Gulrazi - Pharmacy Technician

Joanne Neophytou-Linn - Pharmacy Technician - Meds Op & Community service

Community Pharmacy Technician

Atika Tailor - Community pharmacist

David Howells - Area manager

00:00:24:10 [Speaker 1]:. What frustrates you about how the public may misunderstand pharmacy or what a pharmacist does?  

00:00:38:16 [Speaker 2]: I think from, from my aspect, I think people are, people have an opinion that pharmacy is something where we pick it off the shelf and it become, and it should be ready. What takes you so long? Um, unfortunately people don't have a full understanding of the fact that it's, everything is checked, you know, probably three times or twice in the, in, in each cycle of dispensing. So I think from my aspect, it's that, well, what's taking so long, uh, when actually, if you went to, uh, say a and E or something along those lines, you don't say to the doctor what's taking 

00:01:12:19 you so long. If you're waiting for a result to be interpreted as, uh, you know, both, both things can be as fatal if incorrect.  

00:01:23:08 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. There's similar things for most people's company, um, from going back. Yeah. What prompted you to get into pharmacy in the first place?  

00:01:33:20 [Speaker 2]: So, actually pharmacy for me was something that I've always wanted to do probably since the age of probably about 12. Um, so it was one of those careers that I perhaps, I think my love of it came from when my granddad was ill. And, uh, there was a pharmacist that had a good bedside manner. Um, and as a result, I felt like I could make a difference.  

00:01:54:04 [Speaker 1]: Yeah, that's right. How many people know what I want to do when as well  

00:02:01:07 [Speaker 2]: As I say it was something that I always wanted to do. And that's, I think from, from my aspect, you know, whether perhaps w why I feel quite a strong connection to pharmacy  

00:02:12:24 [Speaker 1]: Keeps you excited about pharmacy. That's true. I think probably just  

00:02:20:23 [Speaker 2]: The fact that it could have such a good future and we can, as pharmacists, I know it's not just pharmacists, but pharmacy technicians, dispensers, medical, healthcare assistance. I think we can all make such a big difference. Um, and I think, you know, seeing how technology is going to develop alongside healthcare. So I think that's probably one of the most exciting factors that moment with robot dispensing, you know, um, there's a big argument to say that long-term, that will be the way forward, which should allow pharmacists to be able to focus more clinically, um, on actually helping the patient, which goes back 

00:02:51:21 to what my love was and what made me do it when I was 12  

00:02:58:12 [Speaker 1]: Kind of firstly, tell us what your role is and then describe what you do in that role. Yep.  

00:03:08:22 [Speaker 2]: So my name's David, um, I'm the area manager for camp sins. So I look after, um, a large area of, of Kempson. So Clemson has got 85 shops. I look after about sort of eight 17 of them, um, ranging from West Sussex all the way across to Dorset. I've got some in Luton. Um, and then I've got some sort of just slightly more inland, like in sort of pool bruh as well. So my, my role is to support all of those, um, on a day-to-day basis. Um, and then also I'm a pharmacist as well, fully 

00:03:40:24 qualified pharmacist. So practice within the shops, um, within that scope, um, normally normally in my, in my set of shops, but sometimes if the company requires, then I'll go somewhere else for, for a day and work somewhere else, which, you know, for me, gives a lot back because I get to work in a big, you know, a nice, every setting is different and has its own little niches and every patient sort of demographic is different as well.  

00:04:06:22 [Speaker 1]: What'd you enjoy most?  

00:04:10:24 [Speaker 2]: So my job now is, is moved away a little bit from day-to-day pharmacy in some aspects. Um, so I do a lot of sort of managing staff management, problem solving. Um, but then what I do, I like that I get that variation of one day is very much management problem solving, making sure, you know, and then the next day could be actual being the pharmacist for the day. I think for me, that's what I enjoy is the variation, but I very much enjoy having that constant sort of contact with 

00:04:40:22 the patients and also helping the dispensers to evolve with the system.  

00:04:45:04 [Speaker 1]: What does that contact with patients look like? When do you feel like you'll make a difference?  

00:04:51:24 [Speaker 2]: I think, you know, it's, so there's lots of services that are offered from the NHS at this point, um, from a pharmacy setting. So whether it be a flu jab travel vaccinations, uh, M U R S, which have what we call medicine news reviews, which actually have now just been ceased, but they now do something called them discharge medication service, uh, where people can now, um, very much sort of get involved, um, in terms of the hospital will send a discharge through to the pharmacy and the pharmacy can follow up and make sure that that's all correct and then 

00:05:24:14 follow up and make sure if the patient needs any counseling. So I think that makes a difference, um, the service breadth. Um, and then interestingly, I think, you know, just on the ground, speaking to your patients and having that contact and did you know, you should take it after food.  

00:05:38:17 [Speaker 2]: Did you know that you should be taking it, you know, on an empty stomach? Do you know you should be taking it at night time? Do you know if you don't take this at, if you don't take it in the morning, you might as well not bother taking it. If you take it with this tablet, you know, all the things that people don't realize because no one ever tells them. And that's why I think when you sit with them and then they come in two weeks later and say, I feel so much better. That's making a difference, I think is, is the rewarding part of the job.  

00:06:06:06 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. Moments still stick with you that you've had with patients, perhaps  

00:06:12:24 [Speaker 2]: Plenty. Um, you know,*** I've had patients where they've come in, um, and I've had to refer them, uh, where I've tested their cholesterol and their blood pressure, and I've referred them to the GP. And two days later they've been having triple bypass surgery and we've avoided them from having a heart attack***. Um, so, you know, that's just one of the incidents that happened probably actually actually quite early on in my career. Um, and then, you know, ranging from that to another time where, you know, uh, patients come in and it's been a simple thing where you've 

00:06:43:12 just sat down and gone through the whole list of medication, um, and made them feel at ease of what they're taking and why they're taking it. Uh, and then as a result, they actually take it better, feel better. And, you know, hopefully don't then end up in the doctor's room again, because they're actually adhering to their medication rather than not  

00:07:03:08 [Speaker 1]: Something about policy that you think makes it unique and healthcare.  

00:07:11:15 [Speaker 2]: Well, I think, yeah, I think, well, I mean, we have a specialism in the medication and I think that people don't realize that. Um, I think that that for me, is something that we offer, um, and, and service driven and making sure that we do all the things that we need to do. Um, in terms of testing cholesterol, blood pressure, et cetera. Um, I think it's, it's a one stop shop where we can offer that in a pharmacy. Now you can't often there are some, but there aren't many doctors surgeries. 

00:07:45:02 Oh. So these people need to come in as well. And, um, I market and Mark is here as well.  

00:07:57:21 [Speaker 1]: Oh, don't say that. Yeah.  

00:08:14:13 [Speaker 2]: Um, sorry. You were saying about how, you know, from our aspect, what does pharmacy offer that people don't know about rarely. And, and it is that, you know, you can go to your pharmacy and you could have your blood pressure checked, you can pick up your medication and you could have your travel vaccination all in one visit. If you go through a GP, yes. You could have that done, but will you then, will you come away with your medication at the same time? Um, I think, you know, that's what we offer, but I don't think it's necessarily sold as that. Um, and I think 

00:08:44:15 for me, that's, that's, that's my job and you know, other pharmacist jobs to get that across that, you know, we can offer a lot more than what is actually seen, I think. Yeah. Yeah. That's why people, a lot of people, if you ask them what they want to do, they often say doctors, they often say, so this is, but you don't get loads of people saying pharmacy. And I think actually it's an under, you know, an underrated sort of skill and job set that we want to be promoting. Hence the reason for this video,  

00:09:14:16 [Speaker 1]: What do you think is the best way to sell it? Because it's a long standing problem that people are crushed by it?  

00:09:25:03 [Speaker 2]: I think probably from my aspect, I think the biggest thing is, is publicizing it and making people think about that job. So a lot of people don't think, I know I'll do pharmacy and they don't give that a go. So I think we need to get to the bottom of it, starting at the young Raiders. It's only by luck that I liked it, that I fancy doing it from a young age, but if we can target, you know, not so much 12, I think that's quite young, but I think, you know, 15, 16, 17, when you're in that age, give them some exposure to what the, what the job is rather than making 

00:09:58:15 them think that if I'm going to do anything in the medical world, I want to be a nurse or a doctor. Um, you know, we've got to think we've got to start making people think that actually the pharmacy is a useful tool and the pharmacist. And I suppose you've got to make the job more attractive. Um, not that it's not, but people have to realize why it's attractive. And you know, the salary generally is, is quite inviting. You know, the job role is generally most, most people, most pharmacists work within a spectrum of 

00:10:27:16 hours. There are on calls because that's how we have 24 hour services. But I think people need to realize that it, it can be quite a nice work-life balance. Yeah.  

00:10:38:05 [Speaker 1]: Some people told us how flexible it is, Chris  

00:10:47:09 [Speaker 2]: And you, you know, I think the job security aspect of it is very good. You know, people are always going to need medicines. It's never not, that's never going to not go away at this point. So I think from our aspect, I think it's something to be mindful of that if you're looking for something that's a good, steady job, reliable, you know, it's not, it's a good field to be in. And I think that equally it can be as exciting or as calm as you want to throw yourself into it. Yeah. You can do training for loads of services or you can be a run of the mill pharmacists 

00:11:20:02 that turns up every day and does the checking it's, you know, I think the job is like most jobs, what you make of it. Unfortunately, most people see it as the bit where they're behind the counter and they're checking, but there's a lot more to it than that in this day and age.  

00:11:35:23 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. That's something we do with this project. Would you be able to briefly give us the bullet points of your career today? Tell us what attracted you to that role?  

00:11:58:05 [Speaker 2]: So I started off as a Saturday member of staff when I was in university. Um, so I did, you know, literally worked alongside the pharmacist as the assistant, and that could be just preparing the medication, sweeping the floor, cleaning the toilet or whatever was needed really as Saturday member of staff. Um, and I think that was quite important as a, as a first and foremost, because it gave me the foundations as to what I wanted to do. Um, and then from there I went and did my pre-register training year. Um, so that involved a year, working in 

00:12:32:14 shadowing, a pharmacist, working with the dispensary team, working out what the demographics were. You can do that in lots of different settings. I, I chose to do it in community, but you can do it in hospital and then next day, and as you can do it in a GP practice as well.  

00:12:46:00 [Speaker 2]: Um, so I did that. And then following that, I worked as a, sort of an employed pharmacist in a, in a shop that was extremely busy and gave myself as much clinical exposure to as much as I could. It was in a GP surgery. So I had good links with the GPS. Um, and then following that, I then actually managed that shop. Um, so it was one of the busiest shops in Sussex. Um, if not in the UK, it would be sort of in the top hundred for her visit would be, um, so did that for a long time for 

00:13:16:05 about two and a half, three years, and then became an area manager, um, looking after, uh, first it was 12 shops I think, and each year seems to, you know, one extra or something like that. So now on 17, um, and that's partly because of, captain's obviously, you know, trying to expand and that's, cause it's exciting. It's, you know, it's what we want pharmacy to be. And I'm trying to work with the pharmacist, work with the teams to push the services forward, you know, to make sure that people are aware that pharmacy is exciting, um, 

00:13:49:01 just to make sure that pharmacy is exciting. Um, and just, and just to make sure that, you know, people feel motivated to want to come to work. A big part of my job now is not to be a pharmacist it's to work with the counter assistance and the, the pharmacy technicians to, to make the job enjoyable for everybody and, and make it manageable on a large scale volume. I mean, the shop we're standing in now, um, you have 20 years ago did 6,000 items 

00:14:16:01 and now it's doing 26,000 items a month.  

