Is pharmacy flexible enough as a profession? How does working outside the traditional model help women balance the daily juggle of motherhood, work and everything else?

The AJP Podcast’s Carlene McMaugh spoke to consultant pharmacist of the year Brooke Shelly, who is well-known in the profession for her “portfolio career” about the challenges women still face, even in a profession with the perceived flexibility of pharmacy.

Shelly, a rural pharmacist in Mildura, Victoria, is the mother of three young children, and “wears many hats,” with GP pharmacist, consultant pharmacist doing home medicines reviews and residential medicines management reviews and pharmacy governance among them.

“We often purport pharmacy to be quite a female friendly career path, and I think that really is mostly to do with the fact that 70% of our registered pharmacists work in community pharmacy and lots of community pharmacies are open seven days a week and nights,” she tells McMaugh.

Pharmacy is “tricky,” she says, because “if the pharmacist is not there, the business closes, and that might not be such a big challenge metropolitan-ly, but it is hugely problematic rurally.

“There are a lot of single pharmacist pharmacies, rurally, and it’s probably one of the major reasons why I haven’t remained in community pharmacy because when I moved home to Mildura, some of the pharmacies and one of the pharmacies I was working in was a single pharmacist pharmacy, and just that pressure to always be there and to have to put the business first.”

She talks about the concept of juggling balls: “some of them will bounce if you drop them, but some of them are glass and they’ll smash, and it’s really hard if your child is unwell and you’re the only pharmacist in the pharmacy, which one is the glass ball?

“Realistically, especially in rural areas, you are closing a pharmacy, you are closing a health service for hundreds of people potentially to go and pick up your child.

“Who is the centre of your universe? Which one is the glass ball?

“So I think, no, we are not doing enough. I don’t know what the solution is, particularly in pharmacy in rural areas, but for me, the solution has been to go into a different era of pharmacy and practise in a different way.”

More highlights include:

01.26: The positives and negatives of being a woman on one’s career in pharmacy: “You absolutely start on a lower footing”.

03.36: How are women perceived when they exhibit the same behaviour as men?

05.29: Shelly shares about some of her mentors and the women she looks up to – from Debbie Rigby to Fei Sim to Sheryl Sandberg.

11.04: What barriers does being a woman impose?

12.13: “I don’t necessarily think the goal should be 50/50. It should probably just be reflective of representing who your members are, and that should be across the board in leadership.”

13.28: The work-life balance, and why flexibility is expected of women

16.29: The unique perspectives women bring to patient care

19.24: Advice for young female pharmacists: “I think that life rarely hands you perfection.”

20.46: Are workplaces doing enough to support women?

22.24: “I’m disgusted by some of the commentary that you see online about mothers not being able to pull up a stool when they’re dispensing in a community pharmacy when they’re pregnant.”

23.36: How can we encourage women to take on leadership roles?

25.38: What policy shifts would you like to see supporting women?

28.24: What keeps you motivated?

30.08: What are your hopes for the future?

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.

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