Life as a Pharmacist (LP) Stories
“LP Stories” is a PSN-YPG Lagos series that spotlights unique experiences and views of Young Pharmacists in their areas of practice.
Kindly introduce yourself
I’m so excited to be interviewed. I am Pharmacist Rasheedat Boluwatife Thompson, I hail from Lagos state. I attended the University of Lagos, studied Pharmacy, and graduated with a B.Pharm degree. I come from a family consisting of seven children, me being the firstborn.
I’m currently serving at the Ministry of Health, Umuahia, Abia state.
That’s the only job I do for now. I’m currently also learning how to sew and develop my content creation skills because I love to write.
I am a Muslim, religious and spiritual, and I consider myself a reserved, honest person.
As for my hobbies, I love to dance (or more accurately, love to watch people as they dance), love watching movies, and love reading (I don’t, I just usually say that)
What year did you finish pharmacy school and what was your induction day/experience like for you?
I finished pharmacy school in 2018, inducted in May 2019. On my induction day, I could rate my happiness as just 60–65%, because there were a lot of emotions surrounding the day.
Firstly, it was held during the month of Ramadan and we were fasting. My dad was a little pained because, due to the fasting, he couldn’t serve his guests the way he’d have loved to.
The day started well enough, I woke up glad, rain fell, got to the hall, and was excited to see my friends in the hall (at least 70% of whom were inducted the same day as me).
On leaving the hall, however, my phone was stolen, so that altered my mood. Lucky for me, my aunt was behind me and got a glimpse of the person that stole the phone, so she organized a search party for the thief. All my friends and family that I had invited were supporting me and gingering me to enjoy the moment. Even though I was 50% distracted by the fact that my aunty and some people were tracing the guy that took the phone, I still tried to attend to guests.
I was also a bit unhappy because I couldn’t get a lot of pictures with my inducting friends as I was off-grid with my phone being stolen. People couldn’t reach me to find out where my venue was.
My dad tried to cheer me up and I was glad to see him happy on that day, even though my mom is late and didn’t live to see that day. I could see him and the other family members were even perhaps happier than me, the inductee.
At the end of the day, I got my phone back, so my mood improved by the end of that day and I could look back on the induction more happily.
What were your expectations going into pharmacy school and now that you’re practising pharmacy, would you say those expectations have been met?
Hmmm. I’ll start with a sigh because my expectations going into pharmacy school were much. My most prominent expectation would be that I thought it wouldn’t be hard getting a job after school, and that I would be swimming in money, that I would get a research institute to work in, develop vaccines, develop a lot of pharmaceuticals that would help in solving problems, but on getting into pharmacy school, I realized that there were hurdles to cross, barriers to overcome, and tears to shed.
I could say that those expectations I had before admission, reduced while in pharmacy school because most lecturers were telling us the truth of how tough it is out there, and how we have to find our way of survival, but at that point, I still expected a lot. Sometimes, I was happy that I met lecturers that were encouraging and positive about the economy.
I could say, going into pharmacy school, my expectations were like 90%, now that I’m on the other side, they’re like 20%. I understand the current trend/culture for Nigerian youths to find problems and try to solve them, but it’s hard. In the pharmacy field, a lot of things we were taught in school, in practice, you find it’s done oppositely. There are no uniform measures taken, there’s no general standard, even where you find standards, they’re not usually enforced. There’s an illegal system in place, a malfunctioning corrupt system.
Where do we start to tackle those problems? Sometimes when you think about it, it’s discouraging.
Nowadays, with the pharmacists and generally, medics’ earning power is reduced and the boom in the tech field, I wonder what’s the point of even trying to solve those problems?
I find out a lot of my colleagues are using what they studied as a side hustle, not their main career goal. By and large, I can say that’s where I’m headed too because I’m not seeing where this is heading. I’m in my third year out of school, and I still haven’t gotten to where I want to go to. I’m not saying it should be easy, but at least, I should be able to see light at the end of the tunnel, na darkness dey there, I can’t see any light.