00:14:20:03 [Speaker 1]: You have to,  

00:14:21:16 [Speaker 2]: They're equipped for that and you have to make the staff enjoy that because it is high pressure. I can't, I'm not going to stand here and tell anybody it's an easy job, but it's a rewarding job and that's the most bit, yeah. The bit to enjoy it.  

00:14:35:03 [Speaker 1]: Can you say that again?  

00:14:37:10 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I said, I'm not saying it's an easy job, but it's certainly a rewarding job. And I think, you know, you get out of it, what you put in and that's the most important bit for me.  

00:14:48:05 [Speaker 1]: Thanks. You try to do as motivate. Yeah.  

00:14:52:07 [Speaker 2]: Uh, lots of different things, you know, making sure that the staff levels are right. Um, making sure that, you know, they feel supported. I think that's one of the biggest things that I've read books, um, like the junior doctor books where they, you know, they basically say that they don't feel that well supported and you're on your own and things. I think my job as a manager, particularly not as a pharmacist now, but as a manager is to make sure the staff do feel supported to work with them, um, to, you know, to listen to them. Cause I think in anybody's field, if 

00:15:23:18 you're not listening, then that's not enjoyable for the person that's giving out the information. Um, and, and to, you know, to show them that, you know, we're getting better as well. Because I think if with every time that they feel they're getting better, they're more motivated to do better.  

00:15:40:04 [Speaker 2]: Whereas if you're just all take and no give, then you know, you don't motivate anybody. What motivates you? Uh, me personally motivates me. ****I think I'm motivated by seeing other people grow and do better. Um, and you know, an equally that then motivates me to do that in myself. Um, because you can't expect, especially as a manager, I can't expect everybody else to do that if I don't demonstrate that. So therefore, like I trained to do the new services and make sure I'm up to date with 

00:16:11:11 things. Um, and I think, you know, motivate for what really motivates me is at the end of the day, the patient leaving, knowing they've had a good and happy service.  ***

00:16:25:11 [Speaker 1]: That was pretty good for the editor's benefit. Just saying that. So they listened to, they hear that one that they reviewed a furnish. You put that straight in there. Okay. I can go get it, these interviews cause you covered a little more questions. So thanks. That's exactly what we are. Do you feel like you, you learn things from patients  

00:16:54:15 [Speaker 2]: And learn things from everybody? Um, one of the misconceptions that I see is that people feel that they know everything, you know, in a heartbeat, whether that'd be a patient that could be a healthcare assistant or a pharmacist. Um, I think for me, when you feel that, you know, everything, that's when you become dangerous. Um, so I think it's about recognizing your limitations, you know, recognizing when you need to go back and learn a little bit more, uh, and it can be sometimes that a patient comes in who could be on a specialist medication 

00:17:27:08 that I've never seen before and they will know something about it that I may not. Um, so I think, you know, yes, I think you can learn from whoever you, whoever you choose to listen to and learn from. And I think that, you know, that's another thing for me as a trainee pharmacist, I learned a hell of a lot, not just from my pharmacist, but from my assistance and my dispensers, because some of them have been doing the jobs 30 years and I've been doing it six months just cause I've got the degree. It doesn't mean 

00:17:57:10 that I've got the practical aspect. Um, so I think that's something that everybody needs to be aware of that we learn from each other. And then in a day-to-day scenario, we're in it together, not any one person alone that goes back to the motivation side of things as well.  

00:18:15:22 [Speaker 1]: how has pharmacy impacted on you as a person and their personal life?  

00:18:42:16 [Speaker 2]: Uh, it was nearly made me gray. Um, no, I think, um, You know, I've developed as an individual based on the job that I've done and the development in my job as well. Um, so whether that be from a pharmacist point of view or from a manager's point of view. So I've, I think I've got a lot to be extremely grateful for, for opportunity from Kamsons, um, but also opportunity from individuals as well that people put their faith in me to be able to then, you know, go on 

00:19:15:04 and, and, and grow my skill set as well, which to me is always growing. So I think from a communication perspective, I feel like I would be a reasonable communicator and, and hopefully, you know, I think that that's something that's really important, both in my job role, but in pharmacy and to the patient. I think that it's very much these days that the patient we treat, we want them to be involved in their own path in their own care 

00:19:42:13 pathway.  

00:19:43:12 [Speaker 2]: But I still think that ****we are evolving as a medical profession to get them involved in that. I think sometimes it can still be very much, you should do this, but if they don't understand why the why they're doing that, then you're not going to get them to do it. So I think, you know, from me, how has it affected me as an overall? I think it just makes me think slightly more and makes me reflect on my own practices and makes me communicate. But that's not just in the working world that could be in a, I'm doing a house renovation at the moment. It could be in a, you 

00:20:14:15 know, in a personal world as well. It makes you reflect about everything slightly more  

00:20:19:00 [Speaker 1]: Even been surprised.  

00:20:20:19 [Speaker 2]: Now ****[Share worthy from parent’s POV]what pharmacy does do is bring you a load of organization skills that you think as a teenage boy that I never had. And so you almost become a little bit sort of, you know, you like things in certain places. Um, so I think that's probably what surprises me the most is that when I was a teenager, my bedroom was a mess every day, these days, you know, I don't go to bed in my bedroom. It's not like, yeah, in a reasonable organization chaotic. Then I find that quite, you know, so it's probably changed me as a person for that in that way that I'm just more 

00:20:51:08 organized and a bit more together because I suppose it's, you have to be in pharmacy because you can't have everyone's medication in one big pile and just cipher out yet is kept in streamline orders. So yeah, probably, probably for me, that's what it is. I think,  

00:21:13:13 [Speaker 1]: I think you've touched on this already, but how do you see the future of pharmacy? Um,  

00:21:23:22 [Speaker 2]: I think it's still working its own pathway out. I think, you know, years to come. I don't think it's going to be that there's going to be people putting the stickers on the boxes and I don't think that's all going to happen in years to come. I think there's going to be robots to do that in some ways. However, what I do think is that we'll still be heavily reliant upon people. Um, so I think, you know, you can't do medic, you can't do the medical world robotically. Um, I think there'll always be that element of communication.  

00:21:54:01 [Speaker 1]: Um, just coming down here, everyone's got it. So good.  

00:22:05:04 [Speaker 2]: I think, you know, from my aspect very much, it's one of those things that, you know, I think it will be robotic in some way from a dispensing process, but I think what I'd like to believe is that pharmacy technicians, um, so you know, this is an advert I know for not just pharmacists, you know, we want more pharmacy people. We want people to be thinking about pharmacy technician courses and how they could benefit as well. So not pharmacy being a pharmacist doesn't have to be for everybody, but there is a pharmacy technician aspect that is just as rewarding for 

00:22:36:14 people who don't want to go into study for six years. You know, why can't you do the pharmacy MVQ on the job? You know, so I think there's lots of, there's lots of involvement. And I think that technicians in years to come, I think there'll be doing travel vaccinations, flu jabs. I think there'll be doing, you know, um, taking blood samples. I think there'll be, you know, there'll be able to almost check Depending on what, you know, what they're checking, et cetera, whether a pharmacist will be present or 

00:23:05:22 unpleasant cause at the moment, but a pharmacist has to be present for everything. You know, whereas I think hopefully there will be that evolvement of, you know, the fact of realizing that people, you know, professions, pharmacy technicians can take responsibility for other things.  

00:23:25:23 [Speaker 1]: Just lastly you said earlier that we need to sell pharmacy slightly different. How would you convince someone who has no interest in pharmacy? Maybe they're on some careers website, race, car driver, pharmacist. Yeah.  

00:23:46:01 [Speaker 2]: I mean, I, I can't, I can't hand on heart say to anybody that, you know, you have to do this, it's not, to me, it sells itself. You just have to go and actually do it. Um, so I do a lot of employment and recruitment for my area, for my 18 shops. Um, and it's not some people start that they don't realize what the job is. And I think from my aspect, it's, you know, think about it, get your work experience and give it a go. You know, I think there's no, there's no better way to sell 

00:24:16:07 it than doing it. Um, and I think, you know, there's plenty of work experience placements out there. There's plenty of jobs, Saturday jobs, jobs, you know, on the counter, if you're, if you're a young person and you want, you want to try something, um, you know, I'm not saying it commits you to it forever, but *** try it because I think that is the biggest thing for me, is making people understand that they, they can get something back. Um, and you know, but I think, I think the reward is, is, is, you know, 

00:24:51:16 seeing your patients smile and be happy. And you've given that back at the end of the day, you know, obviously for my mind, it's not just that it's seeing the staff happy and things, but you know, it depends on what job role you want. You can go into a different job role in hospital. I'm sure you're going to interview some pharmacists in those. Um, and they, again, likewise can, you know, their reward has to be helping the patient at the 

00:25:16:24 end point. Um, and that is, I think that's ****the common goal across the whole of pharmacy is that we all want the best for the patient. *** And knowing that Mrs. Smith is really rarely happy and feels loved by her chemist is really important. And that to me is evident in the bundles of biscuits and chocolates and stuff that we get, you know, but it's, it's not just about the patient recognition. It's about, you know, the younger generation, because if without the younger generation doing these things, we're not 

00:25:47:20 going to have, that will come a point where you don't have any farms, any pharmacy technicians, you know, it's, it's just about motivating people to want to do it financially. It's reasonably rewarding life, quality of life. It's reasonably rewarding. But again, until people try it, they will never know.  

00:26:04:17 [Speaker 1]: So one of the things we've had that I wouldn't have considered before is that pharmacists are somewhat away from

00:26:16:17 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I think, you know, that's again, that's to do with the future of pharmacy. I think now interacting with other professions and we're starting to merge towards that, but I think that's, you know, that's some of the important bits is moving towards those interactions and, and, you know, have it getting the doctors to have full faith in the pharmacy, getting the nurses, you know, it's, it's only, it's not until the doctors have reached out and started to use you or the nurses have reached 

00:26:47:09 out and started to use you that they go actually, I'd never be without you. Um, so where I used to work at my old practice, um, that was a GP medical center based pharmacy and the GPS, you know, said, I don't know how we'd have ever have, we could have an hour practice without you in the, in our presence sort of thing. Yeah. So, so the GPS used to say, you know, in the old practice that I used to work at, the GPS would say, I don't know how we have a practice 

00:27:18:22 practiced without you. Now we have you, we wouldn't ever want to be without you. And that's just the knowledge breadth that we offer to them. That's not about diagnosing, but about tree thing. Um, and that's, you know, I think that's, that's what our specialty is. And if we all come together, I can guarantee that the patient end point will be way better.  

00:27:40:13 [Speaker 1]: Okay. I'll go from my questions. Is there anything that you want to say that you're going to wake up in the middle of the night? You haven't said it?  

00:27:47:10 [Speaker 2]: No, I don't think so. I think for me, it's, it's, you know, I think it's important that we get people stepping in the right direction of pharmacy trying it. It's not for everybody, you know, and I'm not, I'm, I'm personally not here to feel like I have to sell it because I enjoy what I do. Um, and it's not for everybody, but you know, for the people that it is for, it becomes a passion, whether you're a pharmacist, a healthcare assistant or a pharmacy technician. So, and you're not going to 

00:28:15:04 know if that's your passion, unless you try it.  

00:28:17:21 [Speaker 1]: Who is it? Cool. Can you say, it's not  

00:28:25:14 [Speaker 2]: I think, what do I look out for? I look for someone that's social, um, generally, you know, quite well, you can't tell every time, but just quite caring, loving, um, because that meant, you know, and yes, ******** it is hard work, but you don't mind working hard if you're happy that you're providing the service for the person. And I think that's, you know, it's hard work. You can't say it's not, but if you want to take something away from work every day, then the pharmacy is what you need to do ********.  

