By becoming a pharmacist, you can work at any stage of the development, manufacturing and marketing of medicines. Mostly, such specialists are employed in pharmacies, where they not only sell, but also help in selecting medications. Many graduates of pharmaceutical colleges and universities become medical representatives of pharmaceutical companies or work in drug production plants in quality control departments. Another area of activity may be work in research institutes and control and testing laboratories, as well as in pharmaceutical educational institutions.
If you decide to study to become a pharmaceutical industry specialist, then you need to know that you can become a pharmacist by graduating from college or college. But in order to obtain a pharmacist diploma, you will have to graduate from a higher educational institution. The difference is that a pharmacist has the right immediately after graduating from university to occupy leadership positions, for example, to be the head of a pharmacy. A pharmacist will be able to carry out independent pharmaceutical work, including managing a pharmacy, only if he has more than 3 years of work experience.
If you are interested in the profession of a pharmacist, you will be interested to know that today in Moscow, training in the specialty “Pharmacy” is provided by several colleges and universities. Let's consider the learning conditions in each of them.
is a unique college in Moscow specializing in the professional training of pharmacists. Here students are trained in the specialty “Pharmacy” (state diploma) on a part-time basis for a period of 3 years 10 months. The cost is fixed for the full period of study 2016-2020, which protects applicants from unreasonable annual price increases. In addition, the cost of training compares favorably with other colleges and is 49,000 rubles per year. There are 300 places available for admission to this specialty, which is significantly higher than in similar educational institutions in the capital. The college accepts applicants of any age who want to acquire a new profession and have at least a basic general education. There are no entrance exams. The college accepts documents from June 15.
In addition, the college cooperates with the educational project “New Personnel. Pharmacy". Within the framework of this project, you can undergo training through an educational project without the mandatory “working out” of your education and have the opportunity to get a job in your specialty under a priority scheme. A significant advantage of the college is a flexible training schedule, allowing you to work and study at the same time.
It also offers to obtain a diploma in the specialty “Pharmacy”. Moscow State Educational Complex in Tushino, accepting documents from graduates of 9th and 11th grades. According to the admission plan for 2016/2017, there are 50 places (full-time) after 9 grades and 25 for part-time. For those who have completed 11 grades, 25 places are allocated for full-time education, and 150 for part-time and part-time courses. According to information from the admissions committee, the cost of full-time education in 2016/2017. will be 140,000 rubles, and full-time and part-time costs 70,000 rubles per academic year.
You can get training in the specialty “Pharmacy” in Moscow Regional Medical College No. 2 (Lyubertsy branch). The cost of training is 115,000 rubles per academic year. As part of the admission process, 50 places are allocated after 9th grade. (full-time), as well as 25 places after 11th grade. (in person and part-time). Entrance tests are not provided for in accordance with current legislation; only an interview with an educational psychologist is recommended. Applications to the college are accepted until August 15, 2016.
You can get a specialized higher education in the specialty “Pharmacy” with the qualification of a pharmacist at a number of universities in Moscow. For example, in Medical Academy named after. Sechenov or at Faculty of Medical University named after. Pirogov.
For example, at the Faculty of Pharmacy State Humanitarian and Technological University (GGTU) the direction of preparation of higher education is being implemented - “Pharmacy” (FSES), the duration of study is 5 years (full-time). In total, the university is ready to accept 23 people. Entrance tests vary depending on the level of education of applicants. For secondary general education - this is the Unified State Exam in chemistry, biology and the Russian language, for vocational education - oral exams in chemistry and biology, a written test in the Russian language (exams are listed in priority order). At the same time, the cost of full-time education is 51,000 rubles. for 15/16 academic year year. Admission rules and deadlines for submitting documents are standard for all universities; their detailed description can be found on the website. The faculty's educational buildings are located in the town of Orekhovo-Zuevo near Moscow.
It must be borne in mind that upon admission to any educational institution, it is mandatory to provide a medical certificate, since many common diseases can be the reason for refusal of enrollment.
Today, according to the Russian Ministry of Health, only 40% of specialists employed in the industry have specialized education, and with the growing demand of the pharmaceutical industry, the shortage of qualified personnel is growing. For 2016, the rating of the profession based on the criteria of “demand” and “prospects” is estimated at 85% and 80%, respectively. Therefore, every year there are more and more educational institutions that are ready to professionally train highly qualified specialists, and the professions of pharmacist and pharmacist are included in the list of the most popular specialties in the Russian Federation.
