Winner


Through BCPP, Laura is currently in her second year of a three year project, educating the local Hungarian and Polish community about the services local pharmacies can offer. This has proven most effective at reaching a new section of her local community that might otherwise not have been aware of all local services.


Laura has delivered numerous educational sessions on a variety of health topics that were identified as a need by the group including childhood illnesses, dental health, nutrition and cancer screening. Laura also uses the iPad available in the pharmacy to minimise language barriers and she produced a dosage aid-memoir recognising the potential patient safety risks if doses of medication were misunderstood. This project will continue for at least another year.


She is recognised amongst her peers and colleagues as someone who is generous and willing to share her time, knowledge and best practice. Through her extensive networking, local healthcare professionals know her personally, and will often refer patients to her for advice and services.


Laura is well recognised within her local community and has worked tirelessly over the last ten years within the Wookstock locality in East Belfast.


She has been involved in numerous healthcare events with local community groups, ranging from Willowfield mother and toddler group to the W-Club, an over 60s men’s group. Her work was showcased in a recent Boots UK external healthcare publication ‘Caring for our Communities’.


Laura has led and facilitated two BCPP projects with such community groups. A one year project with the local W- Mens group saw her educate them on important healthcare topics such as diet and diabetes, smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, healthy heart and healthy mind.


Laura did five two-hour educational sessions with the group and a final session which was run as a healthcare drop in centre. Laura always delivered these sessions in a fun, easy going manner, with pop quizzes and games to keep everyone interested, and ensured the group members knew what she as their local community pharmacist could do to help.


Alan, leader of the W-Club along with Sharon Traynor from East Belfast Community Development Agency said that “Laura is a tremendous asset to the work of the W-Club. She brings her knowledge and skills as a pharmacist to the group in a way that is easily understood and well received


by the members. She has had such a positive impact on the individuals she has spent time with.”


Laura is a passionate and caring Pharmacist and is committed to her colleagues, customers and local community. Her loyalty to her team and customers is exemplar and she strives every day to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of her patients.


Laura understands that in order to deliver the best care to her patients, high standards and patient safety are paramout. She works with her pharmacy team helping them understand the importance of having safe processes, the highest operating standards and mechanisms in place to learn from any incidents or near misses that might occur.


All team members now record their


own near misses encouraging them to personally reflect on how they can improve. All near misses and incidents are reviewed as part of their monthly patient safety review and actions are agreed with the pharmacy team and learnings shared with the Clinical Governance Pharmacist for onward communication with other pharmacy colleagues.


Laura always strives to help patients as best as she can and as the work with the W-Mens BCPP project progressed she was immediately looking for another which brought her to lead the three year BCPP project with the Hungarian and Romanian community in Woodstock.


In addition, she has worked fantastically to lead charity fundraising with other Boots pharmacies in East Belfast. This included smaller events such as cake sales and raffles culminating in co-organising a regional charity fundraising ball which raised a massive £7,933 for Macmillan. She has also played a pro-active role in raising funds for Action Cancer and BBC Children in Need.


Dementia Friends was another important project for her to get involved in recognising how this training for her and her pharmacy team could improve the pharmacy experience for patients with Dementia and their carers.


The Woodstock pharmacy team are all now Dementia Friends trained and they proudly display their working towards Dementia Friends logo. This work helped in Boots Northern Ireland winning the Alzheimers Society ‘Best Organisational Initiative’ in September 2015.


Recognising her years of experience she has become a mentor to younger and older pharmacy colleagues alike,


“I could not have won this Award without the support of my team and without the support of Boots. In essence I am only doing what do many community Pharmacists are doing on a daily basis, but this is terrific recognition and I am over the moon.”


providing advice and expertise whenever needed.


One colleague recently described her as “being so approachable and willing to share her expertise to help at all times – she truly embodies what it means to be an outstanding Community Pharmacist”.


The business performance of her pharmacy is also testament to the leadership Laura brings, and this is particularly apparent in her prescription items growth, which has increased markedly on her own performance last year.


Commenting on receiving her Award Laura said, “I am very overwhelmed. I was not expecting this but I am delighted to have won.


“I could not have won this Award without the support of my team and without the support of Boots. In


pharmacyinfocus.co.uk 55


essence I am only doing what do many community Pharmacists are doing on a daily basis, but this is terrific recognition and I am over the moon.”


Steven Campbell, Pan Ireland Field Sales Controller, GSK, said, “As a company we are proud to support Pharmacist of the year. Community Pharmacists are often the unrecognised healthcare professional and so we are delighted to be involved in promoting and highlighting the valuable role they play.” n


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