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Bhavisha Patel - Relief Community Pharmacist

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Community Pharmacist, Bhavisha shares her day-to-day life of the role and his experiences in a community pharmacy

Transcript

00:00:00:02 [Speaker 1]: Yeah, it says goodbye. Wow. Uh, for granted is,  

00:00:27:19 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I mean we can, and we've always been able to do that. I mean, the tiniest things, for example, like emergency contraception, we're able to provide that, you know, um, a lot of people do have difficulties, you know, getting on the day appointments with their doctors and not everything necessarily needs to be seen by a doctor. So there are things that we can help with. So I'm definitely a big advocator 

00:00:58:01 for come see your pharmacist first, wherever we're able to help, we will do. So if we do think it is something serious, we will, of course advise you to go to the doctors. Um, but if we can help, why not? We're here. We're open. You can come on through and we're here to help. Yeah. I mean, I had an instance of that the other week, um, where I did 

00:01:37:20 have a patient come in. Um, and they were like, I don't think this is necessarily right with me. You know, I didn't want to go in like trouble, the doctor and I had a quick chat with them and I kind of realized that, 

00:01:59:05 you know, this now goes out of my scope of practice. This is something that needs to be seen to by a doctor. But at the same time, I also realized this wasn't something that, you know, she could just sit on and, you know, she would get better overnight. Um, it was quite a Jen and I did advise them to like book that appointment, um, with the doctors, you know, don't um, think that, um, we'll just settle by itself that she doesn't need to get seen to 

00:02:27:26 by the doctor.  

00:02:29:13 [Speaker 2]: Um, so she did that and later on, so a couple of weeks later that patient came in and unfortunately they got diagnosed with cancer. Um, but the good thing is that they are getting the treatment that they need now when the patient was so thankful, they came in, they were like, if I didn't speak to you and you didn't push me to make that doctor's appointment, um, I wouldn't have known any better. And I would have been in 

00:02:58:27 the state that was in previously. So when you hear stuff like that, that kind of really does kind of get, oh my gosh. Yeah. Um, it's the double-edged sword because you never wish a cancer diagnosis on anyone. You'd never want anyone to become ill. Um, I think your, you just go home at the end of the day, feeling glad that you know, 

00:03:31:17 that patient did come in and see you and that you did take that five, 10 minutes out and speak to them and actually help them. What is community 

00:03:57:28 pharmacy? So it's in the name, home C for the community, but we are literally there to aid, I'd say, um, dispense prescription only medicines, um, for the community. So that's, when you go see a doctor, they give you a prescription, it comes to the pharmacy and we make it up for you. Um, so there's people who have like chronic illnesses and we make prescriptions 

00:04:29:22 for them, um, regularly, whether it be like every month, every two months or so forth.  

00:04:34:22 [Speaker 2]: So that is always going on in pharmacy. You also have people who get prescriptions sent for see when they come down with, um, a bit of a chest infection or, um, a cold or something like that. Um, and then the doctor sends over a prescription for antibiotics or something. So more short-term things that we take care of. So that's the more dispensary side of pharmacy. You've also got stuff, um, over the counter. 

00:05:07:12 So you may have symptoms of a cold and you may come in and speak to the healthcare advisers, um, or the pharmacist or any of the pharmacy team to be honest. Um, and you can get over the counter advice as medicines, without seeing a doctor and without having a prescription, meaning paracetamol, you don't need to get them prescription. You can come in, see us and we can provide paracetamol when like pain, headaches, temperature, 

00:05:36:17 and then you have the consultation room. So that's where we're able to have, um, private, confidential, um, chats, um, services as well. So, um, otherwise blood pressure or, um, I think weight loss services, to be honest, we're able to carry that out within the consultation room, um, give 

00:06:04:10 you that advice or if needed, we're able to provide you medicine as well. So, and then without you seeing the doctor having that appointment, getting the prescription coming down and the shorten that, um, journey and coughs it out to just involve the pharmacist and the patient.  