Pharmacist(from Latin provisor - one who takes care of, prepares in advance, Greek pharmakeutes - one who prepares medicines.) is a highly qualified pharmacist who has the right to independent pharmaceutical work (manufacture of medicines) and to manage a pharmacy. The profession is suitable for those who are interested in chemistry and biology (see choosing a profession based on interest in school subjects).
The title of pharmacist corresponds to the level of qualification of a doctor.
A pharmacist who has graduated from college or technical school (secondary vocational education) can work assistant pharmacist: prepare some forms of medicines, dispense medicines and manage a pharmacy in the absence of a specialist with higher education.
Features of the profession
The most common name for a pharmacist or his assistant is a pharmacist. However, pharmacy does not cover all the diversity of this profession.
Pharmacy is a complex of scientific and practical disciplines involved in the development of medicines, the search for natural sources of medicinal substances, research of these substances, issues of storage, manufacturing, dispensing and marketing.
Pharmacy relies on data from pharmacology - a medical and biological science that studies medicinal substances and their effect on the body.
The pharmacist must have a higher pharmaceutical education, as well as a certificate in one of the specializations:
- management and economics of pharmacy;
- pharmaceutical technology and pharmaceutical chemistry;
- pharmacognosy (pharmaceutical science of medicines obtained from medicinal plant and animal raw materials).
A graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy who does not have a certificate can practice pharmacy only under the supervision of qualified pharmacists.
To obtain a certificate, training in postgraduate professional education programs and internship are required.
The organization of wholesale trade in medicines and control of the work of pharmacies is carried out by a pharmacist specializing in management and economics.
He can also use chemical analysis to check the quality of certain medications and raw materials received at a pharmacy or pharmaceutical warehouse. A pharmacist specializing in technology and chemistry can independently produce medications. He is guided by the prescription that the doctor wrote out to the patient: he takes the required amount of medications and auxiliary substances specified in the prescription, crushes the components or dissolves them in water (or alcohol), mixes them, and combines them with a base (for example, ointment). The finished medicine is packaged into individual doses, documents and labels are prepared.
Pharmacognosticists are engaged in the organization and analysis of medicinal plants and animal raw materials (for example, snake and bee venom, placenta, etc.).
Pharmacy is different from pharmaceuticals. How?
Pharmaceuticals is an applied discipline dedicated to the production and technological process. In other words, this is the industrial direction of pharmacy. The traditional method of pharmacy is the manual preparation of medicines (in a pharmacy or laboratory at a medical institution). Pharmaceuticals are their mass (industrial) production.
A person's personal skill in mass production is not as important as in manual work. The industry uses the most unified technologies.
If you examine the contents of two ampoules of the same medicine, but produced in a factory in different months or even years, you can be sure that they are no different from each other. The point is the invariability of the technological process.
Workplace
Pharmacists work in pharmacies and research institutes (development of new drugs), in pharmaceutical factories, in procurement departments of factories (collection and processing of medicinal plants), in pharmaceutical warehouses and in analytical laboratories of regulatory authorities. And also in organizations involved in the wholesale sale of medical drugs.
Possible positions: pharmacist of a pharmacy or pharmaceutical warehouse, researcher, developer, organizer of raw materials procurement, quality analyst of drugs and raw materials, licensing and certification specialist, sales manager, marketing specialist for the medicine market, etc.
Pharmacist salary
Salary as of 03/28/2019
Russia 30000—70000 ₽
Moscow 43000—95000 ₽
Training to become a Pharmacist (pharmacist)
The Medical University of Innovation and Development (MUIR) provides services for professional retraining and advanced training (certification cycle) on the basis of higher or secondary medical education in the format of part-time education using distance learning technologies. Course graduates are issued certificates, diplomas and certificates.
Important qualities
When creating medicines, you need a good memory, objective thinking, a high level of concentration, and a developed sense of responsibility. And the development of new drugs requires a penchant for research work.
If a pharmacist works on the sales floor of a pharmacy, he has to communicate with customers. This requires patience, goodwill, and a culture of communication.
Knowledge and skills
The pharmacist must know the physical and chemical properties of medications, preparation technologies, and storage rules. He must be free to navigate their types and groups, composition, rules of use, dosage. Have a good understanding of raw materials.
Knowledge of Latin is required.
When working in the medicinal industry, it is necessary to have knowledge of modern pharmaceutical equipment, the principles of operation of “clean zones”, international GMP standards and the basics of biotechnological production.
