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Pharmacy 50 Awards with Ellaine Sisomphou-Ramos | CPhT Connect Podcast · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
0:09
Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the pharmacy podcast Network.
0:21
Speaker 2: Welcome to CPHD Connect, the only weekly podcast specifically for
0:26
Speaker 2: pharmacy technicians. Join us as we dive into the hot topics,
0:31
Speaker 2: tough conversations, and industry trends affecting pharmacy technicians.
0:35
Speaker 3: In each episode, we.
0:37
Speaker 2: Connect you with industry leaders who want to help you
0:39
Speaker 2: expand your patient care, pharmacy practice, and professional advancement. Now
0:44
Speaker 2: here's your host, Mike Johnston, CPHD.
0:51
Speaker 4: Welcome to CPHD Connect. I'm your host, Mike Johnston, and
0:56
Speaker 4: today's guest is someone who true represents what growth in
1:01
Speaker 4: pharmacy can look like. Today's guest is Elaine Cismfu Ramos.
1:09
Speaker 4: She's a nationally certified pharmacy technician who began her career
1:12
Speaker 4: in retail pharmacy and steadily worked her way into an
1:16
Speaker 4: outpatient imbution specialty setting, expanding her clinical expertise and deepening
1:23
Speaker 4: her impact on patient care along the way. Ella, as
1:28
Speaker 4: she likes to go by, is widely recognized for her
1:31
Speaker 4: dedication to clinical excellence, professional growth, and advancing the technician profession.
1:36
Speaker 4: Her leadership and influence were recently recognized with a nomination
1:42
Speaker 4: as one of the top fifty most Influential Leaders in Pharmacy,
1:46
Speaker 4: which is an incredible accomplishment. We're going to dive into
1:49
Speaker 4: that today. She also holds an associates degree in nursing,
1:54
Speaker 4: which is a background that helps fuel her deep passion
1:56
Speaker 4: for patient advocacy and community health pharmacy. Ella is actively
2:01
Speaker 4: involved in volunteer work and service led initiatives, which is
2:05
Speaker 4: a passion that she shares with her family of four. Ella,
2:09
Speaker 4: we are so excited to have you on the podcast.
2:13
Speaker 4: Welcome to the show.
2:15
Speaker 3: Hi, Sumi, thank you for having me. I'm so nervous,
2:19
Speaker 3: but I'm very, very happy to be invited here. So
2:23
Speaker 3: thank you, Thank you for the whole team.
2:25
Speaker 4: You have nothing to be nervous about. Truth is. I
2:29
Speaker 4: was nervous with that last name and we're going we're
2:32
Speaker 4: going to break the fourth wall here. It took me
2:34
Speaker 4: more than one take, so I'm just excited that I
2:39
Speaker 4: got your name right, but super excited to have you
2:43
Speaker 4: here today. There's a lot that I want to dig into,
2:47
Speaker 4: but I do want to kind of put a little
2:48
Speaker 4: tease out there for the audience. We're going to be
2:51
Speaker 4: announcing something at the end of this episode that's really
2:55
Speaker 4: really exciting and connects with the topics we're gonna be
3:00
Speaker 4: talking about today. So make sure you stay tuned through
3:04
Speaker 4: the whole episode because you're not going to want to
3:05
Speaker 4: miss that for sure. Let's start from the beginning. Hello,
3:10
Speaker 4: So I understand you you also were a nurse, and.
3:15
Speaker 3: Well, I graduate nursing in the Philippines, but I couldn't
3:18
Speaker 3: transfer it back here in the US unless I go
3:21
Speaker 3: back to school. Oh so I find a way to
3:25
Speaker 3: still work at the hospital and work my way up,
3:28
Speaker 3: get the experience and all that. So okay.
3:32
Speaker 4: So you're originally from the Philippines.
3:34
Speaker 3: Yes, I was born in the Philippines and I grew
3:36
Speaker 3: up in Hawaii.
3:37
Speaker 4: Oh wow, fantastic. Yes, two very nice tropical locations. And
3:43
Speaker 4: now you're in a desert.
3:45
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, all the heat, all the sudden still.
3:49
Speaker 4: Lots of heat, but of none of the tropical parts
3:53
Speaker 4: of that. So okay. So you were nurse trained as
3:55
Speaker 4: a nurse in the Philippines and came here and made
3:58
Speaker 4: that transition to to pharmacy. What was that like, making
4:03
Speaker 4: making the move over and then doing a kind of
4:05
Speaker 4: a career transition with that.
