00:00:00:07 [Speaker 1]: I know, sorry. I just realized Okay. Yeah. Um, public perception of pharmacies are really interesting one, 

00:00:37:19 I think because we, we don't have a huge presence in television, and I think a lot of people end up getting their perceptions of medical professions from TV. So I think we're always this, a bit of a Nygma where either the people in the white coat that ended up killing someone on a TV set, because we've taken the poisons from the pharmacy and given it to 

00:01:02:18 someone, or I think we're very much seen maybe as the public, by the public as shopkeepers, you know? So, um, I normally say to people they're happier to wait for their big Mac, uh, at the fast-food chin, um, where they're not happy to wait for their medicines that, you know, are, are potentially lifesaving. So we're very much seen sometimes as this kind of just picking 

00:01:30:20 the, a books off the shelf and, uh, Dustin thawing and then haunted the diets. And it's like, it's a real disconnect around what we actually do as pharmacists, um, and what the public sees. So I think it would be great if we could have some kind of, you know, character within one of the soaps that just really demonstrates the true benefits of a pharmacist. Cause we 

00:01:56:18 do have true benefits, which I hope this little series of, um, videos will, will get people to start to think of what really a pharmacist does.  

00:02:19:15 [Speaker 1]: Yeah, definitely. Um, that, that white coat image, I think very much still sticks in the mind of a lot of people. So, uh, we haven't kind of broken away from that yet. Um Yeah. And maybe it is because we aren't, um, as extrovert, we're probably 

00:02:49:19 very much behind the scenes, you know, where that last step between the patient, um, having been prescribed the medicines by the doctor, possibly informed about water, what it's for and how to use it, and then the patient actually getting their hands on it. So we are very much seen in the supply function and I suppose really that's what we've done, you know, quite a lot for the public over the last, maybe 10, 20 years or more, um, maybe much 

00:03:21:22 more in the Victorian times. And before we were seeing more around the putting things together, you know, people would have seen us in the back compounding or supposedly juries and our partners and our potions, um, and not kind of, I think, brought more magic to it. We're knowing it really is, you know, there's the books of medicines, you know, you'll have patients say to you, I can see it there. You know, why don't you just grab it off 

00:03:48:20 the shelf and give it to me? And it's like, well, it's a great that more than that, you know, because we're not compounding at anymore, but the clinical checks are still, still need to be there. We still need to make sure that it's appropriate alongside everything else that the patients get on.  

00:04:24:23 [Speaker 1]: I always knew I wanted to go into health care. Um, in my grammar school, you were either kind of in the medicine guideline or you were doing law and they were the kind of two areas that we were, I suppose, introduced to. And kind of, that was, that was, seemed to be what you should go into. And I wasn't a hundred percent sure I knew I wanted to do something to help people. Um, I knew it probably wasn't great at 

00:04:55:04 touching people, um, um, um, understanding maybe some of the physical things that were going on with people. So I thought, um, I would like to do healthcare, but I just didn't know what branch, so it wasn't until I went to Israel and I had a year, right. And I worked in a hospice. So this hospice was a multi-faith hospice that was run by an order of French nuns. Um, and I got to go down into the pharmacy. So when we had to give 

00:05:25:18 medicines to the patients, you know, I was able to go door and I seen these large gallon bottles of cough medicines, or, you know, big bowls of pills that people were dispensing idol for making up the medicines. And, and that's really where I suppose I kind of got the, the desire to do something that would help people maybe, uh, minimize their symptoms or really kind of make them much more comfortable in what was the end of life for the 

00:05:54:21 patients that I was looking after. So when I came back, I kind of investigated it a bit more. Um, and I know I have this, uh, crazy thing where I go to another country and I love to look at the pharmacy because it's also white in Europe, they're normally kind of white and clinical and it's like kind of, I sport the medicines that I know from, you know, back home. So yeah, I just liked the environment. It's got a nice feel to it, I 

00:06:22:11 think.  

