ABOUT ME
The Pharmacist
Hello … *PAUSE*.
Yes, this is a 20 30 SOMETHING real pharmacist. Nope, I didn’t plan it that way. AND MY JOURNEY unfortunately DID NOT START AT THE BACK OF A PHARMACY THAT MY FATHER OWNED.
This is where you can find out more about me, this blog, and other miscellaneous nonsense (which you may or may not care about).
SOME BACKGROUND
Role: Registered Pharmacist (INDEPENDENT PRESCRIBER and everything .. I DONT MEAN TO BRAG)
Sectors survived: Community, Hospital, Digital Transformation ( yes seriously i was the only pharmacist on the team)
Practising for: 7 glorious years
Blogging since: 15th April 2026
BORN SINCE: ( HA! NO CHANCE)
Location: UK
Lifelong dream: Absolutely not THIS, BUT i would some day like to be on a island that is SUNNY. WHERE I CAN SEE THE BEACH and the SEA AND EAT FRESH MANGO AND PAPAYA with a small shack and a imported ikea mattress ( i prefer a firm )
Who AM I?
frankly i’m someone who graduated into pharmacy very young without having a clue on what to do. i missed the teenage years of ‘self exploration’ and since my humble graduation into the ‘real world’ as the adults like to call it. i’ve been dispensing, ward-rounding, and dipping in and out of digital health – none of which was the plan.
SO pharmacy was your calling?..
ehhhhh. No. not exactly..
im not afraid to admit Pharmacy was not my lifelong dream, my childhood ambition, or a divine calling. i thought i was meant to be a creative, on a stage somewhere acting and doing all the ‘main character things’ but traditional routes and failed grades meant I fell into it, as many of us do, and then found myself — seven years later — still here and actually quite invested in the whole thing. Life is funny like that.
What have you actually done?
Good question. More than most, less than some.
I started in hospital pharmacy — after a split 6 month pre-registration training year. the hospital i trained with gave me a band 6 post which i lasted a proud 6 months in. from there, i began to locum in different hospitals and eventually settled in one hospital where i have been ever since (until the funding was no longer there but thats a seperate blog post!)
the good thing about locuming was that i got that ‘self exploration’ phase which i believe is key. TOO MANY PEOPLE SHACKLE THEMSELVES TO A DESTINED FATE .. TOO EARLY ON. ANYWAY, in between I dipped into community pharmacy and THE digital health / tech space.
was it A deliberate career pivot? Yes. I missed out on my exploring era, so I went and found it. No regrets.
Why the blog?
Because nobody told me the truth when I started.
Pharmacy training gives you clinical knowledge. It does not give you a realistic picture of what different sectors actually feel like from the inside — the good bits, the GOREY bits, or the “nobody mentioned this in the job description” bits ( LIKE THE TIME I HAD TO CLEAN OUT A GARAGE AS A PART OF MY PRE-REGISTRATION TRAINING .. I MEAN WHERES THE PATIENT BENEFIT IN THAT?!)
This blog exists to fix that. Real talk, no CORPORATE OR ACADEMIC FANCY FLUFFY BS, JUST REAL OPINIONS from someone who has actually lived it across multiple sectors and one fairly chaotic detour through the tech world.
If you’re a pre-reg, a newly qualified pharmacist, or someone wondering whether to make a move — this is ALSO A PLACE for you. AND IF YOU’RE JUST NOSY .. TAKE A PEW MY FRIEND, YOU’RE ESPECIALLY WELCOME.
What kind of pharmacist are you, exactly?
too Playful for my own liking with a splash of professionalI-LILISM – Which, in this SECTOR, makes me a minor anomaly OR SOMEWHAT LIKE A RED SMARTIE, IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE PART OF THE CREW BUT THE ONE NOBODY REALLY GOES FOR FIRST.
I am a firm believer that pharmacy is whatever you make it to be. The career is genuinely vast — community, hospital, GP practice, industry, prison, military, tech, academia — and yet somehow it gets presented to new entrants as a single narrow corridor. It isn’t. It’s enormous, and most people never find out because nobody shows them the door.
A disclaimer, because I have to *rolls eyes*
I am a registered pharmacist, not your pharmacist. Nothing on this blog constitutes clinical advice, and you should absolutely not make healthcare decisions based on the ramblings of someone who also once left the profession to go and work in tech.
For actual clinical advice: see a healthcare professional. For honest, unfiltered insight into what a pharmacy career actually looks like: you’re in the right place.
the equivalent of a hug is a coffee..
I didn’t particularly want to do this. And yet here we are.
If anything on this blog has helped you, made you feel less alone in your training, or simply stopped you from making a career decision you’d have regretted — that’s genuinely enough for me.
But if you’d like to go one step further and fuel the caffeine habit that makes all of this possible:
Every bit of support is appreciated more than I’ll let on. Thank you.
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