As seen in the December issue of Retail Pharmacy magazine.
This month Retail Pharmacy spoke with Dr Fei Sim, National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, about the presidency, her professional background, community pharmacy, her advocacy role and more.
On being elected as the first female national president of the PSA since 1977 …
Yes, I’m the first female national president. But I also want to highlight that my belief is that people should be in a position regardless of their characteristics in terms of where they’ve come from, whether it’s gender, race, age or any other factor that’s not within their control to change. So if, for instance, there was someone else best suited for the role, then absolutely, that person should be given the opportunity to do the role. I certainly don’t want to be in any position just because I’m a female.
We’re in the transition phase, and women in particular would need to be able to have someone to look at to see where the potential is in terms of mentorship and guidance. I think, from that perspective, absolutely – that’s very important to continue.
At [this year’s] PSA conference, I mentioned – and I’ve mentioned this in other forums as well – I’ve got my own ‘triple whammy’. So, a triple whammy in the pharmacy or medical space is a term that any clinician knows. It’s when you have someone on three different medicines … and when you take [a particular] combination together, you increase the risk of damage [to organs such as] the kidneys. My triple whammy growing up has been age, gender and cultural diversity.
When people look at me and see those three things, often when they look at me, that’s the first thing they see. They see that I’m a female, I’m from a diverse cultural background, and I look like I’m young – younger than my actual age. I think the narrative needs to start to change to when we look at someone, considering the factors and the attributes of the person – the actual attributes as opposed to the characteristics that they can’t change.
So, at the [PSA] conference I mentioned that instead of thinking of those three things, we should be thinking about the triple C: the person’s capability, courage and compassion. As a leader, you need to have a really good combination [of these three characteristics].
On her professional background …
In terms of my PSA journey, in 2016 I was elected to serve on the PSA WA branch committee. And then in 2017, I was elected as the PSA WA state president – branch president. So, I served as the WA branch president for four years between 2017 and 2021.
During that time, when I was in WA … we went through that significant expansion of pharmacists [within the space of] vaccination – skilled pharmacist vaccination – and I was able to work with the stakeholders around driving the advocacy agenda [in that space]. Also during that time, this was also when Covid-19 came, so there was a lot of involvement in terms of navigating through Covid and positioning pharmacists as primary healthcare providers, so that’s an area that’s a passion of mine.
In 2021, I was elected to serve on the PSA national board, and then in 2022, on 1 July, I started as the National President of the PSA.
As far as my professional background goes, I did an undergrad in pharmacy at Curtin University. During my bachelor’s degree in the fourth year, we were able to opt into an honours program, where I was exposed to research. Once I graduated from my bachelor’s degree, I went on and did my internship as a practising pharmacist, and then my supervisor at that time convinced me to come back [to university] and complete my PhD.
When I enrolled in the PhD, I was still practising as a community pharmacist. I was then given an opportunity to do some academic sessional teaching, which I loved. So then one thing led to another … and I finished my PhD in 2014, after which I got a position at Curtin University as an academic.
So, I’m a senior lecturer at the Curtin Medical School, in the pharmacy discipline. I’m also the coordinator of international engagement at the Curtin Medical School.
On community pharmacy …
Community pharmacy is another area and passion of mine because that’s my professional background.
There’s been a paradigm shift in community pharmacy practice and [when it comes to] the messaging, there needs to be an attitude of change in the way we practise community pharmacy. And it’s not just about the message to the community pharmacist, but also the other pharmacy support staff – the assistants and pharmacy students.
I’m of the belief that pharmacists should be where medicines should be used, so regardless of the setting … pharmacists should be there.
My passion is community pharmacy because I love the people and the environment. Every day in a community pharmacy is a different day. It’s a different opportunity every day to make an impact on someone’s life. A community pharmacist is able to be a part of someone’s life in a holistic manner.
The accessibility and rapport that community pharmacists are able to build with their communities are significant.
Covid gave us the platform to demonstrate the importance of community pharmacy primary care. What I want to drive is that, in Australia, every time when people think about primary care … they think that primary care equals GPs and pharmacists.
Pharmacists and GPs work so well together, and it’s allowing these two primary healthcare providers to work together that will strengthen primary care in Australia.
On advocating for pharmacy …
There are a few things that we’re focusing on. In terms of advocacy, there are five key avenues that I want to drive during my presidency.
The first one is around medicine safety. PSA has always done medicine safety, because pharmacists are custodians of medicine safety and we’re the experts in medicine. The medicine safety agenda [as community pharmacists] … this is exactly what we do every day.
The second agenda is to integrate and position community pharmacists within the wider primary healthcare team. And to recognise and remunerate community pharmacists as true primary healthcare providers.
The third area is around aged care. So, to implement the government’s commitment towards aged care – part of driving pharmacists in aged care to improve the judicious use of medicines in aged care.
The fourth is to address pharmacist remuneration concerns and workforce capacity.
The fifth is to lead the organisation so that PSA can increase international engagement and make a global impact.
The other thing that I want to drive within the PSA is to position pharmacists in a positive light in mainstream media, such that we can enlist the public and policymakers outside of the pharmacy profession as the biggest advocates for pharmacy.
Nothing is stronger than having someone from outside [the profession] advocating for you!
We have to normalise the pharmacy profession in a positive light.
