Dr Ramesh Walpola - Pharmacist | Pharmacy Academic Lead & Program Authority at UNSW | Certified Health Manager (CHM)

Dr Ramesh Walpola is a Pharmacist, Certified Health Manager (CHM) and the Pharmacy Academic Lead & Program Authority at the School of Health Sciences. His main area of research expertise and interest is in patient and medication safety, particularly examining the social determinants of safe practices.

Ramesh completed his PhD at The University of Sydney in 2016, which focused on the development of educational interventions to enhance generational change in patient safety practices in the pharmacy setting. He was awarded the FIP Young Pharmacist Award for Professional Innovation in 2012 in recognition of the novelty of this work. Following his PhD, he worked in a number of clinical research roles, including a multi-centre deprescribing randomised controlled trial, development of inter-professional student-led clinics and a review of the junior undergraduate pharmacy practice curriculum at The University of Sydney.

Ramesh’s current research spans a number of areas including patient and medication safety, safety culture, health professional education, patient experience with a focus on vulnerable populations. Ramesh is currently leading the implementation of the new pharmacy program in the School of Health Sciences, as part of the suite of new and relaunched health professional programs. 

You can find Ramesh Walpola on LinkedIn.

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

Transcript

0:00

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 Ali Sue welcome to your Pharmacy

