Ryan Worsfold

My Graduate Story

My name is Ryan Worsfold, and I graduated from the University of Birmingham with a Pharmacy MPharm.

Today, I work as a Band 6 Rotational Pharmacist at New Cross Hospital for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

I am employed on a rotational step-up programme, so I currently switch between different wards to gain more experience and knowledge in order to assist my step up to a Band 7 pharmacist later on in the year.

A Day in my Life

On a typical day, I attend pharmacy huddle where we are informed about hospital/bed capacity for the day and various other elements including medication supply issues and safety messages for the week. I head to my wards where I approve and sign for the order of any controlled drugs required, sign off discharges (TTOs), review patients by conducting medication reconciliations and implementing optimisation strategies. I liaise closely with doctors and nurses on ward to assist with any issues they have when prescribing or selecting medication.

My Journey to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Upon graduating from Birmingham, I completed my foundation training/pre-registration year at an independent community pharmacy which was my first choice. I was then offered a week cross-sector experience at New Cross Hospital, which was thoroughly enjoyable. I was informed about the application process on Trac/NHS jobs and decided to apply. I attended an interview and was offered the job the same day.

My Birmingham Experience

The quality of content taught at Birmingham is of a high standard. When it came to revising for my GPhC exam, the majority of my notes were formed from what I had been taught during my undergraduate years at Birmingham. OSCEs and clinical communication sessions were so valuable to me, especially during my training year where I was conversing with patients on a daily basis. I still use my notes when changing ward rotations as a pharmacist as I like to be prepared for which drugs I am going to see on my ward, i.e. reviewing cardiovascular content if I were to be placed on cardiology wards.

In my opinion, the best thing about my course was that the delivery of content by really passionate lectures made a huge difference. I felt motivated to study hard during my undergraduate years and I felt the importance of my job was instilled in me strongly by them. Their continued support when it came to assignments and year 4 OSCE training sessions/clinical skills in particular was very appreciated.

Birmingham's Impact

As an undergraduate, I really appreciated the multiple opportunities to speak with different pharmacy professionals at the careers fair. I was able to learn a lot of what a job in the various fields would look like which heavily influenced my future career decisions down the line.

My Achievements

My biggest achievement personally was watching my confidence grow year after year, especially when it came to presentations, as I have a huge fear of speaking aloud to multiple people. Professional wise, I would say completing a vaccination course and administering Covid and flu vaccines during my training year, as although I had practiced this at university, it felt so nerve-wracking to do it on real people. Finally, I would say my biggest academic achievement would be achieving a place on this course, as I am someone who is the first person in the family to go to university and come from a deprived area, thus I benefited from the A2B scheme. I then went on to graduate with a first class degree which I am very proud of.

Advice for Students

My top tip for students graduating today would be to grab every opportunity presented to you; as I would never have predicted I would have ended up in hospital pharmacy. I initially was going to pass up the week cross sector placement during foundation training, as I was happy in community pharmacy, but ultimately decided giving hospital a go would make me a more well-rounded pharmacist. It was from this placement that I really came to enjoy hospital pharmacy.