4:08
Speaker 3: Let me see, well, it's very hard because the knowledge
4:13
Speaker 3: and skills that I have is nursing. So me working
4:17
Speaker 3: in a hospital setting, medical setting, it's kind of hard
4:20
Speaker 3: to dial back to like, oops, I can't say this,
4:22
Speaker 3: Oops I can do I can't do this. That's one
4:25
Speaker 3: of my biggest problems, I guess. But and time I
4:31
Speaker 3: got used to it, you know, like I still use
4:34
Speaker 3: it very a lot, my knowledge, my skills in every settings.
4:38
Speaker 3: But then I always remind myself, like a Ella dial back,
4:41
Speaker 3: you're not a nurse, You're not you're not licensing the US,
4:44
Speaker 3: you're not practicing it.
4:45
Speaker 4: So yeah, that that actually happens quite a bit. I
4:51
Speaker 4: know a lot at two different angles. We've got a
4:54
Speaker 4: lot of technicians that are from overseas and you know
5:00
Speaker 4: they have a degree, some have a degree in nursing.
5:03
Speaker 4: We have some that were physicians or pharmacists in other countries. Yes, yes,
5:09
Speaker 4: and the regulations and licensing doesn't fully match up, and
5:12
Speaker 4: so you know they end up working as a pharmacy technician.
5:17
Speaker 4: But also just with US residents, there's a lot of
5:21
Speaker 4: overlap between individuals that are going to nursing and then
5:27
Speaker 4: make the switch to pharmacy, and then there's a lot
5:29
Speaker 4: of technicians in pharmacy that decide to make the switch
5:33
Speaker 4: and go into nursing.
5:34
Speaker 3: It.
5:34
Speaker 4: There's a lot of back and forth between that. I
5:37
Speaker 4: guess it really depends on how comfortable you are with
5:43
Speaker 4: really being hands on, because nurses deal with so much
5:46
Speaker 4: more of direct patient you know, contact. Then yes, so
5:51
Speaker 4: which do you prefer being on the pharmacy side and
5:54
Speaker 4: not dealing with that or is that part something you miss?
5:57
Speaker 3: I do miss it a lot. I really love being
6:01
Speaker 3: in the operating room. If I had a chance to
6:03
Speaker 3: get my license here in the US, I would probably
6:06
Speaker 3: focus on the operating room. Second was psychology. I do
6:11
Speaker 3: miss it, But then pharmacy is in a different level too.
6:15
Speaker 3: I love it also a different level of craziness fulfillment,
6:22
Speaker 3: So I will take both, to be honest, if I
6:25
Speaker 3: had a chance, I'll probably still work where I'm at. Yeah,
6:29
Speaker 3: that's how much I love it.
6:30
Speaker 4: What is pharmacy like in the Philippines.
6:35
Speaker 3: But just very very different. We have a lot of
6:41
Speaker 3: different small pharmacy and they're actually My cousin in the
6:46
Speaker 3: Philippines is a pharmacist. He also has a small pharmacy
6:53
Speaker 3: over there right now where they can sell like tyl
6:57
Speaker 3: and all and all of those different otis and stuff
7:00
Speaker 3: like that. And it's different, I would say different. I
7:03
Speaker 3: haven't been there for like fourteen years, but before it
7:06
Speaker 3: was not a lot of pharmacy. Now there's like a
7:09
Speaker 3: lot of them in different corners. You know, there's big
7:13
Speaker 3: ones and there's you know, like small ones personal own
7:17
Speaker 3: businesses and stuff like that. So very very different.
7:22
Speaker 4: Very interesting. Yeah, So when you decided to make that
7:28
Speaker 4: transition into pharmacy, were there any other positions or like,
7:34
Speaker 4: were you deciding between something else in pharmacy or was
7:38
Speaker 4: pharmacy your primary go to.
7:41
Speaker 3: Well, when I was before pharmacy, I was in a
7:44
Speaker 3: rehab place. I was a rehab aid, so I will
7:48
Speaker 3: take care patients, do their range of emotion, bring them
7:52
Speaker 3: to the gym and all of that. And it's also
7:55
Speaker 3: due during like COVID, so it was a lot. It
8:01
Speaker 3: was a lot of shock for all of the staff,
8:03
Speaker 3: to be honest, and for me personally, it was a
8:07
Speaker 3: lot to take in. There's a lot of patient and
8:10
Speaker 3: there's a lot of things going on during COVID. So
8:14
Speaker 3: towards the tail end, I started to like find a
8:18
Speaker 3: different job to like just lay low a little bit,
8:21
Speaker 3: give myself a little break. And when I was looking indeed,
8:25
Speaker 3: I saw a retail pharmacy and I was like, oh,
8:28
Speaker 3: pharmacy technician. So I'm like, okay, let me apply and
8:33
Speaker 3: see if I can get into it. So I got
8:37
Speaker 3: an interviewed, I got hired. I hugged a little bit
8:41
Speaker 3: about the hourly. They tried to offer me a little
8:45
Speaker 3: bit low, and I'm like, I asked two dollars more.