But even at that, I’ll keep up the struggle, because I want to be a research pharmacist, I want to go into data analytics, I don’t want to be the cliché pharmacist where you just sit behind the counter, collect your salary and just dispense drugs as if you’re dispensing to inanimate objects. It would have been lovely if we could follow all the standard procedures and do all the things we were taught in school. There should be nothing stopping me from being a community pharmacist, a consultant pharmacist, a clinician if we could all follow the standard procedures, not the case of choosing to stand out amid such a system that doesn’t encourage it and gives a lot of pushback. If you don’t find like-minded people in such a system, it’s hard to grow.
So, knowing what I wanted, now coming out, having different career paths, trying to learn one or two skills in addition to what I have now, it’s different, but I think it’s preparing us for greater things to come.
I don’t like the cliché locum jobs because it’s still pharmacy anyway, you can get better at anything you want to do, so why don’t I just get other skills. The locum jobs are not encouraging, we’re not paid well, we don’t get to practise the way we want to practise, we feel intimidated a lot, and a whole host of other ills.
My expectations have not been met by the profession, but I’m still 50% hopeful that they could be, especially if I find my way into research.
What are some funny/memorable experiences from pharmacy school for you?
I had a lot of memorable experiences in school, but I’d like to highlight some. The first was when I failed pharmaceutical microbiology in 200 level, the second semester. Right from secondary school, I didn’t like biology because I don’t like reading. This course however made me want to read. I was already scared of the course before even taking it because I know myself, I prefer calculative courses to courses that require more reading.
I had many other courses like pharmacognosy, physiology, and the likes that required me to read, alongside this particular course that I was scared of.
One might wonder how I passed exams if I didn’t like reading, but I can just say it’s God that made me read. Most times in a semester, I’d just pick a course that I was interested in based on what we learned in that course the previous semester, and then try to read based on that.
All through from reading this microbiology course, preparing for exams to taking the exams, I was scared of that course. I even had a brain block in the exam hall while taking that paper, I couldn’t remember what I’d managed to read.
As God would have it, I failed when the results came out. I was at a party when the results came out and I didn’t even know about my score till I noticed that my phone had been buzzing due to calls and messages from people, even from those I didn’t expect to call/message me. They were all asking me “Guy, what happened?” and that I should check the results on the group chat.
I checked the results and saw that I got 37. I didn’t know what to feel at that point, I didn’t panic. It was a Friday evening, so I had to wait till Monday to get to school and see what could be done. I fasted over that weekend, because I was scared, thinking to myself that I could have put in more work for that course.
On getting to the course coordinator’s office on Monday, I met people leaving her office already saying things like “oh, she’s already done what she can do”. I wasn’t discouraged, stood outside her office even though she wasn’t letting anyone in. I begged and explained my situation to the coordinator and begged to see my script (no be say I no know wetin I write o lool)
She finally allowed me in and on checking her records, she found out that my in-course test scores which account for 30% of the final scores were not computed, meaning that the in-course script was missing. I had to sit on the floor of her office, not even minding being seen by people coming in and out of the office, and go through a stack of scripts to find my answer script. I finally found the script tucked inside another person’s answer script. I got 14 marks out of 30 on that in course script, which when added to 37 from the exam, landed me on 51 C as my final result.
I was so glad. I cried so much after that experience because it tested me so much. I couldn’t fathom that I could fail so badly.
My 300 level 1st semester exams were another experience that I think anybody that was in my set can relate to. We had exams back to back from Monday to Saturday, with little or no time for adequate preparation. I don’t know how I passed that semester, because my GP was already entering the water in 200 level, and here I was facing a situation that reduced my hopes of the GP rising.
