Q&A: How to Lead a Diverse Career in Pharmacy

Anisha Patel, PharmD, has led a nontraditional pharmacy career. After transitioning from retail pharmacy, to hospital pharmacy, to emergency services pharmacy, to lecturing pharmacy students at a university, she discovered a critical gap: many people are unaware of the vast career opportunities available to those in the profession. Recognizing this, Patel expanded her line of work to include podcasting.

Headphones and recording microphone for podcasting / Christian Horz - stock.adobe.com

Initially created as a tool to educate her students, the Pharmacist Diaries podcast has evolved into a platform with global reach. With each episode, Patel leverages her pharmacy experience across 3 continents to spotlight the unique journeys of others in the field. The podcast offers invaluable insights into building a multifaceted pharmacy career and showcases the profession's worth.

"When you're on that journey of understanding who you are, start trying to see snippets of times where you're very immersed in your environment, and it doesn't feel like work," Patel advises. "It feels like play, it feels like fun, you don't realize how much time has gone by. Figure out what it is about that role, that task, that project, that job that you're doing that really lights you up. Hone in on that. Allow that to then effectively navigate which element of your career that you go down."

READ MORE: Q&A: The Superman Pharmacist Shares His Journey from Pharmacy School to Pharmacy Ownership

Drug Topics: Can you share your personal journey in pharmacy and how you transitioned into different roles or areas of specialization?

Anisha Patel, PharmD: I started my pharmacy journey in the United Kingdom, but I actually studied my undergraduate degree in the US at Virginia Tech. So, I did a major in biology and a minor in chemistry to set me up for studying pharmacy. My parents are very nomadic; they like to go on adventures and live in different places. So, I went to high school in the US in Richmond, Virginia, and then did my first degree at Virginia Tech. But I was pretty homesick—home is home at the end of the day—so I decided to move back to the UK to do pharmacy. Here, the pharmacy degree is 4 years long, and actually, you can go straight from high school rather than having to do any kind of prerequisites like in the US. You can go straight from the age of 18, which is quite different.

I love the fact that I have the undergraduate degree. It gave me a lot more insight into myself so I could make the right decisions about my career journey. I had a lot of fun at university, or college, in America, so by the time I got to the point of doing pharmacy, I felt like a professional, serious, very responsible student, and I explored various elements of pharmacy during that degree. My parents were pharmacy owners, so I grew up around retail pharmacy. I had exposure to working in a shop. I did a lot of stock checks and expiry date checking. Back then we were using the pricing guns, so I'd price everything up and down on the counter.

I had exposure to what it was like in health care, what it was like to be part of a community, what it was like to help people on your local street. Though my parents are both not pharmacists, it really gave me exposure to a professional degree and what it's like to work in health care and be around people all the time.

During university, I decided to work in a retail pharmacy in my local area for all weekends and school holidays. I love talking to people, so for me, getting to know the community was such a valuable experience. But there was just something missing. I wanted to also explore other avenues within pharmacy, try and be more adventurous, try and utilize other skills that I hadn't quite used during that university experience, which is why when I first became a pharmacist, I decided to go down the hospital pharmacy route.

I was 100% set on doing a residency. Here in the UK, the residency is 3 years. So, I did a 3-year residency at a very large teaching hospital in Oxford, and I rotated to a different specialist area every 3 months for the whole 3 years. During that time, you also study for a clinical diploma in pharmacy, which you can then turn into a further master's degree if you want to. I did that, and each time you rotate to a different specialist area, it opens your eyes to different rotations, different specialists’ groups, different kinds of diseases, different types of multidisciplinary working. So, it was a really good learning experience but also an amazing foundation to the start of a career and understanding more about myself.