00:06:35:25 [Speaker 1]: Well, I suppose it's that kind of, um, medicines or something. I think we've all had experience. So through our whole lives, you probably remember as a child, when you had an antibiotic that banana flavored medicine, you know, that tasted a bit yucky, but maybe tested, but nice. And when you were feeling really poorly taking that and then coming through and feeling better. So I think we've all had experience of 

00:07:05:20 medicines. I think it's something that's probably common for everybody. I don't think there's a person on the planet who hasn't taken a medicine of sorts. So for me, it was kind of, I could see the benefits that it could give. You could, you can almost, uh, certainly for the guys that were in the hospice who were maybe in quite a lot of pain or discomfort, you know, our time spent with them. So the physical contact in human contact was really important, but you could also actually see anyone who was in acute 

00:07:36:12 pain, the medicine given them that relief. And it was just really great to be part of that, to kind of start to know, well, why does not give the relief? You know, what else might not cause Hyde, we help patients get better and manage symptoms? Well, if I think like to my, um, current practice, so coming even further 

00:08:17:03 forward, you know, 20 odd years, um, and on my day to day practice, I know I realized that actually a big part of pharmacy is not the provision of medicines because you can handle it medicines, you know, uh, in many 

00:08:33:14 different countries. So I've with, uh, colleagues from Zambia, you know, where we have, um, in rural areas, these dispensaries that don't have pharmacists, you know, we have people that are trained up to handout medicine. So the medicine is actually only one band, but knowing, I realized my practice is so much more than hand handing the medicine. It's about how you communicate with someone. So they understand how to take the medicine, the benefit of the medicine actually truly understanding what's 

00:09:04:08 wrong with them. So, you know, the medicine is only one part or pharmacy, the communication and connecting with your patients and getting them to understand what they need to do with the medicine, because you can have a medicine that's amazing, you know, it's gone through lots of clinical trials, you know, what's really great for a condition, but if the patient doesn't take it in the right way or the intended way that medicine is of no 

00:09:32:22 benefit, cause it might sit in their cupboard or they might undertake it or, you know, uh, use it, uh, in overdose or, or so it could actually end up causing more issues for the patient.  

00:09:46:14 [Speaker 1]: So it's really about trying to get the patient educated around their medicines and about them kind of understanding their own condition so that they can appreciate the benefits of the medicine. So for me, like I suppose the big thing now is being able to communicate with people and actually pharmacies even sometimes about non-pharmacological interventions. So sometimes actually not giving someone a medicine is actually better than giving someone a medicine. So although we fix, uh, as 

00:10:20:00 pharmacists kind of focus on the medicines per se, actually it's much broader than that. And it's much more holistic approach knowing. Yeah. And I'm actually, um, that is the real beauty of pharmacy, you know, 

00:10:47:12 optimizing treatment and really optimizing treatment can be ensuring patients don't have that pill burden because if you speak to older people who have lots of, we call it poly-pharmacy. So it's where ma PA patients have the definition varies slightly, but it's normally four or more medicines while a lot of older people do. And it becomes so embedded in the, um, day to day routine that actually, you know, you're moving from one 

00:11:18:00 pill administration to the next to the next. And actually that is what becomes predominant in the life. Well actually that's not what we should be doing. You know, quality of life is PowerPoint and the medicine should just be in the background supplementing or helping to promote good quality of life. So, um, yeah, medicines optimization, deep prescribing is a huge part 

00:11:41:09 of being a pharmacist and ensuring patients get the best out of their meds.  

00:11:54:12 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. So, um, I'm lucky. Um, and kind of like a lot of pharmacists I've moved into what we call like a portfolio range of working. So we have more than one role within the world of pharmacy. So I've got, um, multiple facets of my pharmacy career with my main role being educating the next generation of pharmacists. So I'm really lucky to have that role with our undergraduate pharmacists, helping them, facilitating 

00:12:28:05 them to really maximize the room, potential, getting them to understand all the different facets of pharmacy and how they can, um, really work to use their, it Nant, um, skills that they come with, but also to develop those professional attributes and skills so that they can become a safe and effective pharmacist. Um, I also do post-graduate work around prescribing. 

