Karumba Pharmacy may be remote but that hasn’t stopped it from embracing technology to get its message out in award-winning fashion.
The Pharmacy on the Gulf of Carpentaria was recently named the winner of the Pharmacy Guild’s 2018 video competition for rural and remote pharmacies across Australia
The competition gave rural and remote pharmacies the opportunity to show their colleagues and the community why they love working in these areas – and to invite more pharmacy professionals to join them in this special healthcare setting.
As part of the I Love Rural Pharmacy theme of the Rural Pharmacy Forum at Australia's largest pharmacy trade exhibition, APP2018, rural and remote pharmacists and their staff were invited to submit a 30-45 second video about their work and experiences in their unique pharmacies.
Chris Vines, whose partner Cathy Todd owns the pharmacy, said the video was put together by Cathy’s daughter, Mikaela, 24, a newly trained pharmacist now back home working with the family.
“The video was our chance to tell people why they should come and work here so we had the beautiful sunsets and the outback scenery,” Mr Vines said.
“But we also had pictures during the floods when Karumba was cut off and we had to freight dispensary stuff 80km up the river from Normanton.”
Mikaela said she was alerted to the competition by her mentor who used to work in Karumba.
“I’m not very tech savvy and this was my first video,” she said.
But she need not have been so modest. Judges at the Pharmacy Guild thought she best brought out the theme of “Come Work With Me” to highlight why they should consider working in rural and remote pharmacy.
National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, George Tambassis, said that in this the second year of the competition the range of videos was creative and inspiring.
“The commitment these pharmacies have to their rural and remote communities shines through in the videos,” Mr Tambassis said.
“They are inspiring and I have no doubt that some pharmacists looking to a rural or remote career will be motivated by them.”
Mr Tambassis said he was amazed by the quality and diversity of the videos.
“Some of these pharmacists and their staff have been very creative and the videos submitted ranged from the humorous to the serious, and from the dramatic to the light-hearted.
“And they have all made it very clear that these rural and remote pharmacists and their staff love what they are doing.”
The winners received a prize of full registration to APP2019 or a year’s subscription to GuildCare NG software for the pharmacy.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
