Page 26 - Demo

COVER
On the way to one HMR appointment, the patient rang to warn her to ‘keep an eye out’ for the taipan sunning itself in the front yard. However, before she made it to the front yard she had to get past
a heavily pregnant Friesian cow guarding the cattle grid at the entrance to the property’s home paddock.
At various times she has also had to wait for flood waters to subside between Clermont and Alpha and when visiting outlying properties. She has driven carefully past aggressive bulls defending their territory.
As for kangaroos – ‘I was coming down an embankment concentrating on staying on the skinny concrete driveway out of the property when four large red kangaroos bounded right over my small Subaru. It scared me to death and I nearly drove off the edge and into the gully,’ she said.
Another challenge is making enough from her various roles for her company to be financially viable. In February 2015 Karalyn began managing a small pharmacy part time while continuing her consultancy business over the rest of the week.
However, even with the part time community pharmacy work she has to combine travelling
to deliver HMRs with her aged care work at local hospitals (in Queensland local hospitals usually have beds set aside for aged care because there
are no aged care facilities) and locum work to cover costs. If she is lucky the local health service will have accommodation for visiting doctors available to use.
‘I do a trip and combine seeing my HMR patients, the nursing home work and also locum for any of the pharmacists in the area who need help. [See Australian Pharmacist, Oct 2016, page 22–3.] It all keeps me busy. Performing locum work in rural Queensland is very rewarding as the town’s people
On the way to one HMR appointment the patient rang to warn her to keep an eye out for the taipan sunning itself in the front yard.
IN KARALYN’S WORDS
As told to ANDREW DANIELS
VALUE OF PSA
MEMBERSHIP
In a nutshell – mentoring, support, fellowship and development. PSA gives me support clinically and with mentoring. There
is always someone who knows how to find what I need. I have the best support structure from PSA Queensland office and the national team.
I ask the question and I receive an answer with lots of advice and extras.
REWARDING
The most rewarding thing about being a healthcare provider is making a difference. A patient coming back to see me and saying how much
I helped to make their health journey easier to navigate gives me the best buzz of my day.
24 Australian Pharmacist January 2017 I ©Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Ltd.