00:28:53:19 [Speaker 1]: That's premium. That was really good. That last one. Wasn't it. You leave it there. Yeah. Yeah. Happy with that. Jake. straight in there. Had to start. Okay. Let's talk about one more thing. We want you to, if you're comfortable. Yeah. We'll get two meters away. And if you could, if you feel comfortable, just look into the camera and tell us your name and your job title, and then smile for a couple of seconds. 

00:29:25:10 Well, that's pretty easy. You can do a couple of takes though. I can tell you a really bad joke if you named this one. No, no, it's fine. I'll give you a countdown and then try and look through camera.  

00:29:43:11 [Speaker 2]: No shifty eyes. No worries. I can't promise that  

00:29:47:03 [Speaker 1]: so, three, two, one.  

00:29:51:22 [Speaker 2]: My name's David Howells and I'm the council's area manager for West Sussex.  

00:29:59:00 [Speaker 1]: Okay.  

00:29:59:08 [Speaker 2]: My name is David Howells and I'm the captain's area manager for West Sussex. 

Mark Donaghy - Professional Development Manager

00:00:01:14 [Speaker 1]: Cool. Yeah, we'll have to, we'll just have to pause. Okay. Especially if you're saying something really good, cause I rarely ask you to say, keep looking at Jason. You rolling. First thing I want to ask 

00:00:40:15 you, is there anything that frustrates you about how the public may be misunderstanding?  

00:00:46:24 [Speaker 2]: Um, I think sometimes as a profession, we haven't sold ourselves properly.  

00:00:50:22 [Speaker 1]: All right. Sorry.  

00:00:57:16 [Speaker 2]: Uh, I think sometimes as a profession, we haven't always sold ourselves properly. Uh, and it's down to us to explain what we do. Uh, so for example, here, when this pharmacy, the pharmacist is a prescriber as well as a dispense of medicines, and there's a whole range of services such as vaccinations. Um, and it's down to us to actually promote that and say what people can ask the pharmacist about and the range of different things that you can do with a pharmacy degree  

00:01:25:07 [Speaker 1]: Growing back.  

00:01:30:17 [Speaker 2]: Um, strange enough, ****[could also go at start]it's something from about the age of 14 that I really wanted to do, and it's difficult to put my finger on why. Um, but I suppose I was always fascinated when I went to the child into a pharmacy to see what was happening with these mysterious medicines. And I always had a, an urge to find out how they worked and what they did. So, and from that I did work experience in a pharmacy, got a Saturday job. Um, and then I was quite adamant. That is what I wanted to do. And I was 

00:02:02:14 very pleased and manager and manager to do it  

00:02:09:10 [Speaker 1]: When you're younger. You're not quite sure. Is there something about the kind of math or science or  

00:02:18:03 [Speaker 2]: Yeah, yeah. I was always good at science, so I was interested in science and maths, but for me, I enjoy talking to people and it's nice to, a lot of people sometimes can be quite disadvantaged and about shop work, but for me, I really enjoy it. And it doesn't matter if it's in a pharmacy or anywhere else. I love that people contact the ability to talk to people and to have a job where you're actually paid to spend your day talking to people. So dream come true. Um, and the public respect the role of the pharmacists. People come in and ask you advice. And they're 

00:02:49:24 very appreciative of it most of the time. Um, and it can be great fun.  

00:03:10:08 [Speaker 1]: I want to follow up with asking you, do you have your pharmacy such?  

00:03:21:04 [Speaker 2]: It is so different than an office job for so many people that sat in an office all day and they're stuck in front of a computer screen as a pharmacist, you're on the go, it's busy, it's exhausting. You're on your feet all day, but the day goes quickly because you don't know what the next minute is going to bring. You can have a quiet five minutes and then you can have 10 people phoning up coming in, asking you advice. You can have a GP on the phone asking you what to prescribe. You can have an over the counter creatively all at the same time, it can be stressful, but the day goes quickly and it's, you know, it's, there's a 

00:03:54:16 buzz to it.  

00:03:56:17 [Speaker 1]: What is that box? If you could describe  

00:03:59:10 [Speaker 2]: The buzz is, is the fact that, you know, you keep going throughout the day, you know, that you're helping people, people are generally appreciative of what you do. Um, and at the end of the day, you know that a lot of people have gone home healthier and happier because of the role that you've done. And it's not just you as the pharmacist, it's the whole team. It's a case of engaging the whole team that they're happy that they can work with you, that you can advise them and that you can support them in their role in helping patients and customers.  

00:04:27:23 [Speaker 1]: What do you enjoy most diet? Um,  

00:04:51:06 [Speaker 2]: I suppose my career has developed that, um, I now help train the future generations of pharmacists and help support our young pharmacists. And so for me, I get a lot of satisfaction in helping them in order to help others. So like just before now, I just had a phone call from one of our young pharmacists. Who's maybe having issues, sort of trying to convince a local GP to change their prescribing habits. And it's been nice to impart some of my experience. So as to help her to be able to improve her patient's lives. Um, so yeah, I it's, it's the satisfaction of being 

00:05:25:13 able to help colleagues and being able to help the public and being able to help people.  

00:05:32:09 [Speaker 1]: Um, I wonder, um, could you briefly tell us the roles you've had for your career today, if you can, why you chose that role? So  

00:05:58:20 [Speaker 2]: At the age of 16, I did a three week Saturday job at boots on Canvey Island, uh, for work experience. I went from an all boys school to work in an all female environment. I thought, well, this is wonderful. Um, and I really enjoyed the fact that you're helping people. You're talking to people on the counter. I was quite shy as a teenager, but you can't be shy working on a medicines counter. You need to talk to people. And for me, I found it to help develop me personally, from there, I managed to get a Saturday job. Um, I decided to apply to dried foot because 

00:06:31:04 it was the, the first university to have a professor of pharmacy practice. I was really interested in the hands-on experience of pharmacy rather than the academic side. Um, I did two six month placements in community pharmacy, uh, one in Taunton, in an independent pharmacy and one in boots and Southend on sea, both quite different. I enjoyed the both. And then, um, I got my first job managing a small pharmacy on the outskirts of dried food in West Yorkshire. Um, lovely 

00:07:01:00 little pharmacy, very small, but great population. Um, and you really felt that it could really help the people and be an advocate for them sometimes when they couldn't make an appointment at GP surgery, et cetera. Um, from there, uh, then develop that job in that I started being one of the first pharmacists to do smoking cessation clinics. Um, we won the national no smoking day award for our work in development, smoking cessation clinics and pharmacies. I was doing that sort of a day a week in the upstairs room 

00:07:30:15 with the pharmacy. And then, um, I then got a job, um, as a clinical governance facilitator in what was then Bradford cell from West find the care trust. So that was trying to develop clinical governance, good quality procedures in all the local pharmacies in Bradford, in West Yorkshire. And I enjoyed it  

00:07:48:22 [Speaker 1]: That makes Andrew enjoy that mix.  

00:07:54:24 [Speaker 2]: So the jewelry pharmacy, you don't necessarily  

00:07:57:08 [Speaker 1]: Have to say that again.  

00:07:59:19 [Speaker 2]: Just say that again. Yeah. So I enjoy that mix because the joy of pharmacy is you don't need to do the same clear of all the time and you can have a portfolio though. Whereby at that time I was managing the pharmacy. I was working in it three or four days a week. I was one in a smoking cessation clinic. And then I was also helping support clinical governance and good quality processes in other pharmacies throughout the city as well. Um,  

00:08:25:06 [Speaker 1]: Okay. Okay. Okay.  

00:08:28:18 [Speaker 2]: For personal reasons on a move to Sussex, I locum for a year and one of the joys is as a pharmacist, you can get ad hoc loop and work. Um, so I worked in a pharmacy mainly in Hastings for that time and then was approached by the owner of camps pharmacy. And it was at the time that the community pharmacy contract was changing with the NHS. And so he felt like he needed someone to support his pharmacist to move forward as the, the, the professions advance in. Um, and for me, the job that I do now, which is supporting our young pharmacists in that race and supporting 

00:09:00:23 our pharmacists, um, in new roles.  

00:09:07:20 [Speaker 1]: Yeah,  

00:09:07:23 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. And supporting pharmacists as they develop new roles yeah. As, and supporting young pharmacists as they develop Nuba.  

00:09:15:24 [Speaker 1]: Great. Okay. Thanks for that. I know that's, that's fine. So is this your only role at the moment is then this is your main job.  

00:09:29:20 [Speaker 2]: So  

00:09:41:16 [Speaker 1]: Pharmacists pharmacist, or have different roles  

00:09:45:14 [Speaker 2]: You want to talk, is this one main job? Is that what you're? Yeah. So, um, I, I, I chair West Sussex, local pharmaceutical committee, uh, which takes up a bit of my time whereby um, the local pharmaceutical committee represents all the community pharmacies in that particular County. So as chair of that, I support our members and we try to ensure, um, that, um, community pharmacy in West Sussex is got a high profile. And 

00:10:20:14 we've done a work, for example, the local police and crime commissioner about supporting pharmacy teams during the COVID crisis and work with the press to sort of show them the kind of roles that pharmacy does. Uh, I also, uh, represent camps. And so I worked for on the community pharmacy, patient safety group, whereby we look at and proven patient safety. Um, uh, every year we've been just, our pharmacies were dispensing sort of a, um, 

00:10:48:10 you know, uh, a million prescription items every six to eight weeks. So we need to make sure all million of those are done accurately. And so looking at sort of learning and sharing that learning between pharmacies and different pharmacy companies is really important that we work together as a profession. Um, uh, and, and then I also work as a practicing pharmacist. Um, so that, that takes up a lot of my time and I get to work across all of our pharmacies. Um, and then I also work, um, sort of partly 

00:11:18:14 office based as well, um, looking at new procedures and develop a new services and supporting our trainee pharmacists.  

00:11:27:13 [Speaker 1]: And how do you balance that? Maybe it's okay. We can talk to, yeah, it's sometimes difficult.  

00:11:38:01 [Speaker 2]: It's sometimes difficult to fit everything in. Um, but the joy of the vote I do is there be some flexibility to it. So it's not like necessarily working in a pharmacy where somebody wants their prescription for an antibiotic within five to 10 minutes. Some of the other goals are you don't necessarily need to be done with such immediate timescales. Um, so, but the joy of the pharmacy is there is often we can work available and it is good to be able to get that work-life balance rights as well. Um, that there is that flexibility to have days off in the week and work a weekend, et cetera.  

00:12:11:24 [Speaker 1]: Is there like a time that you feel like you made, it might be big, it might be small, a real difference.  

00:12:23:17 [Speaker 2]: Can we come back to that one.  

00:12:26:07 [Speaker 1]: Next one. I was thinking, is there a kind of highlight of your career so far, or kind of your best experience, something you remember?  

00:12:55:14 [Speaker 2]: I come back to that one because I'm just trying to think of the audience. Yeah.  

00:12:58:16 [Speaker 1]: Um, is there anything like, you feel like you learned from patients ? 

00:13:10:24 [Speaker 2]: Oh, yes. I mean, you learn from patients every day and, and let them, part of the joy of it is some of the characters that you meet every day. Um, and you, the thing I really love about community pharmacy is you see the same people month in, month out a lot of the time, and you can build very close, personal relationships and some of the, or, and you can build very close, personal relationships. And some of the patients can be very kind as well. But I remember when we had our first child, the amount of presence we got and I go back to some of our pharmacies and see them at Christmas presents that people bring that 

00:13:43:00 they're really appreciative of their local pharmacy. Um, and, and for, for me, it's those personal relationships that you build up. I've, um, I used to work very close to the pharmacy that are managed.  

00:13:54:18 [Speaker 2]: And so you really become an integral part of the community. You know, you'd walk down the streets and, you know, people would know who you are, and you'd really feel even in a city, I felt very much a part of the community and it was a city I wasn't brought up and it was miles away from where I was brought up. But that's the joy of pharmacy that you can work anywhere in the country, sometimes anywhere in the world, if you do conversion exams and be able to get a job and you can really sort of integrate into that city or town or village, um, and you know, jobs on the coast and jobs in Scotland, wherever you want to go, and people will 

00:14:28:08 respect their local community pharmacist as part of the community.  

