Amanda Fairjones - From passion and advocacy comes the evolving role of pharmacists; A story of value and support

Amanda Fairjones is the NSW State Manager at the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA). In this role, she works closely with PSA members, driving policy and advocacy initiatives while championing the education and professional development of pharmacists across New South Wales.

With more than 20 years of experience spanning both hospital and community pharmacy, Amanda brings a wealth of expertise and a deep understanding of the profession. Her diverse background and strong commitment to advancing pharmacy practice position her as a respected leader dedicated to strengthening the profession and improving patient care.

You can find Amanda Fairjones on LinkedIn.

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Transcript

Speaker 3 (00:01.068)
Welcome to Your Pharmacy Career Podcast, proudly produced by Raven's Recruitment, the experts in pharmacy career and locum services for over 30 years. Every episode is your gateway to new opportunities in the pharmacy profession. From expert advice to inspiring success stories, we're here to spark ideas, guide your career and help you achieve your goals. Stay tuned. The next step in your pharmacy journey starts here.

Welcome back. I'm your host, Krysti-Lee Patterson. And if you have ever wondered what it's like to work at the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia or the PSA, well now is the time. Our next guest, Amanda Fairjones, is a New South Wales state manager at the PSA. She has over 20 years of experience across hospital and community pharmacy and even pharmacy ownership. Welcome to the show, Amanda.

Thanks very much, Krysti Lee.

Now before we chat about your current role, I always love going back to the beginning of people's pharmacy journey and asking them, why did you decide to become a pharmacist?

So back when I was at school, generally speaking, my strengths lied with subject revolved around facts and information, not so much creativity and writing. So I thought a career along that pathway that utilized those skills that needed facts and information would suit me best. It was actually at the time also a priority for me to have a job where I sat at a desk. It was also a priority for me to have a job where I didn't have to sit at a desk all day. I thought that would be really boring sitting down at a desk all day.

Speaker 1 (01:35.906)
which is actually quite funny now because my job now is sitting at a desk. Yep. So when I was in high school, back in those times, back in the days when I was in high school, we were given a book then, there wasn't the internet, and the book listed all the courses that were available in all the universities. It was actually quite a thick book. And I must've spent hours flicking through it, wondering what I was going to do, because I really wasn't sure. I knew I wanted to go to university, but I wasn't sure what I would study. And I must've flipped through it.

for months wondering and then I started a process of elimination and started crossing out everything that I was like, no, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. And then one day I stumbled across the pharmacy course at the University of Sydney. And that was really the first thing that really interested me looking through the book and it just stopped. So when I finished my HSC, my preference is down to go to university. My first choice was pharmacy and the rest is history. I went off to the University of Sydney and studied pharmacy.

Wow, I actually remember, yeah, a similar book. don't, I can't remember what it was called, but when I was doing my choices for uni, yes, we had the internet, but we still had the book to choose. And yeah, it was actually quite daunting because so many things, I didn't even know what they were.

No, that's right. You couldn't Google it back then. It was all the information and what the course entailed. It was all in that book and that was really one of the sole sources of information to choose a course. Looking back on it now, I actually realized how lucky I was. I have children at the moment who are looking at what they might study at university. As a 16 or 17-year-old, it must be so difficult for some people to choose what they want to do. I think there was a real element of luck in it.

for me, finding pharmacy and choosing pharmacy because it turned out to be the right decision.

Speaker 2 (03:25.106)
That's so good. And yeah, you're right. I see that now with my stepdaughter, she's 14. And so she'll be looking at these type of things in a few years. And there can be a bit of pressure on, my gosh, I've got to choose what I've got to do for the rest of my life. But so once you went through university and did your internship, where did you do your internship? Did you do it in a hospital or was it a community pharmacy?

Can you share with us your internship experience?

Yeah, I actually, after living in Sydney for the majority of my life, I actually packed up my bags after I finished university and moved to Dubbo to do my intern year there. I worked at the Dubbo base hospital as an intern pharmacist.

Yeah, wow. So that would have been quite a daunting experience moving from Sydney to Dubbo. So for those that don't know where Dubbo is, it's the central west of New South Wales and it's best known for Dubbo Zoo. So if you Google Dubbo Zoo or put in ChatGPT, that's where Amanda was. Yeah. So how was that rural experience for you compared to being a Sydney girl?