1:12

career podcast this is Ali Sue in the

1:15

spirit of reconciliation Raven's Your

1:17

Pharmacy Career podcast would like to

1:19

acknowledge the traditional custodians

1:21

of Australia and their connections to

1:24

land sea and Community we pay our

1:27

respect to their Elders past and present

1:30

and extend that respect to all

1:32

Aboriginal and torist Islander peoples

1:36

today today's guest is Dr rash WPA he is

1:40

a pharmacist certified health manager

1:43

and the pharmacy academic lead and

1:45

program Authority at the University of

1:48

New South Wales school of health

1:51

sciences Dr rash's primary research

1:54

interests and expertise Li in patient

1:57

and medication safety with a focused on

2:00

the social aspects that influence secure

2:03

practices in

2:05

2016 he completed his PhD at the

2:08

University of Sydney where he

2:10

concentrated on creating educational

2:13

interventions to Foster generational

2:15

change in patient safety practices

2:18

within the pharmacy City this Innovative

2:21

work earned him the FIP young pharmacist

2:24

award for professional innovation in

2:28

2012 after his PhD Dr raes took on

2:32

various clinical research roles

2:34

including a multicenter deprescribing

2:36

randomized controlled trial the

2:39

development of interprofessional

2:42

student-led clinics and a review of the

2:45

junior undergraduate Pharmacy practice

2:48

curriculum at the University of Sydney

2:51

his current research covers several

2:53

areas such as patient and medication

2:55

safety safety culture health

2:58

professional education and patient

3:01

experience with an emphasis on

3:04

vulnerable populations Dr raes is

3:06

currently spearheading the

3:08

implementation of the new pharmacy

3:10

program which is a part of a collection

3:13

of new and revamped health professional

3:16

programs in this conversation Dr rash

3:19

shares his personal Journey as a

3:21

pharmacist and offers insights into the

3:24

future of the pharmacy

3:26

profession without further Ado let's

3:29

welcome

3:30

Dr

3:31

raes welcome Dr raes to join our show

3:35

can't wait to dive into your Pharmacy

3:37

career to help our Pharmacy students

3:40

early career pharmacist to create a

3:42

successful Pharmacy career hi everybody

3:44

and thanks for having me it's a it's a

3:46

great pleasure to be here first of all

3:48

congratulations on receiving the

3:50

education Innovation award by the

3:52

University of New sou Welles thank you

3:54

so much yeah it was uh uh something I

3:57

didn't really expect but it was uh a

4:00

really nice achievement um after a few

4:02

years of work we know the award is

4:05

recognizing staff but leading the

4:07

Innovation designing and developing new

4:10

courses and learning education

4:12

activities what have you been working on

4:14

in the past few years and what's this

4:16

new innovation that you're bringing to

4:18

our Pharmacy industry thanks Ellie the

4:20

award was a was given to myself and a

4:24

number of my colleagues uh recognizing

4:26

the achievements that we have made in

4:28

the development of four brand new health

4:31

professional programs which we're

4:32

launching at the University of New South

4:34

Wales as you can probably tell there is

4:36

a huge need for not just medical

4:39

professionals but also the whole range

4:42

of um Allied Health and um other Primary

4:46

Care Professionals like Pharmacists and

4:49

so what the university realized was that

4:52

to meet this need um we obviously need

4:54

to have more students entering the

4:57

workforce that's something that's also

4:59

come from industry um I I can honestly

5:01

tell you since I started undertaking

5:03

this particular

5:05

project I've had industry leaders come

5:08

to me say can I take on more students

5:10

can I take on more students and we

5:11

hadn't even launched the program um so

5:14

the whole uh the award itself was for

5:17

the innovations that we had developed as

5:20

part of developing these new programs in

5:23

particular we've developed a new

5:26

curriculum which is highly

5:28

interprofessional

5:30

so the the curriculum itself has not

5:35

just interprofessional learning as a

5:37

tokenistic component as part of maybe

5:40

communication training or as part of a

5:42

series of case studies we actually have

5:44

eight subjects in which our students

5:46

will be studying with students from

5:49

other health disciplines and that

5:52

includes the whole array of Health

5:54

Professions that are taught at unw so um

5:58

developing this curriculum from scratch

6:00

was not a small undertaking as I'm sure

6:02

you can imagine and we had a very small

6:05

but interprofessional team working

6:08

together to actually I guess bring

6:10

together all our strengths and

6:12

understand how best we can not only uh

6:15

develop this curriculum but how can we

6:16

implement it so that our students um

6:19

really see the benefit of working into

6:21

professionally as they progress into

6:23

their career which is really part of

6:25

that modern ethos of healthcare and so

6:27

we're hoping to really instill

6:30

that modern ethos of healthcare into our

