Who are you: Ana Armstrong.
Summarise your role: As the pharmacy clinical team manager, I provide leadership and oversight to the team of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians that work on the wards. My overall aim is to ensure that we’re providing a safe pharmacy service to the wards and that we’re ensuring that patients get the best possible outcomes from their medication.
What do you find challenging about your role: It’s difficult having to juggle what I’d like the pharmacy clinical service to look like versus what we can achieve with our current staffing levels. There’s always ways in which we can improve, so it’s about finding the right balance between ideal and realistic.
What do you find rewarding: I love working on big projects that span across divisions to improve patient care, especially when I get to collaborate with people outside of pharmacy. For example, I’ve recently been working with some of the matrons to develop the self-administration of medication guidelines that will allow patients to safely take their own medication whilst they’re an in-patient. Although still in draft form, it will be of particular benefit to patients who rely on time critical medication, such as patients with Parkinson’s disease, diabetes or epilepsy, as it will allow patients to take their medication at the right time. Just one missed or delayed dose can have a massive negative impact on patients with these conditions so this initiative has the potential to really improve the way we care for our patients.
What do you enjoy outside of work: I can often be found pottering around the garden, baking cakes with my kids or planning a family holiday. I’m half Spanish so I try to go back to Spain as often as I can to visit my family.