I don’t know how it happened because that semester’s results turned out to be my best result ever in the school of pharmacy. My scores were just 70 A or 71 A. Even my friends were surprised because I cried a lot during exams and even slept through one exam in that 300 level 1st semester. It was the pharmaceutical chemistry exam, which was the last in the lineup of the back-to-back exams we had. It was held on a Saturday. I remember when the question sheets were handed to us and we had a look at them, I looked around the hall and could tell that my classmates were just as lost as I was, so I just closed the paper and slept off in the exam hall. Oh God, I slept for over one hour and by the time I was woken up, it was one hour left to the end of the exam. I just used the one hour left to try answering 3 questions out of 5 to the best of my ability, the other 2, ọmọ I just used style to answer them
I was prayerful in that period because it was very trying. I’m thankful for my friends that we were all together, reading together, doing everything together.
Another memorable experience is my 500 level when we did our final year events. I loved that. I got closer to new people from my class that I wasn’t close with before, because we all mixed up at the organized events such as the sporting events (even if sometimes, I didn’t participate), the traditional dinner, the photoshoots. I also served on the editorial committee for the final year class, which was my favourite highlight, because I always looked forward to our meetings.
I was happy for most of 500 level asides from the fact that I had a sadist as my project supervisor, who outrightly threatened me that I wouldn’t graduate with my set, so I cried a lot about that. Thankfully, I passed the project and was grateful for that.
I also had wonderful lab experiences all through pharmacy school because of my lab partners. The two Dayo’s in my class were always in my lab group for pharmacognosy, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutics; and they were so funny. They always gave me the ginger that I needed in the lab, despite them being annoying while at it.
Give us a summary of your life in the workforce after pharmacy school
In the workforce, I got to learn and understand that life experiences are different from what we were taught in school as I said earlier about my expectations.
I did my internship for a year, where I worked in an institution that posted me to different hospital pharmacies for the year. I expected to learn how to apply the things I’ve been taught in school. This wasn’t the case. Instead, it’s like I added more knowledge about things like negative work attitude and how to interact with people with poor work attitude in the same setting (the system was filled with critics, illegal practices, and corrupt people, we’re in Nigeria so I was expecting that, but as a professional, It was a big contrasting from what I was taught in school).
I wouldn’t work the way they did and I didn’t like the experience I was getting. It was like that for each hospital I was posted to in the year, except for one hospital pharmacy that tried to do interventions with patient treatments. I had to come to terms with the fact that the system corrupts everybody, especially with the “If you can’t beat them, join them” mentality, which I didn’t like, so it was hard to cope in all those settings, but I had to.
I also got to do inventory for those pharmacies, which was nice for me because it tested my accountability skills. I enjoyed it, probably because it involved calculations, and I also loved that anybody I worked under while taking inventory, no matter the hospital, was always an accountable person.
I’ve also worked a locum job at a community pharmacy, which was nice enough, just that it was a new pharmacy and we needed a lot of hands-on the job, which we weren’t getting.
In summary, I’ve not totally enjoyed life in the workforce so far. The actual places that I want to work like research institutes such as NIPRD, NIMR, data analytics centers, are hard to get into because in Nigeria, most times to get such jobs, you need to know someone who knows someone, instead of using skills and merit purely.
I understand. This workforce life no balance.
You’re currently in your service year. First off, How was the camp experience for you? Then, now that you’re working with the Ministry of Health, Umuahia, what has the experience been like for you?
After waiting for 6 months to get NYSC posting, I got posted to Abia State. We did our camp in Umunna bende (I’m getting very good at pronouncing Igbo names), which was a nice experience overall.
The camp was 65% fun for me. First off, I was the only Lagos person in the camp. We were mostly Yorubas in camp, with people from other southwest states apart from Lagos. It felt a little close to home, and it was an experience meeting people from other southwest states, southeastern and South-South states, noting how different our experiences are to each other.
I tried as much as possible to engage in the experiences that I could. I volunteered for clinic duty, volleyball, welfare committee, tried to join the parade but marching is not in the blood.