Well, I actually chose to go to Dubbo because I did placements at university. So I did placements at large Sydney hospitals. And during university, I also did a placement out at Dubbo base hospital. And that's where I decided that it would be a really interesting experience to do my internship there, my intern year there. We had two interns there at the hospital at the time. It was myself and one of my colleagues who was in the first cohort of Charles Sturt University. And at the time, the hospital was really short staff.

Speaker 1 (05:03.63)
So back in, back when I did my intern year, they were struggling to fill all the pharmacist positions at the hospital and had vacancies. So all the pharmacists that work there, the chief pharmacists and a few part-time pharmacists, they were pretty much all involved in business as usual. And they had to do all the jobs that legally you needed the pharmacist, registered pharmacist to do. So during my intern year, I had a really broad experience because they were very short of pharmacists on the ward. So we got.

partnered up a lot with the junior doctors. We did ward rounds with them. We probably had a far broader experience than what most interns would have because I was working in a large rural hospital. We did lots of interesting things as well. Like I remember going to visit all the satellite hospitals because Dubbo is the base hospital. We serviced all the outlying smaller hospitals as well. I'll never forget visiting in an airplane with the chief pharmacist at the time, a small town right.

right in Northern New South Wales called Goduga and visiting the small medical service there. Working at Dubbo Hospital gave me a wonderful experience and a wonderful introduction into rural health, both all the benefits of working in rural health and the challenges.

Yeah, wow, that would have been amazing. yeah, having that satellite hospital experience. I don't know if I've actually really heard of that term before, which is funny because I've been in rural pharmacy for a long time, but always community-based. I've actually also now heard of some of the places where I do locuming at. I'll get a call from a pharmacist and they say they're from like this virtual pharmacy and.

somewhere so I think that must be a very similar thing to what that was like to satellite or virtual pharmacies.

Speaker 1 (06:48.408)
Well, could do it. don't, satellite pharmacy is probably not, satellite hospital is probably not the right word. It's probably not the correct term. Yeah. There wasn't, when I did my intern year, it wasn't, there wasn't the telehealth that's available today. I'm pretty sure it was a while ago now. So I'm relying on my memory here. I'm fairly sure at the health service, it would be the nurse who would call the doctor. And I do think they might've had a video link when they needed it.

But I'm sure with the technologies these days, that would be much, much more improved. But I guess for me, it was just visiting these rural and really remote areas where otherwise I never would have visited and seen how the health system operated in those areas.

Yeah, absolutely. And so with your career, so you started in, I guess, hospital pharmacy, in rural pharmacy, and then I know that you've also owned a pharmacy and you're now working at the PSA. Could you maybe talk a little bit about that journey of, yeah, from that internship to, yeah, owning a pharmacy? How did that come about?

I finished my intern year in Dubbo and I did stay there and work for a short period of time, but I was missing home and being with my family in Sydney. I started looking for jobs back in Sydney and I applied and was offered a job at the Marder Hospital in North Sydney, which is a large private hospital. From there, I worked there for several years and was then subsequently offered a partnership in that pharmacy. That's how I entered into pharmacy ownership.

So as a pharmacy owner, my pharmacy was quite unique. I'm being located in a private hospital, servicing patients in the hospital, but also operating as a community pharmacy. yeah, it's a very niche area of pharmacy and one I embraced for many, many, many years. So was at the Marder Pharmacy for almost 15 years.

Speaker 2 (08:45.23)
Yeah, well, that is a long time. I've not stayed anywhere for 15 years. To me, that's a long time. And so from that transition to you now working at the PSA, what was that like for you? it something that you wanted to go and explore something different or was it maybe the fact that maybe you're having a family or something like that? What was that transition from pharmacy ownership?

to what you're doing now.

When I offloaded my pharmacy at the Marder Hospital, I had a bit of a break. In my career, I had some time off. I had young kids at the time and I was a little bit burnt out and I needed a break. And as I did have young children, I wasn't looking to take on such a huge responsibility as owning and running a pharmacy. I was looking for something challenging, but something where I could also prioritize my family at the time. Because when I was running a pharmacy with young children, it put a lot of stress on the family.

I could imagine, yeah, and I think that's something that, yeah, owning a pharmacy, owning any business can be quite demanding and, yeah, to do that with a young family, that would have been extremely hard, I could imagine. And so with that, yeah, what led you to kind of start looking into these sort of more policy roles or, yeah, joining the PSA more as an employee as opposed to just being a member?