8:48
Speaker 3: I got it. Yes. When they offered me the offer letter,
8:55
Speaker 3: I was like, really, this is very low. Let's be honest,
9:01
Speaker 3: very low. Even though I don't even I haven't worked
9:04
Speaker 3: in the pharmacy world yet, I believe that it was
9:07
Speaker 3: very low. So I said, okay, let me see if
9:09
Speaker 3: I can ask for two dollars more, you know. And
9:14
Speaker 3: after like a month or so, I got it. I
9:16
Speaker 3: took the job, and I actually work in five top
9:22
Speaker 3: five most busy at pharmacy, retal pharmacy within the region,
9:28
Speaker 3: so we're very very busy. We're small, but very busy.
9:32
Speaker 3: From there, I worked to be an immunisation specialist. First
9:39
Speaker 3: work my hours to be an immunization I focused mostly
9:43
Speaker 3: on immunization and COVID testing because like I said, it's
9:46
Speaker 3: still in the tail end of it. So that was
9:48
Speaker 3: mainly what I have been focusing on. So I kind
9:54
Speaker 3: of didn't learn how to do a lot of the
9:56
Speaker 3: prior authorization and all the other works because I got
9:59
Speaker 3: stuck on it. Okay, but but yeah, that's where all
10:04
Speaker 3: mainly my career happened.
10:05
Speaker 5: Is that.
10:07
Speaker 3: But rehab, anything, hospital, unicleric, anything that I can work
10:12
Speaker 3: with patient, I will apply for.
10:14
Speaker 4: So I know, I know our audience is probably trying
10:18
Speaker 4: to know more about the negotiating the set, So I
10:22
Speaker 4: want to I want to stop there for a second, Okay,
10:26
Speaker 4: and we're not we're not going to mention any specific
10:28
Speaker 4: employer names.
10:29
Speaker 3: Or yeah of course.
10:30
Speaker 4: Yeah. But so this was at a retail pharmacy, was
10:33
Speaker 4: it was it a chain or was it an independent?
10:37
Speaker 3: It's a big chain.
10:38
Speaker 4: It's a big change, Okay, So this is important. I
10:42
Speaker 4: suspect that most of our listeners don't realize that salary
10:48
Speaker 4: is negotiable, you know, especially when they're dealing with larger
10:52
Speaker 4: organizations or chains or anything like that, because oftentimes it
10:56
Speaker 4: gets presented it's like, well, here's this is what we
10:58
Speaker 4: pay to take it or leave it kind of situation.
11:01
Speaker 4: And I'm not saying that it's always negotiable, yes, but
11:06
Speaker 4: I think that's the assumption and or I think a
11:12
Speaker 4: lot of times we shortchange ourselves and think, oh, well,
11:16
Speaker 4: that's what they offered, so like, I may be miserable,
11:20
Speaker 4: but that's what I'm going to take. They don't. They
11:23
Speaker 4: don't want to take the chance of maybe not receiving
11:27
Speaker 4: the offer by asking for a higher salary. So that's
11:36
Speaker 4: that's what was it about that process that gave you
11:41
Speaker 4: the confidence or the courage to negotiate that situation right
11:48
Speaker 4: from the beginning.
11:49
Speaker 3: Well, as you know, I have a nursing background, so
11:52
Speaker 3: I thought that this amount is very low for the
11:56
Speaker 3: knowledge that will print to the table. You know, I
11:59
Speaker 3: don't want to be but I mean, I don't have
12:02
Speaker 3: to learn the medications because I know them. I also
12:06
Speaker 3: don't need to learn what it's it for dosing wise
12:09
Speaker 3: and all of that because I know it. So I
12:12
Speaker 3: felt like this amount is very low, and it was
12:15
Speaker 3: actually just a big leap of asking, like I want
12:19
Speaker 3: two dollars more than what you're offering me. That's why
12:22
Speaker 3: it took a little while for me to get on
12:24
Speaker 3: boarding because they said, oh, we'll see if we can
12:27
Speaker 3: even do that. So when they was like, okay, we'll
12:32
Speaker 3: give it to you, in the back of my head,
12:34
Speaker 3: I wish I asked for more because I'm not because
12:41
Speaker 3: of the work that we had to do. If I
12:44
Speaker 3: knew it was like that, I would have asked for more.
