Tribute to Michele Stewart Caldwell

It is with great sadness that I write this tribute to our respected friend and colleague, Michele.

Michele was an inspirational leader of the pharmacy profession in Scotland. She was admired for her immense professional and personal integrity, her tenacity and her relentless drive to improve patient safety. Whether working locally with her own team or influencing national committees, she always placed the patient at the centre of her practice, consistently doing the right thing. She was an outstanding role model for our profession and the wider healthcare team, skilfully articulating the challenges and offering her perspective and wisdom freely to others in her own unique style.

Although her achievements during her long and distinguished pharmacy career are many and varied, her lasting legacy will be her strategic approach to hospital electronic prescribing and medicines administration, including the development of national patient safety standards that were first endorsed in 2004 and recently updated by Michele in 2015.

Michele had gravitas, she was feisty and at times enjoyed a good spat. However she was also loyal, caring and could always be relied upon to support her staff and colleagues. We all knew that above all else Michele loved her family. Her husband David was her rock and her balancing measure and she was extremely proud of her beloved children, Stewart and Natalie. She revelled in both their academic and sporting successes but most of all she adored being their mum.

It is tragic that Michele was not allowed to enjoy the long and happy retirement that she so deserved; it is difficult for us to understand her untimely death, but easy to appreciate her many accomplishments and the lasting legacy that she has left for us.

We will greatly miss her wisdom, her challenge and her friendship. Our thoughts are with David, Stewart and Natalie at this very sad time.

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Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, September 2016, Vol 297, No 7893;297(7893)::DOI:10.1211/PJ.2016.20201597

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