Well, I'd been a PSA member for a long time and I just finished up a contract working at a short-term hospital role and I thought I'd have some more time off work. But at the same time, I thought I'd just keep my eye on job ads and see what opportunities were out there. I saw a role advertised at the PSA for the pharmacist advice line. Even though I thought, I'm not quite ready to go back to work yet, would like to have you to take the opportunity. It was actually during the summer school holidays.

Speaker 1 (10:41.24)
So it was really good timing that I could spend the holidays with my kids. And then I was planning on looking for a job after school went back. But I saw the job advertised. I thought that looks really interesting. It looks manageable with my family. And so I applied and I was offered and I took the role on the PSA pharmacist to pharmacist advice line. And I was the first pharmacist that took on that role to provide that service to PSA members.

Yeah, wow. I actually, I think that's actually where I first met you was like, think I called you so many times. Probably I'll go to Krysti again with more questions. But I didn't realize that you were the very first pharmacist ever do that. That would have been maybe a bit of daunting experience because yeah, you've got these members calling you and they expect you to have the answer and sometimes you might not have the answer straight away. So how was that? And then

Moving into like that time during COVID, I'm sure the advice line would have just gone crazy during that time as well.

It was so fun. actually started on the advice line just at the beginning of March in 2020. So just as COVID was going out of control, I guess. So it was crazy. So I think I started at the beginning of March, maybe the second week of March. I worked in the PSA office for a week or so. COVID cases were increasing. Everything was happening at the time. Pharmacists were looking to PSA for all the support they could possibly get.

You weren't the only one who called the advice line lots and lots of times. The advice line was running off the hook. Then we all moved to work from home. Not only had I started a new job with a new role, getting to know everyone in new systems, I then for the very first time in my life moved to entirely working from home one day. I don't think we went back to the office for 12 or 18 months.

Speaker 2 (12:32.974)
Wow, what a time that was, hey, like that's just so different. Or like you were looking at a slightly different role anyway, but put the city at your lifestyle, but then to, yeah, we'll also have to do that from home. That would have also been quite challenging as well.

It was challenging, but it was also really interesting and I learnt a lot. I was thrown in the deep end as probably I learnt a lot. was a really interesting part of my career and I am actually really proud of the advice line and where it's grown to today. It offers a really great service to PSA members.

Yeah, absolutely. And so from doing that role on the advice line, how did you transition into this role as a state manager? Was that something that you had to apply to? How did that career transition occur?

So on the advice line, you almost work with everyone across PSA because you're right, when people call the advice line, you don't have all the answers. No one person can have all the answers. So many experts within the organization, you learn who to go to to get the advice and the information you need for people. So I worked with almost everyone across PSA to get the answers for all the queries. But I really worked closely with all the state managers because particularly during COVID, all the states and territories were doing their own thing.

So I would often go to the state managers within PSA to help with queries, discuss information, discuss member queries. So when my predecessor in the New South Wales state manager role was leaving, they were looking for someone to work in an acting capacity for her. And I was at that point ready for a new challenge. So I agreed to step up and do her acting role. And then yes, I did have to apply for the job. It was advertised.

Speaker 1 (14:20.746)
applied and interviewed for it and was offered the role.

And the rest is history, I The rest is history.

Yes, that's still what I'm doing today. So I took on that role back at the end of 2022, I August, September 2022.

So you've been in that role for a few years now, but for those that maybe don't really understand, yeah, what does a estate manager of the PSA do? What does your day job look like?

So it's different every day is the answer to that question. So as a state manager, we've got a state manager at PSA in every state and territory. Although some of the smaller jurisdictions, one state manager will cover two states or territories. I cover New South Wales and we're involved in almost everything to some degree, sometimes a larger degree, sometimes a smaller degree to everything PSA does within our state or territory. So we're evolved a lot.

Speaker 1 (15:17.014)
I'm involved a lot in the policy and advocacy, so with government and health departments. I actually remember when I was first PSA state manager, found myself sitting in the office of the health minister at the time, Brad Hazard. We were there advocating for a 30-day or one-month supply of emergency medicines. I'm thinking, my goodness, how did I get here?

