Natasha Jovanoska - Community Pharmacist | AHPRA Oral Examiner | Pharmacy Owner | ACT PSA ECP of the Year Award recipient

Natasha Jovanoska is a passionate pharmacist and pharmacy owner working in the ACT and in rural NSW.  She is always willing to give anything a go and does so with a smile.

Natasha has been known as one half of the ‘singing pharmacist’, undertaken postgraduate study in wound care and dermatology, become a Heart Foundation Health Professional Ambassador, an AHPRA Oral Examiner, PSA ACT Early Career Pharmacist Working Group member and intern preceptor. She is also on the University of Canberra’s Course Advisory Group and most recently was responsible for the involvement of the Capital Chemist Group at the 2023 Annual NAPSA Congress in Canberra.

Natasha is the most recent recipient of the ACT PSA ECP of the Year Award in 2022.

Natasha's passion lies in community pharmacy - specifically in health services and community health outcomes - and community pharmacy ownership. She advocates for doing what you love and following your passion.

You can find Natasha Jovanoska on LinkedIn.

Do you have questions about your pharmacy career? Then contact us or meet our team.

Transcript

0:01

Welcome to Your Pharmacy Career podcast

0:03

proudly brought to you by Raven's

0:05

Recruitment Australia's leading

0:07

specialist Pharmacy recruitment agency

0:09

the podcast series is being created to

0:11

shine a light on the diverse and

0:13

inspiring careers of Australia's

0:14

pharmacists each episode will focus on

0:17

the varied career opportunities within

0:18

the pharmacy industry by exploring the

0:21

career paths taken by leaders in the

0:22

fields of Community Pharmacy Hospital

0:25

industry government and professional

0:28

organizations careers never follow a

0:30

defined path everyone's story is

0:32

different and unique in their own way

0:34

the podcast series will help you

0:36

discover the world of opportunities that

0:37

exist and reveal Pathways to achieve

0:40

your dreams and aspirations whether you

0:43

are a pharmacy student early career

0:45

pharmacist or simply looking for a

0:47

change at any stage of your career the

0:49

podcast series is designed to help you

0:51

navigate ways into a career and a life

0:53

that you love your host of the podcast

0:55

series is Allie Xu Allie herself a

0:58

pharmacist is now the founder of of

1:00

global Pharmacy entrepreneurs and a

1:02

passionate advocate for pharmacist to

1:03

grow innovate Excel and make a lasting

1:06

impact in the world it's now over to our

1:09

host Allie Xu welcome to your Pharmacy

1:12

career podcast I'm Allie Xu today I'm

1:14

excited to have the most recent

1:16

excipient of the PSA act early career

1:19

pharmacist of the Year Natasha Jovanoska

1:22

on the show Natasha is a

1:24

passionate pharmacist and Pharmacy owner

1:26

working in the act and in rural new

1:29

southwest Wales she has been known as

1:31

the one half of the seeing pharmacist

1:34

undertaken postgraduate study in wound

1:37

care and dematology she became a heart

1:39

foundation health professional

1:41

Ambassador and Opera Aura examiner PSA

1:45

act early career pharmacist working

1:47

group member and an intern preceptor she

1:51

is also on the University of cambra's

1:53

course Advisory Group and most recently

1:56

was responsible for the involvement of

1:59

the capital chemist group at the 2023

2:02

annual Napa Congress in Cambra Natasha

2:05

is passionate about Community Pharmacy

2:08

especially in Health Services Community

2:11

Health outcomes and of course Community

2:13

Pharmacy ownership she advocates for

2:16

doing what you love and following your

2:19

passion in this episode Natasha shares

2:22

with us how she transitioned from an

2:24

intern pharmacist to a pharmacy owner in

2:27

such a short period of time if if you

2:30

are a pharmacy student or early career

2:32

pharmacist and you want to get into

2:34

Pharmacy ownership this is the episode

2:37

for you without further Ado let's

2:40

welcome Natasha hey Natasha welcome to

2:43

your Pharmacy career podcast I'm very

2:45

excited to have you here thank you so

2:47

much for having me I'm very grateful to

2:49

be part of it we want to get to know

2:51

what you've done since univers you went

2:54

to University of CRA more your Pharmacy

2:57

journey I graduated at the end of 2015

3:00

I've only worked at two places since

3:02

then really um and that's at capital K

3:04

swasa so I did my internship there and

3:07

also became a pharmacist there and still

3:10

remain a pharmacist there now almost

3:12

four years ago uh brought into Capital C

3:16

Braidwood so now I split my time between