00:12:56:12 So I have the pleasure of taking pharmacists who are already qualified and helping them to get to the role of the prescriber, which really just enhances their role, enables them to really help at the point of which the patient needs it, as opposed to saying, well, I think you need this, but I can't do that for you have to refer you on. So it really helps to build that role. And then I have the pleasure of, um, still working in community pharmacy, um, every week, only five hours mind 

00:13:27:03 you, but every week and, uh, getting to work with patients and to take all of that knowledge and skills. Cause I learned from the students themselves, there's nothing better than setting in on an assessment and hearing how someone comes across and how they really show empathy to a patient. And that helps me on my day to day practice. So I'm this eternal student I'm always learning, always bring a new things to my own practice, which makes 

00:13:54:04 it actually really quite refreshing. And then I've got other bits to my rule where, um, I will volunteer or I will, um, do some consultancy around drugs and sports. So I've had the pleasure of working in, um, the athletes village at the London 2012 Olympic games. So for me, the world of pharmacy has just kind of opened many doors, so many avenues to me that I've really 

00:14:21:23 kind of grabbed them with two hands and I'm really, um, try to develop, uh, areas that I find interesting.  

00:14:41:08 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. I, I really feel like I have, you know, um, I wouldn't say that's because I'm this amazing pharmacist it's because I really enjoy new challenges. I enjoy new environments and pharmacy enables me to kind of seek out those new challenges enables me to look for those new, um, things. So one of my bosses says I always like new shiny things. 

00:15:10:07 I'm, I'm the kind of person that's always seeking. What's the next new thing. Um, so I've had the pleasure of going to Australia to, um, collaborate with colleagues at Queensland university around projects, looking up prescribing and how we, um, educate prescribers. And so I gave a, a presentation when I was in Brisbane. So, you know, got to travel to Australia, which was just amazing. Um, I've also worked with colleagues in 

00:15:43:21 Zambia, uh, had the opportunity to go there. Unfortunately I wasn't available to go there. Um, so one of my colleagues went instead, but you know, to learn from other pharmacists globally. And I think that's really important, you know, uh, global pharmacy is a really great arena to get involved in and there are lots of ways for pharmacists to, to, uh, network internationally with other 

00:16:10:25 pharmacists, because we've got a lot of the same things, a lot of the same challenges and actually we're all at slightly different stages of the process and we're able to really, um, support and guide and help each other, I suppose. So it, it becomes a wider family. You know, we talk about pharmacy within the UK being the small little, um, network of, of, of 

00:16:38:13 people, but actually it's a, it's an international network of people and, and you can really, um, link up with anyone that has maybe the same kind of passion issue. So recently I've just been speaking to a colleague in America, who's also interested in drugs and sport, and that was possible through platforms like LinkedIn, you know, just reaching out, getting people to, um, understand where you're coming from and other things that 

00:17:10:18 I've done because, um, I'm interested in music.  

00:17:13:11 [Speaker 1]: I can't play anything. I can't claim that I have, uh, some musical progress. I, I just enjoy listening to me. It's like, um, I realized that, uh, there was an opportunity to volunteer for Glastonbury. So I just put myself out there, put an application in and managed to go to Gasper in 2005. And it was phenomenal. It was just amazing. Being able to be part of the medical services to support what really becomes like a small 

00:17:44:10 time, I suppose, of people in a field, a very muddy field, but then a field, you know, who still need, um, pharmaceutical support. So yeah, it was, it was great. Plus we got the pleasure of having porcelain toilets that flushed. So, you know, people going to go to a festival, that's the way to go  

00:18:10:19 [Speaker 2]: Was the highlight  

00:18:28:19 [Speaker 1]: Pharmacy's been evolving now, anything that's in the NHS generally takes a while for it to kick in. So we always talk about, Oh, this has recently happened in the NHS. And we actually are referring to things that happened, maybe a decade or a couple of decades ago. It can take a while, but aren't cheap. Pharmacy is picking up a Pierce. Um, we are the third largest group within Nana chest behind, um, doctors and nurses. So we have a, uh, a critical mass. We are certainly as a profession we're 

00:19:02:20 developing, we're really striving forward so that, um, our students on graduation post probably about 20, 26 will be prescribers. So any student coming in to new programs will be actually, um, studying to a new set of standards, which will enable them to be able to pay prescribers on the first day of registration.  

