How my retail pharmacy experience set me up for a better pharmacy career

If you can survive retail pharmacy, you can achieve ANYTHING. In an attempt to paint a picture of the pressures that retail pharmacists face day in and day out, I have created a poem (yes, I recently got into poetry, and I love it!). Here we go: A ringing phone A crying child Push my nervous system into ‘fight or flight’ Every inch of the bench is covered in scripts I hope I will not give any a miss! The line of patients awaiting consults has no end in sight This is a real juggling act, will I get out that door tonight? My priority is patient and medication safety every day But sometimes, this feels beyond my way The pressure on a retail pharmacist is beyond words Yet they will always turn up to work, in the hope that fate rewards. I wasn’t planning on writing a poem when I started writing this article, but somehow my brain started spilling out the words. I don’t believe it was me writing, it was my unconscious brain revisiting the tough memories of my retail pharmacy days during the pandemic. The above words are my recollection of what it was like to be a pharmacist during the height of the Covid pandemic. Despite leaving the retail pharmacy setting a few years ago, I must say that I would not be the pharmacist that I am today without the experience I had as a retail pharmacist. It was simply foundational for my career growth. So, in this article, I want to talk about: Why the retail pharmacy experience is crucial and how it was the foundation of my career growth, and How can we make the retail pharmacy sector more attractive to pharmacists? Why is the retail pharmacy experience crucial? Those who work or have worked in the retail pharmacy setting will know how dynamic it can be. At any point in time, you could be checking scripts while the phone is ringing, while a child is screaming in the background, or while you have a line of patients awaiting vaccinations or consultations. You operate in an ‘everything is urgent’ environment, while simultaneously turning your brain power into turbo gear to hopefully prevent that one error that may result in the demise of your career. I recall once inviting an MD colleague to observe the dispensary in operation at a busy hour. Needless to say, he didn’t think it was an environment he could thrive in. Yet, so many pharmacists accept this as the norm every day. Despite the challenges, I believe pharmacists operating in this environment develop supernatural capabilities: They develop a fine balance between accuracy and efficiency. While it is important to ‘get it all right,’ you learn to pace yourself so that you can get through it all. Even if they’re not the managers, leading the team and delegating tasks to ensure smooth dispensary operations becomes second nature. They become omnipresent! It is not uncommon to ‘appear’ fully entrenched in verifying a prescription and suddenly find yourself rushing to the shop floor to catch Mr X from buying St. John’s wort because he is taking fluoxetine. A pharmacist is here, there and everywhere in the pharmacy! They have the unparalleled ability to recall information on demand, and they know their patients, by name, with their medication histories (which patients find creepy, especially when you happen to run into them whilst out and about!). They are masters of context-switching, without losing focus. While this is a skill they master out of extreme demand, it is also often the reason why errors may occur, and so, knowing when to context-switch safely is vital. (Context-switching refers to the process of switching your focus from one task or process to another.) It isn’t uncommon for a pharmacist to forget that they haven’t had their lunch or been for the toilet break they wanted to have seven hours ago! Underrated skills include communication skills that are second to none, along with the ability to simplify medical information. As the last professional a patient comes in contact with before they take their medicine, they are often the ‘translators’ of the patient’s health information, including answering questions that the patient should have asked the doctor in their appointment earlier in the day . . . (don’t you just love that!) Retail pharmacists may be the tamest creatures of their kind. I have had experiences ranging from crunched receipt papers thrown at me to having a patient cry on my shoulder when their loved ones are dying. What’s more intriguing is that you may literally only get a few minutes to switch your emotions from one patient to another, and so, as a retail pharmacist you are characterized by outstanding emotional adaptability. And finally, the most important clinical skill a pharmacist builds is the time-sensitive answering of clinical queries. We don’t get the luxury of ample time to answer queries (like health systems pharmacists might!); the patient is waiting for the answer there and then, so knowing where and how to find answers efficiently, all while you’re operating in the environment described earlier, makes retail pharmacists indispensable. It is fair to say that the retail pharmacy experience is