3:19

onea and Braidwood um which is fantastic

3:21

because then I get the Metro Pharmacy in

3:25

wanasa because it's in the middle of CRA

3:27

like Cambra and then I have Braidwood

3:29

which is a rural Pharmacy cuz it's an

3:31

hour outside of craa as of last year

3:34

October I've become an oral board

3:36

examiner for Opa act like PSA doesn't

3:39

really have like an early career

3:40

pharmacist working group but I was in

3:43

that while it was going yeah I just try

3:46

to get into as much as possible well

3:49

yeah you certainly have been busy what

3:51

made you love working in the pharmacy so

3:53

much it's interesting right because I am

3:56

always the ultimate advocate for doing

3:58

what you love um I never really

4:01

consciously made the decision to become

4:02

a pharmacist that sort of just happened

4:04

and as I kept studying I like enjoyed

4:07

studying Pharmacy more and more but to

4:09

me it's the perfect combination of being

4:12

social using clinical skills I really

4:15

enjoy health and I really love helping

4:17

people and I really love the warm

4:19

fuzzies that I get seeing somebody

4:21

progress in their health journey and you

4:23

know it's always nice when somebody

4:24

comes back you've helped me so much

4:26

thank you I can do this when I couldn't

4:28

do it before or you know this is

4:29

improved so much but even without those

4:32

sorts of things like just seeing them

4:34

and seeing they've improved they don't

4:35

even have to say anything to you it

4:36

makes it all worthwhile and sure there's

4:39

going to be days where you get that

4:41

person that's going to be cranky and is

4:42

going to yell at you you know you might

4:44

be having an off day or like you know

4:46

sometimes we're humans and we make

4:47

mistakes and things like that they're

4:49

really hard times to go through but

4:53

overall you're going to have hard times

4:54

in any job that you do if the overall is

4:57

positive and for me community Pharmacy

5:00

is my passion and I could literally not

5:02

imagine doing anything else then why

5:05

would I want to do anything else so yeah

5:08

I love Community Pharmacy I just love

5:11

every aspect of it I love that every day

5:13

is different it's mostly about community

5:16

and the health outcomes for my community

5:17

and knowing that I can make a difference

5:19

to other people just from the things

5:21

that I can share with them so tell us

5:24

more about early career pharmacist want

5:26

to get into being managing partner how

5:29

how did you get in become a managing

5:31

partner so quickly I feel very lucky to

5:35

have gotten in to farmacy as young as I

5:38

did and funnily enough it was not never

5:41

something that I really planned on doing

5:43

so I feel like other people if I haven't

5:45

planned on doing it then I'm sure other

5:46

people can get into it if they've not

5:48

planned on doing it I was actually asked

5:51

if I was interested in ownership and I

5:52

was asked if I was interested in

5:54

ownership um in

5:57

2018 by AIS and honor so like

6:00

the people who I worked for at the time

6:02

at wanasa still work for them now yeah

6:04

at the beginning of 2018 they asked if I

6:07

would be interested in ownership if it

6:10

if the opportunity came up me and also

6:12

my now business partner Kayla we both

6:15

working at wanasa both got taken out to

6:18

dinner asked if we were interested and

6:20

then we essentially just like waited um

6:24

then an opportunity came up at Braidwood

6:26

when that opportunity came up it was

6:28

kind of like a

6:30

didn't expect it to happen this quickly

6:32

because that opportunity came up at like

6:35

mid to yeah about mid

6:38

2018 so it was a very like sort of like

6:41

quick progression from being asked if I

6:44

was interested in it to being hey

6:46

there's this opportunity so yeah and

6:48

then the person that we brought the

6:49

pharmacy from didn't plan on like

6:52

leaving for a couple of years and so

6:55

what we did is we worked a little bit in

6:57

Braidwood as sort of like a doy like it

7:00

out here because it is that hour away

7:02

from camra so like there is the driving

7:05

um it's a different sort of vibe to like

7:08

what we would have been used to because

7:09

it's a real Pharmacy essentially we did

7:11

some looming while one of the

7:13

pharmacists was away loved it and then

7:16

at the end of that year the person who

7:19

was planning on retiring she decided

7:21

that she was going to retire earlier

7:22

than planned and the sale went through

7:24

on the 1st of May 2019 it was a very

7:28