00:19:28:08 [Speaker 2]: Oh, it's huge.  

00:19:29:02 [Speaker 1]: It's massive. It really is massive and will open up even more opportunities. You know, we've, we've been talking about pharmacists prescribers for a number of years and it just has, we just haven't had that critical mass of pharmacists prescribers to really make massive difference in a kind of, um, public perception way. But certainly our current pharmacy prescribers are invaluable to our medical professionals, to our, our other allied health professionals. You know, 

00:20:02:05 they are seen as a great asset, a great resource. And if you speak to anybody currently working in general practice, um, they will be able to tell you how fantastic being part of that multi-disciplinary team is and how well they're, they're seeing within the multidisciplinary thing. You know, we have pharmacists who are now going on to be, um, partners in 

00:20:26:04 general practice. You know, we, we didn't have that five, 10 years ago. So, you know, that's a new area for pharmacists to go into. Um, I talked to my students and I say, well, what interests you? You know, what is it that, that really gets you excited? What, what, what is it that makes you feel that you want to just really explore new new areas? And I think because pharmacy and because medicines are a key thread throughout so many 

00:20:59:05 different things that we do as just human beings, there's potentially a rule for a pharmacist in nearly anything and everything. If you can, you know, be passionate enough and really work hard at that, I genuinely feel that there is a rule for a pharmacist because it's incorporates health and wellbeing. You know, it incorporates, um, good quality of life if you have 

00:21:27:17 either a chronic or acute condition, um, and the transferable skills that you get from being a pharmacist.  

00:21:36:01 [Speaker 1]: So I've had the pleasure of having thousands of students go through, um, the, the modules that I, that I lead. Um, and I can see pharmacists really taking those transferable skills and maybe not staying in the world of pharmacy per se, but going into, um, pharmaceutical companies, um, developing new drugs or possibly being part of the team that, um, markets new drugs, or I've seen form Cisco into, uh, public 

00:22:07:22 health arenas, where they really look up bigger public health issues, where, where medicines will be a huge help. So it's a wide scope. Lots of things are possible. Oh, so excited. Um, I really feel lucky to have had so many students that 

00:22:34:25 are fantastic. And, you know, I, I try to look out to see where they're going to see where it is that they end up. Um, and I've just recently set up a mentor scheme within the university of Sussex, our current undergraduate pharmacy students. Um, and because I've got such a brilliant network of really successful pharmacists, I was able to just use LinkedIn 

00:23:04:02 as a platform to reach out to them. And we not only harm, I think it's something like 12 of our undergraduate pharmacists being supported with, uh, supported by pharmacists who were my previous students. So it's just a really nice way of looking at the circle and seeing them really being able to inspire, you know, the next generation as well. So certainly communication and networking is paramount. So with regards to 

00:23:48:04 day, one of, um, being within your, your first year at university for pharmacy, there is a real emphasis on getting you to meet your peers 

00:24:01:19 because peer learning is such a useful tool. You know, we are there as lecturers to facilitate the learning to kind of guide it support. But actually if you get a good group of peers, a roaring G then peer learning is fantastic and lots of the universities will also have, and peer support systems so that they can make sure that the pharmacy students that come in, 

00:24:31:07 you know, day one we'll have opportunities to network with, uh, older students so that they get that kind of guidance. So they don't feel like they are, um, just being left to, to find their own way. We try everything that we can to make sure that they feel supported.  