00:14:32:00 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting that people have left a real misconception about pharmacists, but secretly they love now. I wondered if there was anything you could share about how pharmacy in your career in pharmacy has affected you as a precedent. I think you touched on it earlier. You said you to be quite, um,  

00:14:57:04 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I think with pharmacy it's, as I've developed, I've become more confident and it's an important part of the bow that even if you are maybe shy at speaking to people, initially, the joy of working in the pharmacy is that shyness is normally fairly quickly taken out of you because you've got to be patient facing. It's not the case as it may have been 30 years ago, that you would hide into the dispense suite behind a hatch and never be seen. And you hand out these mysterious bags of tablets that magically make people get better. The ball is very much now being at the fund and talking to people about those magical medicines and held out 

00:15:29:13 you're going to make them better and adding value to those medicines. There's a lot of very expensive medicines now that if they're not taken properly are complete waste of time.  

00:15:38:13 [Speaker 2]: So the economic value of the pharmacist is advising patients to actually maximize the benefit that they can give. And these pharmacists working in various roles, such as, for example, within GP surgeries and with clinical commissioning groups, advise prescribers and advise in health bodies about how to maximize value for medicines. Um, one of my other roles is, um, I represent the local community pharmacist on the area prescribing committee. So part of that is where we look at new medicines. We look at the value of them and see which ones we're going to recommend for use locally. So it can appear sometimes a little bit 

00:16:12:09 bureaucratic, but it's a valuable role. Um, and something that, that pharmacists are ideally suited to as the expert in medicines.  

00:16:19:16 [Speaker 1]: Is there anything in the pharmacy that you kind of enjoy the challenge of because healthcare, any role is challenging? That's the work, but I suppose you probably have to learn to enjoy it, maybe.  

00:16:32:05 [Speaker 2]: Yeah, of course. I mean, for me, you know, I've worked in various different organizations, some of the, the pharmacy companies or multinationals, I've worked for the NHS and NHS bodies. Currently, I work for a family owned group of pharmacies. And for me, I love that because it gives me the flexibility that, you know, there's not the bureaucracy as there is in some of the organizations and whatever your nature is. Some people love the very organized way in which multinational groups work that suits some people. And for people like me that like a 

00:17:02:18 little bit flexibility and freedom, there's lots of family owned groups of pharmacies where people can get work as well. The other thing is, of course, is that there's also the opportunity to own your own pharmacy. I've got a couple of our ex pre-registration pharmacists who did their training with us, who know own their own pharmacies. And that's where you good to see that the training that we've given them has given them the opportunity and the confidence to go and really invest in the local health care for that community.  

00:17:31:15 [Speaker 1]: Do you feel pharmacy has got the best out of you? Yes. Yeah. Um,  

00:17:39:04 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I, I feel that I help people in the, in, in the role that I do. I feel it's more than a job. It's a vocation. Um, so yes, I think in the, in the sense I feel that I'm doing good in what I do, even if I'm not necessarily patient facing all the time. I know that at the end of the day, that we're helping people and that we're trying to make sure that the pharmacies in West Sussex and the pharmacy group that I work for, ******we're trying to deliver the best service possible, uh, to the 

00:18:08:14 communities that we serve.  ******

00:18:10:03 [Speaker 1]: And we hear a lot of people say it's more than just the job. What do people mean when they say that?  

00:18:17:02 [Speaker 2]: I think there's a commitment it's, um, you know, th th there's a commitment with a vocation as a commitment with a profession. Um, so yes, as a pharmacist, you have a guided as a professional, you know, even something as simple as you can count a sign someone's passport is there, but it comes with a responsibility. And that responsibility means that you may have to spend some evenings doing continual professional development and going to some meetings and doing some training and some of that will need to be done in your own time. So there are those commitments 

00:18:49:22 that are necessary, um, in order to, to have the respect of being a professional on the high street.  

00:18:55:23 [Speaker 1]: Okay. Um, the last questions I have, you have touched on that. You're good at these interviews. How do you see the future of pharmacy?  

00:19:08:20 [Speaker 2]: Um, for the whole time I've been a pharmacist, um, there's always been certain pharmacy owners that have always been pessimistic about the future pharmacy. Um, but I'm personally always an eternal optimist and those pessimists have never been proved right now. Yes, there's going to be some changes has got to be some mechanization. There's going to be some centralization and people say about Amazon and everything else, but****** there's always going to be a place for local community pharmacy. Because if you look at some of the services that are going on 

00:19:39:04 here, the vaccinations, the prescribing, the face-to-face advice, you need to have local community pharmacists ****for that. So for me, I think for community pharmacy, there's a strong future for pharmacy as a whole, as a, as a career choice. I think it's an excellent choice because it gives you more than the opportunity of this. You know, my wife is a hospital pharmacist. You can work in the NHS and clinical commissioning groups of looking at medicines policy and going into care homes. There's pharmacists working in industry, um, helping develop 

00:20:11:06 medicines as pharmacists, working in wholesale and looking at the procedures for actually making sure that, um, the medicines are safely delivered at the right temperature, et cetera. Um, uh, and pharmacists going to journalism. There's some of my colleagues that have decided to leave pharmacy for a little while and go into teaching. Um, other pharmacists, I know I've gone into lecturing at university, we've gone into academic research. Um, so there's plenty of those for pharmacists out 

00:20:38:21 there. Um, so even if you think, actually I don't want to work in a high street. Pharmacy is a good all degree, a good all-round science degree that gives lots of opportunities for the  

00:20:48:18 [Speaker 1]: Future when the world seemed like it was ending quite recently, I think where you guys slept for another year and you show up. So yes. Yeah. So like the high street might die or something like that, as you say, anyone else be a need for that. Yeah.  

00:21:04:13 [Speaker 2]: I suppose as you, you know, you come back to, you know, what's special about pharmacies, your vibe, you know, all of our pharmacy stayed open throughout the pandemic when you light the rest of the, the population set at home with a few exceptions, of course. Um, uh, and it was hard for a lot of our teams. A lot of our pharmacy teams were scared. It was difficult, but it was also favorable in, and it showed the value to the community of having the local community pharmacy.  

00:21:30:17 [Speaker 1]: My mom, she's a teacher. And through this whole thing, she's been asked to do stuff like she didn't sign up for it. Wasn't part of what he trained for the healthcare professionals through the whole COVID they say, they, they do it all again, this is what we trained for with no, for that. Yeah.  

00:21:55:02 [Speaker 2]: I mean, that's, even when it's, you know, I mean, ******we can talk about COVID, but even when there's a local emergency, or even if there's sort of six foot of snow, you still have to open your pharmacies because people still need them. The medicines there's no bunkie off days in pharmacy. I'm afraid, you know, you is a vocation is a profession you will need to come in. And even if you've got to put your snow suit on to get there because  

00:22:17:04 [Speaker 1]: People need you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like almost like a lifestyle. Um, my last thing to ask you is about your role itself. Um, so could you tell us in a kind of business card, what your role is, just a job title?  

00:22:42:04 [Speaker 2]: I have a few of those. Um, one is I, I chair the West Sussex local pharmaceutical committee, which is part of the community pharmacy. So in Sussex, which represents all the local community pharmacies. My main day job though, is I'm the professional development manager for come since pharmacy to come since is a family owned chain of 77 pharmacies based in Sussex, as part of that, though, I'm responsible for the recruitment and the training of our, what are now called of trainee pharmacists during their foundation year with us. So these are pharmacy 

00:23:14:09 graduates that were done a four year pharmacy degree. They then come to work with us for a year. Uh, my responsibility is to make sure that they're trained and ready so that the end of that year, they can be qualified and effective pharmacists out in the community.  

00:23:30:11 [Speaker 1]: Um,  

00:23:30:23 [Speaker 2]: The joys of working for a family owned firm is that I do a variety of other things as well. So that can be, for example, when new services come out, we try to encourage our pharmacists to do them so well, who's the pharmacist here. He's a prescriber many years ago, I helped get him on the prescribing course. Um, we've sort of worked with developers to make sure that people can go on to apps and if they want to hepatitis B vaccination or shingles, vaccination, or chickenpox vaccination, they can search and they can find this pharmacy so we'll come vaccinate them. Um, 

00:24:04:05 the other kind of thing I do is, um, um, some of the legal work for the company. So it's quite legalistic process to open a new pharmacy. So I will do all the groundwork and the applications and go to hearings with NHS resolution in order to try to get new pharmacies, uh, for our company as well.  

00:24:24:04 [Speaker 2]: Um, I also, um, uh, I'm in charge of patient safety. So I'll represent our group of pharmacies on the community pharmacy, patient safety group. And I also look at learning from any incidents that occur in our pharmacies. So with the best will in the world, if we're dispensing millions of prescriptions each year, there is always going to be the occasional mistake made, but we need to have that culture whereby we can talk about them. We can be honest about them. And most importantly, that we learned from them. So for me, um, one of the things I'm proud of is 

00:24:55:17 that we've embedded in comparisons, a culture of learning and a culture of being open and being honest, that if God forbid you make a mistake, you don't need to be scared about talking about it because it's, if there's that kind of culture where you're scared, someone's going to show to you, that's where mistakes get hidden. And there's no learning from them. We're very proud that the culture we've got is the culture where people are open, they're honest, and they're willing to report any mistakes or incidents that happened so that we can learn from them. And that goes throughout the 

00:25:25:11 whole of the health system, that, you know, that culture of openness, that culture of learning, that culture of honesty is so important.  

00:25:32:17 [Speaker 1]: Absolutely. Yeah. Um, like help is there, is that something you've kind of tried to do in your career through counselors and kind of how have you done that? Because it's hard changing culture.  

00:25:45:08 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. It's, it's hard. And I think that the way that you do it is by earning people's respect is that people meet in you and people learn in that if they do report something to you, that you'll encourage them to learn from it. And that you share that learning with others rather than shout at people. So it's, it's a case of nurturing. Um, we've done that nurtured throughout the company really that we ensure that, you know, w we're fair to people, um, and that, you know, we try to, to learn and improve, you know, trying to have that culture of continuous 

00:26:18:01 improvement is so important.  

00:26:20:02 [Speaker 1]: Is there anything that you feel like coming off the right question or that you want to say you're going to wake up in the middle of the night thinking?  

00:26:30:04 [Speaker 2]: No, I think you've covered everything nicely. I thank you.  

00:26:33:06 [Speaker 1]: Um, the last thing we wanted to do was if you're happy to, um, you take a step back, we want it to get you to just introduce yourself to the camera. I look into the lens just saying, hello, my name is, and then just to give us your job title, very concise, and we can do a few tries as well. Cause it's quite hard to do. Okay. I'll count you in. Yeah. Try and keep looking at the camera and don't kind of look for the 

00:27:17:19 side or attempting it. Yeah. Ready when you are.  

00:27:28:05 [Speaker 2]: Hello, my name's Mark. Mark Donahue. I'm a pharmacist and I'm a professional development manager for comparison's pharmacy. One more. Hello. My name is Mark. Mark Donahue. I'm a pharmacist and I'm the professional development manager for and pharmacy.  

00:27:46:04 [Speaker 2]: Okay. Told you about the things we want it to do, or take a picture for you. And also just get a bit of footage of you around the pharmacy, maybe outside the pharmacy, just so we've got some extra stuff to go with. 

Basil Alackal - Trainee Pharmacist - Community

00:00:15:09 [Speaker 1]: Try block stuff out. We're having a conversation. We're going to keep your half the fat compensation. If you can try and repeat the question in your answer, which will help you to stop talking, it will help us and deal with what you're talking about. Okay. Yeah. So if I ask you, how's the weather today,  

00:00:40:18 [Speaker 2]: The weather is ...

