Despite a tough start at her current pharmacy with only relief dispensers available to help, Shahean Khatun held her own and steered her pharmacy to success. As she says, the word “impossible” is not in her vocabulary

Shahean Khatun became non-pharmacist branch manager of Well Pharmacy in Epping, Essex, last August. It wasn’t an easy time to step up to the role, with the busy medical centre pharmacy running on relief dispensers and locum pharmacists following the departure of several key members of staff.

In her own words, Shahean felt as though “the ship was on fire and there were no lifeboats”. But her “can-do” attitude meant that within a few months, permanent staff had been found and the pharmacy was running smoothly – not that the customers noticed any difference, as the high standards they had come to expect had been maintained throughout the tricky transition. This was a major contributing factor to Shahean being crowned winner of the Team Leader Award.

As well as recruiting and training new dispensary staff, Shahean has worked hard to build relationships with customers, doctors in the adjoining medical practice, and the pharmacist she works with. As a pharmacy technician, much of her time is spent on the patients who have come in for prescriptions, but she makes sure she gets out onto the shop floor as well. Not only does she value keeping her hand in on the OTC side of the business, but she also regards it a key component of her leadership style, which is to lead by example. “I wouldn’t give someone a task I wouldn’t want to complete myself,” she explains.

Shahean’s pharmacy journey started nearly a decade ago when she started working as a Saturday girl. She soon proved to be a valuable employee, making short work of her dispensing assistant qualification and being promoted to supervisor within a year. Shahean has also spent time in hospital pharmacy, where she specialised in mental health. However, community was where her heart lay, so she ended up at Well in her current role.

Shahean has nothing but praise for the company she works for, saying: “I’ve had amazing support… they are brilliant at identifying individuals who would be really good in certain roles and working with them to improve and build their skills.”

Now that things are more settled at her pharmacy, Shahean is keen to build on her health champion training. Working in a health centre pharmacy means that this needs a little more thought than is the case for, say, a high street pharmacy, but Shahean likes the challenges and opportunities this poses. “We can get input from the doctors, which means we can provide more clinical services,” she says. “My pharmacist is also doing his independent prescribing qualification, so that will open up new areas.”

Charity work is another area Shahean would like to investigate. As a keen baker, running a recent coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Support was a no-brainer, but she has in the past climbed Snowdon to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and a local charity. This shows Shahean’s sharp antenna for the next thing that could help her branch, but she has more personal ambitions too. “I’d love to be a cluster manager and be able to manage expectations across a range of branches and pass on the knowledge I’ve learned,” she says.

The Awards judges were impressed with Shahean’s entry in the Team Leader category, sponsored by Klear-vol, with Avicenna chief executive Salim Jetha heralding her win with the words: “Game, set and match!”