However, during this time, I fell in love and found my husband. But he was living halfway across the planet in Dubai. We did long distance for that entire 3 years. I travelled back and forth from the UK to Dubai, I did loads of additional night shifts at the hospital to give me lots of extra days off, and then tagged on annual leave to try and go visit him as much as possible. We did that for 3 years, and then I decided that another adventure around a different part of the globe would be very exciting, and I can explore what pharmacy is like in another country.

So, I went on the adventure. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I expected to get a hospital job. I didn't have a specialist area that I had decided on at that point in my journey. I was still very much in the exploring area of what pharmacy had to offer. It was really challenging to find a job because pharmacy is very different in the UAE compared to the UK or the US; each hospital might only have 4 or 5 clinical pharmacists who were doing what in the US is known as pharmacotherapy, where they are on the wards, working with doctors, doing ward rounds, and multidisciplinary team meetings. So that type of job was what I was used to, but finding those opportunities became really challenging.

I started having a look at other areas of pharmacy where I could practice, and I came across a role worked with the government in emergency services. At that time, they didn't have any access to medications legally. As a paramedic, you could not administer a drug on an ambulance. It was obviously very surprising that that was the case, because traditionally, we would expect a paramedic to be able to administer drugs; we know that the speed of implementation of treatment in an ambulance setting can save lives.

Part of the role was working with the medical director to change the law for the country. At the time, I felt like a baby pharmacist, very newly qualified, and unaware of what health care was truly like, but so early into my journey, I was exposed to a leadership position where I was working with a medical director trying to change the law.

Amazingly, we got it done. We had paramedics being able to access drugs on every single ambulance, every single ambulance station, and being able to administer a formulary of up to 70 drugs. And there was a helicopter service involved with this as well, so obviously, they had access to more advanced medications.

I got to build and design my own pharmacy, and I was the only pharmacist, so there was no other support. You can just imagine, you're doing everything from operations, supply chain, procuring drugs from all over the world, you're looking at legal documents, you're following Health Authority rules and regulations. You are training staff, because you have to make sure that all of our paramedics follow rules once they have access to medications, and then the creative side of designing a pharmacy was absolutely incredible and such a fantastic experience as part of that job.

Very fortunately, I also got to work for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as a Formula One pharmacist because we had ambulances at that event. That was something I'd never even knew existed in pharmacy, and especially exciting for a newly qualified pharmacist. That snowballed into so many new things that I was exposed to and part of the reason why my career now is very varied. I've got so many different hats on because that exposure just gave me insight into what I could be doing as a pharmacist in a nontraditional setting.

There was a lot of project management involved in this job and a lot of education and training. We transitioned from a paper-based system where we were putting medications and a piece of paper with stock levels and expiry dates into a drug bag, but once that bag left your pharmacy, you had no idea where it could go, and you couldn't track it unless you were speaking to individuals who had access to it. So, we moved from a very paper-based system to an electronic system, which took 9 months.

Getting involved in that was something really cool because you are the subject matter expert. You are the person who drives what that service is going to look like. You have to know what information you want to retrieve. You want to know if you can do purchase orders virtually. Can I see what drugs are being used in different ambulance stations? Can I see how much they are using on a day-to-day basis? Can we track the types of diseases that occur on a regular basis and emergency services in different regions of the country? That audit process was really cool as well. It gave me insight into how many drugs to order, how often to order, all things that I was very blind to in the first 2 years working there without the information being provided to me.

But during that time, I genuinely missed patient care. I genuinely missed being in front of a patient, being able to be part of their journey, educating them on medications. It was kind of my missing link. I had all this amazing exposure to leadership and project management and operations, but then I missed the patient care element. So, I transitioned over to Cleveland Clinic, and they opened a hospital in Abu Dhabi. That was very exciting to be setting up services in a new hospital in another part of the world.

But by that time, I got pregnant and had my first baby, so my whole life turned upside down. I was doing night shifts and weekends. I went back to work and back into my day-to-day schedule. And at that point, my perception of my career, my family life, and being away from my parents changed because you want your child to have exposure to your family life. So, we ended up moving back home and I transitioned into an education and training role at a hospital. I did so much education and training in my emergency services role that I was able to transition those skills back to a pharmacy setting.

