DELIVERING robust research showing the positive impact the work pharmacists do for patients across the country will be key to driving the profession forward, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) Western Australia Branch President, Dr Tin Fei Sim, believes.
Speaking during the PSA Connect webinar last week, Sim outlined her motivations for pursuing a career as an academic, while also owning two community pharmacies, with the generation of research shining a light on the benefits pharmacists deliver a major factor.
"Over the last 10 years of my career as a pharmacist, I feel that pharmacists do so much every day for the 25 million people who live in Australia," she said.
"Pharmacists do great work day-in day-out, and we have enormous impacts on people's lives, but unfortunately often what we do with go unnoticed, unrecognised and unremunerated.
"With my involvement at PSA, through advocacy, I have learned, and I'm now a strong believer, that to fix this problem what we need is evidence.
"We need strong solid evidence that can back up the great work that pharmacists are doing and then I can take that to advance the profession further.
"With the evidence, not only can we enable pharmacists to practice on an evidence-based approach, but we can use that evidence to creature a positive influence that can bring every one in the profession forward."
Sim urged students and early career pharmacists looking to pursue an academic career to seek out mentors who can guide them.
She added that the first step may require volunteering to take part in a small research project, or stepping out of your comfort zone to teach sessionally.
"I've always advocated not to do just one thing," she said.
"If you're interested in research it doesn't mean you have to just do research... continue to practice as a pharmacist, because we need people to come and teach the next generation of pharmacists who can actually bring real life examples, and to be able to inspire and bring currency in their knowledge to make teaching and research translational.
"We need clinicians who are researchers.
"We need business operators that are clinicians, and there's nothing saying one person can only do one thing."
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