12:47
Speaker 3: But two dollars asking above what they're offering me was
12:52
Speaker 3: a big win.
12:53
Speaker 4: To be honest, it's a that's a huge win, and
12:55
Speaker 4: that's you know, amount of money that's that's going to
13:00
Speaker 4: make a difference. And even if they had come back
13:02
Speaker 4: and said we can't do two, but we could meet
13:05
Speaker 4: you halfway.
13:06
Speaker 3: Or yeah, it's still something.
13:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, you you positioned, you positioned yourself for for that opportunity,
13:15
Speaker 4: and based on your response there, it's you know your worth.
13:21
Speaker 4: And that's a big thing that we talk about here.
13:24
Speaker 4: It's one of the pillars of my career catalyst framework
13:27
Speaker 4: that I teach technicians, and it's you've got to know
13:30
Speaker 4: your worth and you've got to know where to set
13:33
Speaker 4: boundaries of what you'll accept for your worth. So huge
13:37
Speaker 4: kudos to you on that and for those of you
13:41
Speaker 4: that are listening, you know, consider that when you're when
13:43
Speaker 4: you're going through your views or whatever, don't be afraid
13:46
Speaker 4: to ask. The worst thing that can be said is no, yeah,
13:51
Speaker 4: so okay, let's let's continue on. But I didn't want
13:54
Speaker 4: to brush over that. I know the audience wanted to
13:59
Speaker 4: hear that part. So you get into retail, it's COVID
14:03
Speaker 4: things are crazy. You're on one of the busiest stores
14:06
Speaker 4: going on. How long did you stay in that role
14:10
Speaker 4: at that organization.
14:12
Speaker 3: I've been with them for three and a half years,
14:17
Speaker 3: two years for full time, half year part time, and
14:21
Speaker 3: then half year prettym so they my boss was awesome
14:26
Speaker 3: and when I quit, it was like, how about you
14:30
Speaker 3: just do part time or and then he offered me
14:32
Speaker 3: how about prettium when I had my kid? And then
14:35
Speaker 3: fully I left.
14:38
Speaker 4: So yeah, they also knew your value. They knew you
14:42
Speaker 4: were worth too. They were like, We'll take any days
14:45
Speaker 4: we can get with you.
14:46
Speaker 3: I'm that person that when they say can you come
14:48
Speaker 3: in early or can you come in your shift? I
14:50
Speaker 3: would always say yes. I'm such like I I don't
14:55
Speaker 3: say no to work or schedules. And also during those times,
14:58
Speaker 3: I was also working other places, so I had like
15:02
Speaker 3: three jobs that I was working. So I love it.
15:07
Speaker 4: And can you have how many children?
15:10
Speaker 3: I have two, one is about to be thirteen, and
15:13
Speaker 3: I have my one year old.
15:14
Speaker 4: Oh wow, that's a big that's a that's a big split.
15:19
Speaker 3: Yes it is.
15:20
Speaker 4: That's a that's several full time jobs going on right,
15:24
Speaker 4: a teenager and a newborn. Wow. So but you transition
15:29
Speaker 4: from there to what was your next full time role?
15:37
Speaker 5: Hey, they're pharmacy technicians. Mike Johnston here the founder of
15:41
Speaker 5: NPTA and vpts. For over twenty five years. I've helped
15:46
Speaker 5: thousands of techs grow their careers, and now I want
15:49
Speaker 5: to help you. I've built a free online community where
15:53
Speaker 5: you get instant access to my top on demand trainings,
15:57
Speaker 5: including the Career Catalyst Framework, Know your Work, Leveraging, LinkedIn.
16:01
Speaker 4: And more.
16:02
Speaker 5: So, if you're ready to take the next step, join
16:05
Speaker 5: the community now at Rxmike dot com and start moving
16:09
Speaker 5: your career forward, which is where I am currently.
16:18
Speaker 3: So while I was at that retail, I was like
16:21
Speaker 3: looking to like I said, further like my career, what
16:25
Speaker 3: else can I do? Or just made just exploring like,
16:28
Speaker 3: oh what else can my title hold besides retail? So
16:34
Speaker 3: I saw this listing again indeed, I took my chances.