00:00:55:14 [Speaker 1]: Is there anything that you find frustrating about public perception of pharmacy?  

00:01:03:23 [Speaker 2]: Um, and the thing I find most frustrating is basically to do with the pharmacist role, uh, in the sense that they expect, you know, the medicines to be ready and just give that to them straight away. Uh, but there are a lot of other checks that are done. Um, so before the mechanical and legal checks, so you've got to make sure that the prescription is legally, uh, compatible. So, you know, the data to the date of birth of the patient, the name of the patient, the address, all of that criteria is met. Um, nowadays it's more electronic, so that's not an issue, but we do get handwritten prescriptions and that's something that 

00:01:36:16 needs to be checked. And it has a legal check. We have to make sure that the prescribed medicine is correct. So it's the right dose, the right strength is for the right reasons and all of this takes time. So I would appreciate the customers to understand that it does take you at a time to make these checks and get it ready for them to make sure that they get the best out of their medicines.  

00:01:58:16 [Speaker 1]: That was good though. You've done this before. That's good. We like that. You've got nothing to compare us to. Yeah. Would 

00:02:18:14 you want to do either one, just tell us what prompted you to proceed?  

00:02:56:05 [Speaker 2]: So my main ? was to help other people, so patients, um, and it's just to get the most out of their medicine really and help with their conditions. Um, and lot of patients, um, don't have the right advice from the hospitals and the GPS, and it's due to a lack of time. They are under a lot of time pressure. And as pharmacists, we can give that last bit of advice before the medicine goes out to the patient to make sure that they know when to take it, how to take it. And if they have any other further questions as well, um, which basically helps them to understand why they're taking it and it increases their compliance. Um, I 

00:03:31:19 do like working with patients. Yes. I think, uh, you know, as a pharmacist is a patient face facing role. So it's very important that you like work with patients and you, you have a need to help them. That's the main, main thing.  

00:03:46:14 [Speaker 1]: Great. Um, okay. Some time to think about that. One,  

00:03:58:18 [Speaker 2]: As I said before, it's about helping patients, you know, to make sure that, um, that they get the most out of their medicines. Um, but also a vital role. Another thing that gets me out of bed, um, is the staff here. So, uh, the team that you have, it's a big difference in how you deliver your services, um, even hope to patients and having a good, uh, team is one of the things that I found makes me get out of bed and 

00:04:27:22 ready to help people.  

00:04:33:17 [Speaker 1]: Great.  

00:04:34:14 [Speaker 2]: Yes. Yeah. I think I am quite motivated, um, uh, yeah, to, to, to, to, to do the best I can really. That's, that's what we can do, you know, um, achieve for the best aim for the best and do, Y can do to make their lives better.  

00:04:50:00 [Speaker 1]: Can you touch on this already? If you were kind of say, let's say an eight in 10 seconds, how would you very simply describe? So in essence,  

00:05:07:00 [Speaker 2]: Pharmacist does, is make sure that the medicine that's being prescribed is safe and effective for the patient. Um, I made sure that their understanding of when to take it, how to take it is, is, you know, up to date and they know where I'm taking it, basically. That's, that's, that's it.  

00:05:22:16 [Speaker 1]: Do you have a kind of mission statement about what you want to do in pharmacy? Um,  

00:05:30:07 [Speaker 2]: A mission statement of mine would be, again, it's all about the patient and what they need and what they want. Um, so patient comes first, no matter what scenario, um, you're there to help the patient and get the most out of their medicine. Uh, and any questions they have, you have to answer them.  

00:05:49:03 [Speaker 1]: Yep.  

00:05:52:12 [Speaker 2]: Uh, I want to say no. Uh, but yes I do. Uh, because there quite some, sometimes they're challenging and they, they motivate you to look at other stuff and find out new information, which is absolutely fantastic. Um, so, you know, you have to be motivated to find out new stuff and, you know, understand why this is and why that is X and Y. Um, I forgot what the question was.  

00:06:18:08 [Speaker 1]: Yes. It sounded good. I wanted to have as a policy experts in medicine. Yes. But is there anything for patients  

00:06:31:20 [Speaker 2]: All the time, all the time, uh, the thighs, something that happens all the time? Uh, so one of the scenarios, it was a patient. Um, let's give him, uh, some bronchodilators. So we call it the offline. And, uh, the patient was very, sounded the understanding of their medicine. And, um, one of the, from, um, brands of Theo Flynn, uh, was being discontinued. And I didn't know that. And they came up to me and told me, Oh yeah, this brand has been discontinued, uh, there's this other 

00:07:03:04 brand. Can you tell me more about it? Um, so that's when I realized that, you know, that's fine. There's no way it's not being made anymore manufactured. Um, that's the first time I came across it. So yeah, they do, they're quite, uh, knowledgeable in their medicines. Yep.  

00:07:23:04 [Speaker 1]: And this is the tough one, the different roles in terms of roles taking a step. Okay. So let's take it.  

00:07:46:18 [Speaker 2]: Um, could you repeat the question again? So  

00:07:49:08 [Speaker 1]: The question is, could you talk us through your career today? Tell us why you made those decisions. Yeah. Um, well, thanks.  

00:08:08:22 [Speaker 2]: As far as I'm aware. Um, okay. So as I'm starting, I'm starting stepping into the pharmacist role. I'm still a pre-register I'm training to be a pharmacist. Um, there isn't much choice if that makes sense. Uh, yeah. So once you graduate university, um, you have a couple of different options. So you can go into academia, you can train to be a pharmacist, uh, in a community, a hospital setting, um, or you can go into 

00:08:42:05 industry. So that's where you do manufacturer research about medicines. ******So why I chose community pharmacy, uh, was because of, again, the patient aspect. Um, that's what I strive to, um, and help as much as I can. Um, that's why I chose the steps that I did. So, you know, ****four years of a university and then a year of training and then he become a pharmacist.***  

00:09:07:01 [Speaker 1]: That's good.  

00:09:10:07 [Speaker 2]: Thank you. This question is hard.  

00:09:14:20 [Speaker 1]: So is this, this is your main role now what you're  

00:09:17:00 [Speaker 2]: Doing, so yes No, yeah, who's got that one. I'm not sure about that.  

00:09:35:21 [Speaker 1]: Um, what do you enjoy most about working here?  

00:09:40:10 [Speaker 2]: What do I enjoy most? Um, okay. Um, don't worry about repeating. Yeah. Um, that's what I'm worried about as well as you can think of something different. Um, so what I enjoy most is it's again, two aspects, patient, uh, patient care, and making sure that they are happy and also your, your pharmacy team. Um, you know, it doesn't matter what setting you're in. Um, it is like a master half supporting, um, a team. And 

00:10:16:12 especially as a trainee forms, I prereq, uh, that is something that I have looked into and, um, dispatch and captains is excellent at providing that. And especially when you're training to become a pharmacist, you will like a lot of, uh, knowledge and confidence. And that's early through, you know, the staff is the backbone, you develop that. And, um, I think that I've got 

00:10:42:19 that there. So that's something that motivates me here.  

00:10:45:19 [Speaker 1]: Is there a particular time where you found that support really helpful,  

00:10:52:05 [Speaker 2]: Um, that you can  

00:10:53:21 [Speaker 1]: Rely on that support?  

00:10:56:04 [Speaker 2]: Um, all the time. Um, but definitely *************one thing that comes into my mind is, um, uh, a lady friend and said her husband passed away, um, which is the first time, you know, I came across that situation and, uh, that was quite hard to process for me. So talking to my, my team, I choose her, uh, and, uh, and other team members definitely helped, uh, take some of that stress away and, uh, talking about that, um, made it 

00:11:27:01 easier. Um, and it gave me guidance on how to approach that kind of situation in the future. Um, I make me a better pharmacist  

00:11:38:22 [Speaker 1]: For the editor, put that straight in. Thank you. Do you feel like you've been able to do anything innovative 

00:11:51:09 or change anyway? Uh, chase. Thanks. Um, suppose like your, why can recall  

00:12:17:24 [Speaker 2]: Pharmacy is always changing? Um, so it's, it's not about, you know, innovation is always innovating. There's always new processes, new systems in place to improve, uh, what we're doing to improve upon what we're doing, uh, and provide the best service. So in that sense, no, not yet. Um, but it's always adapting and evolving  

00:12:45:05 [Speaker 1]: Fair moment or an experience in your career. Can you hold on, maybe take on kids. Can we come back to that? Remind me, do you 

00:13:13:00 feel like policy has given you opportunities, opportunities  

00:13:18:00 [Speaker 2]: In what  

00:13:20:00 [Speaker 1]: To feel like it's gotten more out of view of the process or like taught me things or he's taking me places you wouldn't expect to go yourself, perhaps.  

00:13:38:08 [Speaker 2]: So, yeah, I mean, as, as a person, I definitely believe that I have developed, uh, in terms of my core skills. So, you know, time management, um, talking to people, um, making sure that you can, you sound confident, um, and you kind of like instill confidence when talking to patients, that kind of aspect. Um, so yes, I, I believe that I have improved. Um, but again, it's, you're always improving, you know, you're, you never, at your best in one day, you always improve. You always 

00:14:08:18 evolve, you always try your best. Um, so in that aspect, I think I have, um, improve and evolve and grow as a person. Um, and also it's about, you know, that, that empathy as well, you know, you got to empathize with patients, they might be going through some hard times. Um, you never know what they're going through to begin with. Uh, they could be getting through some horrible thing that you don't want to think of. So you have to have that empathy as well. You've got to, you know, have that human connection. 

00:14:40:20 Um,  

00:14:42:05 [Speaker 1]: How'd you maintain that, it's a challenging place to work?  

00:14:47:06 [Speaker 2]: It is, it is always tough. Um, and thing is every patient is different. He can't, you know, have a, uh, a set of lists you follow, uh, to, to, to have, uh, you know, a structure, a structured way of approaching a patient. Every patient is different. So you will have to adapt your, uh, your skills, uh, to, to kind of, you know, uh, have that human connection, um, to, to show to them that you're there to help them. Um,  

00:15:18:05 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. How do you see future,  

00:15:44:15 [Speaker 2]: That is a very, uh, open question. Um, there is going to be definitely a lot of changes, uh, in terms of robots, we already have a couple of robots in hospitals. They have dispensing robots works full time and it dispenses medicines or prescriptions. Um, but in terms of community or specifically community, I think it's going to be more clinical. And what I mean by that is, you know, you're going to have patients that can be referred from your doctor and you're going to have to, 

00:16:15:04 uh, diagnose and treat them or offer them some sort of therapy that's going to suit to their need. Um, so that's what I mean by that. Um, but yeah, again, as I said, pharmacy is constantly evolving. Um, uh, recently there's been a new scheme. That's being pushed out called DMS. Uh, so it's a discharged medicine service and that is done through hospitals. So patients that are most at risk, most risk, um, are referred to pharmacies and the 

00:16:44:16 pharmacist will have to call them up and make sure that they know why they're taking their medicines, uh, you know, what times take them and make sure that they're okay. So, you know, it's always evolving, there's always new ways to help patients. Um, so again, coming back to that question of, you know, where my pharmacy is going, I think it's going to affect everyone, um, with their medicines and, you know, the sky's the limit  

00:17:12:14 [Speaker 1]: A,  

00:17:15:22 [Speaker 2]: The best, uh, the best pharmacist. Um, yeah, there's so much to consider when I, you know, that without question, um, it's, it's, it's about, you know, having that clinical knowledge, helping patients, you know, having that human connection with patients, um, you know, your staff, uh, the area you work in. Um, but yeah, the best I wanna strive to be the best,  

00:17:39:07 [Speaker 1]: Not striving every day. I want to be the best.  

