Dr. Benard Karanja, HSC, is a Bachelor of Pharmacy graduate from Kenyatta University, School of Pharmacy, and I have just recently gotten my practice license.
What are you most passionate about in your Pharmacy Practice?
I am very passionate about Interventional Pharmacy. Pharmacy practice should be about patient care, and Interventional Pharmacy is right at the centre of it.
I am also very passionate about advocacy in Pharmacy. We cannot care about others unless we first look out for ourselves.
You can read further on: Why Passion in Pharmacy Practice is priceless
What do you love most about being a Pharmacist?
As a pharmacist, I’m very well positioned to bring breakthroughs that can change a patient’s life, directly or indirectly.
What keeps you going as a Pharmacist?
I survived 5 years of Pharmacy school! I mean, I don’t think there’s anything that beats those 5 years. I tell myself that there were so many times I would have given up on this career, but I never did. Why not keep going, making a pharmacy a better place for those behind us?
What’s that one thing you enjoy doing apart from being a Pharmacist?
Politics! You know this already, right? There is so much that we need to change in the Kenyan Healthcare system and, by extension, Pharmacy practice; 100% of that is purely political!
Any advice to the young pharmacist?
There is so much more you can accomplish when you do not limit yourself to only dealing with drugs. Whatever it is that you would like to venture into, you have got what it takes! Never limit yourself, take any challenge, venture into business, politics, content creation and anything else but remember to be good in whatever you choose to do.