00:24:52:04 [Speaker 1]: Um, and what we'll also be doing. It's, it's really about trying to in year one, make sure everybody's at the same baseline of, of core knowledge around the sciences, because pharmacy is based on a scientific degree, you know, but we also incorporate lots of the practice aspects. So your communication skills and your professionalism, you know, 

00:25:22:22 it's really about day one, making sure that pharmacists, pharmacy students are aware they're entering a profession. So with that comes extra rules and responsibilities. So, you know, you don't turn off your professionalism when you close your office door at six o'clock in evening, you're a pharmacist in all aspects of your life. So we do have to ensure that the 

00:25:51:06 students are aware that they're signing up to a professional program and they need to be aware of what that means to them in their studies, but also in their personal life. So we, we really do need to, uh, encourage their development personally so that they can become mature adults. Um, I mean, many of them will be coming to us as a mature students. Anyway, you know, pharmacy is the, um, type of 

00:26:22:06 degree where actually we find that some of our mature students make the best students because they've got that underpinning, um, professionalism that enables their professional judgment. Um, but yeah, we really try and support and we try to develop them as a pharmacist, but also as a person, because to me, when I have students that come for open days, I say to them, 

00:26:49:08 it's really important that you like the place that you're going, because you're going to be there for four years. So actually your environment and the people around you and the lectures and, and what the city is like, or, or the, the location that's as important as the degree program itself, because you'd need to develop as a person as well, not just as a professional  

00:27:19:05 [Speaker 1]: Well, we've got a really, um, so I worked at the university of Brighton and the university of Sussex, or I'm currently in Sussex. We have a very small program in Sussex. So if I, if I pull of my experiences from the university of Brighton, we have a really diverse group, which has just fantastic, you know, we've got very outgoing, um, students and those that are maybe a bit more reserved. Um, but we, we 

00:27:49:07 certainly see them develop over the four years. We see them grow and confidence, grow and capabilities really flourish. And as I say, it's all for me about trying to get the student to maximize their own potential. You know, what is it that they want? So one of my main focuses, both the university of Brighton in university of Sussex is career development, 

00:28:13:16 career pathway. Where is it that you want to be knowing that might make it? So, like I say from day one, you need to know where you want to be in five, 10 years time. And that's not true because, you know, as she gained experiences, um, you, your, your desires, your thoughts, your words might change. Um, but it's getting them to realize that I actually, there are certain key under printing key underpinning principles of being a pharmacist. So respect, honesty, integrity, uh, good communication. You 

00:28:50:23 know, all of those things can be transferred into all aspects, all sectors of pharmacy, or if they choose that they want to do something completely different. There are great transferable skills to have as well.  

00:29:18:01 [Speaker 1]: Well, the Olympic games is a standard moment and that's probably only superseded by the Paralympic games because the Paralympic games in my mind were even bigger than the Olympic games. She never was the first time ever that the Paralympic games seemed to have a really big audience. It was embraced by the whole of London. Um, and so having those experiences of sitting in the poly clinic, which was in the 

00:29:52:15 middle of the athlete's village, so absolutely beautiful environment to be within, you know, state of the art, uh, poly clinic, where we had optometrists, um, physios. We had podiatrists, we had doctors, you know, we had state of the art x-ray machines. We'd got everything that you could think of, um, was in this one building. And we were at the very front of 

00:30:18:24 the building. So all of the athletes walking in, or the coaches or the support family, we were there to meet and great and answer any of the questions and the queries that they had because clearly in sport, there are, there are certain medicines that are bond. So there's a thing called WADA, the world anti-doping agency. And then you have a list of drugs that are deemed to either be performance enhancing or, 

00:30:48:20 um, or bond due to the potential harms to the, the athletes. So we have to be extremely cautious when we have athletes come in and we have many athletes come in from countries across the world, um, asking for minor ailment, um, treatments, such as, um, diarrhea, coughs and colds, you know, lots of different things. And we had to be very cautious about what we were 

00:31:17:22 giving. I'm being really aware of the true benefits of this drug, because, you know, anything you give has potential consequences. So it, it better to give better note to give, you know, what, what are we aiming for? What's the goal of the treatment here? So it was a real collaborative process, which is great because shared decision-making with your patients or the guardians or whoever's involved in the treatment process is really it's 

00:31:45:16 really, um, rewarding because you're getting the patient to also understand, you know, if treatment is necessary or if treatment isn't necessary.  