00:17:44:08 [Speaker 2]: Um, of course is exhausting. You know, uh, there, there is only so much you can do as a human being. Um, but *** it's about learning and adapting, um, and overcoming. Um, so it's not, you know, one day is one that is the same as the next day, you know, you're, you're gonna, you're trying to be better than the previous day. Um, and that is exhausting. Um, but you, you can't take breaks, you know, it's, it's not, it's not a normal, uh, let's rephrase that. Sorry. So you can't take 

00:18:19:05 breaks. Um, that's something that's accessible and, uh, you're expected to take breaks. You know, you're not a machine. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, everyone takes breaks, everyone needs breaks and you strive to be better. I don't know how to rephrase that way.  

00:18:35:23 [Speaker 1]: That's why I want to turn that question. Okay. So you touched on this already. How would you feel like your professional journey so far has impacted you as a person, as a person? Um, what were you 

00:19:08:11 on before pharmacy? Would you be surprised? Um,  

00:19:26:05 [Speaker 2]: Yep. So, okay. Yeah. Um, so in terms of what was before, I mean, you know, ******when I was in university, it was, you know, it was just another degree or you don't, you don't really see the impact of, you know, what you, uh, what you can achieve. Um, so that's something I didn't consider, you know, it was just no degree. You go into lectures, you do your studying, you pass your exams, but as a pre-reg, you kind of put that study into practice, and that's where you kind of see the difference you make.***** Um, they say, for example, uh, antibiotics, you know, everyone 

00:20:01:00 has an infection, you take them sometimes they don't know when to take them, or what's what it's for. Um, that's when it sounds quite simple, but that's when, you know, you, you use your knowledge to give them advice. If, you know, you can take it at this time with, uh, with, with, or without food, um, that kind of simple input. Um, and I feel like that's what has made me realize pharmacy is much bigger than what I thought it was. Um, you 

00:20:27:06 know, it's not about, you know, reading books and that's it. You have to kind of give that advice to patients and make sure they're taking it safely.  

00:20:36:07 [Speaker 1]: What would you say to someone on the fence show that they want to maybe dad click him professional rock climb. Okay. How old would you tell them to choose this place?  

00:20:56:16 [Speaker 2]: Um, yeah, I would say Google it, um, I think if you're on the fence, you know, between pharmacy or any other course, I think the best thing to like do is look at yourself and see if you want to help patients. That's at the end of the day, that's all it is. You know, you have to have a need to help them. Um, and if you have that in you, and you're willing to push yourself as well, because it's not easy by any means, you know, it's, it's a degree when you come out of it, you ha you're 

00:21:28:15 a patient patient facing role and it's not easy. Um, so if you have the motivation to push yourself, uh, and, you know, be the best person pharmacist, uh, you can be, uh, peer Reggie can be, uh, then it is a role for you. Yeah.  

00:21:45:15 [Speaker 1]: What would you ask you if you were asking the question, is there anything that you want to say about how you're going to wake up in the middle of night screaming? Wishing you said, um,  

00:21:58:00 [Speaker 2]: So what do you mean, sorry, you want to say anything? I want to say I can't think of anything yet. Um, I mean, yeah. You know, we're, I don't know if I've come across as a were 

00:22:33:16 very like clinical, all that stuff. ***For act 1**********We are friendly, you know, we are people, we, you know, we, we talk, we like to laugh. Um, and the environment I work in is brilliant. Um, you know, we have a lot of good conversation, uh, you know, with, within work and with our work as well. Um, so yeah, it's, it's not always, you know, serious. Um, we do have fun 

00:22:59:05 as a team and I think that's something to consider as well. Um, you know, people talk, people have lofts and we have that as well. Yes, I think so. Yeah. Um, I think that's quite important, you know, we, we help each other out in times of need. We help each other every, every, every single day. Um, so yeah, having that supportive team, as I said before is crucial, uh, 

00:23:26:04 for me to develop into become a good pharmacist. Yeah.*******  

00:23:30:11 [Speaker 1]: Last one. What do you feel has been the most rewarding part of your career? Do you feel like you've made a real difference? just one or like any, yeah, it could be made, we made up for a week.  

00:24:01:12 [Speaker 2]: There's too many to pick from

00:24:05:03 [Speaker 1]: Good question. Could you could say make a real difference every day  

00:24:11:19 [Speaker 2]: That that's, that's the essence of it, isn't it. So, should there be hundreds of people coming in and out of the store, there'd be a lot of patients fighting up and I can't specifically say this is the patient I've helped. I've helped all of them in their questions or needs. So, yeah, that's hard for me to answer  

00:24:35:01 [Speaker 1]: contacts you have with people they will add up  

00:24:41:22 [Speaker 2]: You by add up  

00:24:43:21 [Speaker 1]: To you guys being the pillar of the community.  

00:24:46:23 [Speaker 2]: Yes. Uh, I think so. Um, I mean, I think I want to call it adding up ********. It's just, you know, doing a good deed. That's what I see as, you know, it's just helping them out, make sure that you're there for them answer their questions and anything medicine related, help them out. That's it.  *******

00:25:09:03 [Speaker 1]: That's fine. Cool. One more thing. Introduce yourself to camera. Yep. Hello. My name is for a few seconds and keep 

00:25:56:22 looking at the camera. Oh, I see. Okay. You ready?  

00:26:07:05 [Speaker 2]: Alrighty. Okay. So my name and my role, right. Okay. Hello. My name is basil Aliko and my role is a prereq pharmacist. Is that okay? Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. Do I say hello or just, my name is  

00:26:25:04 [Speaker 1]: Hello. Hi.  

00:26:28:20 [Speaker 2]: Hi. My name is, uh, basil Alica and my role is pretty much pharmacist Okay. All right. Ready? Yeah. Hi, my name is Basel, Alec. How am I? be 

00:26:57:23 registration pharmacist. Screw that one up  

00:27:04:03 [Speaker 1]: Deep breath and don't rush it. Okay.  00:27:12:22 [Speaker 2]: My name is basil Aliko and my role is a pre-registration pharmacist Around the pharmacy, 10 or 15 minutes.

Bhavisha Patel - Relief Community Pharmacist

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.

Sally Farmer - Regional Pharmacy Manager

00:00:06:03 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. Lovely. Well, Sally, um, I think we'll start off by doing a little, um, intro. Um, so if you just tell us your name and your role,  

00:00:22:00 [Speaker 2]: Paula, and I'm a community pharmacist, a daily response today.  

00:00:26:20 [Speaker 1]: Wonderful. Thank you so much. And could you describe to us what your role looks like and what it involves in a kind of day to day way?  

00:00:41:01 [Speaker 2]: So my daily role as a community pharmacist involves, um, giving advice to patients for minor ailments over the counter offering NHS and private services, and generally helping patients to maintain that good health. Um, I also make sure the pharmacy is running safely and every day is Cyprus my mind part, I would say I also have other roles, um, as a regional pharmacist manager one day a week, and a primary care network lead as well. And there's a supportive roles where I help other local pharmacies 

00:01:14:07 to, um, sort of the day-to-day running of the pharmacy and help them link with the health care professionals under the sub stays so that we can all, um, have a more integrated health and social care system for the local community.  

00:01:31:15 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. Thank you so much. Cause you mentioned patient safety and this is like a massive, massive area. Could you kind of go into that in a little bit more detail and sort of explain to us, you know, how you do what to keep patients safe and what that kind of looks like for us? Just cause it's like, it's one of those phrases that you're like, whoa, close to it. Okay, cool.  

00:01:59:08 [Speaker 2]: Say patient safety. They, my mind poverty in the pharmacy and this involves, um, so being the responsible pharmacist every day, when we dispense the medicines, I can keep check all the prescriptions to make sure that it's safe and appropriate for the patient. I also make sure that over the time to sales have been sold appropriately and it's safe for the patients there. Um, we try and do risk assessments all the time and make sure that any mistakes that are made, we learn from them and correct 

00:02:32:14 them so that we can be safer going forward. Um, sorry. I've lost my way that  

00:02:44:23 [Speaker 1]: I did that. I just want to say don't panic because the beauty about this is if you say something and you don't like it, you can just tell us again, we're not in any rush we've got as long as you've got. So if you want to like scrap something or finish somethings or mid-sentence and start something else, then you just want to take your lead really.  

00:03:07:01 [Speaker 2]: Okay. That's fine. Is that, was that enough? Do you think on patient safety or do you want me to  

00:03:12:02 [Speaker 1]: There's there's quite a bit there. I wonder if, um, I mean you told us about your regional management and that's an interesting dimension as well. So maybe we could have a little bit on the regional work as well as like the day-to-day community pharmacy stuff. You want to show the diversity of all the exciting things that you're doing and the different levels of responsibility.  

00:03:40:22 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I almost, I forgot to say about being clinically for the COVID center. So I'll just say that as well.  

00:03:47:05 [Speaker 1]: Absolutely.  

00:03:49:23 [Speaker 2]: One of my other roles is being clinical lead for the type of vaccination center and, um, we've delivered over 5,000 COVID vaccinations so far, which has been great. Yeah. I call it I'm losing the plot.  

00:04:11:02 [Speaker 1]: Have you got notes there? Yeah, I want, uh, and this is maybe this is more like a me thing, like when I've got notes, sometimes it derails me a bit because I'm reading it and I'm like checking. Yeah. Yeah.  

00:04:27:08 [Speaker 2]: I'm trying to make sure I get everything in, but it's hard to, like, I might look at them and then read about them then say if that's okay,  

00:04:34:10 [Speaker 1]: Record. I mean, this is kind of just radical suggested if you like put them to one side and actually when you get talking, like we did previously, once you start talking, when you do off the cuff, it's really natural and it really flows and you for me anyway, as well, when I talk like that, I'm much more relaxed and I feel like I can just say stuff from the heart. Like I know what I do and I can say it, but I think sometimes when you've kind of prepared loads and I know you've got 

00:05:05:20 stuff you really want to squeeze in, but then it can make it a little bit more stressful. I find because you're like checking, looking down, checking if you feel comfortable doing so. Um, if you want to just like put them to the side, that's fine because you've got it. You've got it all there. And you told us that in the pre-interview, you know, it's a little strange because like, you're kind of just talking to like a black screen with a name on it. It's, it's a strange setup, but I think if we, the more you 

00:05:39:12 sort of talk it out, if you want to like, imagine that we're not recording and you just, how you told me before. Yes. You could say, yeah.  

00:05:51:05 [Speaker 2]: That's all right. So what are we on again? That's  

00:05:54:17 [Speaker 1]: Right. Do you want to call us just a bit? We could, we could do the sort of intro to your role and you can tell us, I work as a community pharmacist. I do regional management and I've just been working in the COVID clinics as well, setting up COVID clinics. So you're just giving us that overview just yeah, from the heart.  

00:06:20:12 [Speaker 2]: So my role is a community pharmacist. Um, my day to day role has been in the pharmacy giving over the cancer advice to patients them on around them and making sure the pharmacy is running safely, um, ensuring the dispensary is running safely and that we're dispensing the medicines appropriately and clinically checking all the prescriptions and, um, calling the GPS if it's not right. And just generally helping patients maintain their good health rate day and providing NHS and private services. I also do another role, which is a regional pharmacist manager role for 

00:06:55:12 Day-Lewis pharmacy. And this is just one day a week and involves me going right into the pharmacy and making sure they're compliant with everything, making sure it's safe again and supporting people, training people, um, and just Germany, you know, helping them relay. I also happen to the role, which is primary care network lead for towards in west. And that involves, um, providing a link between the pharmacist and other 

00:07:22:01 healthcare professionals and other service providers so that we can all help patients severe more integrated health and social care system for the local community. I'm also a clinical lead for COVID vaccination center at the moment. And we've delivered over 5,000 vaccines so far. This involves me again, checking that it's all safe, running efficiently. Uh reconstitutes in vaccines, giving vaccines to patients doing risk assessments with patients to make sure that the vaccine is safe for them 

00:07:53:06 and appropriate. Um, and, and just generally reassuring people and making sure that they feel safe when that happened, a vaccine, um, interracial it's fine. Um, and then they won't get any ill effects. Cause a lot of people have been quite nervous. Um, so interacting with patients is, is one of the most important parts of my job bringing in and making sure that everything's safe. Sorry.  

