‘Behind Every Prescription Is Someone Surviving Something’ The AJP podcast

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‘Behind every prescription is someone surviving something’

6d ago 23:38

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PSA Victorian pharmacist of the year Sara Murdock talks about a “sliding doors” moment in her career – and why it’s important to make sure every patient’s voice is heard

Murdock tells the AJP Podcast’s Carlene McMaugh about the many times she has reinvented herself – from arriving in Australia from war-torn Iraq “with nothing, just hope” to the time she walked away from a job that refused to offer her, a single mother, the flexibility she needed to parent her son.

“I think people often think of pharmacists as people that dispense and dispense scripts and check scripts, but once they get to know me, they realise our impact goes far beyond the pharmacy doors,” she says.

“We’re often the first point of contact for someone who’s scared in crisis, overwhelmed or in pain, and we’re quite often educating or triaging. We listen a lot and we are often in people’s lives for a very long time, so we have conversations we support, we offer support, and we build trust and that’s where the real impact happens, not just inside the pharmacy but out in their community every single day.”

For Murdock, this means “hands-on” health delivery in Pascoe Vale, where she works, going to local clubs to do free blood pressure checks, getting involved with Rotary, overhauling her pharmacy to put in consulting rooms and talking at schools and local football cubs.

But it also means really being there when it matters to patients.

“I’ll never forget this lady who came into the pharmacy one late afternoon. I remember it clearly because she wasn’t a regular patient and she looked completely overwhelmed.

“She had a toddler on one hip and a script and her hand and her eyes looked quite puffy that she’d been crying and on paper at the time it looked like just a repeat for an antidepressant that you could have dispensed, but something just didn’t feel right and instead of just processing her prescription, I asked her gently at the time, ‘how are you? Are you okay?’

“And she broke down, she hadn’t slept, she hadn’t eaten properly and she’d just left the home because of an abusive partner.

“And she said to me, I didn’t know where else to go. So I came here and in that moment the pharmacy became more than a pharmacy.

“I brought her into the consult room, gave her space to breathe, linked her to support services, and I contacted her GP to coordinate the next steps.

“But more than that, I made her feel safe, seen, not rushed and not judged. And I remember her saying that I was the very first person who didn’t look away and that interaction has stayed with me forever.

“I believe behind every prescription is someone surviving something and sometimes the difference we make isn’t in the medicine, but in the way we choose to show up.”

Highlights include:

01:13 – “Sliding doors” – why Murdock left one pharmacy job, finding her way to one which was “amazing”

02.23 – What people don’t realise about pharmacists

04:03 – “We’ve built a culture I’m very proud of where every voice is heard.”

04:46 – Helping a desperate customer

05:51 – Advice on handling difficult situations

08:07 – “I’ve had to reinvent myself quite a few times and it started early.”

10:54 – What keeps you going?

11.29 – “Balanced? What’s that word?”

12:49 – Transforming health care in Pascoe Vale

15:32 – Beyond the pharmacy walls

16:57 – If you could change one thing in the pharmacy profession, what would it be?

17:38 – Advice for pharmacists starting out

18:49 – “Balance doesn’t mean perfect proportions every single day.”

19:04 – AI and pharmacy

20:29 – How Murdock’s pharmacy evolves to meet the community’s needs

20: 51 – How does the future look?

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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Carlene McMaugh

134 episodes

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