00:31:55:22 [Speaker 1]: And I remember doing a open day talk at the university of Brighton after my experience in the Olympic games. Um, and I was watching it only the other day. And I remember the big thing was with given night, a huge number of condoms at the Olympic games and people were making, um, kind of puns by the, in the, in the press, you know, about how many condoms were given, but actually there was a real key public health 

00:32:27:02 message, uh, rowing, you know, using condoms to prevent disease and to prevent pregnancy. And that was really key, you know, being able to actually speak to some athletes from countries where maybe, you know, free condoms, weren't the norm, and then being able to talk to them about, well, have you thought about having HIV tests, have you thought about having a 

00:32:53:20 committee, a task? Tell me so about, you know, how you make sure that the sexual partners you have are going to, um, not be at risk or you're not going to be at risk. And although it was like a really fun thing, everybody coming in or can have a packet of condoms, it actually enabled those really opportunistic discussions, which actually could have potentially significant impact, not just for that individual, but for that country, you know, so high, high things were happening in different countries. So that's 

00:33:25:21 probably one of the best moments and I really thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just fantastic experience.  

00:33:39:25 [Speaker 2]: Yeah.  

00:33:48:23 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. That's exactly what it was, John. We were like the hub, we became this place to hang out, you know, um, to kind of just we're a big TV. So people were able to watch what was going on in the various different venues. Um, there was a lot of hustle and bustle because it was this third for, of other people coming in for dental appointments, optometry, whatever it was, we were just there to meet. Great. And, um, to 

00:34:19:14 be someone to talk to, you know, if the word feeling anxious, you know, so it w it was a really great experience. Oh, sorry. It's cause I talked too much. Apologies.  

00:35:01:03 [Speaker 2]: Yeah,  

00:35:01:12 [Speaker 1]: Definitely. Um, so on graduation, um, I decided that I wanted to be a community pharmacist. So my first role was community pharmacy. And I think I decided community pharmacy probably because 70% of students go into community pharmacy. That's where the biggest number of placements are. It's what probably, if you ask anybody well in the public, where do you say pharmacists, what you sit in the pharmacy or in the 

00:35:32:25 chemist shop. So, you know, it's the, it's the kind of go-to for most students, things are developing and that's not a really true anymore. But when I graduated at 20 years ago, actually this year, that was where, um, I went and, uh, it's where I'd had the most experience. So it's where I felt most comfortable. So I, I was a community pharmacist to begin with. Um, on 

00:36:01:06 registration, I went to a very large, uh, multiple, uh, um, became a manager because that's kind of how you develop within community pharmacy.  

00:36:14:09 [Speaker 1]: Usually you're a pharmacist, you develop into a pharmacy manager, and then if you want to continue with the retail route, you might go up into store manager and, and so on. But I became a pharmacy manager, which enabled me to work really closely with my primary care colleagues and got me to realize that there was more to the world of pharmacy and it kind of just opened that door. And I thought, Hm, I can do other things here. I don't ha I don't have to be in the, the, the retail 

00:36:46:06 environment I can be in, um, other areas of pharmacy. So I, I maintained my community pharmacy commitment because I think being patient facing is really important for me. I find that it's something I've thoroughly enjoy. Um, and it keeps me up to date with what's happening for my colleagues who are in community, but I moved into primary and I became what we call a 

00:37:11:23 prescribing advisor. So go to GP surgeries, and I would look at what they were prescribing, and I would help them rationalize the prescribing mother that'd be on a financial basis, or whether that be along side guidelines, you know, so everything's always changing in pharmacy. You know, the first line drug that you recommend will be different in 10 years time normally, or it might even be different in a couple of years time. So I supported my, um, GP 

00:37:41:14 colleagues around their prescribing, um, developing policies, um, looking at their spend, looking at ways we could rationalize and support prescribing within primary care. That led me to a rule of primary care locality manager, which was a slightly different role to prescribing adviser because I started to look at the overall budgets of GP surgery. So I was looking after multimillion point budgets, uh, for patients going for 

00:38:12:18 elective or non-elective surgery, um, visits to hospital.  

