The AJP Podcast

The AJP’s podcast host Carlene McMaugh shares her career lessons and tips “It starts with knowing your values, what you are looking for, that you’re willing to leave the comfort of where you are and start something new,” says Carlene McMaugh.  In the latest episode of the AJP Podcast, McMaugh details the ways pharmacists can think about their career in 2025.  There are opportunities to use new technology for searches and to brush up on marketing, she said.  “You could type in your skills or your experiences and to ChatGPT and ask for suggestions about roles or you can even put your CV in and ask what options there are out there.” Other highlights include:  04:46: Carlene shares her own career journey.  12:30: Thinking about your brand.  17:16: Using AI to enhance your resume.  19:04: The importance of networking.  You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription. ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify  Carlene McMaugh

A leading aged care pharmacist discusses how pharmacy has changed over the years – and his passion welcoming those changes The AJP Podcast talks to the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia's inaugural Aged Care Pharmacist of the Year – Neil Petrie, who has been working primarily in aged care, undertaking medication reviews for the past 25 years. He has also owned his own community pharmacy in the past and semi-retired into aged care onsite pharmacy under the ACOP program. With a father and uncle who were pharmacists, he says he remembers being about six or seven years old, “and going to the pharmacy after hours with my dad to make up an APC mixture, if I remember rightly, which was aspirin, phenacetin, and caffeine in it”. “And I vividly remember my father saying, hold that needle and don't drop it. And what did I do? I dropped it onto the footpath, didn't I? “So pharmacy’s been in my blood for a long time and I did have my own pharmacy for about 13 years, but I realised I wanted to do something a little bit different and when I had my pharmacy, I started servicing some hostels at that point in time and I really enjoyed that work.” Petrie was one of Australia's first pharmacists accredited to conduct medication reviews in 1998 – and ever since, his motto has been change. He says ACOP will only increase in time, and “highlights our impact on direct resident care, medication safety, the quality use of medicines, and really system-wide improvements to medication procedures. So it really showcases us as pharmacists as a valued integral part of the care team.” This is also highlighted, he says, by the sheer need for pharmacists' services; discussing the most common medication-related problems in aged care facilities, given the amount of polypharmacy – and more importantly, inappropriate polypharmacy – underway. Highlights include: 01:13 – Neil's introduction to pharmacy 03:42 – Aged care: a changing environment 05:11 – RMMRs and lack of rural and remote support: a disillusioning moment 06:14 – The responsibility of promoting ACOP 07:39 – Over 30-plus years in the field, what has changed the most? 09:29 – “How one person within the organisation can change an organisation overnight” 10:40 – The most common medication-related problems in ACFs 11:46 – Beginning an antibiotic stewardship program 13:11 – Taking the workload off the nurses 15:09 – “We have to get to a point where society says wherever medication is involved in therapy, there’s a pharmacist involved.” 17:11 – Thoughts on deprescribing 18:36 – The role of interdisciplinary team-based care 20: 54 – “How do you approach educating both residents and their families about their medications?” 22:07 – Practical strategies 23: 58 – “Polypharmacy is challenging.” 25: 06 – Neil's vision for the future 29:26 – How can technology help? 32:18 – What advice would you give young pharmacists? 42:07 – A passion for antimicrobial use You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription. ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

“Saying sorry seems like such a simple, inherent notion, but it can also be a minefield,” PDL professional development pharmacist and Be Risk Ready host, Amy Minion says  Meridian Lawyers' Chandrika Darroch joins PDL Podcast host, Amy Minion, and pharmacist, Georgina Woods, to discuss how to apologise when incidents occur.  This episode of the Be Risk Ready PDL Podcast looks at how to apologise for an incident, and what to do and not do.   The topics covered include:  “It's important to normalise adverse events” (2 minutes 36).  Make sure the patient feels heard (3:54).  “Apologies are a very important component of incident and complaint management, and the regulators generally have quite a poor view of practitioners who are neither apologetic or reflective” (7:24).  Open disclosure (9:17).  “It’s important to keep in mind that no one is infallible” 10:08.  Apology laws and how to actually say sorry (15:49).  “Matters escalate when there’s been a failure to acknowledge that something’s gone wrong” (18:48).  “You can and you should express sympathy, regret or concern” (20:18).  Resources available for pharmacists (21:31).  You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription. ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

One multi-award-winning pharmacist talks to the AJP Podcast about why we need to value the services available in pharmacy – and pay for them The Capital Chemist Charnwood is in the news again: 11 years after being named Guild Pharmacy of the Year, it has again taken home two of the final awards in the competition, being recognised for excellence in Community Engagement and Excellence in Harm Minimisation at APP25. Co-owner Samantha Kourtis told AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh that government decisions, made without input from pharmacy, were a strong influence on her implementing a fee-for-service model. “From the early days, I’ve been a huge advocate for charging [for] things,” Kourtis says. “And 13 years ago I walked into this pharmacy. Everything was free, free blood pressure, free home delivery, free Webster packs, free consult with the baby nurse, free everything. “And early on I was like, well, this has to stop.” It simply wasn't a viable business model, she realised – perhaps counter-intuitive given that Charnwood is one of Canberra's lowest socioeconomic demographics, but as it turned out, customers are happy to pay what pharmacist expertise is worth. She pointed out that she bought into the business in March 2010 – and that in October that year, the federal government announced accelerated price disclosure. “I was in a real position where my business loan could have crashed and burned. The bank could have come in and taken it away because overnight the value of our businesses went down… “And we’ve seen this happen several times over the last 10 years with what the government's done. “So it was my commitment to valuing the work that a registered healthcare professional did and my commitment to stopping the of services in pharmacy and then the financial pressure on me as a brand new young business owner that had to go, okay, well, I don't want to pay my pharmacist award wage. I want to pay them well, because they do a really great job. “So if someone wants to sit down with a pharmacist for a blood pressure check, they'll pay for it. And that has gained momentum from then. And we were charging $15, 13 years ago, for a wound consult fee.” Highlights include: 01:40 – Becoming an award-winning pharmacy through the ups and downs 05:01 – What did winning the awards mean for staff and the community? 06:59 – Talking about harm minimisation in schools 08:07 – What it takes to being an award-winning pharmacy in this space 11:11 – Engaging with the community 13:22 – The viable business model 16:11 – Why $10 for a consult is “such a joke that is so disrespectful to our profession”. 17:01 – “Nobody complains really about the price.” 18:29 – What does being unsurprised in pharmacy mean to you? 21:10 – “I could not believe that the leaders in our country thought that [disparaging pharmacists over 60-day dispensing] was a good idea.” 22: 31 – “Actually, it doesn't matter what I think. Doesn't matter how I practise, doesn't matter how much I care, things are going to happen. And that was quite freeing.” 24:11 – On being part of the scope trials 28:38 – What are the core values of your pharmacy? 31:35 – A challenge for pharmacists: be unsurprised 34:36 – A “vulnerable time” for pharmacy You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription. ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

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