Vigilance and Risk Management Student Placement Review

I particularly enjoyed working for a smaller pharmaceutical company, as I was able to directly interact with the other departments in the company and could see how my work influenced the wider business. Having other student placements in the company definitely helped to make the experience more enjoyable and I was given really interesting work.

All of the colleagues in my department made me feel so welcome and were extremely friendly. As the company is not particularly big, everyone made an effort to know my name and stop for a chat, and I felt like the work that I did was appreciated greatly by my colleagues.

My manager was extremely supportive throughout my placement. If I wanted to know more about a specific area of Drug Safety, they would provide me with relevant online material and set up meeting so explain these to me. If I had questions they were available to answer, and would always provide guidance if there was an activity that was particularly difficult.

Due to the nature of the pharmaceutical industry, my workload did fluctuate over the year but I was never overstretched for too long. In times where there was less work to be done, my colleagues would involve me in their own projects and give me activities to do so that I wasn't left with nothing to do.

I was entrusted with being the expert on some activities, such as post-marketing patient exposure calculations for aggregate reports and literature review. This meant that colleagues would often come to me for assistance on this. I was also given the opportunity to be involved in significant authority interactions, and part of the global project team that was tasked with standardising and reforming the company's literature review process.

I have definitely learnt a lot about the pharmaceutical industry, and was able to go on an external training course which helped me better understand what happens in the Drug Safety department. I have developed skills such as communication, teamwork, time management and critical thinking which will not only be useful in completing my degree, but also in the workplace.

Everyone was really friendly and would start up a conversation easily. The open plan layout of the office created a more relaxed environment to work in, as did the light airy feel of the office. There is a lot of camaraderie and morale was often high. Often people would bring in treats or baked goods to share which was a bonus!

The placements were set up with a 7-week overlap between the new and current students, where handover of activities could be done. I found this particularly useful. Specific everyday tasks, such as meeting set-up and minutes, were delegated to the students so that we could gain experience, but we were also involved in more interesting tasks such as marketing authorisation applications.

My manager had found information about courses or information days where I could learn more about the industry, and I was allowed to go on a one-day training course on Pharmacovigilance in London. The company had used to offer more internal training courses, however there were fewer of these that were relevant to me while I was there due to other pressures.

There are lots of different areas of the company that I would consider going into, such as Medical Information or Regulatory Affairs. There are a few recent graduates in the Drug Safety department and I think that my experience and knowledge of the company would definitely tempt me to come back in future.

As there were nine students in total this year, there was always someone to sit with to eat lunch. Before our placement started we all met to view houses to live in, organised by the company. I lived with two girls who also worked at MR and we often did activities together. I think we didn't do as many things as a large group due to people being away at weekends often, but when we did socialise together we had a good time.

The cost of rent was higher than in other places in the country (approximately £550 pcm for a double room), however the salary was enough to cover this amount with money left over to socialise and pay for essentials such as shopping. There were a few pubs and bars around which were quite reasonable.