16:39
Speaker 3: I got interviewed. My boss is phenomenal. She is the
16:45
Speaker 3: best of the best. She interviewed me. I told her like, hey,
16:50
Speaker 3: just so you know, I don't know prior authorization. I
16:54
Speaker 3: didn't get a chance to readly train. I got stuck
16:56
Speaker 3: with doing COVID testing and doing you know, immunization. She
17:02
Speaker 3: was like, you're fine, and I thought I'm not going
17:04
Speaker 3: to get it because I was like, oh, during those times,
17:07
Speaker 3: I'm still working on the CPHD. So after the interview,
17:14
Speaker 3: she gave me a couple of days and she called
17:16
Speaker 3: and like you're hired. I was like, I was super surprised.
17:20
Speaker 3: I'm like super excited. I'm like, oh my god, this
17:23
Speaker 3: is something new. It's for a good cost, that's the
17:27
Speaker 3: main thing. And from there I'm with this pharmacina for
17:34
Speaker 3: three years, so also the same thing, like two years
17:39
Speaker 3: full time in the one year as part time per DM.
17:42
Speaker 3: Due to my baby, I had to like step down
17:47
Speaker 3: because I don't want him to go to daycare. So
17:49
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, maybe per DM and then maybe
17:53
Speaker 3: when I'm ready to come back full time and there's
17:55
Speaker 3: a spot that maybe you can, you know, have me back.
17:59
Speaker 3: So my boss just kept me. She kept me. I
18:01
Speaker 3: actually try to quit because I don't want her to
18:04
Speaker 3: rearrange scheduling. I don't want to bother her and the company.
18:08
Speaker 3: But she was like, no, I'll put you prettyum. So
18:11
Speaker 3: until now, I'm still there and hope being that one
18:14
Speaker 3: day I can go back full time because I really
18:16
Speaker 3: really love what I do.
18:18
Speaker 4: So what advice would you give to the technicians that
18:23
Speaker 4: are out there that feel stuck. They don't love their job,
18:30
Speaker 4: they don't love their posts, they don't feel like they're
18:34
Speaker 4: getting paid what they're worth, but they stay there because
18:37
Speaker 4: they think that's their only option. What do you say
18:42
Speaker 4: to them?
18:43
Speaker 3: I would say, do research. Do a lot of research,
18:47
Speaker 3: especially within your city, like oh, what group is within
18:51
Speaker 3: the city that assists pharmacy texts and pharmacists? And just
18:56
Speaker 3: find people like you on social media. It's a hit
19:01
Speaker 3: or miss. Not everyone is a good person to be following,
19:04
Speaker 3: you know, but there's people out there. Do your research
19:09
Speaker 3: and also better yourself, like studying, Like if you're applying
19:14
Speaker 3: to some place, like study them, study what they do,
19:17
Speaker 3: you know, Like, get at least one step ahead of
19:21
Speaker 3: whatever that place is asking for looking for you know,
19:27
Speaker 3: you can't be stuck. Like there's always somewhere you can go.
19:31
Speaker 3: There's always somewhere you can move. So and you're right,
19:34
Speaker 3: Like a lot of people think like, oh, I can't
19:36
Speaker 3: go anywhere else because I'm not CPHD Advanced, or I'm
19:41
Speaker 3: I don't have all the other titles and badge that's
19:43
Speaker 3: on my license, But there is. There's so many ways
19:48
Speaker 3: that you can expand technicians. You know, you shouldn't feel
19:53
Speaker 3: stuck because there's so many things that you can do.
19:57
Speaker 3: And to be honest, I thought I was just stuck
19:59
Speaker 3: in retail too, you know, let's be honest. But then
20:02
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, let me search. What else
20:04
Speaker 3: can a technician do? You know? You can be an instructor,
20:08
Speaker 3: you can be a dean, you know you can. You
20:10
Speaker 3: can be part of a group that fights legislative stuff
20:14
Speaker 3: for US technicians and pharmacists and pharmacy as a whole.
20:18
Speaker 3: You know, but you also have to advocate for yourself
20:21
Speaker 3: Number one. I always tell people it's like a broken record,
20:25
Speaker 3: like advocate for yourself. Search, research, study, more, read, read,
20:30
Speaker 3: you know, find all this literature what's coming. Because I
20:33
Speaker 3: think I believe medical will never stop you will never
20:37
Speaker 3: stop learning, so you always have to like keep reading,
20:39
Speaker 3: reading what's coming out there, so don't feel stuck, buying
20:44
Speaker 3: the right people to ask questions that can help you
20:47
Speaker 3: and study, study, study.