To organize the pharmacy business, production, and wholesale trade of medicines, it is not necessary to know the technological process in all its intricacies, but it is absolutely necessary to know the market conditions for medical products, have knowledge of marketing, understand the legal laws governing the trade and production of drugs, and be able to draw up contracts and agreements. When working with foreign partners, knowledge of a foreign language is required.
Details
Training as a pharmacist can take several forms: full-time and part-time. Each of them has its own pros and cons.
You can get a pharmacist education through correspondence at a college or higher education institution. Let's find out what education to prefer and where you can study to become a pharmacist by correspondence.
Part-time education for a pharmacist
A pharmacist may already have a secondary specialized education, or anyone who already has a job but wants to continue their education can enroll in the correspondence department. The essence of such an educational program is as follows: the student attends classes in his free time, i.e. If the work schedule is shifting, then this is quite possible to implement. A synonym is evening education. This is how it differs from completely correspondence training for pharmacists, when students appear at the faculty only during the test week and session, while at work they receive paid study leave.
This type of educational activity has its advantages:
- you can combine study with work, earn your work experience and earn a living (this is especially true for those who have no relatives, or who have low-income families and are not able to help the student);
- there is no need to attend all lectures and practical classes; the student chooses his own time for studying. The fact that working students will be treated leniently during tests or sessions is still a big question, it all depends on the specific teacher (for some, even the obvious pregnancy of a student is not a reason not to fail her exam if she does not know the material on the subject);
- the level of expenses during training is reduced, while the student is quite capable of paying for his studies;
- By studying and working, you can try out all the knowledge you acquire in practice, thus gaining invaluable experience that cannot be obtained when you study only theory.
What are the disadvantages of distance learning for pharmacists?
Don't think only about the positives. There are also disadvantages to distance learning for pharmacists:
- A smaller volume of material studied entails a smaller amount of knowledge, and accordingly it will not be as deep and complete as with full-time education. And if the student does not work in his specialty, then the level of knowledge obtained may generally be superficial;
- not all employers accept a distance learning diploma; as a rule, preference is given to a full-time educational program;
- Training is always carried out on a commercial basis, with the exception of part-time and part-time training.
In the specialty of pharmacist, part-time study will be preferable for those who already have a diploma of secondary specialized education.
Where do they study to become pharmacists by correspondence?
Moscow provides correspondence training for pharmacists at several higher educational institutions, as well as secondary specialized ones.
If you want to gain skills in this specialty quickly and painlessly, then you can go to a pharmacy college. They are accepted there after finishing the ninth or eleventh grade; part-time or part-time study is possible. After graduating from college, the student receives a certificate as a pharmacist and can easily get a job in a pharmacy.
Where else do you study to become a pharmacist by correspondence? Of course, in a higher educational institution, where you can enter either after the eleventh grade or after graduating from a pharmaceutical college. Higher pharmaceutical education is provided by chemical-pharmaceutical academies or pharmaceutical faculties of medical institutes or universities. After graduation, you can obtain a specialty as a pharmacist, which opens up broader prospects in terms of work.
Studying to become a pharmacist by correspondence takes longer than full-time education, but not by much. If we talk about a university, it will be 5.5 years, instead of five for full-time study.
To enroll in a full-time or part-time program, you also need to pass entrance exams (Russian language, chemistry, biology, and in some institutes, physics). The package of documents provided to the admissions committee must include a school certificate, a compulsory health insurance policy, a certificate from the clinic about the possibility of undergoing training, a passport, photographs, and a certificate from the place of work. Entrance tests begin in July, after the end of school exams. And enrollment in the faculty takes place in the second half of August, when everyone who wants to will have already passed the entrance exams.
Currently, distance education is not something bad or of poor quality. But unlike full-time education, when daily classes, lectures and seminars discipline the student, with correspondence education self-discipline must be well developed. So that when you come home after work, you have enough willpower to sit down with your textbooks, and not study them on the last night before a test or exam. But not everyone can do this, unfortunately.
Over the past few years, experts have noted in our country an increase in the interest of applicants in obtaining higher pharmaceutical education and education in the field of medicine. According to statistics published on the website of the Ministry of Health, in 2010 the number of people wishing to study at Russian medical universities increased by 33.5% compared to the previous enrollment. A year later, the Ministry of Health recorded another 21 percent jump. During the 2013 admissions campaign, officials again reported an increase in the number of applications submitted (this time by 10%).
