A few years back, I was hosting a segment of our yearly 2-day orientation session for new pharmacist hires to the company. Most were new graduates but some were coming to us from other provinces and/or chains.

I was aware that a certain book was making the rounds at about that time and somehow my improvisational skills led me to drop the title with respect to the new expanded pharmacy scope. To my ‘surprise’, at least 3 people in the audience were in the midst of reading this book and were justifiably confused (though intrigued) by my seemingly random tangent. Although pharmacy is an exciting place, it seemingly pales in comparison to the plot of a story I should have spent more time investigating.  Now, I have never read the book and understand it to be a wholesome story of two people that meet and enjoy going for coffee, holding hands and don’t-you-dare-leave-this-book-laying-around-anyone-under-18.

After about 30 seconds, folks started reaching beneath the tables to gently pick their jaws back up from the floor. Queue the giggling. I enjoyed the mid-morning giddiness myself.

My point was that pharmacists, in a general sense, are used to having set rules to follow. Now every profession has rules in the form of guidelines, regulations, acts, or policies. We also have best practice memos to further help direct and support us as individuals. These documents are vital to minimizing liability as practitioners while stressing public safety. Those rules prior to the legislative changes meant we had our comfy room in the healthcare house; the boundaries were established and many scenarios had played out countless times. Black, meet white. Now, if somebody came to the door of the pharmacy room and invited you out, then you would have a taste of collaborative practice and it seemed like a treat. It was like being allowed to eat at the big-kids’ table at Thanksgiving; an experience you’ve waited for and look forward to the next time it happens.

So enter the blueprint of pharmacy and changes to pharmacy acts across the country. We now replace the walls to that comfy room with strips of yellow duct tape on the carpet. Now you can see the hallway, or venture into the next room without needing approval. You know where you used to spend all of your time, but your space got a whole lot bigger. Needless to say, each scenario with medication reviews, prescribing, administering, or ordering blood tests is new to everyone, and therefore virtually impossible to predict. Becoming a clinician means a certain degree of trial-and-error, and judgement calls based on the best information possible. There may not be a tidy ‘right answer’ or a similar situation on which to build.

As we gain confidence in our worth and abilities, many pharmacists may completely leave their yellow outline and settle in different areas of the healthcare house. They may join travel clinics and vaccinate full time, or perhaps pharmacists may liaise with physicians’ offices to perform medication review consults in their offices. They may become more visible and independent in rural communities as they perform minor ailment and emergency prescribing services.

In each possibility, and for each and every pharmacist delving into said opportunity, there will be fifty shades. You will be making decisions and backing them up with gusto. You will be challenged from time to time, but so is each and every health professional out there.

Embrace the grey. Explore the new rooms. Make yourself at home.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.