My passion for retail pharmacy could be attributed to many things but most especially to all the training and experience I gained working in Sierra Leone, making the most out of limited available resources. Within the United States, there are many resources available to help streamline one’s practice and deliver superb pharmacy services. Working as a pharmacy manager in an underserved community in Dayton was my first posting. At first, I found this position really unnerving and intimidating because it was a pharmacy that was known to be very challenging. With my sense of adventure, humor and experience working in similar communities, I was able to excel and make the most out of it. Such a position in that unique location helped broaden my perspective on patient care and patient relations in communities with limited resources in the USA. I also found that retail pharmacy practice can be addictive. Such addiction could be because of financial gain, or the thrill you receive from working in high-volume, fast-paced environments. This pursuit of a fast-paced workflow has always pushed me to take over challenging pharmacies and make them clinically competent.
Small town America has always looked like a movie and quite a fascination to me. The little church, bank, sheriff’s office, and school all on main street creates the picture of a typical Hollywood set. My last posting with Rite Aid was in Southern Ohio in a very small town called Waverly. Southern Ohio has a very unique history with the KKK and Waverly used to be a “sundown town” till the eighties. So a common conversation starter with most of my patients was” what’s a guy from west Africa doing in Waverly?” and my usual response was “Waverly prayed for their Obama and God sent me”. This posting was quite unique in that some of my patients saw me as an attraction whilst others saw me as a knowledgeable health professional and a source of medical advice. Not all my patients’ interactions were challenging as majority of these interactions were educational, stimulating and rewarding. With my history of personable relation and working in difficult communities, I was able to become a vibrant voice of medical advice in the community. I remember a patient of mine having a meeting at their bingo club mentioning my caring attitude and eventually having her entire bingo club start coming to my pharmacy for their prescriptions and vaccinations.
My last days in Waverly were bittersweet. Waverly was a long commute, and I was at my wits end with driving over 100 miles to and from work each day. My last day was emotionally hard for me and my team because I had to say goodbye to everyone I had formed bonds with over the last 5 years. I remember my favorite patient who was bed-ridden at the time forcing her family to take her to the pharmacy just to say goodbye to me. We hugged and said our goodbyes, and she passed away a week later. What I got from working in southern Ohio is that even though we are all products of our communities, everyone is unique in their respective ways. Our deepest strength is not that we are inadequate, our deepest strength is that we are powerful beyond measures.
With promises of stimulating clinical projects and a shorter commute, I decided to join a large retailer. While my ambition was present, the pace and expectations did not allow for my original hopes, forcing me to make the switch to my current role as Clinical Pharmacy Specialist with Cigna Health.
My pharmacy process has been a dynamic, interesting, and unique one. In the midst of it all, I decided to enroll in the Non-traditional PharmD program at Shenandoah University to bolster my clinical expertise, and allow the door to open to new opportunities.
Currently, I am completing a rotation at ASHP and this is akin to a kid in a candy store. I honestly don’t know what the deal is with ASHP. Starting with my preceptor, Gina, everyone makes it a point to go out of their way to help you and make you feel like their team member rather than the student. The excitement displayed by everyone I meet when discussing their projects is so exhilarating that I find myself taking on as many projects as I can. Such a reception makes me believe that I might have been a pharmacy maestro in a past life. ASHP has opened a new door to pharmacy practice for me in the USA and has helped me realize that there is more to pharmacy than counting pills and giving flu shots – albeit both still extremely important for patients. I intend to use this opportunity to grow myself, help others maximize their potential and influence as many people as I can.
I hope that through this blog series you can also re-discover your passions, share your stories, or simply choose your next adventure. Thank you for reading, and if interested, comment below!