Talking of success, the missed opportunities, professionalism (or lack of it) and the Pharmacists…

I’m not sure I have the right idea of a professional, but I believe that to be a professional one must possess more than just the basic unique skill that differentiates them from lay people or other skilled people. As a pharmacist, you should never allow anyone else to play your role, or if they attempt to, it should be clear to all watching from the sidelines that an impostor is on the loose. If I can then borrow the definition from elsewhere, a professional is that whose competence can 'usually' be measured against an established set of standards. The word usually here is very important because many professions may not be clearly defined. I do not know if pharmacy is one of them.


I want to share further a few aspects that are generally accepted as belonging to a professional. And I really want to put them in two distinct categories. The categories are as simple as the Dos and the Don’ts . In this way, the professional codes of conduct or ethics are made so simple and less boring to the young Kenyan pharmacist reader’s mind.

So let’s get on:

Things to Do

• Do return value to your customer (internal and external) in all ‘business’ decisions

• Do return value to your community locally and globally

• Do deliver quality in a timely fashion

• Do be honest in your work by telling the client, customer, or boss that the task or project you are working on will not meet the target date.

• Do ask for help in order to meet the project or task deadline. A professional will not feel slighted if he or she acknowledges that he or she needs help.

• If the employer wants respect from employees, he/she should treat all employees as professionals in their own right. Remember, if you treat someone as a professional, they will (hopefully) treat you like one too.

• Promote your profession

• Do things for the good of yourself, the customer and the profession. You are not a true professional if you don't deliver outcomes that satisfy all three of these areas.


Things to Not Do

• Do not tell the client, customer, or boss that you can do something when you cannot.

• Do not steal from your employer.

• Do not underestimate your capabilities


As good as these points are, my world of pharmacy, a small world indeed, still has so many gaps and an army of non-aligned individuals with conflicting priorities. The most basic professional virtue that is lacking in pharmacy, the Kenyan chapter, as I have lived so far is the scarcity of ‘professional goodwill’. Let me explain. A professional body like the PSK exists so as to define, promote, oversee, support and regulate the affairs of its members. Even if an individual pharmacist is not a PSK member, an organization of voluntary membership as of now, that pharmacist must be seen to observe all of these values. A pharmacist who observes these tenets elicits ‘professional goodwill’.

Let me bring another dimension. Every profession has minimum admission requirements. For pharmacists, the minimum requirement is a recognised basic pharmaceutical degree. Most pharmacists actually possess only this minimum requirement, and that is ok and acceptable. Pharmacists can also seek more specialized knowledge and ability through further training for the benefit of the individual and the profession. Naïve pharmacists at the decision making level, with the narrowest view of the world I can ever imagine, administratively, or procedurally, or plainly in an uncouth manner block younger and more ambitious pharmacists from pursuing their dreams. This is done intentionally for the fear of losing jobs to sharper and more competent minds. Let’s all agree that pharmacists are also human beings, and they are therefore subject to normal petty human jealousies. But then why don’t they do things for the good of themselves? I really don’t mind someone staying at the helm ‘forever’. What I mind is him not doing things for the good of himself (as a distinguished professional), the customer (the patients et al) and the profession (of pharmacy). I won’t tolerate the sight (and smell) of such a person, not even for one lousy second!


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Now Kenya usually has two rules-the one on paper and the one that carries the day. Pharmacists are the only health professionals who zealously protect what is on paper; the 8-5pm working hours rule, and as it goes, it takes a pharmacist to enforce this work ethic among the other pharmacists. Dentists, medical officers, nurses, clinical officers and all the others let their members go in shifts. Not even a letter from the ultimate authority will water down their resolve. Whether what they are doing is right or wrong is not for me to decide, but whatever they are doing, their members are happy. I do not know if there is a pharmacy version of open professional ‘rebellion’ that is only good to the pharmacists and is protected to death by our bosses. In short, our work is quantitative and not qualitative. We are not allowed to make ‘extra money’ on the side lest we lose focus on the ‘very important job’ we were employed for. This is a very good rule, but look where it has taken us?
No wonder everyone is going public health.