Behind every prescription, consultation and patient interaction is a person making a difference. In our new regular feature, Pharmacy Faces, we meet the people who keep pharmacy moving, from pharmacists and technicians to dispensers, counter assistants and support staff. Each issue, we ask the same questions to discover what brought them into pharmacy, what motivates them every day and the impact they have on the communities they serve. If you would like to recommend someone for Pharmacy Faces contact our editor Shelley Gibbins at editor@pharmacyshows.com
Conor McDonnell is a newly qualified pharmacist working at County Antrim Hospital and locuming at Randalstown Pharmacies on a weekend. He recently joined Pharmacy Forum NI as a young representative and also sits as a representative on a number of other panels representing young people working in pharmacy.
1. Introduce yourself and tell us about your role in pharmacy.
I am a newly qualified pharmacist. I qualified in August last year. My main job in the hospital consists of admissions, ensuring the patient’s medicines are reconciled and ensuring they are on their appropriate medicines in hospital and reviewing patients’ medicines when they are within the hospital to ensure they’re appropriate and safe. As part of the discharge process I also ensure patients are getting new medicines appropriately for home and ensure all medicines are safe and appropriate and that the patient is given a supply. I work mainly on the surgical wards and women’s health.
I also work as a locum pharmacist in the community, mainly at Randalstown Pharmacies, on the weekend and occasionally during the week and that is just the typical role of an average community pharmacist. Finally, I sit on a number of committees and boards. For the year 2026/27 I am the apprentice for the Pharmacy Forum NI Board. So I sit in on the board and I am learning the process and how the board works and the topical issues they discuss and I am able to provide input and insight as a newly qualified pharmacist. I am also an Early Career Hospital Pharmacist Representative on the NICPLD Foundation Training Year Stakeholder Committee So again, I provide input on behalf of early career hospital pharmacists with regards to things that we might see with regards to the foundation training and any assistance or recommendations we can get regarding the ongoing provision that training year. And I am also a member of the Pharmacy Forum NI Early Career Pharmacist’s Working Group. That brings together early career pharmacists from across all sectors, including research, community and hospital. We meet regularly to provide guidance and sources to support newly qualified pharmacists.
2. What inspired you to pursue a career in pharmacy?
I had always wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, I just wasn’t sure what. When I was in secondary school, I was given the opportunity to go on work experience within my local community pharmacy. I went there for one week, this was pre-Covid and I was shown the ins and outs of life as a day to day pharmacist. Then when Covid hit I had left secondary school and I asked that same community pharmacy if they would like any assistance. They gave me a job and the rest is history. I stayed with them for a year while I went through first year pharmacy training. I then took a post as a summer relief pharmacy student at my current hospital and then I’ve just been working ever since.
3. What does your average working day involve?
When I am in the hospital, I prioritise timely patient discharges and ensuring patients are counselled and their medications are appropriate and reviewed. Being on the ward is probably the highlight because you are in the thick of it. When I work in the community it is often on a weekend so it involves responding to symptoms and referring patients as appropriate and assisting with any work that may be left over from the week, including compliance aids.
4. What do you enjoy most about your role?
Being able to be directly involved in a patient’s care and assist them in making shared decisions about their medicines and helping them go through that journey. Whether that be the actual prescribing aspect with starting new medicines or taking patients off medication to better their health outcomes. Every year the pharmacist role is expanding and we are seeing a lot more patients come through the door for clinical support. You have to diversify and be more knowledgeable.
5. What has been the most memorable moment of your career so far?
I won the Pharmaceutical Society Northern Ireland gold medal, which means I got the highest mark when I graduated. There is one award winner per year from Ulster University and Queen’s University. You get a physical gold medal and it is a pretty prestigious award within the pharmaceutical community. That has probably been my highlight so far.
6. What’s the biggest challenge facing pharmacy today from your perspective?
I do think there are a number of big challenges in our profession. Day by day we are having to become more versatile and skilled to try and safety net/ensure patients are directed to the most appropriate service and treatment. More and more complex patients are coming through the doors in community pharmacy, presenting with issues because the wider primary care sector is struggling to see patients.
Another big challenge, which I feel has an effect on the above, is the lack of appropriate funding to the community pharmacy sector to be able to provide these enhanced services while continuing to supply medicines on prescriptions without operating at a loss and jeopardising patient care.
7. What skill is most important in your job?
Communication skills and the ability to speak with different patients because you never know how the patient is going to present in front of you, especially in the community pharmacy sector.
8. What’s something you’ve learned from patients over the years?
Not all patients are the same and it is never black and white. We tend to find ourselves working within the grey. You have to treat the patient in front of you with shared decision making.
9. How do you think your role makes a difference to patients or the wider community?
We are accessible and you don’t need to book an appointment to see us. We are well-trained clinically so we are able to advise on many different conditions. We have the ability to be a first point of contact for patients who might not always be able to access their GP. We are embedded in the community which means we can build a rapport with patients and patients have confidence in us to ask for advice.
10. When you are not at work how do you like to spend your time?
I play sports but am currently in the off-season at the minute, which means I don’t have a strict regiment of training days. But I like to run and meet up with friends and socialise.