Surpassing expectations

In Practice

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Edie Dunkley has gone from someone who, in her words, “never [looked] carefully at a prescription in [her] life” to becoming the pharmacy manager of her Boots, Barnstaple High Street store. 

In quick succession

Edie quickly moved up ladder in the pharmacy as she progressed through in-store training. After a few months, Edie was asked if she wanted to take up a role within the pharmacy’s care homes team. “This was all a big change, but I fell in love with it. My care homes team became my best friends,” she says.

“After joining the care homes team in May that year, I was asked to become manager of the team in November. I jumped at it, because I love the job, and I really do love all the patients and friends I’ve made.”

Oliver Hamley, pharmacist and Edie’s colleague, says that through Edie’s doing “relationships with care homes were improved, and [she] attended several homes to assist with medicine ordering”. 

Edie remarks that she will often deliver medication to care homes by hand, provided the pharmacist is happy with it, they are not controlled drugs, and it is not too far of a walk. “I’m happy to assist if they need it and really, often they don’t have anyone else,” Edie says.

No doubt in recognition of her hard work and people skills, Edie was asked to become pharmacy manager for all three departments in her store, just 18 months after joining the pharmacy. 

Surpassing targets

“I think I got support from the team in this new role, because I’m dedicated to making everyone I work with happy. If you’re happy in your work environment, you want to do better,” Edie says.

Her leadership style is a mix of compassion, encouraging a competitive spirit, and instilling the belief that all customers should leave the pharmacy having gained something.

Recently, due to a host of medicine shortages and other local pharmacies temporarily closing due to staffing problems, Edie’s team have been exceptionally busy dealing with their usual customers as well as overflow from these pharmacies. 

This has meant more late nights and early starts, and a push to complete a record number of items in a week. “When we saw how close we were to hitting 6,000, we all decided we were going to go for it. When we did it, we were so happy! We did 6,096 in the end, I think,” she says.

“Now that we know we can do it, we would like to achieve that a bit more often. We are doing so well, we’ve got such a brilliant team and we all know what we need to do.” 

While the team were “jumping for joy” by the end of the week, it was not always easy. “Customers came into our store in a panic when they realised their store was closed for the week, or didn’t have their medicine, and people can be frustrated, sad – a range of emotions,” explains Edie.

“I feel if you greet them kindly it helps to calm them down, and let them know that we will help them, and if we can’t find exactly what they’re looking for, we will find them a solution.”