quick sort of transition but if people

7:30

are interested in ownership there's

7:31

definitely ownerships opportunities out

7:33

there getting Junior Partners is

7:36

becoming a more regular occurrence in

7:39

Community Pharmacy land if you're

7:41

working for a pharmacy make sure that

7:44

your owners know that it might be

7:45

something that you're interested in

7:46

because they might want to nurture you

7:49

through your Pharmacy ownership Journey

7:52

or they might want to join your partner

7:54

like themselves but I think just being

7:56

aware of the opportunities and making it

7:58

known that that's one of the things that

8:00

actually interested in is important

8:02

because if you don't tell the people

8:04

around you that that's something that

8:05

you want to do they'll just assume that

8:07

it's not on your radar it's not in the

8:09

cards for you that you're just happy to

8:10

be an employee pharmacist if you don't

8:12

say anything then you miss your

8:14

opportunities but when the opportunity

8:16

arises be willing to just go in and grab

8:18

it otherwise you know that might be the

8:20

only opportunity that comes that's true

8:23

as a managing partner as a business

8:25

owner or if we want to become a business

8:27

owner it's important to talk about money

8:29

Financial education responsibilities and

8:33

risk involved how do you get your

8:36

financial education I did business

8:38

studies back year 10 it didn't help me

8:41

at all Elise and honor were the ones are

8:43

you interested in Pharmacy ownership and

8:45

then when the opportunity came up they

8:47

also bought in a small percentage into

8:51

the same Pharmacy that we were buying

8:52

into and then they mentored us through

8:54

all of those financials so they went

8:56

through those financials and taught us

8:57

like what we were looking for um how to

9:00

read them what means what financially it

9:03

was a steep learning curve for the first

9:05

I would say three to six months it was

9:07

just I strugg like looking at all of

9:09

these numbers and trying to wrap your

9:10

head around like what they all meant and

9:13

then there's all these abbreviations and

9:15

you sort of Go cross- Side the first

9:17

couple of times looking at everything

9:19

and being so if this is this then that

9:21

means this if wages are costing this

9:23

much and this is how much we're making

9:24

of gross profit then this is how much

9:26

our wages are costing us out of that and

9:29

these kpis I guess like so your

9:31

performance indicators that you want to

9:33

definitely look at and then you can

9:34

start learning what all the other things

9:36

mean as well it does take a while and

9:38

it's good to have somebody who has been

9:40

doing it for a while talk you through it

9:42

and talk you through like what things

9:44

are more important you know you just get

9:46

like your profit and loss statement and

9:47

you're just like there's numbers and

9:50

this is great and while it's fun to just

9:52

drop down to the very end and be like Oh

9:54

okay that's fine it's good to know like

9:56

where your money is going where money is

9:59

coming from but also like where it's

10:01

going and so having somebody who knows

10:03

what they're looking at to walk you

10:05

through it so at least would be like

10:08

okay this month it's your turn what sort

10:11

of things you get out of like this

10:14

financial statement um and that was her

10:16

way of making sure that we actually

10:18

understood what we' being taught if you

10:21

tell us what's in this report then that

10:22

way we all know that we we have an

10:25

understanding about like what we're

10:25

looking at I'm like the Ultimate Fan of

10:28

a partnership because it's especially if

10:29

you have more experienced partners then

10:32

they can mentor you through those and

10:34

explain all of those all that stuff to

10:37

you definitely very grateful now you're

10:39

the managing partner now HR is part of

10:42

your responsibility how do you select

10:44

your pharmacist or future managing

10:47

Partners to join business with you last

10:50

year was the first year that we had an

10:52

intern at bradwood but we've had many an

10:55

intern at wanasa over my years there so

10:59

I've now been at wsa since 2015 I was a

11:02

pharmacy student but it's yeah like

11:04

eight years that I've been at the

11:06

pharmacy until after I had bought the

11:08

pharmacy and I understood what sort of

11:10

things what sort of skills would be

11:13

required for um business ownership

11:16

because some people are really good at

11:20

business stuff um and other people

