|
Hello Osman,
I'm an independent locum, so I organise my work all by myself with contacts I've already established back home. This is the reason I have to start so early. I do use locum agencies some, but have more than enough contacts that I'm lucky not to need to resort to them too often.
I used to work in a PCT in south London for a time there and you guys have it soooooo very easy out there! It might be a 'culture' shock for you when you come over here though and find out that the mimimum full-time work week starts at 40hrs, with no set hours as both hospitals (always) and retail (not all stores) need to be manned 24 hours!
I myself as an intern am doing on average of 80hrs/week - but of course this is my choice as I have a real aversion to being an 'intern' having been a pharmacist, and want to finish my hours as fast as I possibly can! I started in mid-March and am on course to finish up my hours by late July and am hoping to sit the NAPLEX late August. This is where this land of opportunity becomes so attractive as my state, Ohio, has no limits on the max number of hours an intern can do per week (some other states do, so choose carefully) and I can pretty much work any hours during the day and night I want as they are so desparate for help out here. I don't have a 'life' right now but it suits me well as there isn't much to do out here anyways! Until my goals are met, I don't mind either and it beats watching cable on my own in the nights and feeling so very lonesome and longing for home, when I can go into work and meet up with friendly faces and exchange some banter with colleagues (the pace gets somewhat easier at night time than during the day in some places) and I get to clock up my hours! These are also times when most my colleagues are also less pressed for time and are able to teach and show me things too. It's not for everyone, but it works for me for now.
As for vacation time, I've been able to negotiate upto 6 weeks off (unfortunately though, not all of it at any one time) and in retail I can take off 2 weeks max (but I will choose to 'float' - this is what they call locums here - so I can pretty much take off anytime I want).
One last thing I wanted to mention is that in hospital the trend is moving towards getting the PharmDs to do 'clinical' (de-centralised) jobs and all the RPhs to do the 'staffing' (centralised) positions. So, if you still want to keep on the clinical side of things as in the UK, you must either find a hospital pharmacy which does not have a separation between centralised and de-centralised pharmacists or go in for some training or getting a non-traditional PharmD. It's very rarely that you can mix the two but I do know of places, at least here in Ohio, that do it like in the UK and everyone gets to do both.
Well this is it for now....good luck with all your visa efforts and keep us posted on how you get on.
Best wishes and kind regards
|