My relationship with pharmacy can be described as a toxic one. I love pharmacy so much but I am beginning to feel like this love is one sided. Don’t roll your eyes just yet, hear me out please.
I landed on pharmacy by chance. My ‘exposed’ uncle advised me to do pharmacy because “it has money.” “Hii ukimaliza shule ivi utaanza kupata pesa” were his exact words. Well, who doesn’t want money? I was a diligent student and by the time I was doing my core units in pharmacy school I knew that clinical pharmacy was what I eventually wanted to practice.
As fate would have it, I landed in MTRH for my internship and boy wasn’t I exposed to the ideal clinical pharmacy world? It was hard but I really enjoyed it. My preceptors were thorough and anticoagulation really tickled my fancy. Once I finished my internship, I was thrown into the tarmacking world. I underestimated how rough the world out here could be for a young and overly ambitious pharmacist.
One day, the PSK president advertised for some offices at a prime building in Upper Hill. By then, I was seriously toying with the idea of starting an MTM clinic focusing on anticoagulation. I gave him a call and the following day I was at the building, checking out the offices. The fact that the offices were way beyond my economic reach was besides the point, I was set on opening my own practice. As luck would have it, I saw an office with a big banner on the door…Guess what, it was an MTM clinic! What a coincidence
I walked to the office, knocked and introduced myself (I was young and ambitious remember?). The man I found on the other side of the door was kind enough to ask me what I was looking for and even listened to my rumblings on how I wanted to set up a practice… looking back, I think he was taken aback by this overly ambitious lady. He heard me out and told me that he can help me by giving me an office in his big office for free and we would partner in seeing patients, with me focusing on my anticoagulation patients. (I will one day write about this senior who I deeply respect and how he offered mentorship when all I had was a thought.)
That marked the beginning of my practice. Nobody tells you that getting Medical Doctors to send you patients is going to be a farfetched dream. Nobody tells you that you will walk into consultants’ offices and they will look at you and ask you ‘what can you offer that I can’t offer my patients’? You go ahead and explain yourself. Most of them actually agree with you and they even agree to be sending you patients but as months go by, you realize that they actually didn’t mean a word they said. Some clients also want you to offer your services for free. After several months, you realize that you are not making as much from the practice and you need to go out and ‘hustle’.
I went for several interviews and none were actually successful so I decided to go back to school to study…Guess what? Clinical pharmacy. My studentship has been a hard one. Studying with government sponsored students who are established economically while you are struggling financially is no walk in the park. Looking at the pharmacy market currently, I have questioned my choice in postgraduate studies severally. I have been deeply demotivated and sometimes I feel like quitting because I honestly don’t see if the job market will be kind to me once I finish my studies. I have had instances where I have felt like switching careers to a completely different course (I am still seriously toying with this idea). But I love pharmacy, it’s my passion and I have seen how when practiced well, it can change a patient’s situation. So I cling on to the belief that it will pay one day!
Did my uncle lie? I don’t think so; I know of people making serious money in pharmacy. It’s just not me. Do I believe that things will change in the pharmacy field? Yes, but maybe not in my time. Can I advice someone to pursue pharmacy as a career? I have refused to comment or persuade a student to either do or not do pharmacy because I honestly feel like pharmacy has lost its previous glory. Do I regret going for M.Pharm? Honestly sometimes on those bad days, I really question my choices.
What can you learn from my experience? I honestly don’t know. Maybe how to be overly ambitious? Or maybe how to love what you do that you continue doing it even when you are not getting much out of it? Or maybe I am just ungrateful and overexpecting (cerelac doctor). You tell me.
Maybe at a time like this next year, my story will be completely different and My feelings all positive. But as for now, I feel like an abused spouse. Pharmacy is really not reciprocating. I am doing all the loving (sigh)
By Dr Cerelac.