Supported by
AWARDS PHARMACIST OF THE YEAR ROBERTA TASKER, BOOTS, COOKSTOWN R
oberta Tasker is exceptional as a pharmacist and as a leader, but what makes her
extraordinary - and sets her apart from her peers - are her external commitments to pharmacy. When looking from the outside, it is difficult to see exactly how she manages to fit it all in!
Roberta takes such pride in her pharmacy standards, and is meticulous in what she does each day to ensure that she and her team are providing the highest level of pharmaceutical care for their local community.
Roberta doesn’t just see a prescription but the person behind it putting patient care at the forefront of all she does. She has amazing relationships with doctors and other health professionals locally, and works tirelessly to build lasting relationships with them to ensure that she is best placed to get the right solution for all of her patients.
Roberta also commits so much of her own time to supporting other pharmacists in the locality building similar relationships. She is always looking for new opportunities to explore, which could further support communities across all of Mid Ulster, and she often shares these ideas with others to ensure pharmacists across the country can touch as many lives as possible, and provide outstanding care locally.
Roberta has been Pharmacy Lead with the Mid-Ulster Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) since its inception some five years ago and has taken on the role of Chair since September 2017. Within this role, Roberta - with the support of many colleagues including from Mid Ulster District Council and Northern Trust Colleagues - has successfully built the
44 - PHARMACY IN FOCUS
Mid Ulster Community Pharmacy Partnership. This collective aims to help community pharmacists and their teams in their role of signposting clients and patients to agencies who would be able to make their lives easier.
Under the title of ‘Making Links to Lighten the Load’, the partnership has been improving awareness amongst community pharmacy teams of the services delivered by the statutory agencies and the many community and voluntary organisations in the local area by organising communications and events. Roberta has led this brilliantly and has gone the extra mile in terms of engagement to ensure both pharmacies and patients get the best outcome. She has also shown examples of effective signposting in her own community pharmacy.
Roberta is a Dementia Friend and has furthered her understanding of the numerous challenges sufferers, their carers and family face every day. She has used her training to counsel patients and carers on issues such as weight loss, appetite loss, and has educated them on the benefits behind simple everyday changes, such as using coloured plates for meal times, or having patterned carpets. When other channels of help are needed – such as Local Age Well or Dementia UK – she ensures individuals are able to make contact and access the help they need.
Through her ICP role, Roberta’s innovative work has also continued with her involvement in developing a Northern Ireland frailty index. Her involvement is driven by the genuine desire to make NI the best place to ‘age well’. The major objective of this frailty index is to direct public focus on elderly independence, maintain good health amongst the aged and
Colm Magee, Senior Director, Teva UK Limited, with Roberta Tasker, Boots, Cookstown
‘Roberta takes such pride in her pharmacy standards, and is meticulous in what she does each day to ensure that she and her team are providing the highest level of pharmaceutical care for their local community’
enable better identification of frailty by healthcare professionals.
Despite relinquishing her role as Chair some two years ago, Roberta has continued her relationship with the Pharmacy Forum. Her role within the Forum demonstrates her wonderful ability to listen and sincere interest and care for others around her, in addition to her genuine desire to continually improve pharmacy in NI and make it the best it can be for both patients and professionals. She remains on the Education and Research committee and chairs the Northern Ireland Centre for
Postgraduate Pharmaceutical Education and Training Committee on behalf of the Forum.
Roberta also sits on the Stroke Improvement Group of the Northern Trust and is also in the MOIC/ICP research group, currently engaged in setting up an Atrial Fibrillation anticoagulation trial involving Community Pharmacy and Primary Care in Northern Ireland. This has enabled her to create some brilliant multidisciplinary relationships, which have been invaluable to pharmacies across Northern Ireland.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
