Life after licensure: The first steps on my pharmacist journey

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This quote was one of the first things that came to my mind when I woke up on a July morning in 2022 to find out that I had passed my PEBC licensing exam. I’m sure many pharmacists can remember back to when they first started practicing. For me, I started my career off in community pharmacy, at a pharmacy that I had worked in as an assistant during my time as a student. I remember experiencing feelings of excitement and nervousness while driving to the pharmacy for my very first pharmacist shift. I thought to myself: “I finally made it: all the studying and preparation over the past four years has paid off. Today, I am the pharmacist in the dispensary.”Although I had worked in community pharmacy as an assistant during pharmacy school, there was always a pharmacist working with me to ask questions if I was unsure of anything. One of the first things that became apparent very quickly during my first day was suddenly being the go-to person for almost every question. There was no pharmacist overlap that day and there were situations where I had to rely on my knowledge, resources, and professional judgement to make decisions. I remember extending a prescription for a patient on my first day of practice. I felt a little nervous doing so but both the patient and prescriber were thankful for my decision afterwards. My first day as a pharmacist felt quite long as I was working rather slowly while trying to get used to my new role.That was the start of my pharmacist journey and since then time has really flown by. A few months after my first day, we were into flu season and busy with vaccines, vacation supply fills, and the usual pharmacy dispensing tasks. Less than half a year after my first day, pharmacists in the province of Ontario were allowed to assess and prescribe for select minor ailments which made things even busier. As time passed, I became more used to the pharmacy workflow as a pharmacist and could see myself working more efficiently. I felt that my shifts even passed by quicker. After working for a year as a staff pharmacist, I took on the role of a pharmacy manager which added more tasks to my plate such as scheduling and narcotic counts. Fast forward to the present day, and I am still working as a pharmacy manager, but working in both retail and long-term care pharmacy. When I graduated from pharmacy school, I thought that I had learned everything I could about pharmacy. Once I started working as a pharmacist, I quickly realized that while the exams had stopped, there was no end to learning. Everyday in practice I find I am always learning new things, from therapeutic tidbits to insurance policies to managing conflicts in situations that arise.Pharmacy practice has not come without its challenges. There have been days where I have felt overwhelmed after working for a long period of time especially If the workload is heavy and the pharmacy is short staffed. Work-life balance is something that can be quite difficult to attain in pharmacy and it is something that is a work in progress for me. Over time, I have learned the importance of setting boundaries at work, knowing when to delegate, and prioritizing tasks when things get busy. It is important for us to take care of ourselves so that we can provide the best care we can to our patients.Looking back on my two-and-a-half year pharmacist journey so far, it feels like I have come a long way, yet time has flown by so quickly. There have been highs and lows and a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. Being a pharmacist has been both challenging and rewarding and I am excited to keep moving forward on this journey.

Life after licensure: The first steps on my pharmacist journey

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