Sarah, Pharmacy Manager
As the Pharmacy Manager my job involves the whole scope of pharmacy, so not only am I in the dispensary - dispensing with my team - I'm out on the counter trying to give advice and counselling and as pharmacy is moving more towards the future, it's getting more customer focused, so they are trying to get the pharmacists out of the dispensary and onto the counter to help provide the knowledge that we have, that we've gained at university, to the customers.
I relay really between the dispensary and the counter. As well as collating my figures, making sure that we are hitting out targets. Obviously it is a business as well as a pharmacy, so I look into the sales, process and also about our NHS targets as well. So it's a whole scope really 'cause you're managing the whole department.
I actually am a pre-registration tutor, so I tutor one of the pre-registration Pharmacists through their training course. It's a year's training that they have once they finish university - they have their final exam sitting around June time. And it's my first year actually training a Pre-registration Pharmacist, so it's quite exciting 'cause you keep your knowledge up to date and it brings you back to the basics as well. And obviously between each member of staff, their training needs vary so it's just about taking a step back, looking at what their training needs are and being able to tailor it as a manager to each individual in your team. As you can imagine having a Pre-registration Pharmacist completely different training to a Counter Assistant.
Management's not for everyone. But it's great if you're wanting to develop within Tesco, as well to look more on the business side of things 'cause you still obviously have your hand in the pharmacy aspect so you don't lose touch with that, which is great about being a Pharmacy Manager you're not taking away from the pharmacy aspect of the business.
Currently with the Pharmacy Manager role, because of the training of a pre-registration trainee, it's helping me to develop and also train other pharmacists. So when new pharmacists come to the business they'll do a two week induction. So I've had several pharmacists that I've had to train as well as pharmacy managers. So at the moment I think I'll probably stay in the store for a little while longer just to build on that experience. But I am actually interested in training and currently had career discussions with my Regional Manager as well about my interest in training.