11:22

aren't and that's fine like everybody

11:25

has different skills and you know if

11:27

it's something that and it's something

11:29

that can be built as well but if I

11:33

identify that some people think in a

11:36

particular way like if they're conscious

11:39

of like things that like you wouldn't

11:41

normally think would be relevant so if

11:43

like you know they're think oh it's not

11:45

worth the time it takes to do this

11:47

because that way we're losing money then

11:49

sometimes I like start keeping a closer

11:51

eye on them because they've already

11:55

pointed out something that like I've

11:56

already thought about if they show any

11:58

business or financial intuition I guess

12:02

is what I'll call it then I'm more

12:04

likely to pay a little bit more closer

12:06

attention to that person to see what

12:09

other things they sort of pick up or and

12:11

then usually if it's a consistent sort

12:14

of thing that they do now I ask most

12:17

early career pharmacists or like interns

12:19

that we've had when as they get closer

12:20

to their to the end of their internship

12:25

I'm not necessarily offering them an

12:26

opportunity or anything like that but

12:28

it's just interesting to like hey are

12:30

you interested in owning a pharmacy one

12:32

day or is that like not on the cards for

12:34

you and some people like so my most

12:36

recent inter was like it's not on the

12:38

cards for me she was 100% I don't want

12:40

to earn a pharmacy it sounds like it's

12:43

going to be too much work um she's like

12:45

I'm happy just being a pharmacist like

12:47

there's so many other things that I like

12:49

want to do want to try and being a

12:51

pharmacy owner is going to prevent me

12:53

from doing those things and that's

12:54

completely fine she's already

12:55

acknowledged that that's something that

12:56

she doesn't want to do and that's great

12:58

because then she knows that there's

12:59

other things that she does want to try

13:01

out but you know occasionally you might

13:02

get like someone who's like yeah you

13:04

know what like maybe it would be like

13:06

good and then you just have that living

13:08

in the back of your head just in case

13:10

like there you know that you find an

13:12

opportunity and think oh that might be a

13:13

really good opportunity for that person

13:16

and that's why I think it's so important

13:17

that if you're interested in Pharmacy

13:19

ownership you let the people around you

13:20

know because they're the ones that

13:22

probably going to find out about those

13:23

opportunities more than you are if you

13:26

plant that seed then they probably got

13:27

it in their head somewhere and how

13:29

people get along I mean obviously you

13:30

can't get along with like everybody and

13:33

like I said HR is the hardest part but

13:36

if you're pretty good at getting along

13:37

with like most people then your ability

13:40

to manage stuff and things like that

13:43

increases because you can't make

13:45

everybody happy all the time you can

13:47

develop like a good enough relationship

13:48

so that they can come to you with their

13:50

problems it's good to watch out for just

13:52

those sort of traits the reason why a

13:54

lot of Pharmacists feeling that they

13:56

don't want to get into ownership is

13:59

because they've seeing owners work long

14:01

hours day in day are super stressed and

14:04

feeling so much pressure from the

14:06

financial side of things you're giving

14:08

out a completely different vibe yeah

14:10

what is the defining point is it because

14:12

the group that you're with the

14:13

mentorship you have tell us more about

14:16

that that's that's a really good

14:17

question um like because I definitely

14:20

like I definitely get stressed and

14:22

there's def Parts like I said every job

14:24

is going to have its moments and that

14:27

goes for business ownership too like you

14:29

know there's going to be times where you

14:31

feel like you're not performing as well

14:33

or you know this month didn't do as well

14:37

as like last month and so that can be a

14:39

bit disheartening but I love being a

14:41

pharmacist but I also really love being

14:44

a business owner and I love the ability

14:47

that I have to be able to make changes

14:49

in the pharmacy that I know are going to

14:52

help improve it and then being able to

14:54

watch like the pharmacy grow which has

14:56

been fantastic we move moved the

14:59

pharmacy from one location to another at

15:02

the end in the middle of Co at the end

15:05

of um 2021 because when we decided on