Yes, my goodness, that would have been, yeah, a bit daunting, but then at the same time, what an experience to have, like to really have such an impact on the future of pharmacy, but making it easy for us to do our jobs.

And I think that's what the state managers do at their state and territory level. We try and really advocate for our members and what pharmacists want and keep trying to advance the profession. And I guess that's one of the really rewarding parts of the role. But it's not just policy and advocacy as state managers we're involved in. We're also involved, we help support sometimes to a large degree, sometimes a small degree, the PSA projects team in all the projects they're delivering generally to advance the profession in our states and territories.

But we also, the state managers at PSA, we sit in the membership team because at PSA, we're a membership-based organization and everything we do really is around supporting our members. So we lead a lot of the member activities and events in our state and territory, and we do a lot of work to support PSA members.

So for those people that maybe aren't a PSA member, what would you want them to know about the PSA and I guess why should they be a member of the PSA?

Speaker 1 (16:57.582)
I would encourage everyone to become a member of the PSA. So the PSA is the peak body that represents pharmacists and we represent pharmacists working in all roles. So we represent community pharmacists, pharmacy owners and pharmacy employees, hospital pharmacists and pharmacists who work in other areas such as credentialed pharmacists, diabetes educators, academics and pharmacists like myself who work at professional organizations. We do a lot for the profession. So I think supporting the advocacy and the work.

We do is important, but aside from that, we also provide a lot of value through our education, our pharmacist to pharmacist advice line. PSA writes all the standards and guidelines of the profession. We hold conferences and events. We provide information to our members. I think as a pharmacist, the more you put into your career, the more you get out of it. And joining a professional organization like PSA just gives you that connection and support you need.

to help advance your career.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, yeah, sometimes we can forget when we're a pharmacist just in our day to day job, we're just worried about the problem or situation in front of us and maybe not thinking about the bigger picture because you've got what's in front of you. But for me, what's really important as a member is there are people working behind the scenes to actually make sure that

Yeah, our career is going to be a rewarding one and will continue to be a rewarding one into the future, which is really exciting. And I mean, we're now in our 11th year, I think, of pharmacists vaccinations, like starting from flu vaccines and now look where we are. And that's, I remember when I was on the branch committee for PSA, we were trying to just advocate to be able to vaccinate more than just influenza.

Speaker 2 (18:50.67)
Like you say that to students now, they're like, oh, what do you mean? Like we weren't allowed to do that. But yeah, that was only 10 years ago. yeah, when you talk about meeting with Brad Hazard, health ministers, that's very important work. And that's the only way we can advance our profession.

Yeah, that's right. And I should mention Ryan Park, the current health minister, too, is also very supportive of pharmacists. And you're right, vaccinations now business as usual for pharmacists. And now we're looking at what the future holds with pharmacists prescribing and looking at the Queensland pilot and trying to advocate to bring that to the people of New South Wales as well for services pharmacists can offer.

Absolutely. Is there any major initiatives that you're working on at the PSA that you're most passionate about or maybe something that you're working on currently that people might not be aware of?

Probably the thing I'm most proud and passionate about at the moment is the work we're doing to support pharmacists delivering the opioid treatment program in New South Wales. We've done this in partnership with New South Wales Health and their great team at the Centre of Alcohol and Other Drugs. And we've worked really closely with them to support pharmacists to deliver this service to their communities. So the PSA has done that through developing training.

I don't know if you've delivered the OTP program in a pharmacy you've worked at, but until recently, everyone was learning how to provide the OTP program just from the people they worked with, their boss or their colleague. So we've developed foundation training. So anyone who's moving to, well, even if you've been providing the service for a while, anyone who's looking to provide an OTP service can just do the foundation training just to know what the requirements and what standards are expected.

Speaker 2 (20:38.69)
That's actually a good point. I actually didn't realize that you have that foundation training that it's for anyone. So I probably should refresh my skills on that.

Yeah, look, I'd recommend anyone delivering OTP program to have a look at that training, even if you've been doing it for a long time, you you can count it towards your CPD and it really is, it's a valuable training that's available. We've done a raft of training actually for pharmacists delivering OTP. So training for administering the long acting injectable buprenorphine. We've done a range of webinars and most recently we've launched a module to reduce stigma and discrimination for pharmacists delivered care for people with alcohol and other drugs.

