Name: Ellen South

University: UTS

Winner NSBPC 2018

My interest in allergies and allergic rhinitis, combined with my experience in the NSCPC, has seen me now working as a community pharmacist in Canberra.

This is really appropriate as the city has the highest prevalence of allergic rhinitis in the country and at Capital Chemist Wanniassa where I work we have a huge number of patients enquiring about allergic rhinitis treatment.

Allergies and allergic rhinitis are very interesting areas. In Australia, approximately 25 per cent of the population suffers from these conditions. On top of that, about four out of five people do not choose the ideal medicine for treating allergic rhinitis, so there is a lot for pharmacists to do in this field.

Patients living with allergies can suffer debilitating and constant symptoms such as runny and sore noses, headaches, fatigue, and itchy and red eyes. These can impact heavily on their quality of life.

So at Wanniassa we see a lot of these patients. I have been a #wanniwhitecoat since the end of 2018 when I started my internship position.

My workplace has revealed the power of community pharmacy and I am lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing pharmacists who have a huge passion for the profession.

Every day, I help patients as soon as they walk in the door with health advice and I am involved in performing a multitude of professional services.

No two days are ever the same and I do everything from medication counselling to organising the provision of Webster packs.

What also attracted me to community pharmacy was the ability to build connections with the community and I think that community pharmacists improve the health of the patients on a day-to-day basis.

At Wanniassa I work with some inspirational pharmacists who have taught me, and continue to teach me so much.

As soon as I became a registered pharmacist I began working full-time through the bushfire crisis, and COVID-19. With all that was thrown at us at the frontline, I have maintained positivity and a patient-based approach to helping improve the health of Wanniassa and wider Canberra.

Our NSBPC entry was the provision of pharmacy services to focus on and improve allergic rhinitis symptoms.

I particularly enjoyed how multifaceted the competition was – with clinical pharmacy skills, business projections and public speaking all put together to provide experience that added to my pharmacy experience immensely, before I even left university. A highlight for me was the ability to attend and network at the Pharmacy Connect Conference, which led to gaining my intern position after being interviewed by Capital Chemist Wanniassa.

The NSBPC gave me the opportunity to gain an insight into the business aspect of pharmacy. As a community pharmacist, this is a vital part of pharmacy management and I did not learn a huge amount of business knowledge during my university degree.

The NSBPC is a unique and extremely valuable opportunity for university students and absolutely is worth the effort. The networking opportunities, experience and skills that I gained has made me a more experienced pharmacist. They have inspired me to one day put my ideas into a new pharmacy service, and students cannot miss the opportunity. I would enter the competition again if I could.

Name: Lauren Haworth

University: UTAS

Winner NSBPC 2015

I am a great big pharmacy nerd. Truly. Eat - Breathe - Drugs - Sleep - Repeat.

At the end of my degree, I moved from Tasmania to pursue opportunities over the ditch in Victoria.

I completed my internship in regional Gippsland with the Advantage Pharmacy Group before becoming a full-time permanent group locum for them.

This gave me the opportunity to experience a variety of types of pharmacies - discount, sole-pharmacist, short-term Pharmacist in Charge in pharmacies ranging from 20 to 1000 scripts a day.

It also gave me experience in regional and rural, as well as metropolitan pharmacies.

As a newly registered pharmacist, this was a great position to get a lot of experience very quickly.

A position then came up working for one of my pharmacy idols, Taren Gill – there was no way I was passing up the chance to learn from and work for her at Priceline Pharmacy Maryborough.

I was there for 18 months before I took up the new exciting role of Pharmacist in Charge at a new greenfield pharmacy, literally on the edge of a paddock, in a new development area of Bacchus Marsh (halfway between Melbourne and Ballarat) – Terry White Chemmart Maddingley.

Opening a brand-new pharmacy, when there are no other shops or infrastructure (other than the attached medical centre) a couple of months before the pandemic hit has certainly been a challenge.

We are a very hands-on pharmacy team full of locals and our community engagement so far has been incredibly humbling, particularly in the social media realm of local community Facebook groups.

