Case studies: Pharmacist manager: Claire

Claire graduated from the University of Bradford in 2004 having completed a five-year sandwich course that incorporated two six-month pre-registration placements. The first placement was in a community pharmacy. The second was in a hospital pharmacy at a teaching hospital in West Yorkshire. Claire currently works for a large chain community pharmacy.

My career has developed in an unusual way. My first job was as a hospital pharmacist with a district hospital. This was rotational post, which lasted two years.

After a short period specialising in admissions and antibiotics, I made the decision to leave hospital pharmacy and move to community pharmacy. I did this mainly for personal reasons. I had maintained an interest in community pharmacy by spending some Saturdays as a locum. Shortly after becoming a regular locum in March 2007, I was approached and offered a job as pharmacist manager.

I have recently taken up a new responsibility as a regional trainer. This role involves spending two days a month delivering pharmacy education to a range of staff including pre-registration trainees, accredited checking technicians and healthcare assistants. I also work as a teacher practitioner two days a week.

My working day is 9am-5.30pm. I arrive in time to check my emails and read the 'daily bulletin' before opening up the store. The team meets briefly to discuss priorities for the day before the medicines order arrives. There is a certain amount of routine work as our store provides medicines to several nursing homes. Like all pharmacies, we have to prepare daily addiction collection prescriptions. I will check prescriptions to make sure they are clinically correct as well as accurate. Throughout the day, I watch over sales in the store and intervene or offer help if needed. Some medications require the pharmacist to perform the sale and I am required to monitor these. I might find myself telephoning a GP to confirm an unlicensed dose on a medication, counselling a patient following a cholesterol test, conducting a Medicines Use Review or discuss starting a dosette box with a patient if they are struggling with their medication.

The best thing about my job is the contact with patients and students. I have discovered that I have an aptitude for explaining things clearly to others, and this has influenced my decision to move into pharmacy education. Managing staff is the aspect of my job that I find most challenging.

My degree course prepared me well for working in pharmacy. It covered everything from clinical knowledge to counselling skills. However, I have found that, as a manager, it is also necessary to understand basics of business accounting such as profit and loss. This was not covered on my degree course, so I have had to teach myself.

As a pharmacist, it is essential that you love working with and talking to all sorts of people - from patients to fellow professionals. It also helps to have a good memory.

AGCAS

Sourced by Catherine Gregory, University of Bradford

Date: 

October 2009

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