So if you are delivering these services, there's a lot of education we've developed to help support.

I really like the idea of that training on, yeah, like understanding the person behind who you're providing the services to. There is unfortunately still some stigma around even not just some pharmacists not wanting to provide the service, but even those that do, they still have assumptions as to why people are there and things like that. And so I think that would be.

Yeah, I would definitely recommend people to enrolling that I know I will be enrolling in that now that I know about that because that's something that's really important to me as well. I always like to make them just feel like they're just the same as any other customer coming into the pharmacy and it's no different to them just getting a flu shot or getting their depo injection or any other medication that people are picking up. So I'll definitely be looking at that.

Speaker 1 (22:13.518)
Absolutely, I think that's such an important point you've made. I should actually, one of the things PSA does really well is work with people with living and lived experience. And they've all contributed to this work as well, because you are right, we should be providing a safe, you know, the most supportive environment possible when delivering this service.

Yeah, absolutely. And so why, from your perspective, why do you think it's important that pharmacists play a role in public and community health, especially now you've worked across so many different roles in your career. And I guess now you're more in the advocacy side and supporting pharmacies and pharmacists to be able to do more in things. Yeah, why is it important to you?

I it's important to me because there's a need in the community. So I speak to a lot of pharmacists and quite often I'm being told that there's more they can do. They're hamstrung by their scope, what legally they can do. I mean, there's a lot of red tape for pharmacists and I am trying to reduce the red tape in everything that I do. So I think there's so much pharmacists can do to help their communities and I truly believe we're still currently being.

underutilized. We're trusted and we're accessible. And let's face it, for some people it is really difficult to to see a GP. Hospitals, you can have long wait times. And we're one of the few accessible health professionals who see people face to face. We're good at triaging patients. We've got great communication skills. And I really believe there's much more pharmacists can do to help their communities.

absolutely. And it's just giving us the legislative requirements of things to support us to be able to do that. And you're right, I've been doing a locum stint in Blackwater in North Queensland. So it's basically the middle of nowhere. And yeah, there's only one doctor in the whole town who also works at the hospital. And so that poor guy, I don't know when he gets a holiday.

Speaker 2 (24:18.638)
But it's everyone comes to the pharmacy and see, and it's so great that they're able to do that. But those things that we can now do for them, like giving the B12 injections or giving them, yeah, the OTP and things like that. I just thought, oh, thank goodness we can do all of these things now. Because even just when I first started working as a pharmacy assistant, when I was like 17, 18, we couldn't even do those things. Like the only thing we could do is do a blood pressure.

and you would feel so helpless.

That's the beauty of, say, the UTI trial we've had in New South Wales and across Australia. It's certainly demonstrated that having accessible access to care, I mean, you have a UTI, you need treatment, waiting two weeks for a GP is, so having pharmacists be able to deliver that care, it's brilliant for the community.

Absolutely. yeah, waiting that long to see GP, especially if you're a parent with a sick child, you can't wait two months. I'm sure you can definitely understand that having and raising your own three children.

Absolutely, and when your child's sick, you just want to take them to see someone more often. You really want reassurance that everything is okay, or to get them the help that they need, the medicine that they need, the care that they need.

Speaker 2 (25:37.394)
absolutely. And so, Amanda, I guess on the topic of your children and we've talked a lot about your professional journey, but you are so much more than just the person you are at work. I'd love to understand from your perspective how your personal life has influenced your professional journey and how maybe over the years of your career, how, yeah, meeting

your husband and then having your children. Yeah, has that impacted your professional journey? And I'm assuming it's a yes, but I'd love to hear you kind of talk through that a little bit for our listeners.

Yeah, well, absolutely. mean, getting married, having a family, it impacts everything you do in your life. I mean, having children particularly changes your life, obviously for the better. But I think it's everything you do impacts your professional journey. So I'd say like my family and my husband do, but so do lots of other things. I think it's everything combined that has impacted my professional journey. I'm very lucky to have a supportive family.

I'm very lucky that my husband's supportive. I can work as hard as I want and as many hours as I want, and I'm not made to feel, ever feel guilty. And I think having that support at home is really important, but I've also got support of my wider family as well. So I've got my mom and my mother-in-law and I've got three sisters and they say it takes a village and I have a village. So I think that's really helped me work and have.

have the career I want as well as prioritize my family. And I guess saying that I don't always get the balance right. I'm sure nobody does. And it's tricky. It's not easy a lot of the time, but I wouldn't have it any other way. And as I said, like during my career, I have taken some time off work. So I've had breaks from work, significant breaks. I think the longest I've taken was six months. Just I think.

