My wife is a Pharmacist for 23 years by profession. Growing up, she wanted to be a Dentist, but her mothers' influence to take up Pharmacy made her for what she is now. I had the chance to talked to her and asked her what's in that course and why its not that popular choice among other courses.
According to her, "Yes, Pharmacy is not that popular and its true, but the course itself is very difficult, you have to memorize and understand all the chemical reactions, scientific names of the plants, chemical names,do computations, analyze the diseases and the best medications for such. However, with all those struggles and hardships being a Pharmacist is very fulfilling. I was so fortunate to be given the chance to explore to the different fields of our profession and I must confess its very rewarding. All the knowledge, the skills and expertise I earned gives me the versatility, the competence and the leadership skills to be proud of. I was only 18 years old when I finished the Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, took the Pharmacy Licensure Examination (PLE) and passed. For 6 years , I was practicing at Community Pharmacy, there I developed my communication skills and how to established rapport to every client. Then another 6 years I was given the chance to worked at regulatory and laboratory pharmacy at FDA Cebu, Philippines. I was able to apply and enhance the theories I learned from the books and in the classroom, my curiosity tickled I learned how to analyzed the active ingredient in any drug preparation, I know how to identify if the product contains the exact amount claimed by the level by chemical analysis.
Then , I was brought by my fate to manufacturing world, I was exposed to making herbal products, that quality control and assurance thing was my life. I started to learn how to handle people under my wings.
And in 2013-2015 I was not able to resist the calling of the Academe world, I was able to be part of the prestigious medicine school here in Cebu, the fulfillment of imparting your knowledge to your students is on another level, because they are the reflection of you, their success is also your victory, that itself is very rewarding.
Here comes 2015 until recently, fate leads me to become a hospital pharmacist in a 1200 bed capacity hospital here in Cebu City. Another field of the profession where in the real action happens. You will learn a lot of things, current trends in medications, different cases of illnesses where relevance of the Pharmacist is lifted and magnified because hospital cant function without medicines, doctors are useless if they don't give medicines to their patients. Pharmacy in the hospital is the brain and heart of the institution and they provide income to the hospital.
With all those exposures I must say I am one proud Drug Expert and with head up high I am beaming with pride that with the constant progress and development of Pharmacy, we are highly acknowledge and regarded in the society as experts in delivering health service. Not everyone is given the chance to have a good career and it takes perseverance, hard work and a lot of prayers for you to be successful."
Here in the Philippines, when we talk of Pharmacist, a lot of you will agree with me that first thing comes to your mind will be "ahh! a mere tindera (sales clerk), but I did not know until my wife explained to me that Pharmacist are usually the expert who knows how to read that prescription written by doctors that sometimes hard to understand, Pharmacists give you the details how to properly take the medicines, what it can do to your body, what are the side effects and contra- indications of taking multiple drugs, so on and so forth.
I am very blessed that I have a wife who knows about drugs and medicines since I can also help her share and advocate to everyone not to self medicate because if not properly monitored, the wrong drugs you are taking can cause severe damage in the organs of the body especially your kidney and liver.
Now, she is sometimes invited for a talk to inspire students and other pharmacists to continue the direction and the passion and for encouraging to strive in achieving their dreams.