6:32

students from day one literally Workshop

6:35

one is the interprofessional workshops

6:37

teaching our students you know the

6:39

basics of academic skills as we move

6:41

through the rest of the program our

6:42

students are actually going to get

6:44

training around K studies uh working

6:46

interprofessionally as well and doing

6:49

debates and doing lots of fun activities

6:51

with uh students from a whole range of

6:52

disciplines you know we're even bringing

6:54

on board the medical program as well so

6:56

it's it's been a huge undertaking um for

6:59

our very small team and now that we're

7:02

launching we're also going to be growing

7:03

the team obviously to uh deliver these

7:06

new programs that we've

7:08

developed what does that look like the

7:10

future for our pharmacists we are in a

7:13

fantastic time right now we're starting

7:16

to see a lot of change that has been

7:19

talked about probably for the last 10 to

7:21

20 years um actually coming to fruition

7:24

so for a young pharmacist I think this

7:26

is the best possible time to come into

7:29

the world

7:30

uh of Pharmacy because you not only have

7:33

all this great knowledge that you've got

7:34

from University or uh continuing

7:36

professional development but you can

7:38

actually start um using that to your

7:40

full scope of practice and and and

7:42

really show the true benefit of that

7:44

training that you've received as a

7:46

pharmacist um I think you know with

7:48

prescribing for example I think we do

7:50

need to be upskilled in a number of new

7:53

areas and I think that's a really um

7:55

exciting time like for example um for my

7:58

students now I've insisted that all my

8:00

students take training in anatomy which

8:02

is not necessarily taught to that level

8:05

in many Pharmacy programs I know

8:07

definitely when I studied I did very

8:10

basic anatomy um but we didn't

8:13

necessarily have that same depth of anat

8:15

anatomy that we're going to be giving

8:17

our students in this particular course

8:19

so it's I think it's really important

8:21

that students realize that as we take on

8:23

these brand new scopes of practice we

8:25

also do need to upskill our knowledge

8:27

and and it it may even be going Back to

8:29

Basics in some instances like

8:31

understanding you know functional

8:33

Anatomy before we can actually do

8:35

examination skills and and teach our you

8:38

know not just Pharmacy students but also

8:41

graduates who are working who are going

8:43

to up skill to do prescribing um to be

8:45

able to do examination you need to have

8:47

that core understanding before you can

8:49

you know you need to be able to walk

8:50

before you can run um so that that's I

8:54

think a really uh important thing that

8:56

we are doing here at least is is we've

8:58

been able to incorporate a lot of that

8:59

sort of foundational knowledge into our

9:01

brand new program you know having a new

9:03

program from scratch um but not just

9:05

selling the program I think it's a

9:07

really exciting time because we are

9:10

going to be able to have graduates who

9:12

want to take on new roles who who want

9:14

to gain more knowledge and are really

9:16

eager to learn um they're definitely

9:18

going to be the ones that are going to

9:19

be doing all these new courses and

9:21

programs to upskill themselves um to

9:24

take on these uh new roles you know

9:26

they're talking about pharmacist in

9:27

agare facilities as well which is I

9:29

think um really so needed one of my past

9:33

jobs was actually um being involved uh

9:37

with Hare facilities um being based in a

9:40

hospital but working with Hare

9:41

facilities on a particular project and

9:45

honestly after that particular

9:46

experience I just saw the benefit of

9:48

having being a pharmacist going into

9:50

Hare facilities um being in-house even

9:53

though I was only there for a couple of

9:54

hours a week just being there for that

9:57

couple of hours had a huge impact on

10:00

um medicine use and um the benefits to

10:03

the patients was actually uh something

10:05

that you could visibly see you could see

10:07

them having better interactions you know

10:09

reducing the prescribing of psychotropic

10:12

agents um I I still remember one

10:15

particular patient um or the family of

10:17

this particular patient um I should say

10:20

who who basically said they'd lost their

10:22

mother for the last 2 years and now they

10:24

were able to actually have their mother

10:26

back um and that was such a a powerful

10:29

thing to sort of hear and and see and

10:32

feel um you know taking people off their

10:35

medicines which were unnecessary they

10:37

were having Better Health outcomes they

10:39

were having better relationships with

10:40

their families um you know it it was it

10:44

was a fantastic outcome for the uh the

10:47

family was an fantastic outcome for the

10:49

patient and their quality of life and

10:52

you know I think it's a it's a win for

10:53

us as as a profession as well because

10:56

we've we've made a huge impact on on on

10:58

people lives and and reducing also cost

11:02

to the health system by you know

