This site is intended for Healthcare Professionals only

Inspiring success

Practice bookmark icon off

Inspiring success

We caught up with former RoE Award winner Deepali Bij to find out where her career has taken her since she scooped the 2015 Counter Intelligence Award

Almost two years ago, Deepali Bij was reading TM and the Recognition of Excellence (RoE) Awards caught her eye. After a bit more research, she applied for the Counter Intelligence Award and two months later, she was celebrating at a top London hotel with the TM team after winning the category.

A new focus

A month or so after her success, Deepali qualified as a dispensing assistant. She then worked as a relief dispenser in Derby and Nottingham, before settling back into the Boots store in Derby’s Intu shopping centre where she had worked previously as a healthcare consultant. “The opportunity then came to work at the Boots Outpatient Pharmacy [at the Royal Derby Hospital] as a Saturday girl and I was quite interested,” recalls Deepali. “I’d worked a few hours as a healthcare assistant at the hospital and I really enjoyed the hospital environment. I didn’t know a lot about it, but I felt like it was the next step up; it was the next challenge for me.”

Deepali spends her shifts dispensing prescriptions for outpatients and recently discharged hospital patients, as well as supporting the pharmacist. She says: “The thing I love about hospital pharmacy is that you and the pharmacist really work together. You can’t do one thing without both of you – it’s very much a team effort.” She also enjoys the clinical work and the challenge of processing handwritten, consultant prescriptions – rather than the electronic ones from GPs that she was used to. “You have to work out the quantity manually and some dosages aren’t clear so you work out the dosage with the help of the pharmacist and you’re more involved in the clinical process,” Deepali explains.

Her other responsibilities involve answering queries on the phone, especially regarding oncology prescriptions, and dispensing deliveries to Boots stores for patients to pick up. 

As dispensing takes up so much of her time, Deepali doesn’t advise on OTC medicines very often but she still has a good rapport with patients. She says: “If a ward is really busy, the nurses are busy doing something else and the patient is healthy to the point where they’re nearly dischargeable, they come down to us and they get some advice, which is great and it’s really nice that they trust us and that they value our opinion and advice.”

Working under pressure is another skill that Deepali was able to transfer from community to hospital pharmacy. “I used to think that working in community pharmacy was very stressful and then I went to hospital and thought that’s nothing! You’ve just got to stay calm under pressure which, luckily, I can do because I had some good experience working as a relief dispenser,” says Deepali. “I would walk into a pharmacy for a shift not knowing anything – even though it would be a Boots pharmacy, there are certain things that are done differently. So that really developed me and I was able to move to hospital and work under that pressure very well.”

Knowledge boost

Customer contact is the main thing Deepali misses from her time in community pharmacy, but she says: “On those days in hospital pharmacy where you’re dealing with a complex query or a complex prescription or you’re chasing down, say, a chemo prescription and you’re able to deliver, it makes you feel so good. I just love being a hospital dispenser.” 

The knowledge she’s built up also compensates for the lack of customer contact: “You get to learn about the different medications that are out there and the different forms. So some medications you think ‘oh, I thought that was only tablet form’ but it comes in a liquid form or it comes in a mouthwash form and it’s amazing to know all this extra stuff,” Deepali enthuses. “Every shift I do I’m always learning something new and my brain is always ticking.”

Back to the future

Her new knowledge has other benefits, too. Last summer, Deepali completed her masters degree in health psychology and she’s now working towards a psychology-based PHD in upper gastrointestinal cancers. She says: “My pharmacy job has really complemented my PHD because without it I wouldn’t know what medicines are used for certain cancers and chemo, or, for example, what tablets are used for acid reflux, a symptom of the cancer.”

Deepali’s long-term plan is to move fully into academia. “I just want to do as much research as I can, especially within the NHS because there’s a lot that we can do,” she says, adding that she would also like to teach. “There’s no point having knowledge and not sharing it with others.” 

It’s clear that Deepali’s passion for pharmacy and helping patients is still at the forefront of her work and she won’t be waving goodbye to pharmacy any time soon. However, she accepts that this will be inevitable. “I really love pharmacy and it’s going to be heartbreaking to leave, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it long-term because I’ll have a full-time job and lots of responsibilities. But the knowledge I’ve gained is so valuable and it’s going to help me in where I want to go.” 

Recognising excellence

For Deepali, entering the RoE Awards was about getting the recognition that she felt she and her colleagues deserved. “Pharmacy staff are the backbone of the pharmacy. We actually do all the running around for patients and we support the pharmacist – it means a lot to be recognised for that,” Deepali says. “It’s also about representing the company that you work for which has these really good healthcare values and you really reflect that in the work that you do. For an external company to recognise that, it’s re-emphasising that yes, you’re doing your job and you’re doing it well.

“It’s something else to add to your CV, too – being recognised by this really good company that is passionate about training. And it’s a lovely day,” says Deepali. “So if you think you’re doing a good job and you’re confident in your work, then do it. Send in an application. Don’t hesitate.”

Last chance to enter!

If you’ve been inspired by Deepali’s story and think you’ve got what it takes to win a Recognition of Excellence Award, enter now.

Enter by 31 March for your chance to join us at The Dorchester in Central London on 29 June.

Good luck!

There’s no point having knowledge and not sharing it with others

Copy Link copy link button

Practice

Share: