Five ways that relief pharmacy work has made me a better pharmacist

Think about a relief pharmacist, and the first thing that comes to mind is a subpar placeholder for a pharmacist. Someone you bring in from a relief agency as a last resort. That’s what I thought too, up until a year ago. As with many things in life, the reality is more nuanced than that and I’m here to tell you that there's a new breed of relief pharmacists out there. Pharmacists choosing to do relief, not because they want an easy shift with minimal responsibility, but because it allows them the opportunity to live life on their terms. To practice pharmacy on their schedule. I’m here to tell you that for me at least, practicing pharmacy in a relief role has made me a much better pharmacist. How did I get here? I started working in relief in November of 2019 as my interest in functional medicine started to ramp up. I was finding it difficult to create content reliably, keep up with my course work and work full time. Around that same time, I had been speaking with a few pharmacy owners in the area. They all had roles they needed to fill for a few days a week, or needed coverage for a week or two here and there. I saw an opportunity to work on my own terms and dedicate more energy to my pursuits outside of the dispensary. I was hesitant to go this route, of course. I would be starting my own business. I would need to incorporate. To open bank accounts. Figure out what rates to charge. And then there's the question of whether I would get any business. With only a few contacts I wasn't confident I could pay my bills. But as anyone who knows me will tell you, I have a tendency to dive in head first. So suddenly, here I was holding down the fort in community pharmacies across BC. It hasn’t been an easy year. I’ve had to put in a lot of work, both in securing contracts, as well as on shift. Relief pharmacy means coming into a shift not knowing everything about the workplace. Dispensaries are relatively similar to each other, but there are big differences in layout, computer systems, workflows, etc. You need to be a quick learner and able to adapt. But all of those challenges have one big payoff: I'm a better pharmacist now than I was a year ago. How? Read: Finding your niche: Relief pharmacy offers variety, flexibility Here are five reasons why relief pharmacy has made me a better pharmacist: I cannot make assumptions: Think about the interaction checking alerts you get on a typical day in the pharmacy. How many of those do you blatantly ignore because you assume someone else has discussed it with the patient? As a relief pharmacist, I cannot assume. With every prescription I check or give out, I need to go into the situation as though I would in a practice lab in school. It means I get a lot more history from the patient and I ask a lot more questions before giving out the medication. Some patients are annoyed by it, especially because they are used to their regular pharmacist. But many patients are thankful for the discussion and tell me that no-one has ever discussed these things with them before. I’ve become a better communicator: Because of the above issue with not being able to make assumptions, I actively try to improve upon the information available to the next pharmacist. If I counsel a patient on a QT interval interaction between two medications that I know they will be on routinely, I make a note on each of the prescription files about that discussion. I ensure that the comment stays on the prescription file when it is copied to a new one so that moving forward, it's clear to other pharmacists on the team that I've done my due diligence. That way, the next time the patient comes in, the conversation is far more straight forward, and the attending pharmacist can build on the care I provided. It's an extra bit of work, but I know I would appreciate it if I were the next pharmacist to visit the files. I’m way less jaded. Let’s be real here for a minute. Community pharmacy can be the pits. Long hours, often no lunch break, stuck in the middle between a rock (the patient) and a hard place (the doctor). Being a health care professional in a retail setting breeds its own list of frustrations. But with relief pharmacy, I work less often, and I work in new environments all the time. When I show up for a week long contract I am fresh and ready to contribute to the team. By the time I’ve started to pick up on workplace politics and who gossips about who, I’m out of there. It means that I have a bit more patience for the things that come up during a day than I would as a staff pharmacist. I have time to learn! Working full time as a staff pharmacist means being drained at the end of the day with limited motivation for continuing education. Working on my own schedule means I can build in time for continuing education so that my clinical knowledge is always improving. I’m more of a hustler: As an independent relief pharmacist, my livelihood is on the line. I charge rates that reflect my competent, friendly, efficient service. If you come back to the pharmacy after a week away and the place is a disaster, I’m not going to get repeat business from you. Knowing that, I hustle when I’m on shift. If there is a pile of problem baskets, you best believe I’ll be rifling through them and trying to solve as many as I can before you get return. All in all, the highs, the lows, the financial uncertainty, I’m glad that I chose to start a relief pharmacy business. It’s given me more freedom in my life. And surprisingly, it’s made me a better pharmacist to boot! Kimberley Kallio is a pharmacist and certified functional medicine consultant based in B.C. This article was adapted from a LinkedIN post. She can be contacted via linkedIN or by e-mail at kimberleykallioinc@gmail.com. Follow her journey through functional medicine through her website and on social media via facebook, instagram and X (twitter).

Five ways that relief pharmacy work has made me a better pharmacist

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