My goal of being an owner by the age of 30 is very much within reach. The role I took up is a ‘transitioning junior partner’ role so all things going well I will get the opportunity to join the business mid next year.

I am incredibly grateful to work within a supportive pharmacy group, Millwell Pharmacy Group and Terry White Chemmart where my dreams are likely to become a reality – however, it hasn’t been without a lot of hard work.

The NSBPC gave me an interest in the business side of things and a very basic understanding of how to make the books balance.

At the time there was no other part of the BPharm that focused on what is a significant part of the career path that many of us take so the NSBPC filled a gap in knowledge.

I would happily advocate for further inclusion in the curriculum. Taking part in the NSBPC gave me a really important understanding of the bigger picture of running a business e.g. wage percentage, impact of stock on hand, stock turn and so on – this has been useful right from my registration as obviously a big part of what community pharmacists do, like it or not, is rooted in retail.

Why would you say no to an opportunity to learn and make your university love you all in one? I would highly recommend participating when you get the chance. You never know where you will end up in your career as there is so many pathways and opportunities out there – take any chance to be as prepared for any outcome as you can.

Name: Jess Cahill

University: UC

Winner NSBPC 2014

I didn’t know what I wanted to be or do when I finished my pharmacy degree, which is why I basically tried everything and learnt a lot along the way.

Now that I am a pharmacy owner, I get to be multiple things at once - a leader, a teammate, a clinician, a marketer, an accountant and an innovator.

I love the diversity this role brings and I love the connection that I have with my community.  I am very fortunate to have such lovely customers and a great supportive team.

As I said I got into pharmacy ownership in a roundabout way.

After the National Student Business Plan Competition, I recognised the value of the power of negotiation and this led me to securing an internship that involved 50 per cent in a community pharmacy in Coffs Harbour and 50 per cent at a hospital in Alice Springs. This internship did not previously exist, so I had to negotiate with both employers to make it a reality.

After qualifying as a pharmacist I continued to work in both community and hospital pharmacy, enjoying the challenges that both environments provided.

I really enjoyed working in Alice Springs. It is a beautiful place and I had the opportunity to work with Indigenous patients for the first time and learn more about their incredible culture. I even took some language lessons in Pitjantjatjara.

Keen to expand my skill set, I jumped across to industry, working with Sigma Healthcare as a Professional Services Pharmacist After working with Sigma for a year, I felt that I needed to further diversify my skill set.

I met my next boss through a networking event and he agreed to hire me in a finance position and teach me about that side of the industry. Having participated in the SBPC I knew that this was a key element to the industry and one that I was not yet versed in. I completed my Diploma in Finance and attained my credit licence.

Despite enjoying this role and all of the financial knowledge it brought, my heart was still in pharmacy so when a project management role presented itself at Sigma, I jumped at the opportunity.

I didn’t realise it at the time but throughout these roles I was subconsciously preparing myself for pharmacy ownership. By the time I started looking for my first pharmacy, I already knew what I had to do to find the right pharmacy, the right partners and how to execute the process.

I am excited to say that I purchased my first pharmacy, City Pharmacy Newcastle, in October last year with my business partner Manish Bagga, a local pharmacist who owns a nearby pharmacy.

I am where I am now thanks in some ways to my involvement in the competition because I learnt so much from it.

Ultimately it helped to shape the career decisions that I made and led me to my current role as a pharmacy owner.

It taught me who the key players were and how to navigate the industry.

I learnt new skills in negotiation, communication, mentorship and innovation.

Looking back, it was a competition of true endurance but that mimics the real world and what it is like to work in the industry or own a business. Its not about quick wins, it’s about endurance and persistence.

Name: Connie Arronis

University: University of Sydney

Finalist NSBPC 2013

I selected a career in pharmacy as I have always been interested in both the health/medicine and business/finance domains.

So not surprisingly I’ve found community pharmacy to be the perfect environment to satisfy both of these passions.