11:04

reducing unnecessary medicine use um so

11:07

you know whilst it might be a very

11:10

fractional you know a minuscule amount

11:12

of savings to the uh to the PBS it's

11:15

it's still some sort of saving as well

11:17

so you know we definitely have benefits

11:20

that we can bring across the Spectrum

11:23

and I think you know now is a really

11:24

great time to be in the profession where

11:27

you can actually champion these new

11:30

initiatives that are starting to be

11:32

implemented you mentioned industry so

11:34

I'm just curious for our early career

11:36

pharmacist or farmy student who don't

11:38

know much about industry what does that

11:40

look like what skill sets do we need to

11:42

gain I've noticed yearo a senior Lector

11:45

in Health Management what does that mean

11:48

in the management of Health as a

11:50

pharmacist my role at the University of

11:52

New South Wales has evolved so I

11:54

previously taught at another pharmacy

11:57

school in Queensland and um had great a

12:01

great time teaching up there um but I

12:05

was uh not

12:06

necessarily um I think from my personal

12:10

perspective my family was in Sydney um

12:12

and I had I didn't necessarily have um

12:15

the support mechanisms in my life that I

12:17

wanted to have around me so um I I made

12:21

the move back to to New South Wales and

12:24

when I was an academic and and what I

12:26

did my PhD in interestingly enough was

12:28

in the whole area of patient safety and

12:30

Medicine safety so that's what actually

12:32

got me into the sort of Health

12:34

Management sphere was coming to Health

12:37

Management from that safety sphere so as

12:39

part of Health Management is is somewhat

12:41

of a a broader discipline it encompasses

12:43

a number of different um aspects around

12:45

leadership around clinical governance

12:47

which was a course I used to teach

12:49

around policy was also another course I

12:51

used to teach um so it was bringing

12:54

together all these different aspects of

12:55

things that I was doing as part of my

12:57

professional roles and I sort of moved

12:59

into teaching not just Pharmacy students

13:03

um but students from all Health

13:05

disciplines and and even Beyond so I had

13:07

students from a finance background and

13:10

and um also Patient Advocates actually

13:12

coming and doing um that degree program

13:15

so it was a I I found the health man

13:17

being part of that Health Management

13:18

program was a really um fantastic thing

13:21

for me it was actually very

13:23

professionally rewarding for me as well

13:25

because uh I was obviously translating

13:28

my professional experience experience to

13:30

um a whole range of other students

13:32

albeit I still feel I'm very much a

13:34

pharmacist at heart so I'm sure that

13:36

there's a lot of Pharmacists who are

13:37

listening to this and you know

13:38

contemplating where they're going to

13:39

take their career next I actually really

13:41

L doing that the Health Management

13:43

training so also um have the an

13:46

associate fellowship with the College of

13:48

Health Service management um and also

13:51

that through their certification program

13:52

I'm a certified health manager so that's

13:55

you know something that I found uh

13:57

really beneficial to also be part of

13:59

this other organization which um also

14:02

allowed me to have I guess further

14:04

professional growth as well not just

14:06

sticking within Pharmacy but I found you

14:08

know um it's it's not so much of a it's

14:10

not really moving out but it's adding to

14:12

that skill set that I already had so I

14:15

guess I was using my research knowledge

14:17

and and research expertise um to to

14:20

teach Health Management at uh at unw

14:23

that is I guess one particular side of

14:26

of the health industry so to speak so

14:28

it's very much around Health Services

14:29

looking at how can we optimize care in

14:32

Health Services improving quality of uh

14:35

Service delivery in in hospitals but not

14:38

just hospitals in in Primary Care

14:40

settings in other community care

14:42

settings um such as you know community

14:44

outreach clinics for example so i' I

14:47

really enjoyed being part of the school

14:50

of um population health and and

14:51

delivering courses in um Health

14:55

leadership and

14:56

management but um in terms of I guess we

14:59

need to think about you know

15:01

Health it's it's somewhat of a spectrum

15:04

you know you've got the the service

15:05

delivery side of things which is one

15:07

part of the health industry um I think

15:10

when people hear the word industry they

15:11

think of Pharma and uh and the

15:13

pharmaceutical industry which is a a

15:15

completely different um I guess sector

15:18

so to speak but we all integrate and all

15:20

work together um in terms of skill sets

15:24

um going back to your specific question

15:25

I think um I think having a really broad

15:29

set of skills is really important you

15:30

know what what one of the things that

15:32

I've learned particularly as an academic

15:34

is even the knowledge that I had when I

15:37