20:51
Speaker 4: So if you're out there and you feel stuck, I
20:55
Speaker 4: hope you're taking notes. You can pause the show right
20:58
Speaker 4: now and go back and write down those steps, because
21:02
Speaker 4: that's what it is. It's you took action. You took
21:06
Speaker 4: control of your career path. You did not turn it
21:11
Speaker 4: over to somebody else to tell you where you could go.
21:15
Speaker 4: So I love that, and that segues right into the
21:20
Speaker 4: next part I want to talk to you about. You
21:24
Speaker 4: recently were nominated and selected in the Pharmacy Podcast Network's
21:32
Speaker 4: Top fifty most Influential Leaders in Pharmacy. So, first of all,
21:37
Speaker 4: congratulations greatly on.
21:41
Speaker 3: That to you as well.
21:43
Speaker 4: Thank you, I appreciate that.
21:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:47
Speaker 4: See, the interesting thing was, I think this is like
21:51
Speaker 4: their fourth year of having this award program, and last
21:58
Speaker 4: year I was, you know, very blessed to make to
22:06
Speaker 4: make that list, and it was the first time a
22:08
Speaker 4: technician had made the list, and that was a really
22:10
Speaker 4: really good deal. Yes, And this year, you know, we
22:15
Speaker 4: were supporting the awards program again and you know, encouraging
22:20
Speaker 4: people to nominate other technicians because my position was I
22:26
Speaker 4: wanted to see I wanted to make sure that there
22:29
Speaker 4: was going to be more technicians on that list because
22:32
Speaker 4: technicians are so influential in pharmacy. And to my surprise,
22:39
Speaker 4: I made it again. But more importantly, there were two
22:42
Speaker 4: other technicians in that top fifty list, yourself as well
22:48
Speaker 4: as Emily Duram. She's been on the podcast as well.
22:53
Speaker 4: Super impressive technician, and that just made me so happy
23:04
Speaker 4: that technicians are starting ticking more recognition and having that
23:11
Speaker 4: spotlight put on them. So tell me about that process.
23:15
Speaker 4: When did you find out? What was your reaction? We'll
23:21
Speaker 4: talk us walk us through that.
23:23
Speaker 3: Also, I thought, to be honest, I thought it was
23:25
Speaker 3: fake when Sir Todd messaged me through LinkedIn stating like, hey, congratulations,
23:33
Speaker 3: you got into the top fifty, but you can't disclose
23:37
Speaker 3: it yet until the initial you know date, And I
23:41
Speaker 3: was like, man, this is this is fake. This is
23:44
Speaker 3: not real. I told I told my boss and like,
23:46
Speaker 3: I think this is fake. But at the same time,
23:48
Speaker 3: part of me was like super happy and excited and
23:51
Speaker 3: the sixteen So I didn't respond to him after two
23:54
Speaker 3: days that he messaged me because I really thought it
23:56
Speaker 3: was not real. Todd, but I just I mean, top
24:00
Speaker 3: fifty influential number one, I'm not I'm not an influencer.
24:04
Speaker 3: I'm not famous. I'm not known, So I'm like, how
24:08
Speaker 3: did I get in? So I thought it was fake.
24:12
Speaker 3: But then when the sixteen I think when it launched,
24:15
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, my photo's there. I
24:18
Speaker 3: even put the wrong photo. I feel like it's not
24:20
Speaker 3: the right photo. I'm like, oh no, because I only
24:23
Speaker 3: share that link when it opened on November last year twice,
24:27
Speaker 3: one in LinkedIn and one on my social media, and
24:29
Speaker 3: that was November, and I was like, after that, I
24:32
Speaker 3: forgot about it because I was thinking, like, I will
24:35
Speaker 3: never get in. That's such a bad mentality. The only
24:38
Speaker 3: reason why because I said, like, there's so much people
24:41
Speaker 3: that I follow on Instagram. They're influencers, you know, they're famous,
24:45
Speaker 3: they have a lot of followers, they're doing all this
24:47
Speaker 3: videos and I'm not like that. I'm I'm not shy,
24:52
Speaker 3: but then I'm shy when it comes to something like oh,
24:54
Speaker 3: this is what we do in the pharmacy. I think
24:57
Speaker 3: I can't do that. So I felt like it's not
25:00
Speaker 3: not real. But then at the same time, when the
25:03
Speaker 3: date came and I was top forty five, I was like,
25:07
Speaker 3: oh my god, I made it? Is this real? And how?
