Pharmacist, in Charge

By Joël Fossouo Tagne and William Ly

After all the effort, sacrifices, money and time spent to get your pharmacy degree, you cannot be infected by the current state of pharmacy when an antidote exists.

 

Pharmacy student, intern pharmacist or pharmacist, the current state of

• Language: English
• Publisher: PharmaHack Pty Ltd
• Release date: Jan 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781776270095

Book preview

Note from Joël and William

Please note, this book is not about slandering the pharmacy profession or quitting pharmacy, nor is it a debate about what is the right or wrong thing to do in your career. Rather, we want to help you see different perspectives and make the best possible choices for your unique situation, regardless of the challenging circumstances. The emotional symptoms of concern and frustration about the current state of pharmacy are natural steppingstones on your path to living a healthy, meaningful, and fulfilling career. The goal of this book is not to provide you with a pre-packaged solution to your dilemmas, but to help you work through the process of solving them yourself.

Acknowledgements

Most of the ideas presented in this book were originally introduced in the PharmaHack: Career Podcast. We couldn’t have done this without the valuable input of our podcast guests. However, many more people were directly and indirectly involved in the creation of this book, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

To the Mentors

I would like to thank my early mentors in pharmacy, Bardia Hamidi and Kevin Bao Phan, for the stewardship they provided me at the genesis of my pharmacy journey. To Dr Jerry K. Kounga (PhD, PharmD, Msc, Rph, CDSPV), you steered and encouraged me in the direction that aligned with my primal inclinations, and you kept the spirit of this book alive throughout its germination. I would also like to acknowledge my early teacher in pharmacy, Professor Liz Milward (PhD Bsc Hons), whose support and guiding hand laid the foundation for my PharmaHack journey.

To the editors and illustrator:

For advising me on how to write this book, I’m grateful to Rebecca Bush. Above all, I thank Ine De Baerdemaeker, who helped bring the dream of this book to fruition and whose steadying hand can be felt in almost every chapter. Thanks to Shu Yun Chen, who assisted with illustrations.

To our podcast listeners:

William and I are grateful to all of you for providing us with the opportunity to learn by listening to our podcasts and reaching out to us with further questions, comments, and feedback. Your engagement is motivating.

To our podcast guests:

William and I owe a debt to all of you for sharing your experiences, your knowledge, and most importantly, your wisdom. The generosity of devoting your time to our podcast is deeply appreciated. We would also like to acknowledge and give a special thanks to the pharmacists featured in this book. Your stories have helped us to disseminate key skills and actions for pharmacists and pharmacy students who are on the journey to a meaningful and fulfilling career.

Joël Fossouo Tagne

About The Authors

William Ly and Joël Fossouo Tagne are the founders of PharmaHack, licensed pharmacists in Australia, and graduates of the University of Newcastle Australia, Pharmacy School.

William and Joël’s long-term friendship started at pharmacy school and currently spans seven years. They share a passion for fitness and biohacking. Simply put, biohacking is the use of science or technology to make the body function more efficiently. As they explored and delved deeper into the phenomenon of biohacking, the concept of hacking started to manifest in all facets of their lives.

Once they had been active in the pharmacy world for a few years, they noticed that besides themselves, many of their peers were unhappy with the current state of pharmacy. They combined their experiences and observations with the concept of hacking in order to create PharmaHack. PharmaHack is a podcast where they invite guests from the world of pharmacy to talk about their past experiences, lessons they have learnt, insights into the industry, and career advice for students and young professionals.

William began furthering his studies in business administration in 2018 at Macquarie University in Sydney, with his eyes firmly set on pharmacy ownership. During this time, he began networking with fellow students and like-minded individuals, which exposed him to business beyond pharmacy ownership. Subsequently, he turned down the opportunity to buy into a pharmacy in pursuit of his passion for entrepreneurship and start-ups in the health and technology space. Currently, William is managing a community pharmacy in Sydney. He is also a preceptor and mentor to pharmacy students, completing business management courses, and partnering with like-minded biohackers and entrepreneurs to develop innovative functional food products.

In 2018, Joël attended the Harvard Science Symposium in Boston, Massachusetts as a research presenter. During this time, he was also fortunate enough to attend the Biomedical Science Careers Program (BSCP), a conference which brings together high school students, college students, graduates, and fellows to network with representatives from health care institutions, biopharma/biotechnology firms, educational institutions, professional organisations, and private industries. The BSCP highlighted the diverse range of career paths and opportunities available to pharmacists and pharmacy graduates. This was a real eye opener for Joël since Australian pharmacy students are generally only exposed to retail and hospital pharmacy. Joël’s unique experience was a key ingredient and major catalyst in the formation of PharmaHack. At the time of this publication, Joël is a PhD candidate in digital health at Swinburne University of Technology. He continues to explore alternative career opportunities while working in non-traditional pharmacy.

Table of contents

Note from Joël and William

Acknowledgements

To the Mentors

To the editors and illustrator:

To our podcast listeners:

To our podcast guests:

About The Authors

Table of contents

Introduction

Our PharmaHack Journey

How and Why We Wrote This Book

How This book Will Help You

CHAPTER ONE: How PharmaHacking Can Transform Your Career

Before You go On Your PharmaHack Journey

The Current State of Pharmacy

The COVID-19 Analogy

The Three Antibodies of PharmaHacking

What is PharmaHacking?

Why Start PharmaHacking?

Your PharmaHacking Journey

Benefits of PharmaHacking

Why You Should Start PharmaHacking Today

CHAPTER TWO: Fine-tuning Your Personal Philosophy

What is Your Personal Philosophy?

Part A:  Taking Charge of Your Pharmacy Career

The Importance of Your Personal Philosophy

Part B:  Hack Beyond Your Limits with Self-Belief and Persistence

Rejections, Setbacks, Failures, The Uncertainty Mindset

CHAPTER THREE: Changing Your Attitude

Part A:  Start by Changing Your Circumstances

Job Satisfaction and Career Change

Why are Pharmacists Wanting a Change

How to View the Negativity in the Current State of Pharmacy

Part B:  Finding your passion

Why Your Pharmacy Career Might Be Stalling

Four Reasons for Losing Your Passion

The Truth About Passion

Consider the Needs of the Marketplace

The Pressure of Having Your Passion as a Career

Finding Passion within Your Work

How to Find Your Passion in Pharmacy

Five Questions to Get Yourself Unstuck in Your Career

Ikigai – The Ideal Career Hack

CHAPTER FOUR: Activity Is Key

Part A:  Fulfilling Your Destiny Requires Activity

Three Strategies to Help You Push Past These Limits

Part B: The 7 Ultimate PharmaHacks

What is a Career Hack Action Plan?

How to Develop a Career Hack Action Plan

Conclusion:: Hack with a Sense of Urgency

Becoming Aware of Our Mortality

The Fearless Approach

The PharmaHack Mindset

What Characterises Us As PharmaHackers?

Will you make the decision to start your PharmaHack journey today?

More from PharmaHack

List of Podcast Episodes

Resources

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Introduction

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

– John F. Kennedy

After graduating pharmacy in 2015, we felt like the world was our oyster. Finally, after years of hard work and countless hours of studying, we had acquired the necessary skills to work in the professional pharmacy field. Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long before reality caught up with us. We noticed how many pharmacists were burnt out, disengaged with their work, dissatisfied with their pay, or felt like the knowledge they had spent approximately four to five years acquiring was underutilised. What was even more disheartening was that many of these pharmacists had only been registered for five