Pharmacists Inspired after Australian Conference

Fourteen early career pharmacists (ECPs) have returned from the PSA conference in Sydney last week buzzing with energy, according to Fiona Bradley. The conference has inspired Ms Bradley to put a call of action to fellow young pharmacists, to step up and show up to shape the future they want.

"It was such a diverse group, all inspiring in their own way, working in different areas of pharmacy and from all across the country. So it was great to connect with that group, but then also the Australian ECPs, who were so inspiring too," says Ms Bradley, who is the ECP representative on the board of the Pharmaceutical Society.

"Everyone was so passionate about the profession both here and Australia, and that was evident to see. Being around so many ECPs you could just see how motivated we are to step up and contribute to the profession," she says.

Each ECP was nominated and either fully or partially funded by their branch of the society, as part of an initiative to expose more young pharmacists to others from around the world, says Graeme Smith, president of the society.

Mr Smith, who accompanied the group to Sydney, says it was also part of a continued effort to give young pharmacists more of a voice in the national executive. "45% of practicing pharmacists in NZ are under 35, and the society didn't seem to be reaching those young pharmacists, so we appointed Fiona Bradley to the board as an ECP. Then I suggested we fund several to go to the PSA conference, and we ended up with 14."

The conference itself was terrific, says Ms Bradley. "Every session I attended I felt I could apply that learning to my practice here in NZ, particularly with expanding services like Asthma education. She says she hopes that by establishing the connection with Australian ECPs, pharmacists from both sides of the ditch can continue to learn from each other.

Mr Smith says that while Australia is a few years ahead of New Zealand in some ways, they were also keen to learn from us in others. "We were actually better in terms of acceptance of professional services, as well as being closer to integrated services, but it's quite difficult to compare," he says.

"On an individual level, there's a lot of innovative stuff individual pharmacists are doing in Australia, like the Innovative Pharmacist of the year, who offered 30 different services," he says. In terms of funding, Mr Smith says the message seemed to be that if you get the service right, people will pay.

Mr Smith says the feedback from the delegates about the 14 Kiwi ECPs was very positive, and that they were getting out there and making themselves known.

Ms Bradley says it was fantastic to have the support of the branches, but that young people have to seize opportunities for themselves as well. "We always hear this saying that we're the leaders of the future. I believe we are the leaders of today and that we have a role to play in shaping the future that we want."

"Put yourself forward for working groups, leadership groups, change your own practice and engage with more patients. If you see something that you want to change, then you have the power to make it happen, just get on and do it," she says.

According to Ms Bradley, it's definitely the overall aim to have more young pharmacists stepping up to be part of the governing bodies of the profession, and Mr Smith says the same.

He says that because the conference was joint with the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association, it played host to pharmacists from all over the world, and that the group of ECPs was enthusiastic about strengthening relationships with them.

"Because of that, I'm going to recommend that we rejoin the CPA. If we've got young pharmacists that are keen to help set up pharmacies in the developing world I think that's terrific and we should give them that opportunity," says Mr Smith.

The ECP pharmacists who atteneded were:

Katrina Azer                               Crystal Braganza

Brooke Hines                             Joe Stevenson
Peter Yoo                                   Gemma Claridge
Ali Alwash                                  Tess James
Rebekah McDonald                   Annie Chen
Natasha Nagar                           Rachel Bell
Bailee Riddick

Source: www.pharmacytoday.co.nz/news/2017/august-2017/04/pharmacists-inspired-after-australian-conference.aspx, viewed 10 August 2017