00:08:22:11 [Speaker 1]: Perfect. I think, yeah, I think doing it without the notes and just going off the two that really works, it really works. And it's also because you're like, so I do this and I do this, I'll do this,  

00:08:35:23 [Speaker 2]: They cover it because I went on the radio race today and I said the same thing about 10 times. So finding that I'm going to send something over there. I forget which you're probably safe, Wanda, helpful to hear  

00:08:51:06 [Speaker 1]: Similar things, different ways because it works differently when we edit it. So we can use like the different ways you've said it. So don't worry about repeating things or saying things slightly differently, you know, saying the same thing differently. Cause that all just works for us. So yeah, no, no. Um, so like shifting gears slightly and we like backtrack, could you tell us what attracted you about pharmacy? 

00:09:20:09 What was the thing that made you want to become a pharmacist? Okay.  

00:09:26:22 [Speaker 2]: So what made me decide to work in pharmacy really was that I really liked health and science and maths. Um, I wanted to do a course at university that would give me a job at the end. Uh, so vocational course, I wanted a professional job, um, with, with a challenge and that's exactly what I got and I liked the thought of helping people, um, and making a difference to people's daily lives really. Um, so yeah, that was why I chose pharmacy.  

00:09:59:07 [Speaker 1]: Thank you. And could you tell us a little bit about your kind of route into pharmacy? Like what that was like, you know, being quite young, getting experience and now moving into the more like managerial side of things as well. So if you sort of tell us a little bit about those transitions.  

00:10:23:09 [Speaker 2]: So my journey through pharmacy, um, involved obviously through university, a lot of academic things, things on paper, um, some practical, uh, things in the lab, um, not much patient interaction at that time. Um, but that all changed when I went to work as a pre-registration pharmacist and that's where I got the hands-on experience that I needed for any, to be a pharmacist and to interact with patients. Um, because you can't, you can't then practice that on paper. So *you have 

00:10:56:06 to, you know, just throw yourself in at the deep end mainly. And that's when I really got to use all my expert knowledge, um, giving advice to the patients *that it was really rewarding and it made me feel good. Um, but the other, the other side of the coin was also managing the pharmacy, which was quite challenging at first, but again, really, really rewarding. I've met lots of different people, made lots of friends and, um, and help people to train, um, shared my knowledge with them to try and then watch them grow in 

00:11:27:05 their profession in their career. And then they've been an extra support to me in the pharmacy as well. And we've been able to do a lot more services and free my time up a little bit more. So, yeah, it's, it's been really rewarding in that way that I've also helped other people to achieve their goals in the pharmacy as well.  

00:11:49:07 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. I really love that me from like yeah, like being young and like facing that real challenge. And now you're in a position where you can train others. That's amazing. I think that's really inspiring for, you know, young people who'd be watching this or not necessarily young, but you know, more junior into pharmacy and he want to find their way through it. That's really, really helpful. Um, you've mentioned a couple of times about it being a rewarding profession. Could you give us maybe some examples of situations, stories from your working 

00:12:26:01 life that really show, you know, just how rewarding and important pharmacy is?  

00:12:36:12 [Speaker 2]: So the most rewarding moments of my journey so far are really just every time I could difference to a patient's daily life and every time I've helped to improve their health, um, and you know, how that helps their family, their friends, and, um, just makes their life better really. And I'm constantly learning new things, improving my skills and changing everything is changing all the time in pharmacy, new research and things. So, um, it's great to be able to sort of pass that knowledge on to patients. And, um, and my colleagues, I think sets in at the COVID 

00:13:10:19 vaccination center was one of the most challenging, but one of the most rewarding moments of my career so far and, um, you know, vaccinating over 5,000 patients so far, it's amazing to know that we're making a difference into getting the country out of the pandemic, which has been brilliant. And I think every defining moment in my career was when I was awarded with a chemist and druggist award for my work, through the COVID pandemic, through 

00:13:37:23 the vaccinations and giving them food jobs, um, you know, to my patients and the homeless, um, which was really a plan. And I feel very appreciated. That was nice.  

00:13:51:00 [Speaker 1]: That's awesome. I'd forgotten. You mentioned this before. Okay. Absolutely. No, this is wonderful. I mean, are there any sort of, um, examples, any patients that sort of stand out in your memory, any sort of particular moments where maybe someone's come in, you know, really, really struggling and you've been able to help them out to get the sort of support that they need, any sort of examples like that, that can give it, 

00:14:21:14 that kind of flavor of, of how exactly you all making that difference day in, day out.  

00:14:34:07 [Speaker 2]: Sorry. I'm just thinking I have to start it. Cause I know you sort of got to read the question back to you, so I'm just,  

00:14:40:01 [Speaker 1]: Um, let me think we can figure it out together a few times. What's the kind of example you've got in mind and we can think about how to like lead into it.  

00:14:51:01 [Speaker 2]: I was just wanting to think died today, read it. Cause I've got that patient obviously went round his high society's lie. Um, so I mentioned that one. Um, that was the one that would be okay.  

00:15:01:19 [Speaker 1]: I think so. Yeah. I mean, because it's not, you're not saying anything that would identify this person because this is such a hard hitting example that stayed with me after we spoke that that's the kind of thing. If we can leave someone with a really hard hitting example of just how important your job is. Yeah.  

00:15:23:21 [Speaker 2]: So one of the really important ways that, um, without patients in the pharmacy, um, we keep an eye on our patients and one patient didn't come and collect his medication and we called him and we had no answers. So me and my colleague went on lunch to his house to check if he was okay and tape it on the floor for three days. Um, and he was still alive luckily and we managed to get an ambulance to him and give the ambulance crew like, um, you know, the record of his, all his medicines and things and his condition. So they knew exactly what to do and what you 

00:15:57:00 needed. Um, and yeah, we saved his life. So that was amazing. And it shows how important pharmacies are in the local community and how pharmacies can be the pillar of the community rating and keeping on your patients.  

00:16:11:21 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. I love that phrase pillar of the community that feels a little bit really important to me that you're the ones like really keeping an eye and checking in on people and noticing, noticing that someone didn't pick up the medication. Could you tell us what it was like for you personally to be in that position of finding him and being able to make that cool?  

00:16:38:00 [Speaker 2]: I think the way it impacted me as a person, um, you know, saving that patient's life was that it makes me, it's made me realize how important health is, um, not just to the patient, to their friends and family and how important it is to maintain good health and my responsibility really, to ensure that that takes place. Um, emotionally I've learned a lot from my patients. I think,  

00:17:04:24 [Speaker 1]: Tell us a little bit more about what that is that you've learned. If you just give us a little extra on that  

00:17:13:12 [Speaker 2]: I've loved, I've cried with patients. Um, you know, but it's, it's hard to put into words really. Um,  

00:17:28:02 [Speaker 1]: Maybe if you sort of imagine if we're not recording this, but if you kind of tell me what you would want to say and then we could find a way.  

00:17:35:07 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. Um, so how it impacted me personally. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think it's just, it's just rewarding to know that we're there and that if we weren't there, you know, with my, again, a difference to someone's life, um, and to their family and friends life as well. Um, yeah, I don't want to sound big headed.  

00:18:01:02 [Speaker 1]: Well, I suspected you were worried about, I was sort of thinking like maybe you're, you're kind of thinking, I can't really say too much about me and you know, my role and my impact, but actually I think because the audience for that yes are people that are interested in the profession and what reward, you know, we, we want to be rewarded in our careers. I think that's perfectly okay to get something out of it. And for someone to be able to watch this and go, oh my God, someone's telling me, 

00:18:32:22 I've laughed with patients. I've cried with patients. I've been there when they've been in that. Absolutely like most desperate need and I've been able to step in and sometimes save their lives. Like, that's just, I'm like, I want to do that. I want to.  

00:18:54:12 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. So I think that the way it's impacted me as a person being a pharmacist is that I've learned how important health is to people. Um, not just to the patients, to their family and friends. And *it's lovely when patients come back and tell you that made a difference with their friends and family bringing gifts and things like that. And just, you know, tell us how amazing we are really. And that we've, um, we've helped them a lot and you know, I've laughed, I've cried with patients and, um, 

00:19:26:04 you know, when they, when they've been really sad, um, and, and just try to cheer them up really and reassure them and, and tell them everything's gonna be okay. And I think, you know, *you've got to be a caring person to be a pharmacist and, um, and yeah, and, and you can make a big difference. Awesome. Thanks.  

00:19:48:08 [Speaker 1]: Yeah, we don't, yeah. We don't need to like, sort of make it like, sort of dumb it down or water down your role. I think we need to like, say exactly what you're doing to, yeah.  

00:19:58:18 [Speaker 2]: It's hard. Cause you just do it every day. You say, and you don't really think about it. So yeah.  

00:20:04:02 [Speaker 1]: Then you've got these strange film people coming in, make yourself up. Yeah, no, it feels important to, yeah. To, to show these a powerful role is a powerful role and you're advocating for patients and you're managing and you're responsible for keeping people safe. That's huge. We can't underestimate it. Um, I want to now, um, because you mentioned COVID a couple of times and the clinic, could you tell us a 

00:20:35:04 little bit more about what it's been like to work as a pharmacist during this really unique period in recent history  

00:20:46:03 [Speaker 2]: During the COVID pandemic? Um, the P the profession of pharmacy and community pharmacy change completely very late, but we became the front door of the NHS and our patients can come in and see us without an appointment and we're accessible. And, um, it was just nice to be able to, you know, help patients and reassure them and link them with, with other services and professionals if needed. And, um, it's been tough on, on pharmacists, on the teams I'm wearing PPE all day, um, and managing 

00:21:16:20 all of that. And the, and the change. It was very, very challenging, but also very rewarding. And it was amazing to, you know, to know we were making a difference to, to help the country get through this pandemic. Um, and also, you know, supporting with the COVID vaccinations as well. It's all been hard work, but it's been well worth it. And, um, you know, we've, we've lost patients through the pandemic. It's been really sad, but we've also helped a lot of patients as well. And, um, you know, it's, it's so 

00:21:47:07 important that we're there and especially when the GPS were so snowed under and we could support the GPS to help pay for the smile. Um, so yeah, that's,  

00:22:00:23 [Speaker 1]: Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you. And I love the phrase, the front door of the NHS. I really, really love that.  

00:22:09:07 [Speaker 2]: Try to get these little snippets in  

00:22:12:01 [Speaker 1]: The community front or of the NHS. I love it because it just gives you that really like visual sense of what you're doing. Could you tell us what it was like to receive your award for your work during the pandemic?  

00:22:28:22 [Speaker 2]: So I was really surprised to receive an award for my work during the pandemic. And, um, you know, there were a lot of other candidates on there that had done so much work and that were so amazing. Uh, but it's lovely to be appreciated. Um, you know, I'll have what, we've all worked hard to pharmacy through the pandemic. Um, and I couldn't have done it without my team. Um, but you know, setting up a COVID clinic giving two thirds of the vaccination is personally myself on top of the daily 

00:22:59:18 workload, um, was really tough. And it's just nice to know that I've helped patients and that it's appreciated really. So, yeah, it was really lovely.  

00:23:10:12 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. Thank you. That was a lot of vaccinations to be giving out  

00:23:17:04 [Speaker 2]: Pretty much. I don't want to tell them that though.  