00:06:24:18 [Speaker 2]: Um, yeah, I need that now. So when I was at university, um, I had a Saturday job, um, in a town like half an hour from where I lived. So he years ago when I became a pharmacist, um, I went back 

00:06:57:01 and I worked there as a pharmacist. So that was a really rewarding, um, experience for me knowing that, you know, I was there on the counter. That's where I normally work. And now was there behind the checking bench. And few years ago, like I was going up to some colleagues asking them for help on certain things. And then the role had narrow now reversed, you know, they were coming to me asking for like queries and helpful things. So 

00:07:27:06 that was definitely one of my, uh, standout moments on myself, like growing and developing as a pharmacist, um, from, you know, the Saturday girl to the responsible pharmacist in college. Yeah. A hundred percent. A few times, what do I want to do? Um, I think patient consultations as 

00:08:14:02 just the way forward, like making more use of like the consultation room. And, um, obviously, um, we do spend time, um, in the dispensary on the 

00:08:27:30 checking branch checking, but there is so much more that we have to offer and that we can give. Um, and I think a lot of people realize that you, when they have a chat with us in the consultation room or, um, some over the counter advice where we can make recommendations and they're like, oh, it doesn't have to see a doctor about that. So, no, you don't need to see a 

00:08:50:07 doctor about that. You've got me here and this is how I can help. Um, I'd probably say the next big thing will probably be, I'm looking at people's genes and stuff and being able to analyze them and then provide the appropriate healthcare advice or medicines, um, going forward. I think they'll probably be in my lifetime at some point, maybe not next year, but definitely within my lifetime. Yeah. Yeah. Or even like cholesterol, you 

00:09:35:06 know, like there's people who have, um, a greater affinity, you know, developing high cholesterol, being able to, um, identify that, you know, be 

00:09:48:16 life changing for so many people. Good question.  

00:10:00:05 [Speaker 1]: Promises impact. Hmm.  

00:10:06:27 [Speaker 2]: How has my professional journey impacted me as well, grown in confidence in some ways. Definitely. Um, I think it's a cycle that you go through. And like I said before, you know, you know, you're faced with the challenge of doing something new, your instinct is like, oh my gosh, I'll do this. How am I going to do this? And then eventually you go and do it. You can't create, I think like, oh, I can do this. And then 

00:10:35:29 before, you know, it you've mastered one thing, but then something else comes out of the woodworks and then that's a new thing for you to stuff. Um, I think clinically as well, um, where pharmacies like moving forward, like ensuring that, you know, you're up to date with like the latest, um, clinical practices and what's going on to ensure that, you know, you can give the best and the correct healthcare advice, um, products available. 

00:11:10:30 Um, I think, yeah, that's one thing we do like tidy pharmacies. Um, how's, it impacted me otherwise, I think time. Yes. And like, um, you'd want to fit other things in, so it's just like 

00:11:38:18 prioritizing and prioritizing your workload really. And I guess you take that out from the pharmacy and you do that, um, in your own personal life as well. I'm trying to figure out, you know, is it urgent? Is it important? Is it both and just, um, categorize things that way and plan your life around that really? Yep. Nope. Because if you have a career room pharmacy, 

00:12:24:07 you will, 100% make an impact on, um, people's lives. You will help nurture 

00:12:35:13 people, grow them as individuals to take better care of themselves and you will help save people, um, as well. Um, and you will grow as a person as well. So I think if you're a person who's interested in growing as a person, as well as helping others, this is the joke for you. Like you will help others and they will also teach you so many things that you not learn 

00:13:04:13 about yourself. And that's how you grow as a person to what was that question that I stumbled on earlier.  

00:13:22:29 [Speaker 2]: Wow. Okay. Thank you. I can't think of anything on 

00:13:55:24 the top of my head. I don't know if you wanted to have a look at your notes from last time, if there's anything that you wanted me to say again. Yeah, 

00:14:41:25 yeah, yeah. That's the thing. We are healthcare professionals, but we come 

00:14:58:10 down to the level of the community and whether it's like a five-year old or like an 80 year old or someone who's deaf, we have to communicate accordingly and that's what we're able to do. Okay. Uh huh. And then you 

00:15:43:23 just like, oh, I don't know. Yeah. And it's funny, so much freaking sort of encouraged him. Yeah. No, thank you. Let's try. I don't say okay. Okay. 00:16:19:26 Okay. Tell me what to do. Just do it. Okay. Okay.

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