Olútáyò Àríkàwé
What has your career journey been so far?
My current role is the superintendent pharmacist of The Priory Community pharmacy in Dudley, West Midlands and I have been in the post since June 2014. I have had the pleasure of working in different aspects of pharmacy in two different countries, Nigeria and UK. I started my pharmacy journey in a military hospital in Nigeria, worked in both hospital and community pharmacy over there before deciding to further my career by migrating to the UK and pursuing the overseas program for pharmacists at Aston University, Birmingham. I did my pre-registration training at Lloydspharmacy in Enfield, where I had a three-week placement at the Barnet and Chase Farm hospital. I worked as a relief manager in Enfield area for around 5 months before moving to Walsall, West Midland to manage a Lloydspharmacy branch. I then moved up to manage 13 Lloyds pharmacies as the cluster lead manager. I have also worked as a locum in different pharmacies (multiple and independent).
Since registration as a pharmacist, I have completed a Diploma and Masters in public health from the University of London, Certificate in independent prescribing from Keele University and Diploma in leadership and management, Coventry University. I have also completed a Diploma in coaching from the Coaching academy where I qualified as a DiSC and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) practitioner. I am also a master practitioner of NLP.
I am also a visiting lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton where I lecture on public health modules and also developed a public health workshop for the final year students. I am presently pursuing a PhD in Pharmacy focusing on mental health at the University of Wolverhampton. I am a fellow of the Royal Society for Public health (RSPH).
How long have you been a pharmacist?
I have been a pharmacist for 18 years now, 7 years in Africa and 11 years in the UK.
Where did you work on your first day as a pharmacist and when was that?
My first job in the UK was as a pre-reg pharmacist at Lloydspharmacy in Enfield in July 2006. That was my first time of seeing a pharmacy computer system. Everything was quite different from what I knew in practice in Africa. I virtually dreaded speaking on the phone. The memorable part of my pre-reg was going out every single day to all the surgeries to collect prescriptions and building relationships with the surgeries. I ended up with a few days’ placements at one of the surgeries to experience working practice at GP surgeries.