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What makes the perfect pharmacist ? It seems it’s a combination between an astute scientist and a genial talk show host.

Louise Gabrovsek has just been named National Pharmacy Student of the Year, after competing against the best students from 22 pharmacy programs around Australia. The final eight young professionals had to work on stage with trained actors, dealing with the sorts of situations that face pharmacists every day in the suburbs.

Her teachers, Professor Alan Everett , Associate Professor Rhonda Clifford and Assistant Professor Liza Seubert , all agree that you have to have the right personality to be a good pharmacist.

Communication skills, empathy and warmth are essential qualities. But of course they must be coupled with scientific knowledge and skills. Louise was in the top 10 of her class in the Masters of Pharmacy course, so, according to Professor Clifford: “We knew we had a star.”

After winning the State finals, Louise went to Melbourne to compete against the six other State finalists and a wild card entry, in front of pharmacists at a national pharmacy conference. Each of the competitors was faced with a ‘patient’ from whom they had to elicit information before recommending the correct medication and outcome.

The first scenario was a young woman wanting pills to help her sleep. Louise’s careful questioning revealed it was the patient’s nicotine patches that were keeping her awake.

The second scene involved another woman asking for tablets for motion sickness. Upon questioning, Louise found out that the pills were for the customer’s mother, who was elderly and on other medications, which would have created a dangerous cocktail with motion sickness tablets.

“Louise won the day by picking up on that potentially dangerous interaction,” Professor Everett said. “None of the other finalists got to that point.”

Part of the two-year Masters course is weekly sessions on counselling, with tutors acting as patients while the students develop their communication skills. “Louise has a lovely manner with patients,” said Professor Seubert, who co-ordinates these sessions with Professor Clifford. “She easily develops a great rapport with people.”

UWA’s Masters of Pharmacy has just produced its sixth cohort of graduates. There are, on average, 35 students in the course each year, and Professor Clifford says they are all quickly employed.

People skills come before prescriptions “We keep our program small so we can deliver personalised teaching,” she said.

“You can only really effectively train people in health care in small groups,” Professor Everett said. “We interview prospective students before accepting them into the course. Communication skills are so important. Without them, there is no real health care.”

Louise won both the People’s Choice (judged by a couple of hundred pharmacists at the conference) and the judges’ award. She also presented a poster of her research to the conference, along with three other UWA students. Louise will probably use her $9,000 travel prize to attend a conference of international pharmacists in Dublin next year.

Meanwhile, she is completing her 12-month internship at the Mosman Drive-In Pharmacy in Stirling Highway Mosman Park.

A casual staff member in the Division of Pharmacy, Deirdre Criddle, was named the Pharmacist of the Year at the Melbourne conference. “It’s a very prestigious award; Deirdre inspires us all,” Professor Clifford said.

Professor Everett retires at the end of the year and said Louise’s outstanding success provided a high note on which to go out.

Published in UWA News , 12 November 2012