Crossing continents for career in Canada

Growing up in a small mountain town in Poland, Paulina Humphrey never could have envisioned the journey that would eventually lead her to a position as pharmacy supervisor at McKesson Central Fill in Mississauga, Ont. She arrived in Canada in 1992 to bring her mother (who was living here) back to Poland. But friends convinced her to stay and take advantage of the opportunities Canada offered. “After many conversations, I decided to apply for a permanent resident card, and that’s how my life in Canada began,” she recalls. Humphrey enrolled in courses to improve on the limited English she had learned in high school and in working the night-shift at the local donut shop, where customers liked to sit and talk. “That was a lot of learning there!” she laughs.Read: Tech Refresher: Accommodating staff—and patients—with disabilitiesShe soon got a job at a pharmacy as a cashier. The pharmacist urged her to fill in for a vacationing pharmacy assistant, “and I fell in love with that,” she says. “That’s what prompted me to enroll in the pharmacy assistant course at Humber College in 1995.” With the advent of regulation, she took the required bridging courses, working and attending school while raising three children. She became registered in December 2010—part of the first group to do so—and also served for several years as an assessor for the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC). She moved into the role of pharmacy technician at Main Drug Mart in Toronto, where she had been employed since 2000. In that capacity, she processed and filled an average of 200 prescriptions per day and assisted pharmacists by preparing an average of four MedsChecks daily, among many other responsibilities After 17 rewarding years at Main Drug Mart, Humphrey decided to spread her wings beyond community pharmacy and landed a job as pharmacy technician/dispatcher at McKesson Central Fill, which had just launched. “I had an opportunity to grow with Central Fill, so we kind of grew together,” she explains. “It was really interesting.”At first, she worried she wouldn’t like the new environment given how much she enjoyed community pharmacy. “But little did I know that I would fall in love with this place because there were just so many new things to learn, starting from robots and ordering and shipping, and then dispatching,” she says. “It was not boring at all.” Three years later, she was promoted to lead pharmacy technician, where she oversaw a team of staff members and coordinated daily workflow. A fitness enthusiast she implemented weekly exercise breaks, which continue to this day, much to the delight of staff. In 2023, she applied for her current position as pharmacy supervisor. In this role, she schedules and supervises a team of 11 full-time staff and a large roster of casual pharmacy technicians and pharmacists. She says it is a challenge to manage people from various backgrounds. “There is a lot of adapting and learning to deal with different cultures. But in the end, it’s super rewarding.” In this position, she also conducts performance reviews for the team, a new responsibility. She continues to take leadership training. “I would like to improve on my growth, not only in the supervisor role but also my leadership skills.”Her advice to new technicians reflects her own journey: “Be open to different pharmacy settings and roles, and explore your options because I think the possibilities are endless,” she says, noting that compared to 20 years ago when she started in the profession there is so much more that techs can do. “I think everyone can find something that they will grow in and enjoy doing.” This article appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Tech Talk. Find it and other Tech Talk issues here.

Crossing continents for career in Canada

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