns

Here are some very vital tips.

Pharmacy interns

Research

It is good to do this before application. However, due to the number of centers interns apply to, it becomes difficult. But immediately you get called for your employment, do your research about the company. Find out everything about them. This include the services they render, the number of staff and the qualifications of each staff. You can go further to find out their working schedule. From this, you can deduce if you can fit in and how to blend. If you have passion for hospital pharmacy and you get called for community pharmacy, do a mental analysis how you will cope. Without this, your first days will be difficult and which can affect you throughout the internship period.

Staff

Use your first weeks to know all the staffs. In a one man business, you must have had several interaction with the manager. It is goof because you get to know his strength and weakness. A preceptor will come to like you if he thinks you are intelligent. To do this, find out the his area of expertise and read more on it. As he brings in challenges and you offer some clue, it sends a message you are good. This especially pay off if you outsmart the other interns in this regard. Use opportunity to get details of your job description. It is best in writing. Look at the other staffs and interns about their daily tasks. Ask questions when not clear. This will expand your role as the days goes by. You should ask questions but don't ask lazy questions. Because they say it is good to always ask questions does not make all questions proper. It will sound unwise to ask questions you can get a very direct answer to on search engine or asking a question that is like ABC.

Set Goals

From the very beginning, bear in mind you got just 11 month to learn all about the profession. Set definite achievable goals. Break them into bits. You can choose to learn everything about different disease every week. Make sure you learn all you need to learn within the set time. At the end of the week, sit back and refresh your memory and see if you achieve your goal. This way you can finish learning everything within the 11 months. Take notes each day and see how the notes improve your knowledge.

Focus

Focus more on the work in that organization. If you work in a community pharmacy, focus on how to know everything about the drugs and equipment they have in stock first before reading on other drugs for more knowledge. It is easier that way. It will not benefit you or the company learning more about a drug that is not there when you have not learn about the ones in the shelve. That should be later when you have a broader knowledge about the drugs in the shelve.

Read

In pharmacy the reading never ends. Read about topics relating to the area you are doing your internship. Interns in community pharmacy will do well to read more of Emdex and BNF than reading on industrial calculations.

Humble

Be very humble to both pharmacist and non-pharmacist. The non-pharmacist like sales assistant, nurse and pharmacy technician may have worked in the place for years that some have idea of the right things to do like dosage of some common drugs and their uses. Listen to them when they politely puts some information across as that is the easiest way to learn. Hoping to learn only from the pharmacist can spell doom as they may not have all the time to explain things to you. They also know the in and out of the company which they can explain to you. It is also proper to communicate using proper titles. Be careful nothing get into your head addressing each other wrongly because the others kept their own communication link open.

Friendly

Diversify your work to include some extras you are not required to do as long as it will bring some good to the company. This will also give you an idea the reason behind certain things that is been done. Open communication link to all.

Professionalism

Practice more of what you are taught at the center and not what you know. Wait until you become a boss before showing those your knowledge. You can give suggestions as to how  to carry out some things but  never start it when it has not been approved. If there is a way of doing things in the establishment, follow through with it and not introduce your own without approval. Keep yourself busy. Keep your cell phone out of work time. Be punctual. You can stay overq time to enable you finish your assigned task. Don't take off too often. If you do, give a long time notice. Call to inform others when you are sick. Taking too frequent sick leave can be a turn off for your employer. Don't fall sick on wrong days such as days other staffs are off duty. Let your attire be reflective of the profession. And don't forget to follow office rules.
Read Also: Recent list of approve pharmacy internship centers (PDF)

Gossip And Rumor

Avoid office gossip that can get you into serious trouble especially when it involves your superior or boss. In most big organisation, the boss always have an eye in the staff not only with modern monitoring gadgets and devices but using fellow staffs to extract information from unsuspecting staffs. Always be careful with your speech. Avoid those who spread rumor. They may also spread your word around.
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