The crucial skills we didn’t learn in pharmacy school

In pharmacy school, I naively thought I would use the massive amount of knowledge I was accumulating to solve DTPs at will for my community patients. After graduating, I realized that in community practice, I was using a small fraction of what I learned in school. This is a common experience with professionals; one that does not solely plague the pharmacy profession. Here’s the thing: What we are taught in school is not as important as how we are trained to think. The information age has made it easy to access factual information. Patients now have access to information that once was only in our control. In my opinion, our value as pharmacists comes from our ability to form relationships with our patients, our ability to discern the information that is available, and in managing workflow and operational issues in pharmacies. These attributes come from soft skills we learned in pharmacy school including communication, general problem-solving skills, and the ability to better manage our time. Having eight exams in seven days during my third year provided a crash course in this! Read: The kids aren’t alright: CAPSI survey finds pharmacy students are struggling with mental health issues As I started working in the real world as a young Associate, I quickly realized that I needed to work hard and find a mentor to help guide me through the overwhelming options available to me in order to achieve ‘success.’ But as I continued to learn new skills, I still found myself struggling to be happy. I understand that happiness is a loaded word because it means different things to different people. My simplest and favourite definition relates happiness to progress—if we are growing and getting better, then we are moving toward happiness. Happiness is not a destination, but rather a journey that continues to ebb and flow as we live. As I’ve matured, I’ve learned that emotional intelligence, building resiliency and being able to regulate myself are extremely important life skills. As an individual who has embraced this journey and attended retreats on five different continents, I hope to share thoughts on how we can be more present, live in heightened awareness and strive to connect with patients and colleagues at a deeper level. These assets help shape our perspective and allow us to respond more positively to the pressures we face in both work and life. Said another way, they are tools that help us manage and reduce burnout. The term burnout is used often and sometimes incorrectly. As per the World Health Organization, burnout is defined as: A syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:1 feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. As pharmacists working through the pandemic, many of us have experienced some, if not all of these criteria. I have lived through this myself, and have seen many colleagues struggling to survive. The commonly cited definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. It is time for us to do things differently. To take control and take better care of ourselves so we can be there for our families, staff and clients. I will be writing a reoccurring blog in pharmacy practice to help pharmacists manage burnout through practical tools and shifts in mindset. I hope you will join me on this journey to keep growing. References WHO: Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases

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The crucial skills we didn’t learn in pharmacy school

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Blog Author

Manjit Hansra

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