Nicola Swan, winner of the Rising Star category, was named “one to watch for the future” by the judges at this year’s Awards

Nicola Swan’s career in pharmacy started when she was studying for her A-Levels. Although she went to university and gained the music degree she had been striving for, something pulled her back to the world of healthcare and she started working in a supermarket pharmacy.

After qualifying as a dispensing assistant and garnering praise and encouragement from colleagues and customers alike, Nicola moved to Southmead Hospital in Bristol to work as a trainee pharmacy technician. Rotating through all the departments in one of the largest hospital pharmacies in the UK – aseptic dispensing, pharmacy stores, manufacturing, medicines information, procurement, distribution, invoicing, homecare, medicines management and dispensary – she has yet to find an area she doesn’t enjoy working in.

Nicola has undeniably made an impression on her colleagues, gaining a reputation as someone who is always willing to help and “indispensable in the dispensary”. This standing means she is often asked to lead training for new and temporary members of staff within the department and show round prospective candidates for the next student intake.

The personal touch

Her patient-facing skills are no less remarkable, and Nicola frequently finds herself scheduled to man the reception desk at the hospital pharmacy – a job that many groan at the thought of. However, Nicola is more than capable of treading the fine line between being empathetic and a listening ear to those feeling vulnerable and providing sensible advice or referral to those in need, while at the same time maintaining confidentiality.

She takes a genuine interest in her patients, remembering personal details as well as relevant information about their conditions and medication, saying: “I am very aware that I may be their only human contact during the day.” Hospital and community pharmacy are sometimes considered completely different disciplines, existing in parallel but never overlapping.

Nicola bucks that notion, drawing on her experience in community to chat easily to patients while using her pharmacy knowledge and skills to help make a difference. A prime example is that of a woman who presented an invalid prescription at the hospital pharmacy. Where many others would have sent the patient back to the doctor to get it corrected, or contacted the prescriber to ask for the prescription to be corrected when the clinic was over, Nicola realised the woman was in a hurry and had mobility problems, so took it upon herself to do all the legwork to achieve a swift resolution to the problem.

Awards judge and National Pharmacy Association (NPA) head of pharmacy services Leyla Hannbeck was particularly impressed at Nicola’s ability to use her professional judgement in such ways, while fellow Awards judge Deborah Evans of Tipping Point consultancy praised her for her “great intuition, passion and commitment”.

That commitment extends beyond the outcomes Nicola wants to deliver to her patients. As well as working at Southmead Hospital and studying for her pharmacy technician qualification, she is undertaking a chemistry A-Level with the ultimate aim of applying to study pharmacy at university. Many would baulk at this level of exertion, but Nicola makes it sounds as though pharmacy, for her, is a vocation.

“I’m quite focused and just keep going,” she says, adding that spending the day at the Awards has strengthened her resolve as she found it “a real celebration”. Former NPA chief executive Mike Holden described Nicola as “shooting for the stars with ambition” and, when asked to sum her up in just one word, simply said: “Outstanding.”

I am very aware that I may be their only human contact during the day