By chance I stumbled across pediatrics. I fell in love with the neonatal board, I fell in love with working with the younger population. Being a parent, myself, helped me to understand other parents’ perspectives when it came to taking medication, understanding the challenges, the pharmacokinetics, the pharmacology, and being able to explain that—there was something that resonated really well with me. So, I decided to specialize in pediatrics.

I was very fortunate to get a job which combined pediatrics and education and training where I could work as a lecturer at a university teaching pharmacy students. But during my time of teaching pharmacy students back in 2020, I realized how little pharmacy students know about the opportunities that are available to them once they qualify. Personally, I felt like there wasn't anything innovative or creative to help them to learn in a format that they like. The traditional lectures and the traditional way of teaching was great, but COVID happened. There was so much change, everything moved online, and I just felt like the students were a little bit lost. They couldn't go on placements anymore. They were trapped at home. I don't know—it was like 1 of those light bulb moments where you just think, “How can I help them?” and a podcast came to mind.

A lot of my students—because it's so expensive to live in London, it's like New York City—live at home with their parents, so they all travel to and from home and university. And I knew that they're all listening to YouTube or Spotify and have their headphones on, and that podcasting was an opportunity for me to educate, inspire, motivate and showcase what we have to offer as pharmacists.

And because my pathway is nontraditional, it is quite inspiring for the younger generation to see that you can do so much with this degree. In fact, this degree is just the foundation to kickstart an amazing journey with your career. And so, part of it was showcasing who I am and my story, but also it was showcasing the stories and the behind-the-scenes insights into other pharmacists around the globe. So, I started interviewing lots of different pharmacists that I knew, as well as new pharmacists that I came across through social media, or friends of friends. Four years later, here we are with 154 episodes, 125 countries tuning into the podcast, and over 60,000 downloads, alongside full-time working and parenting 2 young children.

But I have found something that I'm so incredibly passionate about. I found something that I've fallen in love with. I found something that really lights me up and brings me a lot of joy. So now I'm on this entrepreneurial mission to make my podcast my purpose; to turn something that I'm really passionate about into a business, into a 9-to-5 job. I'm not going to leave pharmacy altogether. Of course, if I'm going to showcase what pharmacy is all about, I want to stay within the profession. But it just allows me the flexibility to be my own boss and drive the profession forward by showcasing our worth and showing to my children, as well, that that you can do anything with your life, and you can do anything with the skills that you have. And a lot of the podcasting journey for me is that I'm using my natural skills, things that are just easy for me. Talking, connecting, communicating with people, just having fun conversation is something that I really enjoy, and I get to showcase that on a day-to-day basis.

Drug Topics: Given the evolving role of pharmacists, what skills and experiences do you believe are essential for building a successful and diverse career in pharmacy?

Patel: The most important thing for pharmacists to consider when they first start their journey is building a really strong foundation. What I mean by a strong foundation is having a solid understanding of the clinical aspects of pharmacy that you mainly get exposed to as a student. Whether you're working in a retail setting or a hospital setting, I think it's really valuable to understand those clinical skills when it comes to patient care—knowing the drugs, the pharmacology, the therapeutics—but also effectively communicating with patients and understanding their needs.

From that, I think it's really valuable to understand that when you're on that journey of understanding who you are, start trying to see snippets of times where you're very immersed in your environment, and it doesn't feel like work. It feels like play, it feels like fun, you don't realize how much time has gone by. Figure out what it is about that role, that task, that project, that job that you're doing that really lights you up. Hone in on that. Allow that to then effectively navigate which element of your career that you go down. A lot of the time when I've made choices within my career, it's because I reflect a lot and journal a lot about what's worked, what hasn't worked, what I'm enjoying, and then trying to find new opportunities that allow me to utilize those skills.

