Putting community first

What started as a temporary job over Christmas in 2011, has now turned into a 13 year-long career in community pharmacy for Nosheen Akhtar, trainee pharmacy technician at Boots UK, Smethwick Windmill Retail Park. Nosheen constantly seeks to help those in her area by drawing them into the pharmacy for health checks, advice and services, upholding the ‘community’ element in community pharmacy.

From temp to technician

“I literally had no interest in pharmacy,” says Nosheen. “I did my A Levels, but I didn’t really want to go to uni. And, after becoming permanent, my manager suggested I become a healthcare advisor.” Nosheen was unsure, but her manager saw something in her that would make her an excellent member of the pharmacy team. “You’re a people person,” Nosheen’s manager told her. “You’d be really good because you make people feel comfortable – they can talk about whatever they want.” That was just about enough to encourage Nosheen to take the next step and complete her healthcare advisor training. “I thought, maybe. And then I did it, I tried it and I loved it,” Nosheen remembers.

She then became a dispenser, and after a few years, her manager put her forward for pharmacy technician training. “There’s no harm in getting a bit more knowledge, but you know, when you’ve been out of education for so long, getting used to doing assignments again is hard!” With about three months left of her pharmacy technician training, Nosheen says once she is “in the zone” with her assignments, she flies through them – especially enjoying one where she had to cover a public health campaign, which she did on blood pressure.

Boosting the blood pressure service

“I love getting blood pressure checks in and hitting the targets,” Nosheen says. “Literally, I’m outside the pharmacy to get people in to do blood pressure checks!” Choosing to research blood pressure as her health campaign in her pharmacy technician training allowed Nosheen to learn about the condition in-depth. Now, apart from hitting blood pressure targets, she is desperate to make people aware of the importance of blood pressure checks. “A lot of our customers are unaware that blood pressure often presents no symptoms and is a silent killer,” she says. “We do advertise with posters but for some customers, English is not their first language, so it’s easier for someone to explain it to them. Others choose to ignore it. So, when you stand outside and explain to people its importance, and that it is free – that’s how I get my blood pressure checks.”

Nosheen is particularly concerned about encouraging black and Asian people in her community to get their blood pressure checked, and she won’t take no for an answer. When asked how she remains so motivated, she replied: “Identifying high blood pressure in people who didn’t think they had it, that’s the reward. And helping people. I love helping people.”

Nosheen’s persistence paid off after a security guard came into the pharmacy to have a general chat. “I noticed his eyes were bloodshot and he said he had had that for a while, but that it wasn’t to do with allergies or medicine,” she says. “I know that bloodshot eyes can be a not-so-common result of high blood pressure, so I asked if we could do a reading.” His readings were quite high, so he was referred to the GP and prescribed medicine. “He came into the pharmacy a few days later and was very grateful to me. He said he would never have known that his blood pressure was high as he’d not had any symptoms and thought he was fit and healthy.”