00:38:17:22 [Speaker 1]: I had a project where I looked at patients who were regularly going into hospital, trying to understand what was causing this, uh, continual need to be in hospital. And a lot of it was around social care needs. So working with social care colleagues to try and put packages in place to really safeguard those patients, um, and dance, or always had an element, those rules always had an element of training. Cause I worked with, um, pharmacy technicians, or I would be working with community 

00:38:53:21 pharmacy colleagues, and I would be providing training. So training became something that was kind of embedded, ingrained in what I was doing. So I approached the university, um, and I started working with the university, um, sourcing funding to provide training on a more, um, regional basis. And not that may then into academia where I, um, then became a lead for 

00:39:22:23 prescribing and for some of our other postgraduate programs. So, um, providing training for, um, folks undergraduate and post-graduate students. Um, and that's really where I'm at at the minute, but always with that background of new exciting projects, whether that be drugs and sports, 

00:39:47:14 so have continued to learn through this whole process. So being a pharmacist, uh, the, the, the attorney and you will unfortunately, or fortunately I enjoy it. So it's something that I thrive on and I'm my next project is hopefully going to do a doctorate. So my next big thing is to, to sign up to that, you know, four or five years of learning. Um, so that's 

00:40:17:10 kind of where my career has been. And as I say, um, different bits of volunteering and, um, consultancy work with things like, um, the PGA tour. So the, uh, professional golf association tour. So I go along to Wentworth every year and talk to them about their medicines management policies and support them around prescribing issues for the professional golfers. So, 

00:40:44:08 yeah, lots going on. I'd like to have a, uh, a personal life that goes on alongside that as well. Yeah. Well, I th I think, I think it is that thing 

00:41:08:14 of the new shiny thing. What's next, what's next always looking for a  

00:41:20:09 [Speaker 1]: I think the beauty of pharmacy for me is the networking. So it's enabled me to have so many colleagues and friends in different parts of the country, different parts of the world, um, that it's really just enriched my life, you know, so I've, and because it's enabled me to, I suppose, hone my networking and communications skills, I know 

00:41:51:11 volunteer, um, with my local, uh, community. So I, I'm part of I'm a secretary for my local gardening club don't know anything about gardening, but that's not what I need to be able to do. I need to be able to pull people together. So we do lots of fundraising events, which is fantastic. Um, and I'm also, um, secretary for a small organization in Brighton called 

00:42:20:17 the camp tiny secret garden. So it's this gorgeous little, um, garden that's hidden and in camp tine hidden away. And we put on, um, exhibitions of quite famous artists. So, uh, most recent one before long time was William pie. So I was involved in, you know, meeting and greeting and helping the trustees rowing that. So it's just really enriched my life because it's given me so many 

00:42:47:06 transferable skills and just the, no, sorry, I don't know, because I don't know what I would have done had I not done pharmacy. Um, yeah, I, I really don't know. I think for me, if I was talking to my 18 year old self again, 

00:43:19:16 if I was able to try and, you know, go back, um, I would just say, you know, harness all opportunities, but maybe become a little bit more focused because what you might find from other pharmacists that you speak with that they have maybe not hard as much variety in what they've done, but they've maybe stuck with one area. And maybe depending on how you view progress 

00:43:46:01 further in not one field, you know, they may have, um, become much more expert in that one field. Whereas I have a very broad knowledge. And so I think would I have done it differently? Probably not. I probably would have said to myself, make sure that you go to Rio 2016. Cause I did have a place on Rio 2016, but wasn't able to, to fulfill that commitment, unfortunately, um, due to other things, but, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's been a world when 

00:44:19:21 then it's just been really enjoyable. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. And I suppose there's just no looking forward. What's my next thing. What's the next big thing to do?  