was um a student and even as a

15:39

practitioner even I've been out of

15:41

practice for you know I think probably

15:43

about three or four years now uh or or

15:45

working you know in a clinical role on a

15:47

daily basis

15:49

um I I I really see that having a broad

15:53

set of skills is really important you

15:55

know all those what students used to and

15:57

and academics for a while used to think

15:59

of as soft skills um are actually so

16:02

important and do really translate across

16:04

Industries um and and that's one of the

16:06

things that I think you know as we've

16:07

developed our programs we've really

16:09

realized that students need so much more

16:12

than just the clinical knowledge and and

16:15

the and the skills to do the specific

16:17

tasks that you require for a particular

16:19

profession you need to have really solid

16:21

communication skills you need to have an

16:23

understanding of of business um and and

16:26

The Business of healthcare regardless of

16:28

whether you're um a a clinician working

16:30

in the front line or uh whether you're a

16:33

manager or whether you're working in the

16:35

pharmaceutical industry having some

16:37

business Acumen is is really important

16:39

and that's something that you're going

16:40

to see a lot more courses around the

16:42

country um increasing um their content

16:46

in is is is some sort of business skills

16:49

and and understanding the business of

16:51

healthcare you know around the world

16:53

we're looking at this concept called

16:55

value-based Healthcare um which is

16:57

really it's something that has come out

17:00

from America but um it's really about

17:02

getting the best bang for buck um in

17:05

terms of what we're investing our money

17:07

in at the end of the day and we've got

17:10

finite amount of resources at the end of

17:12

the day um and even if you're working in

17:14

a Community Pharmacy we have you know a

17:16

very finite amount of resources that you

17:19

know some that you can put into the

17:21

business itself so we all want optimal

17:23

patient care um so understanding those I

17:27

guess business principles is going to be

17:28

really important as um Healthcare

17:31

evolves um Health budgets with the

17:34

government are very fairly finite as as

17:37

as everybody knows so um it's it's it's

17:39

how do we best optimize the care that we

17:41

can give um with the resources that we

17:45

have which is I think a really important

17:46

thing that we need to start thinking

17:48

about as well so it's it's not just

17:51

developing all those clinical skills

17:53

it's also important to understand um

17:56

business skills entrepreneurship um

17:59

being able to be an advocate

18:00

understanding some of those Public

18:01

Health skills so um understanding policy

18:04

at different levels even if you're the

18:06

one that's implementing a policy you

18:07

should have an understanding of how it

18:09

all integrates and nowadays we're having

18:12

a lot more um regulation on practices uh

18:17

we have a whole series of new standards

18:20

being uh released by the Australian

18:23

commission for quality and safety and

18:24

healthare so we as a profession um need

18:27

to actually start in operating all those

18:29

standards because that's what we're

18:30

going to be um audited against and and

18:33

reviewed against and if things go wrong

18:35

that's what's going to be cited um in a

18:37

court of FLW so um it's really important

18:39

that we understand all those basic

18:41

principles um relating to public health

18:44

health leadership and management um as

18:47

well as all those clinical skills um to

18:49

actually deliver Optimum care whether

18:52

you're working as a Frontline clinician

18:55

or whether you're working um in a

18:57

management role or whether working in

18:59

the industry supporting that from uh

19:01

another

19:03

perspective we're very practical in this

19:05

podcast our listeners wanted to know how

19:08

to gain the skill sets how to get into

19:10

those opportunities for a student who's

19:12

finished a pharmacy degree or they're

19:14

working in a Community Pharmacy what's

19:16

the best way for them to gain this

19:18

knowledge whether it's business Public

19:20

Health to understanding the big

19:23

picture I think one of the things that I

19:27

have learned later in life is I think

19:30

it's really important to firstly

19:32

understand your strengths um and this

19:36

came about actually through a friend of

19:38

mine who was doing the NBA they were

19:41

being trained to be a coach and and

19:42

learning how to be a a a coach and one

19:45

of the things they did with me which I

19:47

found really helpful was there's there's

19:49

a tool called the Clifton's strength

19:50

finder test um you have to pay for it I

19:54

think it's about $35 um but don't s me

19:56

on that but I found that really helpful

19:59

to actually identify what were my

20:02

personal strengths and it also helped me

20:03

sort of think about where best should I

20:06

actually you know tailor my career like

20:09

I think it's important to understand

20:10

what are your strengths because that's

