1 Min In Practice
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With 20 years of pharmacy experience and 15 years in the same store, Emma McLaren is a certified veteran of Newton Stewart’s local Boots pharmacy. She has progressed through various roles, started a family, completed more training and now has multiple leadership responsibilities in the pharmacy.
In it for the long run
“I love my job, I love Newton Stewart!” Emma says when asked about working in the same pharmacy for so many years. “I love being with the customers. As much as I am a pharmacy technician and dispenser, I just love making a difference for them.” Having worked in pharmacy for two decades now, Emma notes how pharmacy lends itself to long-term service, owing to its ever-changing quality and abundance of opportunities to progress and advance as an individual. “There are so many opportunities,” she says. “Every day is different.” When Emma first began at Boots in Newton Stewart, she was a qualified dispenser. She then began NVQ Level 3 training but went on maternity leave before she completed it. “Around the time I was on maternity leave and nearing the end of my technician course, the managers changed. When I came back, no one chased me to complete the course, and time passed by! I didn’t end up finishing it then.” It took a while, but once the dust had settled, Emma realised she wanted more and began thinking about re-doing the training. “It took me a long time to get myself to do it again,” Emma says. But, as she notes, pharmacy is moving forward, with new innovations changing previously traditional practices – making it even more important to stay up to date with training. “We don’t see the old-fashioned dispensing anymore,” explains Emma. “We use the Columbus system, and a DDD system. We are moving with the future.” With this in mind, Emma decided to re-start her technician course. “I am glad that I have now, because pharmacy is changing so much.”
“I would like to progress down that road. There’s so many opportunities coming up for technicians, and going forward with pharmacy.”
Approachable advice
On top of her work as a pharmacy technician, Emma shares the running of the pharmacy. She runs the retail side of the dispensary, planning promotions, managing stock, planning incentives for the team and guiding trainees through each day. “We have three trainees at the moment, and we are a team of six.” Along with the store manager, one full-time and one part-time dispenser, Emma’s pharmacy does around 1,500-1,600 items a week. “I try to show them as much of my experience and guidance as possible, in how to get more people to sign up or change to our pharmacy, to let them know about the text message service we offer and the benefits we have,” she adds. “Nicole [the store manager] and I take turns making sure everyone understands their roles and the aspects of it. I am approachable if anyone needs anything explained.” Being approachable not only comes in handy when helping trainees – it is also a trait which makes Emma so successful in delivering some of the pharmacy’s services.
Stepping up to services
“Last year, I decided to do my training to do flu vaccinations,” Emma said. “It was a bit daunting. I’d never run a clinic before by myself.” As Emma’s pharmacy does not have a base pharmacist, and locums are not able to administer vaccines under Boots policy, Emma stepped up to be able to offer the service to her community. “A pharmacist would screen them online, and then I would get only the safest of safe patients. They would produce a prescription, which we would dispense, and then I would administer the vaccine,” Emma recalled. “I absolutely loved it. It was just lovely being one-to-one with someone, and they wanted to be there to get the vaccine. You just got to be yourself with them for five, 10 minutes.” The flu clinic was very successful, with people from nearby towns travelling to receive their vaccine. “We didn’t promote it too much as it was my first year. Going forward, we would like to go further to promote it and it is something I would like to be involved in a lot more,” Emma explains. “It’s something totally different from dispensing or working in the shop.” Emma also looks after the smoking cessation service in the pharmacy. Previously, the service was carried out by their locum pharmacists, but as they did not have a PCR log in, they were unable to fill in the service in the system. Emma has since taken over the service. “I do the chase up phone calls every week, and it’s now running a lot more successfully and we are making money on it – which makes a difference.” Going forward, Emma wants to continue her learning journey and take on her ACPT qualification. “I would like to progress down that road. There’s so many opportunities coming up for technicians, and going forward with pharmacy, so I would like to keep developing.”
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