I am the Pharmacist Manager at Illawong Discount Drug Store in Sydney and I’ve worked in this role for over three years.

I feel very grateful and proud to lead a wonderful team that constantly strives to provide holistic health solutions to our patients.

Our store is situated in a small shopping village, so we have a very unique and intimate community feeling in our store.

Our team works hard in the field of professional services. We’ve been awarded the National Winner for Professional Services in the Discount Drug Stores franchise over two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. I was also very humbled to be recognised as one of the Top Ten Pharmacists in Discount Drug Stores in 2019.

I’m also an accredited pharmacist and thoroughly enjoy performing Home Medicines Reviews with eligible patients where possible. I also find in-store pharmacist vaccinations a rewarding aspect of my role.

In 2013, I was part of the four-member team from the University of Sydney that placed third in the NSBPC. I found my involvement in the NSBPC to be a very positive, educational and rewarding experience.

Our business concept focussed on the issue of childhood obesity. It involved the implementation of an interactive and innovative health program named ‘Kids Active Plus’ in schools, with the aim to prevent childhood obesity and empower children with knowledge of a balanced diet, health education and an active lifestyle.

My experience in the NSBPC was very worthwhile and valuable during that stage of my pharmacy career.

It reaffirmed my interest in the community pharmacy retail environment and enhanced my knowledge of concepts that weren’t covered to the same extent with university subjects at the time.

This includes SWOT and demographic analyses, risk assessments and financial forecasts, as well as profit-and-loss projections and coordination with various third parties that would need to be involved in order to bring the business plan to fruition and turn it into a reality.

I also made beneficial contacts with university colleagues, pharmacist owners and accountants who served as mentors to our team and assisted us in the development of the business plan project.

The finals at the Pharmacy Connect Conference in Canberra also provided useful networking opportunities with various members of the Pharmacy Guild and passionate community pharmacy owners in attendance.

I would definitely recommend final year pharmacy students to participate in the NSBPC. It is an excellent and valuable opportunity to learn about business plan development, pharmacy management and team building.

The networking opportunities available with university colleagues and the wider Pharmacy Guild community can also prove beneficial when applying for intern year positions, or be retained as contacts throughout one’s career in pharmacy.

Connie was recently announced as the 2020 National Pharmacist of the year by Discount Drug Stores.

Name: Wally Maguire

University: QUT

Winner NSBPC 2011

Our success with the NSBPC saw me being offered an intern scholarship at LiveLife Pharmacies in the Whitsundays where I spent the next five years as a pharmacist manager in one of the most amazing and picturesque places in the world.

Accepting an internship in such a great location wasn’t a hard decision to make.

During this time I completed my diploma in management to grow my business sense.

Following this I was fortunate enough to be offered ownership and management with LiveLife in Bowen where over the past few years we have been creating the perfect customer experience, embracing technology, offering the best health services that we can offer, and being an employer of choice.

Our efforts to achieve these things did not go unrecognised, as we were a finalist in the 2020 Guild Pharmacy of the Year competition.

Where I am now is combining my passions for community pharmacy and business management.

Having the opportunity to live and work in the Whitsunday’s was too hard to pass up and the professional service model that LiveLife has strived towards have all been contributing factors to the pharmacist that I am today.

I don’t believe I would be where I am today if not for the NSBPC.

Networking with pharmacists at the event and getting my name out there definitely helped in securing the LiveLife scholarship in Airlie Beach that started me on the career path to where I am now.

I would definitely recommend students participate as it can open up a variety of opportunities down the track.

Good impressions go a long way in the pharmacy sector and people are always very interested in the ideas that the younger generation of pharmacists come up with.

It’s not always what you know, but who you can network with to gain that advantage over other prospective employees.

Our winning business plan entry was for Foundation Pharmacy and we created an app/website (apps were only just becoming a big thing) for medicines information (CMIs, Lifestyle factors, General counselling) and a mobile wound care service.

It was the most surreal experience going through the stages, reaching the finals and pitching our business ideas in front of a crowd in Cairns. Something I definitely will never forget.