Pharmacy manager

Briefly explain what you do for a living.

I act as a pharmacy manager at Siuro branch pharmacy. According to law, each branch pharmacy must have a designated pharmacy manager who has a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) or Master of Science (Pharmacy) degree. The pharmacy manager is responsible for the operations of the branch pharmacy, such as maintaining an adequate supply of medicinal products and doing monthly reporting. The cooperation with the proprietary pharmacist is close. However, most of my work involves customer service and medication counselling, as I’m the only pharmacist in our branch pharmacy. 

How have you ended up in the profession of your choice?

At school, I liked studying biology and chemistry. I became interested in the pharmacy sector at the Studia Fair, which I visited in my graduation year.

Describe your typical working day or week.

In the morning, I turn on the computers, the pharmacy program and the cash register system. At the same time, I open many different websites, such as Terveysportti databases, the websites of various wholesalers and Kela, and different information channels. I check if the sheltered housing unit has filed any medicine orders. For the rest of the day, I mainly do customer service and medicine counselling.

Some days are busier than others, and I may need to interrupt my lunch break many times. On quieter days, I may, for example, organise archived documents, learn about new medicinal products, review treatment recommendations or check whether the stock is up to date.

What kind of work environment or working hours do you have?

My work environment is a pharmacy. My working hours are in keeping with the pharmacy’s opening hours, i.e., from Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Our branch pharmacy is closed on Fridays and at weekends.

What kind of competence or qualities are required in the profession?

Working as a pharmacy manager requires customer service skills, so having a social nature is an advantage. In customer encounters, you must be able to listen to the customer to understand their real needs and find the right remedy for the situation. When it’s busy, you should stay calm and take care of one thing at a time. In a branch pharmacy in particular, you need self-management skills, as you work alone or as part of a very small work community. Due to the responsible nature of the job, accuracy and punctuality are necessary.

What is the best thing about your profession?

The best thing about my work is that I can be of assistance to both customers and my employer. Successful customer encounters, where I have established a contact with the customer and feel that they trust me, make me feel good. It’s not always easy, because sometimes we talk about very sensitive and private matters. Every now and then, you encounter situations where you need to refer the customer to a doctor instead of visiting a pharmacy. In the best-case scenario, I hear afterwards that the customer received the help they needed.

What are the downsides of the profession or what seems challenging?

Situations in which I fail in establishing a contact with the customer are challenging. Sometimes, the customer may think that the matters discussed are not the pharmacist's business, as they only concern information shared between them and their physician. Sometimes I need to encounter customers’ grief. It may derive from a serious illness or loss of a loved one. I also hear of discontinued treatments if an illness has progressed despite it being treated. It also feels unpleasant to get negative feedback from customers.

What would you tell a person considering the profession of a pharmacy manager?

You should consider carefully whether you want to do customer service work, as most branch pharmacy managers work in small units where customer service constitutes a large part of the day's work. My career choice was based on the fact that I like chemistry and biology. However, what I need the most in working life are cooperation and interaction skills.

How do you see the future of your profession?

The pharmacy sector is currently undergoing a constant change. There are different wishes for the sector, such as longer opening hours and better access to medicines. In the future, this may mean also extending the provision of, for example, OTC products to grocery stores. This could have a significant impact on the pharmacy sector. That does not mean, however, that all work in the sector would come to an end.

I hope that, in the future, medication reviews would be carried out more frequently. The review means assessing the customer’s overall medication and its up-to-dateness, checking the compatibility of medicines and minimising the risks of adverse drug reactions. More extensive overall assessments of pharmacotherapies also involve study of laboratory results and closer cooperation with the treating physician.