I think it's also valuable to know that it's okay not to like things in pharmacy. It's okay to try things and feel like you didn't really enjoy that. It's actually good to know what you don't enjoy so that you can focus on what you do enjoy. Part of that is just trial and error. It's about being able to keep on top with everything that's happening within pharmacy and constantly learning, whether it’s a clinical topic that you're immersed in, whether you're educating yourself about research or audits in the space that you're in, navigating leadership skills, management, utilizing as much of your surrounding means as you can to make the most of those opportunities and just flourish.

I think those are really valuable skills to kickstart your journey and help you to understand where you want to go. Personally, it's taken me 6, 7 years to truly find my joys. I've had to expose myself to so many different environments and different jobs to understand more about who I am and what it is that I want to do.

Drug Topics: What are the most promising areas of growth and specialization within pharmacy today?

Patel: I live in the UK, so for us, the clinical role of a pharmacist is expanding exponentially. Our health service is called the National Health Service. It’s all government run. We do have private services, but they're in the minority. You can visit a doctor without any payment. You can go to a hospital, and you don't pay a penny. You can visit a specialist consultant in gastroenterology or have surgery or get diagnosed with cancer, and all the services would be covered because you are a resident in the UK and effectively pay through your taxes.

Medications are slightly different, but when it comes to health care professionals, there is such a big burden on the number of diseases, the number of patients that we have, that the role of the pharmacist is expanding. We are now able to prescribe medications in a variety of clinical specialist areas. We are immersing ourselves into new areas of pharmacy. So, you will now find when you go and visit your primary care physician in the US—that's called a general practitioner here—you could also just visit a pharmacist who's running a clinic in a specific area and is able to physically assess you, utilize stethoscopes or take blood samples, be able to put through tests that you need, and help to diagnose you. They can actually write prescriptions for you in a variety of conditions or specialist areas.

This is helping to reduce the burden on doctors because we can take on more basic cases, and then the doctors are able to see the more complex patients. Even in retail pharmacy, we now have clinics—whether it's travel clinics or minor illnesses—so that you can just walk up to a pharmacy, see a pharmacist, and get a prescription from anything from antibiotics to vaccinations for a holiday. And this is just widening our scope as pharmacists. So, this is really exciting and something that we're really proud of in the health care setting.

I think the emerging areas within pharmacy that are really exciting are pharmacogenomics, which I know in the US is becoming bigger and bigger day by day, and personalized medicine, which is so exciting. I also think that when we look at things from a technology point of view, looking at information technology and implementing electronic systems within hospitals or within community pharmacies, there are a lot of pharmacists who are getting involved in the tech. Here, public health and research are 2 areas of practice that are also widening their scope.

Drug Topics: What resources or professional organizations would you recommend for pharmacists interested in exploring different career paths?

Patel: Obviously, I live in a different country, but for me, I think it's really important to think about what professional organizations are available. It doesn't necessarily have to be pharmacy specific. Of course, you're going to join the major pharmacy committees within the country that you live in, but there are also non-pharmacy specific areas of expertise, committees and groups, that you can join that will help you on your journey. I think that we underestimate how much you can learn through social media, such as platforms like LinkedIn, to enhance your network and find communities that are available and highlight your interests.

For me, I'm a pharmacist, but I'm also now a podcaster. I'm finding so many different groups through LinkedIn and other social media platforms of like-minded professionals who are helping me on my journey in terms of learning and developing. There are so many new online platforms which have online courses that you can take and allow you to grow as a professional.

Now that we're on the back end of COVID, and everything's back to face-to-face, there are so many opportunities to network and grow and gain mentorship from big conferences that are happening, too. ASHP in the US is such a massive group and so many exciting things are happening from their point of view on a year-to-year basis. I think it's really exciting that you get to attend those conferences and meet so many different people and expose yourself to different individuals to help you to learn on your journey.

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