University of Waikato pharmacy students Rhea Roy, Teres Siby and Gabby Allerby. Photo: Supplied
A new two-year pharmacy degree is offering a fast-track into a profession in dire need of more staff.
Waikato University says its Master of Pharmacy Practice provides a quicker pathway for registering overseas trained pharmacists, and a new way into the primary healthcare sector for science graduates.
Gabby Allerby - one of 25 students in the inaugural class at Waikato University - is an example of the latter.
After doing a workplace lab placement last year, she realised her Bachelor of Science Technology degree was not going to take her where she wanted to go.
" quickly found out I really missed the people interactions that a lab doesn't quite give you," she said.
She started to look into other career options and found pharmacy. At first, she looked into the existing pharmacy courses in Auckland and Otago.
"It just became more clear that it would be a bit silly for me to move somewhere else and have to start a whole other degree, rather than try and get in here," Allerby said.
She has been able to move from a Bachelor of Science Technology into the masters, stay in Hamilton, and will be a graduate pharmacist in two years.
Professor Rhiannon Braund. Photo: Supplied
Professor Rhiannon Braund is head of the School of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences at Waikato. A trained pharmacist, she has experienced for herself how hard it has been to retrain.
"I did a biochemist degree first, and then when I did my pharmacy training, I had to start again."
Despite being able to cross-credit a paper or two she had to complete a second, four-year degree, meaning it took seven years at university before she could work in her chosen field.
Braund said the industry needed to open up pharmacy training.
"Pharmacy has experienced a significant workforce shortage, like many other health professions, and what we are seeing is a decrease in the number of students starting at the undergraduate level."
The focus of the master's is to bring in students who have a primary bio-medical degree and build on that foundation, rather than making students start again.
A 2024 workplace study found across the sector, 85 percent of pharmacies have experienced staff shortages.
Pharmaceutical Society president Michael Hammond met recently with some pharmacists in Waikato and discussed the issues they faced.
"Like everyone else in New Zealand, they are feeling the workforce pressures," he said.
Eighty percent of pharmacists work in primary healthcare, and Hammond said the demand and scope for pharmacists was currently higher than ever. He supported the new training programme.
"Their diverse backgrounds and wealth of experience will bring new perspectives and innovation to the sector. I'm truly excited to see the first cohort of students grow, learn and eventually join the workforce in a few years," he said.
Teres Siby trained as a pharmacist in India before moving to New Zealand six years ago. After starting a family and realising her Indian registration had lapsed, she spent more than a year trying to find out how she could register to work as a pharmacist here.
"I know many international pharmacists who really want to be a pharmacist, but many things are hindering it," she said.
For example, it was not always easy to get the paperwork from India to prove registration and training, which might even require a trip to India to find.
She thought the Master of Pharmacy Practice gave internationally trained pharmacists a great pathway into the New Zealand situation.
"As an international pharmacist we don't have any idea how the rules work, how the legal frameworks work, what all we have to follow. So this course is made in such a way that we can know."
Both Siby and Allerby said they could not wait to get started.
"Very, very, very, very exciting…I'm looking forward to becoming a pharmacist," Siby said.
Allerby said she understood the pressures the primary healthcare workforce was facing, but was always up for a challenge.
"I'm very excited," she said.
Braund hoped the course would grow and more graduates from New Zealand and internationally could bring their skills into the pharmacy workforce.
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