I mostly just enjoyed watching people do their activities. The soldiers were nice, but the food was bad (coming from someone that likes food). It was very tasteless, so my money was going into mammy market, even though sapa don enter, but we still dey.
I tried to relocate/redeploy, it didn’t work. I saw that my name was cancelled on the relocation list with my platoon officer, meaning the relocation worked but the ancestors in Umuahia didn’t want me to go back. So I decided to stay for one year. I didn’t stress too much when the relocation didn’t go through, especially since I was not ready to spend money that I don’t have to process relocation.
Lucky for me, I was posted to the state capital’s ministry of health, from where I was posted to a hospital. Abia state has been flexible for me so far. I’ve stayed here roughly 3 weeks as of the time of publication of this article. Everything here is 100 naira, which is funny for someone who comes from Lagos where you can pay like 150 for transporting yourself to the shortest distance. The weather is so different from Lagos. Rain falls with the same intensity for like 3 hours straight, unlike what I’m used to in Lagos.
It’s an experience too with government work and their flexibility with time. Their level of chillness is a big contrast to the seriousness of Lagos. That just helps me with more opportunities, I’m able to do other stuff like online courses and pursue my other interests.
In addition to this, I’m a Muslim lady that wears the hijab, so choosing to stay back in Abia for the year wasn’t an easy decision to make. It took all my brain and willpower to make the decision, especially with the level of crises ongoing in the country.
In my heart of hearts, I was just like If I die, I die serving the country lool
In my time so far, I haven’t met any cruel person, apart from the fact I’m just mostly seen as a northerner because of the hijab. So, it’s either I’m addressed as “Corper” to those that suspect I must be serving, or addressed by other people as “ameriya”, which means they think I’m a northerner and that I must be somebody’s wife.
I like the fact that they just speak their language when they see you, not minding that you may not understand it. I want to believe the whole experience will be worthwhile.
I hope you have nothing but great experiences there.
You mentioned having more time to learn other things. What are those things?
I want to learn how to sew and I want to have digital skills. Content creation appeals to me for now, and maybe, later on, data analytics but I’m so scared because people tell me it’s hard to learn.
Can you expatiate on what motivated you to learn those and what your plans are for them?
What motivates me to learn how to sew is that I’m not always contented with the dresses I’m given to wear. I’m always finding faults in the dresses and I feel like I could do better if I make them myself.
I have this mental picture of mad ideas of designs for clothing that are for me. I don’t know how to draw those designs, but I feel they can be done. Your clothing can be modest and still classy.
Clothing is also expensive and it’s hard to find a modest clothing line that’s cheap. I also like creating things. Even though I’m always telling myself I’m not creative, I think I can be creative with dressmaking.
As for content creation, I’ve always loved writing, not writing stories (as per fiction), but I journal a lot, right from secondary school, it’s been my little secret. I’ve always enjoyed creating stuff and writing my journal. In secondary school, my teachers used to love my composition a lot, and I just didn’t think it was something I stressed myself to do.
I want to create writing content, and I know it’ll come with a lot of things like tapping into videography skills, animation, and other digital skills, but I just want to put my writing into something.
I don’t know how to create poems, but I know how to structure my words.
I want to make content creation my hobby, and also something I can make money from. I can say the same for sewing hobby-wise, maybe for money later on, but for now, I just want to make my dresses the exact way I imagine them. I want to put my ideas out there and invest in myself.
I want to have a skill I’m passionate about and that’s the major drive behind why I’m pursuing sewing and content creation
What are the things you like and the things you don’t like about practising pharmacy? How do you think those things you don’t like can be improved?
I like that pharmacy is a part of the professions you can count as a service to humanity. I can say that practising the profession, although having its up and downs, I’ve liked the smiles I get from the patients/clients I’ve worked with, the fact that they are happy with their improving health. I like that I’m able to be part of a team that can provide solutions to health issues.
Even though we can be a bit discriminating in the pharmacy sector, but I like the togetherness and the fact that when we see ourselves outside, we identify ourselves with the slogan “as men of honour, we join hands”. I like the intra-professional relationships, especially when it comes to conferences.