25:12
Speaker 3: But super excited to.
25:14
Speaker 4: Everybody that you work with if they voted for like,
25:17
Speaker 4: how how it all came to be.
25:20
Speaker 3: To be honest, I told some of the doctors that
25:22
Speaker 3: are because of our doctors are very very awesome and
25:24
Speaker 3: nice and we're friends on LinkedIn as well. Maybe one
25:27
Speaker 3: of them slipped one, I told my boss. But to
25:34
Speaker 3: be honest, whoever did it, thank you, thank you for
25:38
Speaker 3: giving this small shed of light to a technician like
25:42
Speaker 3: me that I is not an influencer or known in
25:45
Speaker 3: famous like sir Mike. So thank you. But yeah, I
25:49
Speaker 3: thought it was fake and I was like, no, this
25:50
Speaker 3: is not real. So but now you make it more
25:54
Speaker 3: surreal on top of it. So thank you.
25:57
Speaker 4: Absolutely. As soon as that list came out, I said,
26:00
Speaker 4: I want both of these other technicians on the podcast again.
26:06
Speaker 4: We want we want to continue to put a spotlight
26:10
Speaker 4: on that the reality is it's like this self fulfilling
26:14
Speaker 4: prophecy or whatever. Because while you may not have felt
26:18
Speaker 4: like you were an influencer per se, now your story
26:23
Speaker 4: is reaching you know, thousands of technicians and pharmacists, and
26:29
Speaker 4: it is going to inspire them. It is going to
26:32
Speaker 4: influence them. It's going to give them the courage to
26:36
Speaker 4: speak up for themselves with negotiating their salaries and to
26:42
Speaker 4: you know, be an advocate for themselves. So I hope,
26:46
Speaker 4: I hope you're able to see how this is all
26:48
Speaker 4: coming full full circle for you. But I certainly understand
26:55
Speaker 4: as well as anybody questioning it at first. I mean,
26:58
Speaker 4: I still deal with imposter syndrome, you know, they call it.
27:02
Speaker 4: I'm like, I don't, I don't know what this is
27:04
Speaker 4: all about. But congratulations. I mean, that's a huge achievement,
27:11
Speaker 4: and I think now your story is just going to
27:14
Speaker 4: continue to ripple out and inspire others. Yes, you know,
27:21
Speaker 4: and speaking of that, I want to kind of go ahead,
27:26
Speaker 4: if it's okay with you, and enjoy this announcement with everybody.
27:31
Speaker 3: I'm excited. What is this? What do you have cooking?
27:34
Speaker 3: Sir Mike.
27:35
Speaker 4: So it was actually, you know, kind of that whole
27:40
Speaker 4: award process and seeing more technicians get added to the
27:44
Speaker 4: list this year and being so excited about that. We
27:49
Speaker 4: were having some conversations with the team at MPTA and
27:52
Speaker 4: we said, you know what, we want to take our influence,
27:56
Speaker 4: whatever that is deemed, and put a bigger spotlight on
28:01
Speaker 4: the impact, the real impact that technicians make. And so
28:06
Speaker 4: we are so excited to announce we are launching an
28:11
Speaker 4: International Pharmacy Technician Impact Awards program. Wow, yeah, this is.
28:22
Speaker 3: What did you say, sir? For pharmacy technicians.
28:25
Speaker 4: Just for pharmacy technicians. We're going to have seven different
28:31
Speaker 4: categories that technicians can be nominated in. But we're specifically
28:38
Speaker 4: we're not looking for influencer. We're looking for technicians that
28:43
Speaker 4: are making an impact. So whether you're making a measurement
28:48
Speaker 4: behind the scene impact, you're making impact with your patients,
28:52
Speaker 4: with your community, with your co workers, with your employer,
28:57
Speaker 4: we want to put a huge that and so we
29:03
Speaker 4: are going to have categories for community pharmacy technicians, health
29:11
Speaker 4: system pharmacy technicians, Education and training, compounding, patient care and
29:19
Speaker 4: medication access, innovation and technology, and then in leadership. So
29:25
Speaker 4: whatever your role is as a pharmacy technician, you know
29:30
Speaker 4: the fact is you are making measurable contributions and making
29:35
Speaker 4: it impact and so we want to recognize that and
29:39
Speaker 4: celebrate that. So nominations are going to be open. We'll
29:43
Speaker 4: put a link in the show notes as well. But
29:46
Speaker 4: I believe the web borl is going to be cpht
29:49
Speaker 4: dot org Forward Slash Awards, So it's going to be
29:52
Speaker 4: open nominations. You don't have to be a member of NPTA,
29:55
Speaker 4: you don't have to be in the US, it can
29:56
Speaker 4: be anywhere in the world. Have a committee that's going
30:01
Speaker 4: to select three finalists per category, and then later this
30:08
Speaker 4: year those will be announced. We're going to share all
30:10
Speaker 4: of their stories and then we'll have open voting, and
30:15
Speaker 4: then we're going to announce the winners live on World
30:20
Speaker 4: Pharmacy Technician Day on October twentyth.
