international internships

[pharmanda]

Hey all,

Have any of you done a summer internship/work abroad program in Europe? If so, what group/organization arranged it, or did you somehow find a position on your own?

I'm in Canada and the IPSF exchange program sucks for us - out of 10 pharmacy schools in the country, they send like 3 students overseas each year, so it's next to impossible to get a placement with them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

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[pharmtastic]

If anyone ever done their internship abroad, I think it's just for their own interest. I doubt if any US pharmacy school will give you credit for doing your rotation outside the US. Most schools have very specific things they want you to accomplish in each rotation/internship and foreign schools cannot possibly meet those requirements. I'm not, by any means, saying that the quality of pharmacy outside the US is lower, but they just follow a quite different system.

 

[mike36]

At my school, we can study abroad either the fall of P3 or the summer of P4 (counts as elective rotations). I am not sure if we get any credit or grade for it, but it sounds like an interesting experience, to say the least.

 

[pharmanda]

I don't mean necessarily for credit - our internship after fourth year must be completed in our home province. Mostly I'd just like to work in a European pharmacy for a summer out of interest

 

[IndustryPharmD]

You can always do two-sided exchange through IPSF - as in, you set up a spot to host a student from a specific country and then you get to go to that specific country.

The only other way I can think of would be if you knew someone who owns a pharmacy in Europe or works in one and go directly to them. It's not like you can respond to classified ads in Europe (though I have no idea, maybe Canadian citizenship gives one right to work in UK?).

If you wanted to do an internship in pharmaceutical industry, it could be more doable. I know for sure AstraZeneca has London-based internships, though I think they limit the applicants to UK and Swedish students. Again, I don't know whether having the same Queen makes you eligible to apply.

Another option would be to get an internship at an international organization's headquarters, such as World Health Organization takes I think six? students in their final or next-to-final year for the summer... but again this is not working in a pharmacy.