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“Donna is the most unique dispenser I have met in my 49 years of being a community pharmacist,” wrote Shenu Barclay, pharmacist, friend and colleague of Donna’s. “She helps out each and every customer with their medical queries, sources items promptly for patients and prepares MDS trays for clients with adherence problems. She is one in a million!”. After speaking with Donna, it was plain to see the impact she has had on her community over the last three decades.
One in a million
“I started working in the pharmacy in 1985. When I had my first daughter, I worked in the store up until pretty much the day before I gave birth,” remembers Donna, exemplifying her commitment to her pharmacy from the beginning. After her second daughter was born, Donna was able to go back to working full-time, and throughout the years she progressed through various courses, training and positions. “They put me on the dispensing course after I had my second daughter. I did my training at the same time as a friend, and she used to come over in the evenings and we would learn together. Back then there was so much writing we had to do, which we then had to send off. It is very different to how it works nowadays.”
Flash forward a few years and Donna’s eldest daughter is now her colleague. “My girls always used to come to the pharmacy in the afternoons, so everyone knew them and, of course, they knew the pharmacy very well,” she says. “About 20 years ago, my eldest began working as a Saturday girl, and when she left school, she joined full time! So, I have been working with her for many years now, and it is lovely. My cousin and sister-in-law also work in the pharmacy – so it is a family affair.”
“I have always tried to make life easier for the patients and for their families”
Crucial connections
Donna has also completed smoking cessation training, her accuracy checking technician course and oxygen delivery training. “I enjoyed doing the oxygen,” she says. “I liked that part of the job, because I saw customers in a different setting, their homes and whatnot, not just in the pharmacy.” Delivering oxygen also allowed Donna to interact with her customers in an informal setting, which she says helped to form some special connections. There was one woman in particular Donna remembers and who she got to know well over the years.
“I used to do the oxygen deliveries for a lady down the road. When her husband passed away, I made an effort to check up on her regularly, not just to deliver oxygen,” says Donna. “When you spend so much time with customers, you get to know them.”
Another time, Donna was delivering a blister pack to an elderly patient in her 90s. “I will never forget, I went there and she was in a state and I could tell she was struggling. She asked me if I could please help her to cut her toenails. It was clear that she didn’t have much family around, and so of course I helped her.”
Part of the community
By seeing the person behind the prescription, Donna has been able to make human connections with her customers that go beyond the job description of a dispenser. She has also been known to bring soups and cakes in to work, and creates home-made cards for various occasions – the proceeds for which she donates to charity. “I have contributed to the pharmacy through many different things, I feel,” says Donna. “I put systems in place that work and I think I have always just sorted people out. I would move things around to make sure people get their medication, and I have always tried to make life easier for the patients and for their families.”
After over three decades of service to her pharmacy, Donna has made the decision to retire and has received many adoring messages from the community in response. “People have left comments for me saying thank you, you will be missed, and so on,” she says. “I have always just done my job because I like doing it. But I will still be involved and come by the pharmacy. My daughter still works here and it is like a part of me.”
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