An insight to internship

Early career pharmacist and past Guild intern, Katarina Crouch, shares her tips to survive the challenges and highlights of a pharmacy internship.

I’m not going to lie, intern year is tough.

Friends, family, study, full-time work, assignments, exams and all the new responsibilities that come along with being an intern can all be challenging.

The skills that university provided, gave me a solid foundation to manage the pressures of the intern year.

However, as a hands on learner, I definitely felt like I learnt more ‘on the job’ than I did during university.

The intern year is a steep learning curve and you really do need the strong foundation of university experience and a supportive intern program.

But trust me — it is worth it in the end.

I recommend that new interns approach their intern year with an open mind, and be available for any opportunity that may arise. For me, those opportunities came thick and fast.

I was a guest speaker for a local Parkinson’s support group, ran the flu program at my pharmacy, transferred my Webster patients into a new program and was also on the national advisory committee for the Guild Intern Training Program.

I would never have thought I would be involved in these aspects of pharmacy especially not during my intern year. I enjoyed every second of these experiences.

This lead me to be nominated for ‘Guild intern of the Year’ and subsequently coming runner up to Tim Stewart. I feel proud to be named among such talented and like-minded individuals.

One of the challenging aspects of my internship was balancing work, study and life. This was especially hard around my oral exam.

This was a key area of focus for me, as I had struggled with speeches and other oral exams whilst at university.

My approach to overcome this was to ensure I knew the content well enough so that even if I did get nervous, I would be able to remember the answers.

I used every counselling session and ‘Medscheck’ available to run through my clinical and counselling skills to prepare me for the oral exam.

The Guild Intern Program also provides a lot of support and practice modules to assist with both exams.

Tips to survive the intern year

1. IMMERSE YOURSELF into the pharmacy world as early as you can. This helps you learn faster. In my intern cohort, there were some students who had never worked in a pharmacy and they really struggled as an intern because they didn’t have the ‘real world’ pharmacy experience.
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2. While at university, GET INVOLVED in your pharmacy student association. This helps you develop more of a passion for your career as you are surrounded by like-minded people — and it’s great for networking. The more passionate you are the better pharmacist you become.
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3. ATTEND as many NAPSA congresses as possible. It’s so much fun! You get to meet great people and it’s great for discovering job opportunities.
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4. KNOW HOW YOU STUDY, so you can study smarter, not harder. With so much on your plate you need to know how to make the most of your study time, so you can still go out and enjoy life.
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5. PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE. Even if your preceptor can’t help you, look for other staff members, family of friends just to run through cases with you. I used a few nursing and medicine students to help me prepare for my exams.
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6. ENJOY your intern year, don’t always lock yourself away and study. Intern year is about developing your skills as a pharmacist and as a person. The better you connect with people the more of a positive impact you have with your patients.

I believe my intern year and my experience with community pharmacy so far has made me a better communicator and educator which I can use in all aspects of my life.

I am extremely thankful for everything I have achieved in my intern year and I look forward to the future and where it may take the community pharmacy industry.