Speaker 1 (27:41.154)
I've had some very busy periods throughout my career and I have needed some downtime. mean, everyone's career is full of ups and downs and I find having that downtime has been really useful. six months was about as long as I lasted not working. So then it was, I was itchy. I just needed to find something more challenging to do. And I love working as a pharmacist. So for me, guess I know it's for me in my life, I love having a job. Like I love having a purpose, something to do.

I love having my family as well. They're obviously my priority. But I know it's important for me to have my career and I'm lucky to be supported to do that.

that's so good. It does make a big difference. And yeah, you're right. The whole, it takes a village. And I think now I understand that. So when I was very early in my career, like when I was a kid, I was the one with the Barbies saying, I'm going to be a career woman. And where my sister was like, here's me being a mum with babies. And I just was like, career, career, career. And then I got really burnt out. And then

when you do get burnt out, was like the people that were around me were my family. And that's sort of when I realized like, I'm really not prioritizing the right things. But I think when you're in your early twenties, that's, yeah, there's lots of things going on. And so it's, it's easy to, yeah, to, guess, not have that focus, but especially now, you're having my own family. It's so important. And so whenever I

like working in a pharmacy or something like that. And maybe one of the staff might say, do you mind if I leave a little bit earlier so I can go pick up my child or I really want to go see them go do this thing at school. I'm like, yes, let's try and make it happen. Because yeah, you just don't get those moments back.

Speaker 1 (29:34.318)
I do agree being a mother does make you more flexible with other people in a similar situation in the workforce, absolutely. But like you said, you worked hard through your 20s, so did I. I worked really hard through my 20s and probably my 30s. And I don't regret it. It did help me step ahead because once you have kids, it does become much harder.

Yes, and I'm lucky I have a stepdaughter so I don't have to do it full time. yeah, I don't think I could handle that, but I guess you figure it out, don't you?

think you always figure it out. think that's the key. always figure it out. It's communication as well. It's letting work know what's happening. It's letting your family know what's happening. You just constantly try and find the balance as best as you can.

Yeah, that's it. So Amanda, we're coming towards the end of the podcast now, which is a bit sad because I'm having so much fun. But I would love to know what excites you the most about the future of pharmacy, especially that you're, guess, in the thick of it a bit because you're working for an organization that is advocating for the future of pharmacy. So what are the things are you most excited about?

think it's the opportunities available for pharmacists that excites me the most. It is a really exciting time to be a pharmacist. I speak often to students at universities and I look at them and think, gosh, you are really moving into a changing environment for pharmacists, both in community pharmacy, but also all the other roles that are coming on for pharmacists. So there's expanded scope of practice for community pharmacies. Expanded scope of practice could happen for all pharmacies, pharmacists really.

Speaker 1 (31:18.99)
But then there's also credentialed pharmacists, pharmacists who are being diabetes educators. There's also the program currently, the Aged Care On-Site Pharmacists. So there's so many opportunities available for pharmacists today. I think it's a great time to choose pharmacy for a career.

I completely agree with you. And I think when I was just graduating and did my internship, yeah, we couldn't do it a great deal in as pharmacists. And there also was a bit of negativity in the industry with like price disclosures and there was all these unknowns. And so I remember kind of feeling a bit like, my goodness, like what have I done?

This isn't anything like the pharmacy I was working at in this little country town. But now, yes, students, think, yeah, so lucky to be stepping in to this period in that industry, which is very exciting and so many career options. And there's probably going to be so many more career options that we don't even know what they are yet because people will be forging their own path. And I think that one of my favourite things about being a pharmacist is that you can kind of

think, well, I want to do this sort of role that matches this thing that I'm interested or because this suits my life now. So I think, yeah, we're very lucky to be in a profession where we have the ability to do that. So for those pharmacists that are maybe early in their career, maybe they're a student or maybe they've just been in their career for a long time and maybe they're a pain.

completely agree.

Speaker 2 (32:57.102)
thinking about doing something different but a bit scared because they've been doing the same things for 10, 15, 20 years. What advice would you give to those people that are listening?

