Plenty of opportunities after qualification

The professional organisation for pharmacists is the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI). All pharmacists in the State must be registered with the PSI, which also has a role in supervising the educational content of the degree course at the school of pharmacy at TCD.

To become a fully recognised member of the PSI takes five years in total, as there is a "pre-registration" year following the four-year degree course. This means that graduates must complete 12 months in practical training under the supervision of a fully qualified pharmacist. At least six months of this training must be spent in either a community or hospital pharmacy.

Community pharmacy (the local chemist) is still the most popular and probably best-known branch of pharmacy, but there are others including hospital, industry, administrative and academic.

Community pharmacists supervise the compounding and dispensing of prescriptions and provide advice to the public on the safe and proper use of medicines and general health matters. Their job holds a great degree of responsibility, as they are often the final link and the first port of call, between the public and the medical professions.

Hospital pharmacists are involved in the dispensing of medicines to patients. They also work as part of the medical team in a hospital and are expected to lecture nurses and medical students on matters such as the action of drugs, dose rates, side effects etc. Education officer with the PSI Joe Carroll says it's a very challenging area and one which is changing rapidly. "Pharmacists are becoming increasingly involved in recommending drugs to doctors and deciding which drugs are bought by the hospital."

The Republic of Ireland has a rapidly growing pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacists are required for both technical and managerial positions, in sales and marketing, production, quality control and research and development.

There are 18 pharmacists currently working with the Irish Medicines Board in the area of administrative pharmacy. Their principal role is to work on product registration of medicines manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.

There are also academic pharmacists, involved in teaching and research in universities.

The pay depends on which area of pharmacy you go into, but there is a shortage of pharmacists in all areas and salaries are increasing. Community pharmacy is still the most lucrative. Carroll says an employee pharmacist earns about £30,000-£35,000 "starting off" and someone managing a pharmacy will earn between £40,000 and £45,000. "For anyone who owns their own pharmacy, the sky's the limit," he says.

The other areas such as hospital and industrial pharmacy don't usually pay as well, but Carroll would be surprised to hear of anyone starting on less that £20,000.