These figures allow us to talk about the emergence of a new trend in Russia, which, on the one hand, is associated with the maturation of society, the growing level of social responsibility, and on the other hand, with quite decent salaries, which the commercial sector of the pharmaceutical industry and medicine promises graduates, as well as with the prospects of the profession (which, for example, is included in the list of “professions of the future” compiled by American journalists). The question arises, where can one obtain high-quality pharmaceutical education?
Where can a future pharmacist get a higher education?
Those who decide to take this noble path have plenty to choose from: in Russia there are more than 50 medical universities, many of which have long since opened faculties of pharmacy, as well as two independent specialized academies — in St. Petersburg and Perm. The third specialized university — Pyatigorsk State Pharmaceutical Academy — became a branch of Volgograd State Medical University in 2012. But where in Russia do they provide the best pharmaceutical education and how to get it?At first glance, it seems that answering this question is not very difficult: the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health should probably have this kind of information. And the Internet should not be discounted: a couple of authoritative ratings have definitely been published there. But in reality, everything turned out to be not so simple.
Probably, no one who has tried to understand the issue will be surprised by the complete absence of our medical and pharmaceutical universities in the authoritative international top 100, -200 or -500. Here, even classical universities with a century-old history feel very uncomfortable: this year Moscow State University named after. Lomonosov entered two international rankings, but in none of them did it rise above 49th place.
There are other difficulties within the country. Let's start with the fact that official rankings of Russian universities, prepared with the participation of specialists from the Ministry of Education (and in our case, the Ministry of Health), have not been published since the mid-2000s. So, in response to my questions, the press secretaries of these departments just shrugged their shoulders.
In recent years, the place of ratings in the structure of state assessment of the quality of higher education has been taken by the so-called effectiveness monitoring. “But let me emphasize, these are university monitoring data, and not ratings based on any criteria,” the press service of the Ministry of Education warned me, leaving no doubt: this is a completely different story. Nevertheless, some monitoring information turned out to be quite interesting.
However, first, let’s look at the ratings that we managed to find on the Internet—the fruits of the work of various independent expert groups. True, this information cannot completely satisfy us: almost none of the authors of such studies focused on medical and pharmaceutical universities.
List of Russian universities with pharmaceutical faculties
Perhaps the most extensive top Russian universities are regularly compiled by the Expert rating agency. In 2013, 19 universities with pharmacy faculties were included in the top hundred, according to his version, of higher schools, almost half (9) of which are non-specialized medical alma maters (see Table 1).
The first lines of the top, as expected, were occupied by famous classical universities. Among specialized educational institutions, Muscovites are also in the lead, but the regions are literally breathing in the capital’s back: Siberian (Tomsk) and Kazan State Medical Universities are among the 50 best universities in the country.
There is not a single rating available to the average user on the Internet that reflects the balance of power specifically in the field of Russian pharmaceutical education. Therefore, we will talk about independent assessments relating to the university as a whole, which means we need to remember a certain amount of conditionality.
Vox populi
Another noteworthy rating, compiled annually by the Vseved portal, paints a much more motley picture—this resource is dedicated to the development of higher education. It reflects the view of education of those who directly receive it. This is a student ranking of universities, which, based on the results of last year’s survey, included just under 500 universities. In addition to this extensive summary top, the portal’s experts compiled ratings for each educational sector, including medicine. We present this ranking excluding universities without pharmaceutical faculties (see Table 2).
The place in the ranking is determined by the average score that students give to their university during an anonymous survey. Criteria such as the quality of the curriculum, the degree of workload balance, the level of the teaching staff, attendance control, the quality of the material and technical base, the level of corruption, etc. are assessed. As can be seen from the distribution of places, the principle of metropolitan orientation of ratings does not work here — reputable medical universities St. Petersburg and Moscow are by no means top leaders. However, by visiting the portal, you can be convinced that every university mentioned has received its share of criticism.
List of the best universities with pharmaceutical faculties according to students
Following in the footsteps of the Higher School of Economics
Students judge universities, and universities judge students even more so. Each university is given the right to decide which of the admissions committees knocking on the doorsteps is worthy of entry into the temple of science. In recent years, the ticket there has been the Unified State Examination results. And if so, they can also become the basis for compiling a rating that indicates the pretentiousness of educational institutions in relation to the level of preparation of the future student.
