Vaishali Khatri

A little bit on my background, I have worked in a hospital as a supervising pharmacist in Fiji for 6 years with clinical pharmacy experience. Australia came into the picture in 2019 when I met the man of my dreams and with the peak COVID situation around that time, I had to leave my homeland and unexpectedly come to Brisbane with a heavy heart away from my parents and sibling in the year 2021. Thereafter, having to quarantine for 2 weeks before starting my life afresh in Queensland.

All in all, I sat for the KAPS- Knowledge Assessment of Pharmaceutical Sciences exam to qualify for an internship in Australia and to step towards my journey of registration.

I was an Intern Pharmacist with the infinity group from July 2021 and after a year’s journey full of support and encouragement from my preceptor and co-workers, I successfully became a registered pharmacist in August 2022.

5.00 AM

First alarm, tossing and turning in bed struggling to start my day.

5.15 AM

I am finally out of bed, brushing my teeth and heading to shower. After which, I make my way to the kitchen to cook lunch for my husband and I followed by laundry and a quick house clean-up. 

6.30 AM

Breakfast time where I usually have a cup of tea with a slice of toast and a sunny side up egg (which my husband makes to ease off my morning duties) to fuel me through the start of the day as lunchtime is unpredictable with a busy flow of patients on most days.

7.00 AM

Kitchen clean-up and I head to my room to get ready for work.

7.30 AM

Time to leave the house. My husband drops me to the bus station from where I wait to catch the bus to work. During the wait and along the bus ride I call my mother back home in Fiji to catch up on all our conversations.

8.30 AM

I have arrived at my shopping centre and I walk through a long passageway to get to my pharmacy. As I make my way through the pharmacy, I say my good morning to my co-workers. Then I place my bag in the staff room inside my locker and put my lunch in the fridge when need be. Take my water bottle and head towards the dispensary.

9.00 AM

Work starts in the dispensary firstly, by checking the online orders placed by patients on medAdvisor app. Followed by checking emails and faxes for any scripts or other important notifications, for example, discharge summary from the hospital for packing patients.

9.45 AM

Check the calendars on the MedAdvisor app and health engine for any vaccination bookings for the day and do any relevant preparations where necessary.

10.00 AM

Receiving dispensary stock physically and putting them in the BD Rowa. Along with that I sort out any special orders that were placed yesterday and call the patients to inform them that their medications have arrived. Furthermore, I pass on the Dangerous Drugs (DD) orders packet to my preceptor to be received and for further paperwork for confirmation of arrival and entry into the DD logbook.

10.30 AM

Attending to patients from receiving scripts to dispensing them and leaving them behind the dispensary counters to be checked by my preceptor before giving them to the patients and providing counselling on their medications being received. I also serve patients needing S3 medications/consultations under the guidance and supervision of my preceptor.  This routine goes all day long as that is our core job to serve patients and provide them with the optimum care we can to the best of our ability. Moreover, if any patients are waiting to get vaccinated, I attend to them take the relevant details to fill in the portal and get it checked by the preceptor before I go into the consultation room to vaccinate the patient. 

12.00 PM

By now usually, the retail staff would have left a pile of S3 medications in the dispensary area as they are usually mixed with the front shop pharmacy items hence, I will start placing them on the shelf. In between at times I help out at the cashier counters in the retail area as well when they are short-staffed.

12.45 PM

Now it’s time for me to look into the packing patients' profiles for any changes that may have come in and get them checked by the preceptor before submitting the changes in the portal.

I also check for any pharmacy additions to be done in the webster packs received for the week and then get it checked by my preceptor. Thereafter, print the pickup sheet for the webster packs so it can be marked off upon each patient pickup.

For the packs due this week, I print out the delivery list and pack the webster packs individually with their non-packs example inhalers along with any script requests and their statements for payment. This bit is also done for webster pack patients that are being picked up by the patient.

1.30 PM

It’s my Lunchtime!

2.00 PM

I am in the dispensary again with the routine, serving patients with OTC or S3 requests, receiving scripts and processing them, and putting through any NDSS requests by patients. Providing sleep apnoea consultation when required.

4.15 PM

Scan blue-label medications in S2 and S3 for the day’s order. I also help out in doing the dispensary order for S4 and also ensuring all the special orders are put through the cart to receive orders the following day.

This is followed by a quick chat with my preceptor on any queries or questions I would have from the day or regarding my internship program modules.

4.45 PM

I start scanning all the scripts processed throughout the day for our digital records and bundle them up. I also take off the till any payment in advance that was put through from the medAdvisor orders.

5.00 PM

Home Time! 

5.10 PM

Waiting for my bus to arrive.

5.40 PM

Arrived at my stop to catch my second bus to get home. Thanks to my husband for dropping me off in the morning and saving me from catching two buses.

6.00 PM

Walking home from my bus stop. It’s a relatively short 10 minutes walk. The perk of getting some exercise before the end of the day.

7.00 PM

Dinner time!

7.30 PM

Kitchen clean-up, and laundry to be folded and placed away. Followed by the shower.

8.15 PM

On the study tablet looking into the assignments, and any other quiz that is upcoming/due. I also try to get a CPD done on any interesting topic or a topic I need to brush-up my knowledge more on that I came across during my conversations with patients

9.30 PM

I take some time out to check my email and listen to music with my husband unwinding and chilling out before getting to bed.

10.00 PM

Its bedtime! I call it a night to start and replay all over again tomorrow.

I would say be respectful, stay humble and always be learning. Along with all this do not forget to relax and engage in personal hobbies and interests, you deserve to be kind to yourself!

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