30:23
Speaker 3: So, oh wow, that is big. That is very, very
30:27
Speaker 3: big for the pharmacy technician community. So thank you, Sermke.
30:31
Speaker 3: That's such a great announcement.
30:34
Speaker 4: But thank you because you literally helped influence this. Okay,
30:39
Speaker 4: So you are one of the most influential because when
30:41
Speaker 4: we saw more technicians starting to get recognized, we said,
30:45
Speaker 4: we've got to take this up even another notch and
30:49
Speaker 4: really create stories and a spotlight about the value and
30:54
Speaker 4: contributions of technicians. So you are directly one of one
30:59
Speaker 4: of the reasons why we're doing this, So congratulations to
31:03
Speaker 4: you and we want to continue this. So go online
31:08
Speaker 4: to the website, do a nomination. You can nominate yourself.
31:11
Speaker 4: You don't have to you don't have to wait for
31:13
Speaker 4: anybody else to do it. Just like you said, be
31:15
Speaker 4: your own advocate. There is nothing wrong with nominating yourself.
31:19
Speaker 4: We encourage that. So whether it's you nominate yourself, you
31:24
Speaker 4: nominate somebody else, make sure and get the nominations in.
31:27
Speaker 4: I think nominations are going to be open through the
31:31
Speaker 4: end of April, I believe, so check that out.
31:35
Speaker 3: And yes, oh my god, so excited. I'm very excited.
31:41
Speaker 3: This is something very big for us technicians. Is just
31:47
Speaker 3: because because actually I went to one of a school
31:51
Speaker 3: local here and did a little talk to do just
31:54
Speaker 3: a show and tell them what I do and stuff
31:57
Speaker 3: like that, and one of their professors was like, we
32:01
Speaker 3: were talking about we should make our own little group
32:05
Speaker 3: that focus on us technicians only. And don't get me wrong,
32:10
Speaker 3: we love that we're being included in all of the
32:13
Speaker 3: other groups with the pharmacists. We are very honored, let's
32:16
Speaker 3: be honest. But then sometimes we feel like we need
32:19
Speaker 3: our own little pharmacy technician Haven. So thank you for
32:23
Speaker 3: Mike for being that bridge. This is this is very big.
32:26
Speaker 3: So thank you because we were just talking about it
32:29
Speaker 3: a couple of months ago and here you are launching
32:32
Speaker 3: it so doing it. Yes, So thank you, Thank you
32:36
Speaker 3: so much.
32:37
Speaker 4: Absolutely well, Ella, thank you so much for joining us
32:43
Speaker 4: today and sharing your story. I think I think your
32:47
Speaker 4: story is going to inspire a lot of people out there,
32:51
Speaker 4: and so thank you for taking the time to do
32:55
Speaker 4: that and and opening up with everyone. We really, we
32:59
Speaker 4: really appreciate it.
33:01
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, sir Mike. Hopefully to see you
33:04
Speaker 3: in person one day.
33:05
Speaker 4: Absolutely well, thanks for tuning in to today's episode. We
33:10
Speaker 4: hope you found it both informative and inspiring. For links,
33:15
Speaker 4: show notes, and resources from today's episode, visit cpchtconnect dot
33:19
Speaker 4: com and hey, we'd love to hear from you, so
33:22
Speaker 4: send us your feedback, questions, stories, or show ideas to
33:26
Speaker 4: podcast at CPHT dot org. We appreciate your support look
33:30
Speaker 4: forward to having me join us again next week as
33:32
Speaker 4: we chat with another amazing pharmacy professional and hear about
33:35
Speaker 4: their career journey. Thanks for listening.
33:38
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to this week's episode of CPHT Connect.
33:42
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe and review the show on your
33:45
Speaker 2: favorite podcast platform. For additional resources, show notes, or to
33:49
Speaker 2: connect with this week's guest, go to cphtconnect dot com