20:11

going to help you um be really

20:15

employable if you demon if you can

20:16

demonstrate to employer what your

20:18

strengths are um at the same time you

20:20

need obviously you want to do things

20:21

that are interesting um but I'm probably

20:23

swaying off topic um talking about

20:26

interest but I think you know having an

20:28

understanding of that is a is a really

20:29

good first step um as to you know how

20:32

you're trying to shape your career um

20:34

understanding your strengths

20:35

understanding your weaknesses as well is

20:37

really important you know doing the old

20:38

SWAT analysis um I know everybody's

20:41

heard of it but it it actually does

20:43

really help um and it's something I used

20:45

to do with my my students um when I used

20:47

to teach Pharmacy actually was get them

20:49

to all do a SWAT analysis of themselves

20:51

um and they used to hate me for it um

20:54

but hopefully it it really gave them an

20:57

opportunity to reflect on on what they

20:59

do really well what are not things that

21:02

they do so well um and what other

21:05

opportunities can they have as well as

21:07

you know threats to those opportunities

21:09

as well um I think in terms of you as an

21:12

individual you need to also as I know a

21:15

lot of people hate doing this but

21:17

reflecting on where you want to take

21:19

your career because that is going to be

21:22

um a huge part of this process you need

21:26

to understand where you want to go

21:28

before you upskilled in the particular

21:30

areas so I I think when I finished

21:34

University

21:35

I um I always describe my career as

21:38

being serendipitous because I seem to

21:40

have opportunities that sort of came up

21:42

and I would say yes to everything um and

21:45

that's what led me down different

21:47

Pathways I honestly had no intention in

21:49

my when I left University to end up as

21:51

an academic

21:53

um that that was something that I I did

21:57

not have planned but um it was literally

22:00

through a series of steps that have has

22:03

actually ended up uh and resulted in me

22:05

taking this particular path so um along

22:09

that way I was doing things that I was I

22:12

guess using to help me um find the path

22:15

that was best for me like obviously I

22:16

did um some high degree I was tossing up

22:18

do I do a high degree in sort of you

22:20

know public health and health leadership

22:22

management so I was really interested in

22:23

public health um but at the same time I

22:26

was tossing up you know should I do you

22:28

know some research and it was honestly

22:32

some experiences that I had whil looming

22:34

where I saw some really poor practices

22:36

that actually shifted me to that

22:38

research pathway because I wanted to

22:39

actually do something about it and I had

22:41

spoken to one of my mentors and they

22:43

sort of said you need to actually build

22:45

the um body of evidence before you can

22:48

actually create the change so that's

22:50

what I essentially set out to do was to

22:52

try and build a body of evidence to

22:54

actually create the change

22:56

um and and since then I sort of fell

22:59

down that sort of research pathway it

23:01

was completely

23:03

unintended but um obviously to become a

23:06

researcher and and and to also be

23:08

involved with policy I had to sort of

23:10

upskill in in those kinds of areas you

23:12

can do you know Master's programs or

23:15

shorter programs like I obviously I can

23:18

talk about the unw programs since I work

23:20

here and it is great um so you know I'm

23:22

very happy to talk to people if they

23:24

want to hear more about it but I think

23:26

it's really thinking about where you

23:27

want to take your career as to what

23:29

particular things you upskill in one of

23:31

the other things that I found really

23:33

beneficial is joining professional

23:35

societies um from an early part of my

23:39

career to actually get that sort of

23:41

insight into the different aspects so

23:44

for example you know joining the College

23:45

of Health Service management um as I

23:48

sort of started to transition into this

23:49

area really helped me understand what

23:52

were the things that I really need to

23:55

know or need to understand in this

23:56

particular role and as a college they

23:59

were really very they're very supportive

24:01

they run webinars pretty much every

24:04

single week on on different topics and

24:06

so it really helped me gain an

24:08

appreciation for the the scope and

24:11

breadth of a role of health manager

24:13

which I I didn't necessarily fully

24:15

understand until I started engaging so I

24:17

I would strongly recommend people who

24:20

are trying to think about shifting their

24:22

career or moving um into another aspect

24:27

finding professional bodies or um even

24:30

if you if you don't want to join a

24:32

professional body think of finding a

24:34

mentor in that particular space approach

24:36

them and you know I've had lots of

24:38

people approach me for mentoring um I've

24:41

had even uh you know the other week I

24:43

had somebody who I went to UNI with and

