PHARMACY FACES What does your average working day involve?
When I work in the hospital that is very different as it is mostly just dispensing and nothing else. But in community pharmacy you get to do so much as a pharmacy technician, especially these days as there’s quite a lot more responsibility given to technicians which is fantastic. We can do clinics and we can help people at the counter. When someone walks in with a problem we can help them figure out how to get around that as well as dispensing.
Then as a student there are quite a lot of lectures and labs. I’m also a class rep, so you’ll generally find me running workshops or running student- led activities.
As a technician you know that if someone comes in with a headache and they are in pain then they get paracetamol. But at university you study the why. Why those patients get paracetamol and why it works. It is great to cover it from all sides.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
As a technician, it really is the patients and being able to interact with them. Last year when I was working in a hospital I was in the aseptic unit, which meant that I was in the clean room and didn’t have a lot of interaction with patients. I surprised myself with how much I missed it. So this year, now that I’m doing an awful lot more in community pharmacy, I really value that.
It’s about trying to see the patient as a whole human being. Looking at their lifestyle, the conditions that they have, their allergies and everything that goes with it. Then it is how we, as pharmacy workers, can help them achieve the best treatment or therapy for their condition, considering all of that. I think that’s a really cool thing that most other healthcare professionals don’t really get to do.
As a student, it’s something similar. I love listening to other students and helping them work around their issues to achieve their goals.
What has been the most memorable moment of your career so far?
About ten years ago there was one patient who used to come in every month or so. There was nothing particularly different about him, he would come in, pick up his medication and he would leave and be back the next month.
He always came in on his own and there was one day where he came in and he asked to speak to the pharmacist. He was in the consultation room with a pharmacist for a long time, about 20 minutes or so, and we were starting to get worried that something was really wrong. Then he came out and seemed fine so we checked with the pharmacist to make sure the patient was okay because we had known him so long and were worried about him. And the pharmacist just said ‘I was the first person to have a conversation with him this week, he doesn’t have any family and he just needed a chat.’
I always remember that day and that patient. I think sometimes when we’re working in a pharmacy, we concentrate so much on getting the right drug to the right patient, which is absolutely the thing to do, but it’s going back to putting the patient in the centre of it. It is seeing them as a whole person and how destructive loneliness can be, especially for older generations.
It is something I always try to think of in my way of working. Really looking at patients and talking to them and thinking about what you might be missing.
What’s the biggest challenge facing pharmacy today from your perspective?
A decade or so ago we all got so excited about the amount of information that the internet provided. But now we are very quickly entering an era of misinformation. I think that is something that every healthcare worker will be able to resonate with. We have patients coming in and they are 100% sure of what they have or what they need and when questioned, they’ll say, oh, but ChatGPT told me. Sometimes it can be harmless but it’s not going to make them any better and sometimes it really could make them a whole lot worse. That is something both in university and community pharmacy that we have been really struggling with, to get correct information that is truthful and accurate and evidence-based to our patients.
What skill is most important in your job?
I think being adaptable is really important and maybe something that people tend to skip whenever they’re thinking about skills to have. When things go wrong you need to be able to give yourself a second and to take a breath and go okay, what am I going to do with the information at hand and not just completely panic, because things haven’t gone to plan.
I think that is really important in community pharmacy because you just don’t know what patients you are going to get most days. The other day I was in a community pharmacy up in Belfast and got a phone call to say the order wasn’t going to come in that day and we had to stop and think about how we were going to get all the prescriptions done. It’s that ability to be able to think on your feet, but also not to act impulsively.
What’s something you’ve learned from patients over the years?
There is so much. Something that continues to surprise me is that people are so different. You can look at yourself and think I have always done this a certain way and then somebody comes in and says I have always done it this other way. And it’s not right or wrong, it’s just different. I’m always amazed how people can make life work in so many different ways. I think that’s something that we need to keep in mind as well when we are looking at ways to help people get better. I think it is something I always try to remember, especially whenever I’m having a bad day. We work with a lot of sick people or people
who are caring for sick people so we tend to see them on their bad days. People don’t normally wake up feeling great and say I will go into the pharmacy today. So I think a little patience or grace can go a long way. It is about constantly reminding yourself that people might be going through a really rough time.
How do you think your role makes a difference to patients or the wider community?
When a patient gets sick they go to the doctor and the doctor writes them a prescription and they get the drugs to help them feel better. But in pharmacy we are the bridge between who they are, what they do and everything that goes on in their lives and the drug that they’re getting and how they’re going to make that work. How they’re going to fit that into their lifestyle. We should be the equivalent of their ChatGPT that they can come to and ask questions. It’s not like the internet where you type in your symptoms and it just spews something out. You are asking someone who is really well qualified and trained and has a lot of experience.
For the wider community, I think one of the great things about community pharmacy is that, unlike GP surgeries or hospitals, you can just walk in. You don’t need an appointment and we’re always there and ready to help you. When I think back to COVID-19 we never closed, we were still there, we were covered in PPE but we were still there. We do help the community in that way. We have patients just come in for a chat. You would never make an appointment with the GP because you’re feeling lonely, but you could come in and you could have a chat with us.
When you are not at work how do you like to spend your time?
I spend time with my family, including my two children who are 11 and 13. I don’t get to see an awful lot of them during the week because I have to travel to university and it’s really far away.
I also do a lot of baking because I love to bake and I love giving people the things that I have baked!
It’s about trying to see the patient as a whole human being. Looking at their lifestyle, the conditions that they have, their allergies and everything that goes with it...
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