Q&A: Celebrating World Pharmacists Day

At FDB, we’re proud to have pharmacists at the heart of our work, bringing their expertise and diverse experiences to everything we do. This World Pharmacists Day, we’re celebrating their journeys and the vital role they play in shaping the future of healthcare.

What inspired you to pursue pharmacy?
I’m really a pharmacist by accident! I had never even thought about it until I got my first Christmas job in a high street pharmacy chain when I was 16 and by chance was given a role on the pharmacy counter. I stayed on in this role during college and really enjoyed finding out more about the medications and helping patients manage their conditions, so much so that I changed all my A levels to the right courses to allow me to go to pharmacy school.

Can you tell me a bit about your career path as a pharmacist and how it led you to FDB? 
I’ve been a pharmacist for around 14 years now and started my career working in community pharmacy for both a national chain and then as the manager of a local independent pharmacy. I loved community pharmacy and it was never quiet, but I wanted to try something more clinical, so spent some time working in a local NHS Trust, including in a forensic inpatient hospital. Then I came to FDB and worked in the OptimiseRx clinical content team, developing national content and supporting local requests. More recently, I took some time out from my role at FDB and worked as a lead pharmacist for a PCN covering six surgeries and focusing on care for patients in care homes before returning to FDB a year ago. I think all of these different roles have really helped me as I can understand the environments our customers are working in and the challenges they have. I’ve also learnt a lot while working in the OptimiseRx team that was invaluable when working in the PCN.

This year’s World Pharmacists Day theme is ‘Think Health, Think Pharmacist’, to showcase how vital pharmacists are for policymakers and the future of healthcare. With that in mind, what would you say are the most important skills/ideas that pharmacists can contribute to better health outcomes?
I think how pharmacists are seen has changed a lot – they're not just the person in the lab coat behind a counter or in a dispensary! Pharmacists have more senior roles in the NHS and within organisations – more are becoming partners in GP surgeries for example. I think the clinical skills we have are being recognised, with newer pharmacists supporting us with prescribing, giving us more opportunities to take on more clinical roles and support decision-making. 

We work across multiple sectors not just the NHS and that gives us a unique view of the healthcare landscape. I think the key skills we bring are our clinical knowledge and expertise, communication skills with both patients and other healthcare professionals and problem-solving ability – we have to adapt to different environments and make choices that suit the individual patient as a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. 
 
How does your role as a pharmacist at FDB differ from a traditional pharmacy role, and how do you see that impacting patient safety and prescribing at scale?
I think the role of pharmacists in healthcare technology like FDB is something a lot of healthcare professionals don’t realise exists. As healthcare professionals, we rely on clinical decision support every day, but I don’t think we always realise that a Clinical Pharmacist has been involved in creating that information for us or how much work that is. 

I guess the biggest difference in this role from more traditional roles is we do not directly see patients, but the work we do impacts thousands of patients across the country and makes a real difference in promoting safer prescribing in line with local and national guidelines and saving the NHS money.

One way the role is similar to traditional roles is working with other healthcare professionals – we are a team of pharmacists at FDB, but also work with pharmacy professionals from ICBs and Health Boards across the UK.

What do you find most rewarding about using your pharmacist expertise in a healthcare technology company, rather than a clinical setting?
I really enjoy that I work with not just a team of pharmacy professionals but also clinical researchers, ITS professionals and the product team as we can all learn things from each other. We help non-clinicians to understand the clinical problems and they help us to develop new solutions and ways to address it. 

Do you have any advice for individuals seeking a career in pharmacy, especially those looking to move into a more healthcare technology career?
I think it can often feel like you have to make the choice on which pharmacy sector you want to work in when you leave university, and it can feel difficult to change roles when you’ve made that choice. Having done it, our skills are relatable to so many fields and if you’re interested in trying something new you should give it a go! Not all roles have to be patient facing and if you are interested in technology and developing new things to help clinicians, healthcare technology is definitely something to consider. I really enjoy my current role and have got to work with different non-clinicians and learn different skills from them that you don’t get in other pharmacy roles. It’s also exciting to be involved in new technology that will be used by other professionals.