Entering medical writing from pharmacy
Pharmacy training provides scientific knowledge, clinical experience and opportunities to practise research and writing. Coursework, rotations and feedback can help a pharmacist test the fit with medical writing, while placements and professional contacts can lead to a first role.
Pharmacy training and fit
A PharmD offers preparation for medical writing through education in medicine, drugs and research, hands-on clinical training, attention to detail, project and people management, and prioritisation of competing work. Pharmacists who enjoy research and writing may find the work suits their strengths and interest in academic learning.
In 2018, a pharmacist described non-traditional pharmacy careers as becoming more common amid increasing competition for jobs. She had felt out of place because her strengths differed from those of classmates pursuing conventional pharmacy roles, and initially did not know how to find research and writing work.
Curriculum, rotations and feedback
Family, friends, colleagues and preceptors can help identify strengths and weaknesses that are difficult to recognise alone. Pharmacy students interested in writing should pay particular attention to drug information, research and statistics classes. One pharmacist's third-year, year-long course in literature analysis, scientific writing and research presentation required independent research, analysis and scheduling, which she found useful preparation for medical-writing projects.
Hospital and retail rotations build clinical understanding that can help communicate medical concepts, while non-traditional rotations in managed care, pharmaceuticals or corporate operations can provide research and writing exposure. Difficult rotations can also reveal strengths and weaknesses: the pharmacist's challenging cardiology placement helped her recognise where her abilities lay. Her retail-pharmacy internship on evenings and weekends reinforced clinical practice and drug knowledge, although it involved less research and writing.
Students should listen to positive and critical preceptor feedback and treat each placement as a job interview by doing their best work. Praise for one pharmacist's research and writing during non-traditional placements validated her preferred direction and increased her confidence.
Placements and networking
Rotations and work experiences create professional contacts even for introverts; one pharmacist's research and writing position resulted directly from her work and interest during a non-traditional rotation. In 2018, she described managed-care, pharmaceutical and corporate employers as often hiring, particularly candidates they already knew through rotations or previous work.
Networking may require moving beyond a comfort zone, without being the loudest person present. Pharmacists should recognise that luck affects opportunities and seek rotations and work experiences aligned with their interests. Their combination of clinical practice, research analysis and scientific-literature skills can support confidence in entering writing.
The pharmacist's school had offered no guidance on medical-writing careers, and her eventual position was new to her organisation; searching for similar roles led her to AMWA and the occupation's name. The 2018 advice for graduates was to talk with local medical writers, use AMWA's jobs directory and ask pharmacy colleagues following a desired career path for advice.