character-building. Read: It’s time to explore pharmacy as the hope of healthcare The retail pharmacy experience was the foundation of my pharmacy career growth The retail pharmacy experience taught me skills, from time management to an aptitude for navigating complexities of all kinds, that I don’t believe I would have learned in any other pharmacy setting. This experience and the pressure to operate in a highly dynamic, somewhat stressful environment set me up for life. I have operated in a hospital and primary care pharmacy setting, and as an independent consultant, and I can attest that nothing equates to the pressure you see in a retail setting. If you can survive and thrive as a retail pharmacist, no endeavour is impossible for you. The foundational problem-solving skillset that I built as a retail pharmacist has nurtured my career growth and armed me with the tenacity required to tackle any project, task or even a new business venture with confidence and courage. Nothing ever feels harder than navigating a challenging day as a retail pharmacist! So, if you’ve been resisting exploring the unknown, I challenge you to do so, whether it’s a new skill, hobby or business idea. As a retail pharmacist, you master the skill to do so, whether you believe it or not. How can we make the retail pharmacy sector more attractive to pharmacists? Retail pharmacy, understandably, is not a career pathway that fits the bill for every pharmacist. As a working mum, I found the hours exceptionally challenging. I was just not there for my family, and while some employers understand the pressures on working mothers, not all of them are willing to offer the flexibility that allows a reasonable work-life balance. It is fair to say that the retail pharmacy sector could provide better support for working parents who are juggling work and family. At present, it seems more suited to early and late-career pharmacists. I also felt that my clinical skills as a pharmacist were significantly under-utilized. My heart’s desire after five years of university education was a reasonable opportunity to apply my clinical skills, however, in most roles, 70% of my time was spent dispensing and verifying scripts. These are tasks that in this day and age should be automated. Retail pharmacy has the perfect advantage of being accessible to patients, and so puts pharmacists at the forefront of healthcare. But, in order to retain pharmacists in the sector, I think we need to change the paradigm of practice in how we define retail pharmacy. We need to define retail pharmacies from being ‘retail stores’ to ‘clinical hubs.’ I reimagine our retail pharmacies as clinical hubs with consult rooms, offering clinical services such as: Point of Care Tests Vaccinations, with a focus on addressing vaccine hesitancy Comprehensive Medication Management Remote Patient Monitoring Minor Ailment Advice and Treatment Pharmacogenetic testing Nutrigenomic Testing Holistic Health Advice Herbal Medicine Advice General Pharmacist consults And the list goes on... Don’t you think if we call them ‘clinical hubs’ the perception around retail pharmacy would change? Don’t you think patients would be more willing to pay for and value our services when they view us in the same context they view their MDs? Don’t you think we are likely to retain more pharmacists in the ‘clinical hub’ model as we focus on value-based healthcare? I answer Yes to all of the above! Read: Speaking up for unity: Aska Patel on the power of stepping up—and stepping back Although I left retail pharmacy three years ago, in all truth, I would not be where I am today without my 10+ years of retail pharmacy experience. It is not an easy job. You work long hours.You deal with difficult situations. You have to put up with ever-changing regulations You never know what complexity is coming your way, from weird queries to abnormal doses to out-of-stocks... You are often the first point of contact for patients seeking medical advice. You spread yourself too thin, such that hardly any of you is left at times. You supported your communities during the pandemic. You are always there for your community. And you do all that with a smiling face because, at the end of the day, you know you’re making a positive impact on people’s lives! My retail pharmacy experience set me up for an amazing career and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. It gave me a strong foundation upon which I built my castle. For some pharmacists, retail pharmacy is their calling. For others, it may not be. And that’s OK too! We all have different purposes and aspirations in life. But if you are a retail pharmacist, don’t ever discount your retail pharmacy experience, it will shape you for the better, regardless of what path you pursue in your career! Katrina Azer is a precision medicine telepharmacist based in New Zealand, a practice consultant and author of the PharmXel blog.

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How my retail pharmacy experience set me up for a better pharmacy career

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Katrina Azer

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