What I don’t like about practising pharmacy is the Nigerian factor of erring from standard laid down procedures that we’ve been taught. This happens in the hospital, community, and academic practices, and when people try to fight the system, their efforts end up being jeopardized. This isn’t a pharmacy issue alone. It’s something that is wrong with the Nigerian system generally. You just have to cut corners to do everything, even though we all know it’s wrong.
Also, not all seniors of the profession are as willing as other seniors to open up opportunities for you and guide you. It’s wrong that they contribute to the jeopardy of the system we have, such that we juniors in the profession don’t see a way out and just end up following the crowd.
I think things can be improved and that it starts with every one of us individually. I particularly like to refer to Professor Igwilo in this context. I like her because even before we got to meet her, we always heard good things about her and how she’s trying to be a better person, and improve the system as a lady in the profession, trying to open up opportunities for the younger ones and telling us what is right and what is wrong, and she following those guidelines.
She has always been a role model in my life, so imagine we have someone like her in everybody’s lives. Imagine being that kind of person, being the change you want to see. I think it would help improve things.
I really hope to be part of the solution makers in our sector. It starts with being a better person, as a professional.
Do you have any memorable/funny experiences from any of your workplaces so far?
As a pharmacist, there are definitely funny encounters with patients, and I’ve had a few. I remember one man that denied his blood pressure. It was in a community pharmacy, and after taking his blood pressure, he told me no, that it was the blood pressure of the previous patient I had attended to. I took it again, and he still denied it, saying the machine was spoilt.
There was also an old man that came to purchase gloves and insisted that he wanted me to confirm the number of gloves in the box, before buying. He ended up counting it out by himself, despite my lack of response to his nagging, I was very patient with him and when he was done, and paid for the gloves, he seemed amazed by how patient I had been. I think he was trying to test me. I just had a smirk on my face through the whole encounter.
There are also times that male patients try to describe the symptoms of the STDs that they have, and because I’m visibly Muslim, they get uncomfortable describing their symptoms, almost as if they don’t expect me to know about things like that. I’m the one that has to spell out their symptoms for them before they confirm that they’re experiencing it.
There are also experiences with patients that just want to fight you, and they’re quite a handful.
My best memorable experiences are with elderly ones, especially when they are describing the drugs that they want by colour or shape, and I’m standing there not knowing what drug they’re talking about, or when I’m trying to switch brands for them and after wasting 30 minutes of saliva, they’re still like “No, that’s not the one my son got for me from abroad”.
I also like when they share their life experiences.
If not Pharmacy, what else would you have like to study?
If not Pharmacy, definitely engineering. As a side note, my dad should not see this article because he’s going to warn me that he has told me not to mention engineering again, but to him, I say “Daddy, engineering please, any day, anytime”
Apart from being in a white coat and being proud of my profession as a Pharmacist, I’d have also loved to be in an orange overall with my helmet, big boots, comfortable clothing, and probably trying to bolt a screw on a helicopter or something. I’ve always envisioned myself like that because I’m always proud of my dad, an engineer when I see him wear his vest.
Any other parting words as we wrap up the interview?
I’d just like to say thank you for granting me the interview.
I’m so glad I could share my experiences and I hope that my experience encourages somebody out there.
My final thoughts would be that as individuals, we should always be the best version of ourselves. My religion has taught me that the greatest battle worth fighting is the one against your soul. So, wherever you find yourself, be the best version of yourself, and that applies to being in the profession too. We shouldn’t allow the bad eggs amongst our senior colleagues to make us feel intimidated or inferior. Let’s live our best life in the profession, and outside the profession, remembering to follow the protocols, and being the change-makers.
Lastly, your social media pages so that our readers can follow you.
My instagram page is @bolu_t_
Thank you so much for your time!
Thank you for having me.
Mobolaji Uthman, a member of the Editorial Committee did this…
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