00:44:40:09 [Speaker 1]: Oh, completely. Oh, I mean, but I, I have always loved learning and I, and I think that's really key that people have to realize that this is a lifelong learning profession, like all of the healthcare professions, because things don't stay static. So what you learn in university, unfortunately may not ring true 10, 20 years down the line. And what I mean by that is not that the concepts will change. So not the 

00:45:10:15 underpinning knowledge and concepts, but because we become better at trading conditions because we get better medicines, you know, things evolve, we need to be able to evolve with it. And that's really, really key. If you want something where you're going to just learn that I never changed your views or never change what you want to do, then don't go into pharmacy because it's an ever evolving area. And we are going into probably 

00:45:41:06 one of our most exciting periods in, uh, the pharmacy profession, because we're moving to this, every registering and becoming a prescriber, we're moving towards pharmacists being truly integrated into the NHS family. Um, and it really is just a degree that enables you to do so many things. If 

00:46:07:04 you are willing to put the work in, if you can be passionate about it and just, you know, really, truly maximize your own potential. Oh no, that's okay.  

00:46:35:15 [Speaker 2]: No,  

00:46:36:24 [Speaker 1]: The big, the big thing that we find when I, well, what I find when I speak to my, my students is some of them feel like they've been kind of sold a lie, so I don't want this to necessarily go in, but that what they've, what they think is they don't realize that you kind of got to go through all of the aspects of being a pharmacist. So when you're usually in training, you know, you might be asked to put the 

00:47:06:19 medicines on the shelf, you know, unpack the delivery, or you might be asked to, you know, and I don't know, go and get the coffee, make a coffee, or you might be, you know, you might be asked to do these things that kind of what people feel sits outside of the realms. Well, I haven't spent five years in education to do this. Um, and I always think that when I talk about my pharmacy journey, that people think that I'm almost telling them 

00:47:37:07 AFib, you know, that can't happen. But I think it's the people that prevent themselves from getting where they want to be as opposed to pharmacy. And I don't know how to put that. I don't know how to say other than maximizing your own potential, finding something that you're truly interested in.  

00:47:59:13 [Speaker 1]: It's kind of making them aware that the need to go with the, the, the needs of rule with the ups and the dimes, you know, you have to, it won't failure is okay. That's something that I would like to say to pharmacists. So Ryan, you know, we have a lot of students who do not like to get it wrong, but getting it wrong is part of the process of learning. If you don't get it wrong, you can't learn from your mistakes. 

00:48:31:17 No, by that, I'm not saying have a catastrophic error that leads to patient harm or leads to death because clearly we have to, as pharmacists support with that, you know, that's where our training kicks in, you know, we're problem solvers, we're managing risk. We're always looking at what is the, the risks, benefits calculator, you know, the benefits really have to weigh 

00:48:58:20 the risks for us to be able to go forward with something. But when you're in an environment, especially in your undergraduate, speak up, say what you think if you get it wrong, it's usually okay. Because it means at least you're formulating ideas, you're formulating, um, those kinds of processes that you need to get to, to be a good problem solver. So 

00:49:29:08 failure is okay. And to see it as being okay, and as part of the learning process, so get involved, be engaged, speak up, say what you think, um, and then take that learning and experience and change it as you move forward, because it's okay to get it wrong usually. And there is that caveat, you know, it's okay to get it wrong. So, yeah, but it's really interesting. The 

00:50:01:00 students I've asked them directly before standing up in the front of a lecture theater of a hundred students and going, why won't you answer getting frustrated and likable? I don't want to get it wrong. And it's like, it's okay. I constantly get it wrong. But I learned from that, it's the learning from that  

00:50:38:09 [Speaker 1]: Well, it's like what I say to the students, the, the, um, cause people say, well, I do want to ask a stupid question and I'm like, well, there are no stupid questions. The only stupid question is the question not asked. So how do you, how do you know? Yeah. But it, but it's part and parcel of it. It isn't that. So, yeah, that would probably be the main thing, making sure that people realize it's okay to get it wrong as 

00:51:09:21 long as you can own it, learn from it and change, whatever it is that you've done wrong to get to the right place. Yeah. Completely. Completely. Okay. Well thank you very much. It's really 

00:51:40:12 nice to see you again.  

00:51:44:23 [Speaker 2]: Yes. Oh yeah. That probably would help. Can I just have a wee sip of Coke? So my name and my role. Okay. So hi, my name is Claire may. My rule is senior 00:52:10:02 lecturer in pharmacy practice at the university of Sussex.