As I reach out to PSA, if you're PSA member, call the advice line and have a chat. That's what we're there for. We often get that question. I've been working in the same pharmacy for 20 years or I've been doing this. What are the options? Just have a chat. For pharmacists, there are lots of options these days. Come to conferences is the other thing. Come to the face-to-face networking events and meet people. Recently, we had the PSA National Conference, PSA 25. You were there too, Krysti-Lee. You can't help it.

be excited about all the different opportunities for the profession. There are so many presentations from pharmacists doing so many wonderful things. So my advice is if you're looking for a change, get involved, connect. There's so many opportunities there if you go looking.

And I didn't realize it was actually another reason why we could call that pharmacist advice line. guess I've always thought of it as a, my gosh, I don't know about this legal legislation regulation query, but yeah, that's great to know that you can actually use that for advice about anything, I guess, pharmacy related.

anything pharmacy related. We get all sorts of questions.

Speaker 2 (34:15.436)
Yeah, brilliant. That's great. Really good to know. And I guess too, especially for those that are students or early in their career as well, they can access this as well because students get free membership to PSA.

right students get free membership and the advice line is available for all PSA members.

Yeah, brilliant. My last question for you, Amanda, is I think from our discussion, I've noticed that the way that you've approached your career is quite guided by values. We haven't really specifically talked about it, but I can definitely have seen that come through in our conversation, especially when you're talking about your family and also talking about the times in your life when maybe you needed to.

step back and have a little reset and then go and do something else. Is that something that I've gotten right? Is that something that you do bring to the table, especially when you're working with other pharmacists or people around you?

think it's probably something that's evolved during my career, Krysti. I think early on, like you, I was very ambitious. And as time has gone on and I have learnt from my mistakes along the way, yes, I definitely these days am far more guided my values. And I feel honoured to be in the role I am in today and represent pharmacists. It's not a role I take lightly. I want to make sure that I'm doing what I do to the best of my ability because I know it is a

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privilege to be in the, well, I believe it's a privilege to be in the position I'm in. But yes, I do like to feel like I am guided by my values, making decisions.

Yeah, I can definitely see that and it's so humbling to hear you say that you don't take this role lightly because yeah, I'm not here to put more pressure on you, but it is. Yeah, like you're representing us as members and that is something where you can have an impact, whether it be positive or not so positive, but I think, yeah, you're definitely having a positive impact throughout.

Yeah, our industry and profession. So thank you for being state manager Amanda.

Okay, and I should point out I am the state manager, but I have a wonderful team around me. So I've got my New South Wales branch committee and our elected officials and my PSA team. So I'm very much supported to do what I do as well.

Absolutely, like you said, it takes a village. It also takes a village to support the PSA members. I think, yeah, until you make, like you said, go to a conference and you see how many people are working behind the scenes, it's really quite eye opening. But then you realize, wow, like this is huge workforce behind everything that you don't really get to see. So.

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Yeah, I know sometimes it can be hard to get away to attend face-to-face events, but I think if you can do it at least once or twice, yeah, definitely recommend it. And it's also really good just to get that dip of positivity because everyone that's there is always really positive about the profession and talk to other like-minded people, which is nice. So Amanda, before we go, do you have anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?

No, probably the last message is if you're not a member of PSA, please visit our website. Have a look at all the benefits and please consider joining. You won't regret it. There's a lot we offer and there's a lot for you and to help with your career that we offer. That's probably my last message. If I can give the PSA a plug.

Absolutely, absolutely can give the PSA a plug because since they're doing so much for our profession, regardless of if you are a member or not, and I think that's probably the message I want to leave our listeners with is even if you're not a member of the PSA, it is still affecting you. And so all of the great things that you get to experience as a pharmacist is because of organizations like the PSA. And they can't do it without.

support from our members. So that's my final piece. Well thank you so much Amanda for joining us on the show. I hope you've enjoyed the experience and we'll speak soon.

Thank you very much for having me, Krysti Lee.

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Thanks for tuning in to Your Pharmacy Career Podcast, proudly sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. The PSA is committed to empowering pharmacists through advocacy, innovation and industry-leading professional development. To become a member or learn more about how the PSA can support your career, visit www.psa.org.au. Don't forget to subscribe, share this podcast with your colleagues and join us next time as we continue to explore your pharmacy career journey.