Q&A: A Pharmacist’s Career Journey to Becoming a Nutritionist

Throughout her 20-plus year career in both pharmacy and nutrition counseling, Sarah Gray, PharmD, GAICD, believes that the 2 professions create a perfect blend in a provider’s personal expertise within health care. Starting as a pharmacist in a community setting and eventually leaning into other areas of health care, Gray has since become a registered nutritionist and is known to her patients and followers as “The Nutrition Pharmacist.”

“You might be able to dispense the medication or give [patients] some weight-loss shakes, or whatever they might need, but [I] really didn't have the skills to be able to support them in other areas,” she told Drug Topics. “I found throughout my study in nutrition and speaking to people and in my career, that actually [pharmacy and nutrition] went really well together.”

Gray discussed her career as both a pharmacist and nutritionist. | image credit: Yuparet / stock.adobe.com

Gray joined Drug Topics to discuss her career as both a pharmacist and nutritionist. She touched on similarities and differences, as well as challenges and rewards, that have been common throughout her career. From the “hustle and bustle” of helping patients everyday within a pharmacy to gravitating toward a more intimate relationship with them as a nutritionist, Gray shared her thoughts on this unique combination of health care expertise.

Stay tuned for more content from our interview with Gray. Aside from her career journey, she also discussed where she sees the pharmacy profession going forward, touching on pharmacists’ unique opportunities to expand their scope within health care.

READ MORE: Q&A: Nutritional Pharmacist's Perspective on New Year Dieting Trends

Drug Topics: Can you give our audience a little background on yourself and where your career path has taken you?

Sarah Gray: I am a pharmacist, obviously, and I registered probably around 20 years ago. It makes me feel very old saying that, but I entered the pharmacy profession because I always wanted to help people. I think when you ask lots of pharmacists the question, “Why did you become a pharmacist?” The first answer is: “I wanted to help people.” I really had a curiosity for science, the way that medicines worked; just was really interested in understanding how to help people with their lives and their lifestyle. I had a great career as being just a pharmacist, and I still love being a pharmacist. I really learned lots about different people and different things, but I felt like there was always something missing and that I couldn't really give people the bigger picture to help them with things like weight control, for example. You might be able to dispense the medication or give them some weight-loss shakes, or whatever they might need, but [I] really didn't have the skills to be able to support them in other areas.

And then myself, personally, I went through some gastric issues and had some food intolerances. I started to become really curious about why I was experiencing those things. Being the curious scientist that I am, I thought, well, I'm going to go study to become a nutritionist myself. So in about 2013, I went and did my master’s in human nutrition. At that time, I'd moved from working in community pharmacy to working in the pharmaceutical industry. I was working for a company who makes and sells oral rehydration solutions similar to like a Pedialyte. So, I was sort of already working in a bit of a nutritional area. I found throughout my study in nutrition and speaking to people and in my career, that actually the 2 things went really well together.

Drug Topics: Can you give us some similarities and differences between being a nutritionist and a pharmacist? What experience has been more or less challenging, rewarding, etc?

Sarah Gray: I actually find both professions, individually, extremely rewarding. But I think together, that combination makes it even more so. To reflect on that, as a pharmacist what I loved when I was working every day in community pharmacy—which I'm not doing as often now—but I still do love it. I love getting to know patients and having a real impact on their lives, supporting them for minor ailments all the way through to chronic disease. That's why I became a pharmacist to help people. You really can have that impact immediately when you get to work every day. I found, and it's different for everybody, that it can be challenging working in pharmacy day in, day out, with lots of different people coming through. You become more of a customer service role, in a way, but you are such an important person. But I found that that drained me a little bit. What I do like about the nutrition side is that I can actually go and apply those skills in 1-on-1 consultations with people. I get to spend a lot longer with a person, and I'm not rushed or there's not doctors calling me or people asking me questions. I get to spend time with that person and really dive in their health and become very granular about that. But at the same time, sometimes I miss that hustle bustle. So, the balance, I think, is a perfect blend.

The other thing as well is I have leaned into a career path of working with businesses that create nutrition and health interventions in a digital sense, so I can use my skills to do that. I really liked being able to apply that as well. I found that by adding nutritionist, it made me become a little bit more diverse. But I do like the blend of both and they complement each other nicely. I think each has their benefits and challenges. To move to the nutrition side challenges, sometimes you register as a nutritionist and you think, I know all these wonderful things and I'm going to help people, but the hardest part is that people really find it difficult to change in this part of their lives. Probably the hardest thing to change is the way that you eat, I think. Maybe movement might be harder as well, but people have really well intentions. You do see a very high percent of patients dropping off because it's all too difficult. So, it can be a bit challenging and disheartening when you can't retain people. And the other thing would be is that sometimes as a nutritionist you can be just seen as a weight-loss expert. Nine out of 10 people that come to visit you want to lose weight, but there's so much more that you can do for people. So how do you let them know that you go beyond weight? You can help with hormones, or getting more energy, or things like that, versus just being somebody that tells you how to lose weight. You are a lot more than what you weigh and your weight itself is not an indication of how healthy you are.

READ MORE: Digestive Health Research Center

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