15:09

the spot the building was kind of

15:12

falling apart that we decided to move

15:14

into and like our shop Fitters were like

15:17

are you sure like this seems like it's a

15:20

mistake we're still on like the main

15:23

thoroughfare through town was like just

15:25

like this one street that is like where

15:26

like literally everything else is and

15:29

we've moved down and around the corner

15:31

and there were so many people that were

15:32

like are you sure this is a good idea

15:34

like when your building looks like it's

15:36

going to fall over two you're not going

15:38

to be in like the middle of town anymore

15:40

are you sure this is a good idea yeah

15:42

yeah it's going to be fine it's bigger

15:44

it's going to sit our needs better like

15:46

it'll be it'll be good it'll be good but

15:48

like there's still like that bit of like

15:50

doubt in the back of your mind that like

15:52

what if everybody else is right what if

15:54

it's not but it's worked out great being

15:56

able to make those decisions and then

15:58

them actually work out for you is just

16:00

it's stressful but at the end of the day

16:02

like it was probably one of the best

16:03

decisions we made so I think sticking to

16:06

your guns trying to decide what you want

16:08

your business to be so like I said

16:11

Capital chemist is like service based

16:13

and that suits me perfectly I don't

16:17

compete with Discounters I don't price

16:20

match some Discounters that do

16:21

discounting very well and I can't

16:24

compete with that so there's no point in

16:25

me trying to compete with that finding

16:27

what can be the the difference for your

16:29

Pharmacy and like really playing into

16:31

that is the best way to make sure that

16:34

financially you'll be okay long term um

16:38

because people will value the thing that

16:40

sets you apart but I guess like I just

16:44

really enjoy being a pharmacy owner I

16:47

love the staff that I have I love the

16:49

communities that I work in um they just

16:52

make it really easy there's stress you

16:55

know there's always going to be stress

16:56

with all the things that change um um

16:59

and you know like them is like things

17:02

that happen um and you know like there's

17:07

like things and then you worry about

17:09

like how particular decisions that are

17:11

like that are outside of your control

17:13

will impact like your bottom line um but

17:17

I think if you get too caught up in that

17:19

then like you're just you're going to

17:21

miss all the other opportunities that

17:22

are out there um so yes I always have

17:26

those things in the back of my mind but

17:27

they're not the things that I like to

17:28

dwell on not like all the time they're

17:30

there so that I'm like acknowledge them

17:32

I'm aware of them but you've just got to

17:34

keep moving because otherwise if you

17:37

just are stressed and living the fear of

17:40

like what if this happens then you just

17:42

stay still and it will happen so what's

17:46

the last advice you would like to leave

17:48

our audience be honest with the people

17:52

around you find like if you want to try

17:56

something and like you're not not sure

17:59

if it's going to like work out so like

18:01

say you're a community pharmacist at the

18:03

moment and you're like I kind of want to

18:05

dabble in GP Pharmacy and see if I enjoy

18:07

that right talk to the people that

18:10

employ you and if they see if it's

18:12

something that like you can work out

18:14

like be like maybe I want to go try GP

18:17

Pharmacy just one day a week is it cool

18:19

if I work four days a week instead of

18:21

five have those people there like know

18:23

what you're doing be honest with them

18:26

because there's nothing worse than just

18:28

honestly but if that's something that

18:31

interests you and you think that you

18:32

might enjoy it go out and go for it do

18:36

what you love be honest with those

18:37

around you and hopefully it all works

18:40

out I'm sure it will thank you for

18:43

listening to this episode of the your

18:45

Pharmacy career podcast proudly brought

18:47

to you by Raven's Recruitment Australia's

18:49

leading specialist Pharmacy recruitment

18:51

agency if you enjoyed this episode and

18:54

know anyone else who you think would

18:55

benefit from it we would be grateful if

18:57

you could share it with them together we

19:00

help even more pharmacists develop a

19:01

career and life they love if you have

19:04

any questions or suggestions about

19:06

future podcast episodes please reach out

19:08

to us via email info@ravensrecruitment.com.au