Caro was recently writing about future career choices. I felt like commenting, but in the end decided to write my own blog entry.
If you (a) know me or (b) have been a regular reader of my blog or (c) all of the above or perhaps even (d) none of the above, you may know that I have struggled with this 'when I grow up ...' question. At the moment I am a pharmacist. I deal with (not in) drugs, patient care, healthcare teams, life, death, moral issues, bureaucracy issues. It is only on a few (count them on one hand) occasions where I have been passionate and excited about my job. I'm still not sure what my vocation is, but over the past few days I've begun to get a sense of it all.
Now, I feel I should mention that up until this point I didn't see being a pharmacist as a part of my calling -- it was simply a really good fall back plan. Things are starting to change. I think my vocation, is much bigger than my practice of pharmacy -- yet still includes pharmacy. [Was that a gasp from some of you?] I started looking into 'volunteer' opportunities ... related to pharmacy. I've looked at Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontiéres) and VSO ... and I received the most interesting reply from VSO. They sent along an old job description:
Royal Victoria Hospital (The Gambia, West Africa.)
Key Duties and responsibilities of the volunteer:
*To offer training and re-training to all staff in Pharmacy Department
*To improve clinical pharmacy practice at ward level
*To assist in the local production of eye drops and Intravenous Infusions
*To assist in setting up a drug information system
*In collaboration with VSO accounts trainer, to assist in the conversion of manual store records to computerise records
*Together with the VSO accounts trainer, to develop further systems of stock control
Really, the key tasks are not all that glamourous. But as I was reading over the job description, I became excited about the possibility of something similar. Both MSF and VSO require 2 years experience within one's field ... so I wouldn't be going anywhere just yet. But I have been looking at education to prepare me for such a role. (e.g. McMaster's MIEH program)
Enough thoughts for now. I've have much reading to do for Monday. And (horray) my small group is starting tonight.