Tech aims to use Master's degree to forge new pathways

Karyann Dorn came to her career as a pharmacy technician in an unorthodox way. She originally took a degree in anthropology. In 2008, while doing field research in Ecuador, she became ill and was eventually diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that forced her to abandon her studies. But her positive experience with pharmacy professionals as she navigated her various medications, and discussions with a pharmacy technician friend, drew her to that profession. “I wanted to have the ability to give back and remind people who are going through drastic autoimmune things that it gets better. That was my motivation.” Read: Walmart to pay for pharmacy technicians’ degrees and licensing Graduating just before the advent of regulation in Alberta, she worked as a pharmacy assistant in Calgary until she became licensed. She later took compounding courses in Saskatchewan. Dorn loved working in a compounding lab, but again, her illness forced her to refocus. “When you have an autoimmune disease, it’s probably best that you don’t work in a lab with hormones all day,” she says, acknowledging that “it is painful when you learn that something you love to do is something you can’t do anymore.” She moved into a community outreach pharmacy, working with vulnerable populations, and admits that she had no idea what she doing. “I felt scared all the time. The first few times I saw a substance poisoning, it was really frightening.” She took courses in harm reduction and wound care, and learned a lot about the different resources in her community. Read: Award-winning tech wears many hats But Dorn began to see gaps based on regulations that—even if unintentional—were actually harmful to the patient. That motivated her to return to school for her master’s degree. “I wanted to look at the gaps in community pharmacy from a bigger perspective.” Based on her background both in anthropology and pharmacy, she was accepted at the University of British Columbia in a program called Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies. She chose a global studies track, “because I wanted to look at programs and resources in other communities, particularly in places like Finland and Norway, where they were doing clean drug supply and housing patients and bringing their medical care to them.” But COVID-19 intervened, prohibiting travel for research. Dorn pivoted to health research for maternal COVID-19 vaccines, completing her thesis titled “Perception of COVID-19 Vaccines Among Pregnant People in B.C.: A Qualitative Study.” She has presented her research at various conferences. The pharmacy technician now plans to do outreach pharmacy in Vancouver—she currently volunteers at an encampment. She says her work at the university “gave me the language and the ability to continue to study social justice and outreach practices in healthcare in a different way. It gave me a connection and network to team up with individuals who are in social work, in Indigenous care.” She also plans to volunteer on professional boards and committees, and advocate for pharmacy techs in B.C. And while she always “champions being a pharmacy technician” to students, she doesn’t sugar coat the profession either, noting that although techs have gained ground in some areas, it remains an uphill battle, with some giving up their licences because of the costs and the risks involved. “But I also remind students that they can be resilient, that they can stand up for themselves and that they shouldn’t let these things deplete them.” Ultimately, Dorn’s goal is to help develop the profession. “I think one of the great things that can come from technicians going back to school to do their Master’s is to start giving our own approaches to research and to build the profession.” In the U.K., for example, many technicians with a master’s degree are working towards prescribing rights and research in hospitals and with patients. “For me, it’s following all these different blueprints and bringing it back to Canada,” she says. “When I went back to school, it wasn’t just for me; it was to create a pathway for others to follow.”

Tech aims to use Master's degree to forge new pathways

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