#PJMindTheGap
Nominate a female pharmacy professional to be one of our Women to Watch
Help us find and celebrate brilliant, unrecognised women who are accomplishing great things in pharmacy.
Open access article
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has made this feature article free to access in order to help promote greater inclusion and diversity in the profession.
Source: MAG
The Pharmaceutical Journal’s #PJMindTheGap campaign has been highlighting social inequalities that exist in pharmacy for over two years now, but we are determined to do more to help tackle this problem head on — and we need your help.
What do we want to do?
The aim of our Women to Watch campaign is to recognise and celebrate the achievements of female pharmacy professionals who are furthering the profession, but whose work is currently going largely unrecognised. We want to identify female role models within the pharmacy profession who can inspire others, as well as encourage the future generation of female pharmacy professionals to be brave and reach their full potential.
This is not an ‘award’, but recognition for an individual’s contribution to the profession and/or society. There will be no ‘winners’ or ‘losers’. We merely hope to profile those who have not yet been recognised nationally.
How will we do this?
We are asking you to nominate women in UK pharmacy that you know are doing fantastic work. We want to profile them in The Pharmaceutical Journal and help provide inspiration to others.
Self-nominations are also encouraged.
Nominees will be assessed by The Pharmaceutical Journal team and a panel of external contributors. Names of nominees and individuals who place nominations will not be made public.
Each nominee that comprises the final Women to Watch list will be profiled in The Pharmaceutical Journal as part of a wider programme of work by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society inclusion and diversity group.
How to nominate someone
Individuals can submit a nomination by completing the nomination form below or using this link.
Please ensure all the required information in the nomination form is provided. We will be unable to accept partially completed nominations.
Self-nominations must include testimonials from at least two colleagues (other pharmacist or healthcare professional, or pharmacy or healthcare team member).
Who can nominate?
We invite nominations from any individual working in the health sector including:
- Pharmacists;
- Pharmacy students;
- Preregistration trainees;
- Pharmacy technicians;
- Other healthcare professionals;
- Other individuals working in health e.g. medicine counter assistants, non-clinical managers.
We would ask that individuals only nominate one nominee if possible, as we aim to publish a diverse list of women from all sectors and locations.
Who can be nominated?
Any nominee who fulfills all of the following criteria will be put forward for the shortlist. They must:
- Be working or training as a pharmacy professional within the UK. This includes:
- Pharmacists;
- Pharmacy students;
- Preregistration trainees;
- Pharmacy technicians;
- Pharmacy assistants/counter staff.
- Identify as female and be of any age, ethnicity, or at any stage in their career;
- Not currently or previously be elected, or paid, to sit on the board of a national organisation or executive committee that has more than 500 members. This includes:
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society;
- General Pharmaceutical Council;
- National Pharmacy Association;
- Pharmacy Defence Association;
- Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee;
- British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association;
- Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK;
- NHS.
- Nominees can be members or ambassadors of the aformentioned organisations, a trustee of a charity, or a previous winner of a local award, such as employee of the month.
Who are we looking for?
Nominees will be assessed on the following criteria; however, please note that nominees do not have to demonstrate evidence of all five qualities in order to qualify for the list.
The Pharmaceutical Journal team and external panel of contributors will take the individual circumstances and diversity of candidates into account when drawing up the final list of Women to Watch. Nominees will be assessed on their work which can be both paid or unpaid (e.g. volunteer work).