24:45

did my undergraduate study with come to

24:47

me and say you know I need some

24:48

mentoring and I need some advice and you

24:50

know let's can you help me um think

24:53

about how I can you know structure my

24:54

career moving forward and you know I'm

24:57

I'm I've always been very happy to try

24:59

and help people as much as I can within

25:01

my workload um but um you know I I think

25:05

finding a mental there's a lot of people

25:07

who very generously give their time um

25:10

to actually meet with you on a regular

25:12

basis to talk through you know your

25:15

particular conundrums and and and what

25:17

you want to do um moving forward and

25:20

sometimes it's it's really good to

25:21

actually have that conversation with

25:22

someone and have that relationship with

25:24

someone sometimes someone you don't know

25:26

on a personal level because you can

25:29

necess you can sometimes open up and

25:30

they can look at you from an objective

25:33

perspective and and give you that fairly

25:35

objective advice without um knowing you

25:38

as a person too much um you know it goes

25:41

both ways you know sometimes it's really

25:42

good to have someone who knows you

25:44

personally and sometimes it's actually

25:45

really good to have someone who doesn't

25:47

know you so well personally I still have

25:49

a range of mentors that I uh still use

25:52

and still go to for advice and some of

25:55

them are more formal um I guess mentors

25:58

and and others are more informal mentors

26:00

as well so I think from that kind of

26:02

perspective finding a really good Mentor

26:04

uh is is going to be really helpful to

26:06

your career as well and and you're going

26:07

to have lots of different mentors

26:09

throughout your career so don't

26:10

necessarily if you if you meet one

26:12

person and you you don't really jel

26:15

don't worry about that you you're going

26:16

to find lots of different mentors who

26:18

going to help um help you uh grow as a

26:21

person professionally and personally as

26:23

well wow amazing I can see why so many

26:26

people coming to you ask you to be them

26:28

Mentor what I do with the the people who

26:30

who've come to me is I I I like to take

26:32

the approach of helping them make the

26:35

decisions and I think that's a that's a

26:37

really important thing when you're

26:39

finding a mentor is you need someone who

26:43

I guess can help you come to that

26:46

conclusion yourself rather than

26:48

necessarily tell you and I know

26:50

sometimes um when we're young and and

26:53

and particularly of of certain

26:55

Generations you know you want an answer

26:56

really really quickly and you sometimes

26:59

can't necessarily get that answer really

27:01

quickly you have to actually work

27:03

through it you need to reflect on it and

27:04

then you need to come back to you know

27:06

your particular decision sometimes we do

27:08

need to make quick decisions you know

27:10

that that's that's just part of life but

27:12

sometimes you know when you're trying to

27:14

make these long-term decisions it

27:16

doesn't necessarily work out best if

27:18

somebody tells you exactly what you

27:20

should do I I find this is just my

27:23

experience you know other other people

27:25

may have different experiences but I

27:26

really like to help people come to their

27:28

own conclusion I I sometimes tell them

27:30

about my experiences and things and just

27:33

get them to reflect on you know how that

27:35

might relate to their own particular

27:37

circumstance and you know I don't know

27:39

all the answers so you know it's it's

27:41

always good to Bringing In other people

27:43

who um may have a better idea about

27:46

something as well so um I think if you

27:48

if you find a really good Mentor they're

27:50

going to really support you throughout

27:51

your career wherever you go so um that's

27:55

probably something that I'd recommend

27:56

but uh yeah this those are the probably

27:58

the the three things that I probably

28:01

consider one probably to sum up one is

28:03

is is probably doing that sort of

28:05

self-reflection activity um to identify

28:09

you know what you need to actually what

28:11

you want to do and and where you want to

28:12

go so that you can identify what areas

28:14

you need to upskill in um but also to to

28:18

get that appropriate advice and you know

28:20

get involved join professional societies

28:21

and and and and find someone who can

28:24

mentor you through that process wow

28:26

thank you so much thank you for

28:27

listening to this episode of the your

28:29

Pharmacy career podcast proudly brought

28:32

to you by Raven's Recruitment Australia's

28:34

leading specialist Pharmacy recruitment

28:36

agency if you enjoyed this episode and

28:38

know anyone else who you think would

28:40

benefit from it we would be grateful if

28:42

you could share it with them together we

28:44

help even more pharmacists develop a

28:46

career and life they love if you have

28:48

any questions or suggestions about

28:50

future podcast episodes please reach out

28:52

to us via email info@ravensrecruitment.com.au