How I'm planning not to burn out in 2023 in a profession where it's all too easy

Editor Vicki Wood asked me to contribute to the online conversation on pharmacy from my non-cowardly and ripping the envelope point of view. Well here it goes . . . I’ve never considered myself a coward. In fact, I’ve ventured into a lot of activities rarely worried about the outcome: skydiving, running the Athens Marathon, hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and starting my Apothecary. I occasionally get to reminisce with other independent owners and one thing most say is that if they’d known how hard being an entrepreneur would be they may have chosen a different path. But would we? Underneath the entrepreneur super-human suit is still a human, after all. Along with having employees we’re responsible for, loans that name our children as collateral, LOCs that suck a pint of blood at each month end, and being at home plate for all home runs and strikeouts; we also have to pee, eat, cry when we’re sad, and, yes, we can even get COVID. Don’t feel too sorry for me, but when my husband left at the beginning of the pandemic, I was in my office listening to his truck drive away for the very last time. I held back the tears, turned away from the bleakness that life portrayed, and helped the next anxious patient. Perhaps putting others first is good therapy. According to the Buddhist faith: All the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself. In spite of my resolve to reduce others’ suffering, even though I don my warrior dress daily, I found myself recently saying—out loud—“I’m tired of giving all my energy and resources to my profession.” This seemingly, all-consuming pharmacy machine. Perhaps the do-gooder in me has finally done too much? Or, have I just been finally exhausted by the viral-load of the past three years? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time for another rendition of what Lisa can offer the world. First, I thought I needed to look at the little things—daily tasks‚since I DO love what I do, but something has got to give. Make a list, I said to myself: Minimize after-hours workload. Don’t answer patient text messages outside of working hours. “Unsubscribe” to non-essential communications. Think of self-care as an ESSENTIAL. Rethink my staff schedule to maximize skills to best suit patient needs, and to free me up as much as possible to focus on clinical care. Meditate daily. Gone are the days when a community pharmacist could be everything for everyone, BUT we should have the freedom to be the pharmacist that we’re meant to be (which may mean taking pleasure in changing watch batteries, fixing bikes in the back room, or giving away abundant produce). I certainly don’t think we’re all the same. How could we be? Each of our paths to and through pharmacy differ, therefore so should our practices. As a long-term pharmacy owner, my expertise has diversified greatly, but at a cost to my private life (hindsight awareness). This point is the biggest irony of my life since I could NOT find another place to be the clinical consulting pharmacist I want to be, so I had the pleasure/burden of building and operating my dream workplace. My second thought: is there another path on this journey? My list started getting longer with a few hypotheticals: Sell business and work for someone else who’s got a dream job to offer me (a miracle??). Another crazy thought came to me: maybe the PanCanadian pharmacy program will be a great solution. I don’t want to manage government inventory, so I would suggest to Justin that they become the distributor and to hire pharmacists and technicians to be ‘highly accessible’ (at an acceptable salary) and provide the ‘health system’s efficiencies and sustainability’ that are boasted about, but that pharmacy owners currently fund. Let the feds take over the distribution of drugs and I provide contract work as a consultant. But DO I still want to keep the pharmacy shingle out there and comply with the constant flow of regulations and limitations put on using my large education? Here in Manitoba, it’s this beautiful mess of: know this, but don’t do that; understand this, but go through the doctor first; initiate blood work but don’t tell the patient the results until the doctor knows; don’t brag about what you do because all pharmacists are the same (ugghh). About eight years ago, our College told us that becoming certified in Travel Medicine would enable pharmacists to prescribe travel related vaccines and other medications—but it hasn’t happened yet. I have some hope in the new International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) document on renovating pharmacy regulations to incorporate pharmacists into the management of non-communicable diseases; authored by Ronald Guse, chair, FIP Forum of Pharmacy Professional Regulators 2020-2022, Canada and Gonçalo Sousa Pinto, FIP Lead for Practice Development and Transformation. Perhaps I will not live long enough to benefit from such a renovation . . . so, I may diversify (again). Quit pharmacy and become a sex therapist (I’m halfway through this degree). Options, options. Whatever I do decide for this next chapter of my professional life, it will include the view of a lake from my home office window, having copious time to be Baba Lisa (grandbaby coming June 2023).

How I'm planning not to burn out in 2023 in a profession where it's all too easy

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Lisa Zaretzky

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