PHARMACY FACES
Behind every prescription, consultation and patient interaction is a person making a difference. In our new regular feature, Pharmacy Faces, we meet the people who keep pharmacy moving, from pharmacists and technicians to dispensers, counter assistants and support staff. Each issue, we ask the same questions to discover what brought them into pharmacy, what motivates them every day and the impact they have on the communities they serve. If you would like to recommend someone for Pharmacy Faces contact our editor Shelley Gibbins at
editor@pharmacyshows.com
Natalia Lara-Nesbitt is a qualified ACT who is now in her final year of study to become a pharmacist. She has spent over 16 years working in community pharmacy, predominantly at Boots. As well as studying to become a pharmacist, she still works as a locum technician at Boots stores across Northern Ireland.
Introduce yourself and tell us about your role in pharmacy.
I started dipping my toe into pharmacy back in 2010. I just came into it looking for an entry-level job, just to pay the bills. I wasn’t interested in pharmacy at all at that point, but I very quickly discovered that I really, really enjoyed it. I loved the patient interaction and I loved how the drugs worked. Since then I have just been working my way up. I qualified as an ACT and did that for about a year and then I realised I wanted to take it further. So I asked my manager what I could do as a next step and they said my options were management or the MPharm. I knew management wasn’t for me so I decided to do the MPharm and I am now in my final year at Ulster University and I love it.
It has really added value to how I work at the minute. It means I see the world of pharmacy from a few different perspectives. I can see it from a dispenser point of view, I can see it from a pharmacy technician point of view and now I can see it from a student point of view. And hopefully I will be able to see it soon from a pharmacist point of view.
I’ve been with Boots the entire time. I locum with them as a technician so it means working all over Northern Ireland. Then last summer I worked as a technician for the Southern Trust as well, so I had some experience of hospital work.
What inspired you to pursue a career in pharmacy?
It was not really something that I ever considered in school or ever thought was going to be for me. But once I started working in pharmacy, I watched how pharmacy technicians and how pharmacists interacted with the patients. You have this one relationship that you build with that person coming in and you help them solve their problems. You achieve that together alongside the patient. I just thought that was really beautiful. Then over the years as I was doing my training, I had so many pharmacists I worked alongside encouraging me to go and do the MPharm as they could see I was interested. They really encouraged me.
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