The Awards are a celebration of the great work done by pharmacy support staff across the UK, and it is fair to say that Myra Battle had more reasons than most to celebrate

It is perhaps unsurprising that the individual named Pharmacy Technician of the Year 2015, winner of the TENA-sponsored Customer Care Award and highly commended in the Healthy Living Advisor category, supported by Kellogg’s All-Bran, was showered with compliments by the judges. Proprietary Association of Great Britain deputy chief executive Helen Darracott described Myra Battle, pharmacy technician from Boots’ Market Hill store in Sudbury, Suffolk, as “a well rounded individual who inspires confidence in her colleagues and her patients”, while former National Pharmacy Association chief executive Mike Holden pronounced her as “exuding passion and quality”.

Levels of praise from customers are equally high. Myra submitted a significant number of customer comments in support of her Awards entries – something that impressed Numark director of pharmacy services Mimi Lau and Avicenna chief executive Salim Jetha, both of whom were also involved in the judging of the Awards. The customer comments included: “She was so wonderful she made me cry tears of happiness… She really has changed my life.”

So what is it that Myra does that lifts her out of the ordinary? Upon talking to her, it is her enthusiasm and drive to help those who visit her pharmacy that really shines through. Her CV makes fascinating reading – she has spent time working in a GP practice after completing an apprenticeship with Boots that included management as well as dispensing assistant training – and her commitment to training is second to none, having completed a huge range of courses on her own time.

The Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) concept is one that is close to Myra’s heart. It is an excellent fit with her role as a smoking cessation advisor for groups such as pregnant women and those with mental health issues. Her enthusiasm for helping people change their lives for the better in many ways is tangible. Customers also testify as to her effectiveness in this role, making comments such as “you have helped me to achieve what we all thought was unachievable” and “I’m actually excited to start my quit and I walked out of your clinic floating on positivity”.

Spreading the word

Myra is hoping to spread her zeal for HLP when she embarks on a secondment to help other pharmacies in Suffolk embed the approach into their everyday practice. This is no easy undertaking, with Myra and one other person each employed for 10 hours a week for just six months to support over 430 pharmacies. Myra says it is hugely important that this work bears fruit quickly, not only because she hopes that it will mean funding becomes available to extend her secondment, but also as a way of raising the profile of pharmacy to catch the eye of those involved in commissioning services.

The rest of her working week will see Myra back in her Boots pharmacy, gaining experience in the dispensary to supplement the accuracy checking technician qualification she recently attained. However, while she is happy to continue supporting her colleagues, both at her pharmacy and across the county, she hopes to get back into a customerfacing role in the near future, saying:

“Recent innovations such as the Boots dispensing support programme, which involves prescriptions being dispensed off-site and then delivered to Boots branches for us to hand out to patients, and electronic prescription support, means there is so much more that we can do. And that is pharmacy technicians and other pharmacy support staff as well as pharmacists!”

Myra is a well rounded individual who inspires confidence in her colleagues and her patients