00:23:22:11 [Speaker 1]: I think it's, yeah, it's important because like you're talking about, you know, it is tough. It's really challenging. We're not anything we're all working in a global pandemic, but to be awarded and rewarded for what you've done. I think that's really important to make sure we include that deeply to know. Yeah. Um, I'm just trying to think if we might need more detail on what you've been up to in your role or raisin. I mean, there's, there's one thing that we haven't sort of covered, which is 

00:23:54:08 like those really common myths about pharmacy and versus the reality we often have, you know, quite, uh, like members of the public, you know, like me, like the team doing this project, we, none of us really, really understood pharmacy as a profession, what pharmacists do. Um, so if you could maybe think about that unexplained to us, what those myths are and 

00:24:19:18 stereotypes about pharmacy versus what pharmacist actually do.  

00:24:27:21 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I th I think there's a lot of myths in pharmacy, um, about what pharmacists actually do. And it's a lot more than just being in a retail environment and, um, and giving out medicines really, you know, I've had people say to me, oh, you only got to pick it off the shelf. It's not quite that simple. Um, behind the scenes, we've got a team of, you know, or the skilled professionals, pumps, technicians, accredited check-in technicians, and we are doing double, triple checks on everything that comes in and goes out. Um, so as a pharmacist, we look at 

00:25:01:00 the prescriptions and clinically check them and check they're safe for the patients and their appropriate yet with, I need to check that what's been dispensed is correct. And that goes out to the patient because if there's a mistake there that could be really damaging to a patient. And if the prescriber has made a mistake, we have to phone them and ask them to check the, check it, and sometimes get them to change the prescription and send us a new one. So that it's, um, it's safe for the 

00:25:28:20 patient and also legal as well as a lot of legal implications in pharmacy that we need to take into consider ration. So a prescription has to be written legally, um, this controlled drugs to consider that have to be locked away, and we have to keep a running balance of, and check that the, the, all the stocks there every week check out the prescriptions in date, and that it's all written correctly. And on top of that, you've also got to go out to the counter and give customers advice when needed on them on 

00:26:01:05 around moments. And you might be providing them with projects and giving them advice on those, as well as providing other services, NHS and private services. So I also, um, give monofilament services for water infections, um, you know, fresh treatments, chloramphenicol for conjunctivitis. Um, I also provide about 60 private services. So vaccinations travel, vaccines 

00:26:31:11 travel, then things like Traveler's diarrhea and different things like that. So that there's a lot of different, different roles in the pharmacy that you have to juggle every day, as well as managing and checking patient safe day, but it's doable and it's, it's enjoyable. Um, just very, very challenging  

00:26:51:23 [Speaker 1]: Also, thank you. That's a really good overview of all of the different things that you're doing. And then just like giving us a much sort of deeper look behind the scenes. Yeah.  

00:27:01:21 [Speaker 2]: Probably went on a bit there. They didn't know  

00:27:04:08 [Speaker 1]: Don't, don't worry. Cause that's, that's where we come in. We'll pick up bits that we need for the piece. That's yeah. That's where Jake will be. I'm wondering if you could kind of tell us, like paint us a picture of where pharmacy is going, like the pharmacy of the future and where you want to see the future of pharmacy.  

00:27:32:24 [Speaker 2]: So the theater of community pharmacy and all of that's changed through the pandemic. And I think pharmacists have been seen as, as professionals now and that we, um, we are making a huge difference in the NHS. Pharmacists will all be prescribers in the next few years. Um, so that's a massive change for us and we'll be able to sort of help the NHS, um, give people medications, well, like actually prescribe it rather than just dispense it. Um, and all the rest of the team will need to be 

00:28:10:00 upscaled to accommodate for the farm, providing more services to patients one to one. So it will involve the pharmacist, training people more and making sure that they can run the dispensary while pharmacists are more patient facing on the counter in the consultation room. So it's a challenging time, uh, managing everyday unprofessionally and, um, a lot of 

00:28:34:18 changes happening right now, but, um, it will, it will all be worth it.  

00:28:40:20 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. And can you tell us like what the most exciting thing is about the future of pharmacy? Is there like one thing in particular that really stands out to you?  

00:28:55:18 [Speaker 2]: I think the most exciting thing about the future of pharmacy is being more integrated with the healthcare professionals, um, and sort of helping to get that overall service to our patients really. So we can all talk to each other and make sure we've got, you know, we focus on everything that the patient is going through rather than just saying one thing in the pharmacy than the different thing at the GP surgery. Um, I think the future is changing that we will all talk to each other more and 

00:29:26:19 integrate more to give patients the best service and, and help them to maintain their good health.  

00:29:35:13 [Speaker 1]: Great. Thank you. And I wonder also, like thinking about the audience, this thinking about some of that, maybe that anxieties worries, fears about taking on such a big, you know, career path and maybe they might be worried, am I up to it? Am I able to do it? Not just sort of academically, because obviously you need the academics, but also like emotionally, because there's so much communication and really quite, you 

00:30:08:15 know, as you said, like difficult situations that are upsetting that all overwhelming at times, like what would you say to someone considering this as a profession to kind of encourage them that this is, this is for you, and this is really exciting and rewarding to be in.  

00:30:30:07 [Speaker 2]: I think you should consider pharmacy as a profession if you're a caring person. And if you want a professional vocational course that you can start after university, um, one that integrates health and science, that's challenging and rewarding where you're constantly learning and you'll never be bored. There's a lot of different roles that you can undertake, um, and a lot of different career paths, but all the way through there is support the support with the team that you have. And there's other 

00:31:02:09 pharmacist support for the Royal pharmaceutical society for the general pharmaceutical council. And, um, you know, you can really make a difference to people's lives. And I think if that's for you, then, then pharmacy is definitely for you.  

00:31:16:24 [Speaker 1]: Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. Like reflecting back for yourself, like personally, like if you could say something to your younger self, when you were just embarking on your career, what would be the thing you'd say to, to reassure you yourself, to encourage yourself that, you know, you've got this, you can do this. This is well worth persevering.  

00:31:46:19 [Speaker 2]: I think you've almost to speak to my younger self when I was just embarking on my career. Um, I think I would tell myself that it's going to be amazing. Um, there's going to be ups and downs and you've all going to make such a difference to the community and to people's lives. And you're gonna, you know, learn so much and so many new skills meet so many lovely people and, you know, just, just be a professional and 

00:32:17:15 enjoy it right day. And then, yeah, you'd be doing things that you didn't even think possible.  

00:32:27:14 [Speaker 1]: That's awesome. I'm just wondering, just cause I've loved some of the things that you've said, like the images, the pillar of the community front door of the NHS, I kind of feel like we need to sort of capture that in maybe one like soundbite almost where you could tell us, you know, becoming a pharmacist is amazing. A pharmacist is the pillar of the community. We've been there for patients throughout the whole pandemic. We've been the front door of the NHS, you know, something along those lines that just like gives us a big like smack, like, yeah, I want to, I want to 

00:33:01:12 keep like tell me more basically, which I think would be nice to include at the beginning actually like talking about your name and your role, then you say, Hey, pharmacy is this incredible profession. We are a pillar of the community. We've been the front door of the NHS throughout the pandemic. You know, something along those lines that just yeah. Gets us wanting to, to hear your passion for your job.  

00:33:30:16 [Speaker 2]: So beta pharmacist is fantastic and where the front door or the NHS patients can come and see us and we're accessible at any time. We've made a huge difference during the pandemic and, but yeah,  

00:33:51:01 [Speaker 1]: But you're just, yeah, you're giving it. So I think, yeah, if you almost like, again, just sort of ignore, ignore the notes, place yourself, you know, or like, what can I do to convince someone that this is, this is a badass job. You know, we are the front door of the NHS. We've been here for patients day in, day out. We are a pillar of the community. You know, you, I'm guessing you hear things about people that very few people would ever hear. That's a really important relationship. So 

00:34:22:19 that's the kind of thing that we can help to yeah. To keep someone coming back and help someone passive. If they're like really low and thinking, gosh, I'm so overwhelmed. The study is hard. The work is hard. Or I don't know that this is even for me, it's those bits, those kinds of feelings that we want to give someone. Yeah.  

00:34:49:18 [Speaker 2]: So being a pharmacist is absolutely amazing. Um, you can be the pillar of the community and patients can come in and see you any time you're accessible. You're the front door of the NHS. You can provide them with confidential expert advice on medicines that nobody else can, and you can help save their lives. You can, um, provide them with medical patient services that they might not otherwise have known about and you'll 

00:35:19:22 be constantly learning. And you can share that knowledge with the colleagues and patients and with pharmacists, it made a huge difference during the pandemic and it is tough at university and it is, it is a challenging job, but it's so, so rewarding and well it, yeah, that's awesome.  

00:35:44:18 [Speaker 1]: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think there's, there's loads there. Um, I want to just come back or turn my video back on. Um, yeah, I think there's, there's lots of great things that you've, you've told us, you've explained your job, the ins and outs, how difficult it's been under COVID, but what you've actually been up to and the fact that you've been award winning for, for your work. I mean, there's loads there checking with Jake and see take, are you still there? Is there anything, do 

00:36:15:08 you feel like we need to add?  

00:36:23:23 [Speaker 2]: I just, I think I just hate talk in looking at myself. Yeah.  

00:36:28:19 [Speaker 1]: It's a very strange environment, isn't it? Because it's in a way that it's kind of not the most natural set up, but once you get yeah, it's  

00:36:37:14 [Speaker 2]: Just, so it's just been a whirlwind. It's just hard to put it into words and talk about what's going on when you say busy all the time. I think, um, thanks for prompting me.  

00:36:48:20 [Speaker 1]: It's all great stuff. I think when sometimes when, when I've done this with polite, if I've over-prepared and if I've tried to make sure, like I've got everything down on paper, sometimes my mind just goes blank. I'm like, do I want again?  

00:37:01:22 [Speaker 2]: Yeah. I just think I'm not the most articulate stuff, right? No,  

00:37:06:14 [Speaker 1]: I think, I think the opposite actually. I think when you just get the hang of, when you start talking, you're incredibly clear, concise, you know exactly what you're saying and why you're saying it, which is the most important thing. Yeah. Is there anything else that you feel that we haven't covered or you want to add? Um, that feels  

00:37:33:16 [Speaker 2]: So I think can think of kind of the nice things. I mean, I suppose I didn't mention sort of the health independent advice I give to patients as well at the more holistic approach. But, um, I suppose I've said give advice a lot. So I suppose that could be in with that, but let's stop smoking and weight management and alcohol and things like that. Um, it's not just about the medicines ready sometimes.  

00:37:55:16 [Speaker 1]: Oh, I love what you've just said that maybe we can just do a tiny little section where you, you say that it's not all about the medicines. What I provide is holistic care. And then there's, what is that? What those things are. I'll stop my video and mute myself. So that feels really important because again, that's like the myth-busting side a bit, but no, it's about patience. It's about, so yeah, I'll, I'll stop my 

00:38:25:02 bid, meet myself and you can tell us  

00:38:32:24 [Speaker 2]: Giving healthy lifestyle advice is a really part of my job is as well. It's not just about medicines. It's about the whole holistic approach that we give to patients, whether it be stop smoking advice, weight management, advice, um, you know, exercise and diabetes, managing long-term conditions. All of these things are really important. We also link people with their local community agents so they can get care at home or from different service providers as well. So it's not just about the medicines that we concentrate on in the pharmacies. It's also about the 

00:39:06:10 whole patient care approach that we give.  

00:39:10:11 [Speaker 1]: Brilliant. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah.  

00:39:16:13 [Speaker 2]: Nothing. That's nothing. That's probably covered most things. That's fantastic. You got a good sense of all the different parts of your job, what they look like, how things have changed under COVID. I think we're all done.