Interview with Ayomide Ogundipe (Pharmaceutical Society of Australia ECP Director & Chair)
Interviewed by: Sheri Wong
1. Please introduce yourself!
Hi there! My name is Ayomide Ogundipe, Mide for short, and I am a community pharmacist and researcher based in Perth, Western Australia. I’m passionate about professional services, digital health transformation and indoor houseplants. I’m currently wrapping up my PhD at Curtin Medical School, evaluating the technological needs of community pharmacists to enable contemporary pharmacy practice. In July 2023, I was appointed as the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) Early Career Pharmacist (ECP) Board Appointed Director and chair of the PSA ECP Community of Specialty Interest.
2. Outline your career journey thus far.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Curtin University in 2017 and completed my internship with Pharmacy 777 in 2018. I’ve worked in community pharmacy since the first year of my pharmacy undergrad, and watching the profession grow and evolve has been great. I love professional services and seeing all the different areas pharmacists can work in.
My passion, organisation and innovation in professional services delivery earned me the national 2019 MIMs Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Intern Pharmacist of the Year, a massive career highlight. Following this, I began sessional teaching at Curtin University, in the School of Pharmacy, covering units such as pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical compounding.
When the COVID pandemic hit Australia, I continued to work full time in community pharmacy but simultaneously enrolled in my PhD research project. (Talk about timing?!) During the pandemic, I worked in mass vaccination COVID clinics in metropolitan Western Australia and did some dispensary relief cover at Perth Children's Hospital. The clinics were an incredible effort of multidisciplinary care, and I made many lasting friendships with the pharmacists and nurses who worked there.
I’m in the final stages of my PhD, evaluating the technological needs of community pharmacists to facilitate professional services, alongside working as a pharmacist and sessional academic.
I have definitely benefited from networking and mentoring, and I can see how that has completely transformed my career trajectory. As I commence my term as national ECP chair, I look forward to championing this with other ECPs and helping to encourage the next generation of advocates for the profession.
3. Please share your experience serving the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and any other relevant pharmacy organisations. How have these experiences shaped you?
My involvement with PSA dates back to my student pharmacy society, the Western Australian Pharmacy Student’s Association. I started as a student member and joined the Early Career Pharmacist (ECP) working group.
Following this, I was appointed to the National Australian Pharmacy Student Association (NAPSA) as Vice Congress Chair for the national student conference hosted in Perth in 2017. Following this, I was appointed to the national board of NAPSA as an executive director, looking after public relations in the 2017/2018 term.
I joined the PSA Western Australian branch committee as a member in 2020 and became involved in state based policy and advocacy efforts. I was elected Vice President in 2022 and re-elected to the branch committee and Vice Presidency in June 2023. In July 2023, I was appointed the national PSA ECP Board Appointed Director and PSA ECP Community of Specialty Interest chair.
I have learnt so much through working in collaboration with other ECPs, contributing to PSA’s policy and advocacy, and organising networking and educational events for ECPs. It has been an excellent opportunity for professional development, networking and contributing back to the profession.
4. Have there been any challenges that you have faced as an early career pharmacist?
I think burnout has been a challenge I and many other ECPs have faced.
You finish your degree, get registered, and move onto your career, and being a pharmacist can become a big part of your identity. Being passionate and engaged from such an early stage meant I, and those around me, were living and breathing pharmacy. It’s hard to think about anything else when you enjoy what you do!
COVID changed so much about how we live and work, from online learning for students, navigating how to help anxious patients behind protective personal equipment and juggling my research, that I think I had a lot of downtime unless I made time for it.
Something I have found helpful is prioritizing how I spend my time, including time to rest, and how imperative it is that I find joy in things outside of that. Circling back to my previous comment about indoor house plants, this is an excellent example of something I enjoy doing outside of pharmacy that also complements it. I enjoy caring for people (plants), it’s great to see how they progress over time, and there is so much learning to be had (both from working with people and caring for plants!)
5. Share any past or present projects that you were involved in and are passionate about.
I was recently involved in revising the Professional Practice Standards (PPS) for the PSA. The PPS articulates and defines the minimum performance expectations of professional behavior for all pharmacists in Australia. The standards are also an assessment tool to enable pharmacists to deliver safe, high quality, reliable, and clinically effective healthcare services. It was a fantastic opportunity to give back to the profession and work with an incredible team to deliver it.
6. What are you most looking forward to at the moment?
While I absolutely love my research, I am looking forward to submitting my thesis and finishing my PhD. I am also looking forward to FIP Congress 23 in Brisbane! I attended my first FIP conference in Seville, Spain, last year, and it was great to meet many passionate people and learn about pharmacy practice worldwide.
7. What piece of advice would you give to early-career pharmacists today?
Find a good mentor and utilize your time as an ECP to discover what you are genuinely passionate about. Mentors can be a big help in identifying areas where you can improve and grow. It can sometimes be hard to stay motivated, so surround yourself with passionate and supportive people. There are so many new and exciting roles for pharmacists, and there is a lot we can learn from pharmacy practice worldwide. COVID has introduced new and innovative ways of doing things, and we need to lean into that innovation as we look forward to what is next for the pharmacy profession.
Thank you Mide for sharing your experiences and words of wisdom with us!
