What's your employer doing and what are your areas of responsibility?
I am a solo pharmacist, covering all areas of the pharmacist including retail components, catalogue set up, planogram, overall review and dispensary components medicine checks, vaccinations, advise and supply of medications, supervising an intern, dose administration aids and everything in between.
What are YOU exactly doing? Tell us details about YOUR daily work and your specific tasks.
I start my day by coming in early to check email communications and the prepare for the day to make sure everything is tidy and ready to go! I do the med advisor scripts and any relevant emails/faxes that have come in.
The jobs throughout the day comprise counselling, meds checks, vaccines, dispensing, checking , catching up with retail team members to see what the daily tasks are, ordering stock, putting away stock, completing reports and delegating to my dispensary team to do so. Supervising and teaching interns and pharmacy assistants with their queries. We can have days where we do wound dressings and all sorts! Never a dull moment.
What's your background?
I am born and bred in Cairns, North Queensland. I graduated high school in 2010; ran and operated a garage door company until 2013; moved to Townsville for University in 2015, graduated in 2020 and move to Brisbane year 2021 to begin my internship. I originally wanted to be a pastry chef in high school, I started an apprenticeship but I was a terrible morning person, had a big sweet tooth and had no control, so that wasn’t going to work!
I experienced my share of bad luck like deaths in the family, relationship break ups and a mini breakdown during my degree and nearly considered leaving but I pushed through and graduated top of my class.
Infinity Pharmacy moved me to Hervey Bay after my internship and from the day I registered I was thrown in the deep end of solo pharmacist and I loved every moment of the opportunity! I registered in November 2021.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, with the right training. I learnt almost everything I know by working in a pharmacy. I started as a cash and wrap girl and learnt every area within a year. This concreted my love for the profession and assisted with my degree!
My background was very different to those I was competing university with, but we all had one thing in common a passion to help others and to learn. I do my job well because I am organised, systematic, friendly and calm in nature (most of the time - sometimes I do some internal screaming). If you can handle a difficult situation with poise, have good customer skills and aren't too chaotic you can definitely do it.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
My favourite thing about the job is my patients. Getting to know them and helping them, even with the little things. I love watching their face when they learn something or clue onto something about their health and that they understand why we do something. To educate someone about something so important is so important to me.
What are the challenges of your job?
Being the solo pharmacist, I do bear all of the responsibility of my work and my pharmacy and team. I work every second Saturday. The job can be physically demanding (being a larger store); moving things I constantly love to revamp the store to keep it fresh. The biggest limitation in my job is myself. How I am as a manager or pharmacist is limited by my own expectations of myself and others.
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