Criteria | Description | Examples may include |
---|---|---|
1) Potential | The nominee is developing in their career, but has a bright future ahead of them and has demonstrated some leadership qualities. | The nominee is being proactive, and leading or playing an active role in internal and/or external projects. |
2) Drive | The nominee has clear vision for their work and has been able to overcome any challenges faced. | The nominee has created an innovative service/initiative to address a need despite pushback from others. |
3) Impact and reproducibility | The nominee has made a quantifiable difference to patients, colleagues, the profession or health service at a local or national level. | The nominee has developed a successful clinical service/initiative with measurable outcomes that could be scaled and replicated in other pharmacy departments. |
4) Influence | The nominee has had a positive effect on those both within and outside of their immediate surroundings. | Through their work, the nominee has created opportunities for joint working or learning with external departments and/or members of other health professions. |
5) Integrity, inclusion and diversity | The nominee has made efforts to include and advocate for others in the way they work and has demonstrated a commitment to doing the right thing. | The nominee has developed an initiative which recognises, advocates and celebrates the contribution of a diverse employee group or addresses the needs of a diverse patient population. |
What qualifies as ‘supporting evidence’?
Please include all relevant evidence in this section to support your nomination by proving that this nominee deserves to be included in the list. Examples of evidence could include:
- Survey results showing a particular service has improved patient quality of life and/or experience;
- Audit data showing the clinical impact of a new service;
- Testimonials from colleagues and/or patients;
- Figures representing enhanced operational efficiency and/or cost reduction;
- Local recognition of success e.g. prizes, awards — or lack of, if appropriate!
Please ensure the evidence is as recent as possible. Incomplete evidence will be accepted and considered only in the context of the whole application.
For more information:
For more information, or if you have any questions, please get in contact with our careers editor and #PJMindTheGap lead, Angela Kam, at angela.kam@rpharms.com.
Nomination Form
To open the nomination form in a new browser window click this link. It should take no more than eight minutes to complete.
The deadline for nominations is 23:00 on Friday, 31 July 2020.
Words of support from leaders in pharmacy:
“As women, we often don’t self-promote the work we do — this campaign is a great opportunity to do that. I urge pharmacists, students, pharmacy technicians and assistants at every stage of their careers to put themselves forward, and I’m sure our male colleagues will want to nominate the amazing women they work with too.”
— Claire Anderson, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) English Pharmacy Board and professor of social pharmacy, University of Nottingham.
“I’ve been guilty of calling myself ‘just’ a woman pharmacist. But we all know people who are so much more than ‘just’ female pharmacy professionals. This is your chance to either put yourself forward or to nominate a female colleague so that you/ they get the recognition that is rightfully deserved.”
— Reena Barai, pharmacy owner and National Pharmacy Association board member.
“We appear to be making little progress on gender inequality and diversity within pharmacy and so it remains critically important that we continue to raise and tackle the issues facing many within the profession. It is incumbent on all of us to continue to focus on achieving equality, particularly when getting this right can only be of benefit to pharmacy and the patients we serve.”
— Deborah Evans, managing director and founder of Pharmacy Complete, and creator of the Women in Pharmacy Facebook group.
“Hopefully this will showcase more women as role models and enhance more representation of women in pharmacy leadership.”
— Olutayo Arikawe, multi-award-winning superintendent pharmacist at The Priory Pharmacy, Dudley.
“It makes perfect sense to introduce The Pharmaceutical Journal initiative for women in pharmacy. It should help everyone to find out what women are doing well, to acknowledge their unrecognised achievements and prompt constructive debate.”
— Christine Heading, deputy lead at RPS London North West.
“While no substitute for pay equality, celebrating the talent that we have among female pharmacists is one way we can ensure that women’s contribution is valued.”
— Clare Howard, clinical lead for medicines optimisation at Wessex Academic Health Science Networks.
“Celebrating the specific achievements of women is still seen by some as unnecessary, unhelpful, or even counterproductive, but it is because of these continuing attitudes that we should continue to do so.”
— Helen Pinney, pharmacy technician and service development officer for the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
“I am proud to be an ally for an initiative for greater recognition of women in pharmacy, especially looking through an intersectional lens that sees more than one protected characteristic.”
— Mohammed Hussein, senior clinical lead for NHS Digital and fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society launched its pharmacy inclusion and diversity programme in August 2019. Find out more about what the Society is doing for members here.
Citation: The Pharmaceutical Journal DOI: 10.1211/PJ.2020.20207531
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