Pharmacy Jobs in New Zealand

Grace Jee

Pharmacist

My mission is to work as a locum pharmacist in rural and regional areas. Locum work is challenging, but I welcome challenges. In fact, without challenges, life is boring, which is why I am so passionate about locum pharmacist work. Locum work gives me a golden opportunity to travel everywhere around Australia, solving other people problems, serving the community and adding value to other people lives. I believe that everywhere I go, I can definitely learn something new. I love learning. I believe that we can only grow and become a better people as we learn. Broken Hill is very unique, the people, architecture and landscapes. I spent some of my weekend visiting places like The Living Desert, Day Dream Underground Mining, The 'Ghost Town', and Mundi-Mundi. These places are fantastic. The underground mining tour was really adventurous and great. I have taken more than 100 photos of Broken Hill and uploaded them to my personal website and it's amazing, I have received lots of positive feedback from my friends around the world. They told me that they want come to Broken Hill themselves, to enjoy the secret scenery in this small town. I'm doing very well here, finding the work very satisfying and am enjoying myself by contributing my best to the Pharmacy Department, the patients and other allied health professionals in the ward. I settled in quickly, mixing around and making heaps of friends in the hospital and community. As Pharmacist-in-Charge I am responsible for a number of staff including many pharmacy students from Charles Sturt University that come here for rural placements. I am responsible for organizing their daily activities when the pharmacy manager is not available. I also oversee the surgical ward and the Intensive Care Unit. This opportunity has really helped me to sharpen my leadership and management skills and I'm very satisfied with the services I provide to the hospital. Lack of health care professionals in rural and regional areas, is definitely a big issue at the moment. We tend to forget about these communities. Nowdays, many youngsters love to work in big cities, claiming that rural health practice life is boring. However, I can assure you that it is NOT true. There are a great variety of activities that you can do in these country towns. If you are a person who loves nature, then rural health care professional practice is definitely for you! There are many communities out there that need our help. So, let's don't forget about them, love them and serve them with your open kind heart! If you have never worked in a rural or regional area before, why not give yourself a chance and go and explore the country areas around Australia. Rural pharmacy practice experience will definitely blow you away, open your eyes and grant you the chance to escape the rat-race hectic life in busy cities. For me, rural pharmacy practice has certainly been a great experience, it has granted me golden opportunities to learn many great values and lessons in life, in fact it has become one of my greatest passions.

Philip Smith

Pharmacist

My partner and I moved from Newcastle to Dorrigo in January 2006 for management opportunity and financial incentive that we could not get in the city at a young age of 25. We were provided with a house to live in fully furnished with power and gas all covered. We were also re-imbursed for our moving costs. It was my first job as a sole pharmacist and also my first after working at 2 different city pharmacies. I would now find it very hard to go back to working in “urban” pharmacy. The pace is much more leisurely and there is plenty of work time to keep up with all the latest knowledge in pharmacy with drug rep information, Medscape and AusPharmList. The community is unbelievable, friendly, inviting you to the many social events and clubs (rotary, lions etc) that are available from sporting to drama. They know your name well before you remember many of theirs and are greeted with a friendly hello. There are a couple of pubs with meals, takeaways, cafes, beauty rooms, video/dvd stores, social sporting teams from volleyball to rugby, the lifestyle is what you choose to make of it. We are less than a hours drive to Coffs Harbour and don't miss the latest movie we want to see or major retail therapy that my partner sometimes needs! You still have your “problem” customers, what pharmacy doesn't? But with only 1 or 2 a month, it beats the 10-20 a week I could have in the city. You can spend a little more time with them sorting out their issues and with time they are no longer a “problem” customer, but more of a “loyal” one. Everyone speaks English, making it much easier to convey safety messages regarding medication. The doctor/pharmacist relationship is a little closer, being the only pharmacist in town its easy to get to know the doctors if you want too, plus their family and themselves visit you for medications. I frequently get calls regarding medication advice, possible changes to medications and latest information on PBS listings. Prescription errors are fixed with an easy phone call and not meet with angst. When you refer people to doctors with skin conditions and other problems, it is satisfying that they come back to you with a prescription or answer (instead of the closest pharmacy to doctors in town), helping with the learning process, so in future if you see something similar you can advise accordingly. I have heard many a time now “The doctor said it is what you said it was”, which still brings a smile to my face. Its 5 minutes to work by car (Or 15 minutes walk), no red lights, no traffic jams! Work hours where more than in the city, but easy to adjust to as no late nights, no Sundays and no public holidays. The staff had to put up with locum pharmacist for about 6 months so they knew the running of the business inside out, so it takes pressure off you as you step into running the business. Staff turnover is a lot less than that of city pharmacies as well. We are lucky to have a very good bunch of locums in the area and I have NEVER had a problem in getting time off when needed, even for our recent wedding and honeymoon for over a month! I never for a minute have regretted the decision to move to the country and don't know why more pharmacist don't make the move?

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New Zealand Pharmacy Employment (NZPE) is a recruitment agency specialising in permanent and locum Pharmacist recruitment for the Pharmacy Industry.

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Grace Jee

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