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18 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FROM PAGE 17 Now I’ve started a PhD. I’m one year in. My PhD is all about trying to provide better support. We’ve done a lot of work over the past few years with these families and found out what things are doing well, but we’ve identified some gaps in how we care for families after sudden cardiac death, and so my PhD is \\\\\\\[about\\\\\\\] trying to build some interventions and resources that will fill that gap. How do you juggle your responsibilities and maintain balance? That’s a really good question. I’m a shocker because I’m a ‘yes’ person \\\\\\\[laughs\\\\\\\]. If I get asked to be part of a project or another person offers me another opportunity, I want to take everything that I can. Trying to leave work at work is really important. As a genetic counsellor, we have clinical supervision set up. That’s a standard practice set up for people working as genetic counsellors. So, I have a more formal pathway where, if I need to debrief or discuss a case with a more senior person, I have that already set up. Setting boundaries and trying to leave work at work \\\\\\\[are things\\\\\\\] I really struggled with when I was working from home during the pandemic. When your work space and your home space are the same space, how do you convert one to the other? We had a great talk from a clinical psychologist around self-care ... she spoke about how, due to the pandemic, people had lost their third space. We have our work space and our home space, but we’ve lost the space where you travel between the two. And that’s often where we get rid of our day and gear up for the night, and vice versa. So, for me, it’s trying to create that space and trying not to bring work home. Exercise is really important for me, even just going for a walk. I play netball, which is fun. I’m just trying to make sure I prioritise some social and fun things in my week and not just focus on the work. For pharmacy assistants, it’s all about balance and using whatever technology you can to help you. I have a lot of to-do-list apps that remind me of when things are due, and then I can just put it in there and forget about it and come back to it when I’m up to that stage. I find those things really helpful. How important is it for people in science and the healthcare profession (such as retail pharmacy assistance) to continue professional development and learning? I’d say it’s essential, particularly in the field I work in, in genetics. For example, I joined this clinic 14 years ago \\\\\\\[and am amazed at\\\\\\\] how far we’ve come technology-wise. \\\\\\\[Today, things are\\\\\\\] completely different. I’m convinced that in 10 years’ time, whatever genetic tests I’ll be ordering then, the technology for them doesn’t exist right now. That’s how fast these fields move. If you don’t do your professional development, you can’t keep up with the latest things. I’d think that’s extremely important for something like pharmacy, where everyone must be coming in asking about the new Covid-19 vaccines and what they mean. So, professional development is so important. It’s important to keep up with the current information so that you know that the information you’re giving your consumers is current, and, for me, I think it just helps me keep interested. When you stop learning in a job, I often think, ‘Oh, does that mean if I’ve learnt all I can here, it’s actually time to move on? I need a new challenge’. We should always be learning about how we can do things better – learning about how to use this new technology or this new medication or how we can incorporate this new drug in what we’re doing and how that will change practice. Learning helps you ask those questions and see how other people approach those questions through research ... reading papers, going to talks make you think about your own clinical practice and help you reflect: how can we do better? What is your advice to pharmacy assistants who want to further their careers within pharmacy and science? Take the opportunities as they come. If you have the chance to work with a really great person or a mentor, quiz them on their career. How did they get where they are? What really helped them? Don’t be afraid to take a bit of a risk. When I decided to do science at university, I didn’t even know that genetic counselling existed. I knew I wanted to do science and that I wanted to do something in the medical field, but I didn’t want to do medicine and I didn’t want to do nursing. And back then that was kind of all that was presented to me as the option. Or maybe physiotherapy was becoming big. But actually, there’s a whole world of allied health out there, and I’d include pharmacy within that, that’s a really important part of our health system. So, sometimes you have to go into something not knowing what the end might be. I went into science, keeping it broad, hoping that I’d find a profession that I loved, which I did ... I didn’t know what that would be at the end of that process, so sometimes you have to take a few risks. Also, I think, don’t let people dictate to you the path ... just because most people do it one way, doesn’t mean it’s the right way for you. It might be the right way for most people and it’s OK if you’re not most people. Pharmacy assistants may be involved to some degree in counselling their customers when they come into their pharmacy. What is your advice on effective counselling skills? Remember that people coming into the clinic or your pharmacy are coming in with their day’s baggage. That might be coming from their doctor and they might be really worried about a new diagnosis. They might be really worried about their sister who’s battling cancer. They might be really worried about a whole number of things that they probably won’t disclose to you. Sometimes if people are a little short, they’re probably also just a little bit stressed, and just having someone who’s got a calm presence to them, who’s polite ... you can see them relax. I think those sorts of skills, of just thinking about that person and where they’ve come from, even though I’m sure many people can be a bit rude to pharmacy assistants at times, actually they’re probably really grateful to have someone who is listening to their concerns and is trying to help them. And remember: if things do get hard, support each other as colleagues. RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • MAR 2021 For more about Ms Yeates and about the Centenary Institute, visit: • centenary.org.au/cen_program/ cardio-genomics • centenary.org.au/cen_program/ molecular-cardiology • cardiogenomicslab.org • hgsa.org.au/asgc