Pharmacy - Career or Cause?

If I ask you, "Why are you a Pharmacist?"

What would your answer be?

The answer will probably depend on the pharmacy area you practice in, but for 80% of pharmacists, I am guessing I might get answers like:

• "It pays my bills"

• "It is a secure job, there is always a need for pharmacists."

• "Well, I've completed the degree - I have no choice but to follow the course."

• "I opted for a career in pharmacy as I was hesitant about pursuing any profession like medicine or dentistry, which are more invasive."

• "My parents thought it was a reasonable career with reasonable pay, so I just did what they told me to."

Do you notice a trend with these answers?

NONE of them show any passion or purpose.

Beneath those answers lie dissatisfaction, resentment, and disillusionment.

If anything, they're a cry for help!

They're a cry from professionals who don't know why on earth they've landed where they are now.

What's more sobering is that those opinions are backed up by evidence, both anecdotally from my 1-1 conversations with colleagues from whom I've heard these answers and also from international research.

A cross-sectional study conducted in the New Zealand pharmacy sector emphasizes what these sentiments ultimately lead to. The study received 327 analyzable surveys, of which 40.4% were from those who had already left the New Zealand pharmacy sector at the time of the data collection, and the rest were from those working within the sector but seriously considering leaving the profession. The most common reasons for leaving or wanting to leave were dissatisfaction with the professional environment, including inadequate remuneration, and a perceived lack of career pathways or promotion opportunities.

On the other hand, limited research shows that pharmacists who are satisfied in the profession see pharmacy as a dynamic profession, with alternative career pathways they can pursue beyond hospital and retail.

They're the ones who followed their passion and purpose and crafted a pharmacy career that aligns with their vision of how they want to serve their patients.

They're pharmacists who see pharmacy beyond just being a source of income or a path they're forced to pursue or feel handcuffed to.

Rather than looking at pharmacy as a 'career'. They look at it as a way to serve the world and contribute to something bigger than themselves.

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This article is about the WHY of being a pharmacist and the CAUSE you live to advance as a pharmacist.

By the end of this article, I hope that you will be able to find your WHY in pharmacy, because if you can't...

Well, that's a miserable life!

I don't want to paint a horrid picture, but nothing feels worse than waking up to go to a job you hate.

And if that's you, I urge you to stop and reflect. Stop tormenting yourself.

You have a dream and a purpose waiting just for you. And I say this so confidently because that's what my journey was like.

I didn't find fulfillment in my pharmacy career until I became intentional about finding it.

So, here we go!

What's your WHY?

Your Why comes from your Origin Story, in other words, how you've come to be at this point in your life, or more specifically, in your career.

What led you to get here and still be here?

It is the sum total of your values and beliefs that led you to make the decision to be a pharmacist and continue to be one.

"Think of your Why like the foundation of a house, it is the starting point. It gives whatever we build upon its strength and permanence." - Simon Sinek

For example, my Why is:

'After navigating a tumultuous time as a patient, who luckily also happens to be a pharmacist, I have come to appreciate the immense value pharmacists contribute to patient care. My experience didn't only serve as an awakening for me that pharmacy is my calling; it also inspired me to inspire other pharmacists so that together we can uplift the pharmacy profession."

Your Why is your grounding point.

You may not have necessarily pursued a pharmacy career because you wanted to, but that doesn't mean you can't find your purpose in it.

So, find THAT REASON why you keep turning up to work every day.

Is it your patients?

Is it the way you practice pharmacy?

Is it the life-saving interventions that you make every day?

Find your WHY.

Because that is the foundation on which you can build a fulfilling career.

What about your CAUSE?

'A Why comes from the past. It is an origin story. A Just Cause is about the future. It defines where we are going. It describes the world we hope to live in and will commit to helping build. Unlike a Why, of which there can only be one, we can work to advance more than Just Cause. Our Just Cause is the ideal vision of the house we hope to build. We can work a lifetime to build it and still, we will not be finished.' - Simon Sinek

For example:

'My experience as a patient formed my grounding story or my WHY.

But my Just Cause is to build a world in which pharmacists feel inspired to fulfill their highest truest expression of themselves so that they can improve the lives of their patients.'

That's my vision for the pharmacy profession.

That's what I am building and talking about every day, and those who follow me will attest to this.

I only have One Why, but I am working in many directions to advance my Just Cause of inspiring pharmacists to fulfill my vision for the profession.

“It is the Just Cause that we are working to advance that gives our work and our lives meaning. A Just Cause inspires us to stay focused beyond the finite rewards and individual wins.”- Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game

When you look at pharmacy as a career that you are forced to pursue:

• You don't serve your patients

• You don't do yourself any favours

• You feel disillusioned and dejected

• You can never find fulfillment regardless of what direction you take

• You get stressed and burned out easily (if you're not already!)

• You feel depressed (resulting from a life without meaning!)

And that's not a life I would wish upon anyone (speaking from experience!)

As Oprah Winfrey says, every human being wants to fulfill the highest, truest expression of themselves. And you won't fulfill the best expression of yourself if you live a purposeless life where you don't see that you are contributing to something bigger than yourself, where you're not tapping into the Just Cause of why you're doing what you're doing.

There really has never been a better time to be a pharmacist...

When you look at pharmacy beyond just a career, you will find purpose and have the power to be the master of your own fate.

P.S.S.

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