The staff of the Higher School of Economics is also guided by this logic; since 2010, they have been compiling their own rating of the quality of budget-funded admission to state universities, based on the average Unified State Exam score of newly graduated first-year students (by default, it is believed that the best of the best get into the budget). This “university average temperature” includes the scores of those admitted through competition, out of competition, and into target places. The picture that emerged in 2013 (again, excluding universities that are not of interest to us) is in Table 3.
List of universities with pharmaceutical faculties and Unified State Exam scores
Flight of scientific thought
In 2010, the same team from HSE, in addition to the Unified State Examination ranking, conducted another interesting comparative study of universities. Experts ranked the top universities based on the level of scientific and publishing activity of their employees. In total, the sample included 474 Russian institutes. They haven’t forgotten about the medical cluster here either. HSE staff assessed the publication activity of the university's scientific and teaching staff, participation in grants from major Russian grantors, the average number of citations per article in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) database, and the university's publishing activities.
As you can see, scientific thought in the medical cluster is by no means concentrated within the Moscow Ring Road. There are few capital universities in the ranking, but the rest of Russia is represented quite evenly: the first positions in the HSE top are taken by universities from almost all federal districts of our country. What is good news is that high scientific activity often goes hand in hand with the same high quality of teaching.
List of pharmaceutical universities in Russia with the highest scientific activity
The first monitoring of universities took place in our country in 2012. The main goal of this procedure is constant state control over the progress of the educational process in order to increase its efficiency. To do this, Russian universities must provide their data in several areas of assessment, such as the average Unified State Examination score of admitted applicants, the university’s income and its expenses on research and development work per one teaching employee, the share of foreign students, the total area of educational scientific premises and infrastructure per student, employment of graduates, as well as about 50 more indicators for assessing branches and specific (military, medical, creative, etc.) universities.
For a university to be considered effective, it must show good results in at least three of the six basic criteria. Conclusions about this based on the results of the analysis of indicators are made by working groups created in each region. The final decision on the fate of a university with signs of inefficiency (its reorganization, optimization) is made by an interdepartmental commission with the participation of the Ministry of Education and other interested parties.
Since its inception, monitoring has generated lively debate in educational circles. Many accuse the system of insufficient representativeness of indicators, subjectivity of assessments and blurring of the very concept of “efficiency”. Nevertheless, last year Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that work in this direction would continue.
If you decide to study to become a pharmaceutical industry specialist, then you need to know that you can become a pharmacist by graduating from college or college. But in order to obtain a pharmacist diploma, you will have to graduate from a higher educational institution. The difference is that a pharmacist has the right immediately after graduating from university to occupy leadership positions, for example, to be the head of a pharmacy. A pharmacist will be able to carry out independent pharmaceutical work, including managing a pharmacy, only if he has more than 3 years of work experience.
Currently, in Moscow, training in the specialty “Pharmacy” is provided by one college and several universities. We have prepared an overview of the conditions for admission to each of them in 2016.
The Moscow State Educational Complex offers to obtain a diploma in the specialty “Pharmacy”, accepting documents from graduates of the 9th and 11th grades. The educational complex has the opportunity to undergo training for a period of 1 year on a part-time basis (if you already have a medical education, the educational complex re-reads most of the subjects). Upon completion of training, graduates receive a state diploma of secondary vocational education and a specialist certificate. Tuition fees in 2016/2017 will be 70,000 rubles per year for those who submit an application before June 1. For others, the cost will be increased to 100,000 rubles per year.
A number of Moscow universities also offer training in pharmaceutical fields. For example, there is a Faculty of Pharmacy. Currently, it trains specialists in higher education programs in the following areas: Pharmacy, Biotechnology, Medical Biological Physics, Medical Biological Chemistry, Bioengineering and Bioinformatics. The admission plan for the specialty “Pharmacy” is 200 people for full-time study for a period of 5 years. Graduates are awarded the qualification “Pharmacist”. The cost of training for the first year is 210,000 rubles.
In the field of Pharmacy, 15 budget and 120 paid places are provided. Full-time education takes 5 years. The annual payment is 179,200 rubles for the 2016/2017 academic year. In 2016, documents will be submitted electronically.
If you decide to go to study to become a pharmacist, you need to know: when entering the specialty “Pharmacy”, applicants undergo mandatory preliminary medical examinations (examinations).
School life is full of interesting events. This is not only the educational process, but also events, exhibitions, and excursion tours. But none of them is complete without a transport component; even a daily trip to an educational institution requires a car.
November 07, 2018