National Awards shed light on achievements in Hospital Pharmacy
Hospital Pharmacists and Technicians from across the country have been recognised by their peers for their achievements in improving pharmacy services as the Society of Hospital Pharmacists (SHPA) today announced the winners of the 2021 SHPA Members’ Awards, chosen from last year’s Branch Award recipients by member vote.
Megan Clark (Vic), Clinical Pharmacist at Monash Health, has been announced as 2021 SHPA Early Career Pharmacist of the Year. This award celebrates Megan’s commitment to improving pharmacy services in neonatal, paediatric and maternity populations achieved through her extensive body of work including developing national and international guidelines, collaborating with medical and nursing staff to identify priority areas for pharmacist involvement, the development of the Neonatal Emergency Medicines Book, and for her work as a Teaching Associate at Monash University.
In accepting her award via video message, Megan thanked her colleagues and congratulated her fellow award nominees.
'It's an honour to have my work recognised, not only by my workplace, but also by the national society and my peers across Australia. This is not something I could have achieved alone, and I'd like to thank a few key people who have supported me. Each, individually, has empowered me by providing guidance, opportunities to lead improvements to our clinical pharmacy service, and encouraged me while taking part in larger projects.
'To my fellow nominees, there's been an incredible amount of work done by each and every one of you to improve the care that we provide to our patients, and it's truly an honour to stand among you.'
Luke Corbett (Tas) won 2021 SHPA Technician of the Year in recognition of the vital role he played in organising and coordinating the supply, storage, and distribution of COVID vaccine supplies across four sites in Tasmania, while ensuring staff involved in the operation were adequately trained.
In his virtual award speech, Luke thanked his colleagues within the Tasmanian Health Service.
'Thank you for putting up with me talking about COVID vaccines for so long, and all the organising we did together to have the roll-out go so successfully through the state. A special mention to Duncan McKenzie, I'm thrilled to have worked with you so closely on this.
‘To my wife Casey and three cadets at home, thank you for putting up with me not being home or overly present for parts of 2020, 2021; I really appreciate everything you guys do for me, and everything that you've always done, thank you.’
The 2021 SHPA Hospital Team Innovation of the Year honour went to the Western NSW Local Health District Virtual Clinical Pharmacy Service (Western NSW LHDVCPS) team, recognising their outstanding work in implementing and embedding a completely virtual hospital pharmacy service in Western NSW Local Health District and Far West Local Health District throughout 2020, ensuring rural patients received the same standard of world-class care they would expect in larger hospitals.
In accepting the award on behalf of the team, Team Leader Brett Chambers, Implementation Lead made clear how the team’s achievements are truly a culmination of the efforts of so many colleagues across the Western NSW Local Health District over the past few years.
‘To the clinical team… congratulations and well done, it was your dedication and teamwork and collaboration with the healthcare team which helped to integrate this model of care and virtual pharmacy into rural and remote hospitals.
‘To our health service managers, nurse managers, doctors, nurses and admin staff at our rural and remote hospitals – it was your facilitation of our service which has enabled us to deliver world-class healthcare in rural and remote communities.’
Luke also recognised the leadership and guidance provided within the Western NSW Local Health District, including the executive leaders, project sponsor, health and technology teams, telehealth team, chief investigator of the research evaluation and the research team, research and ethics office.
Following last month’s competition, James Ford (Vic) was announced as SHPA 2021 Resident of the Year.
James, a Clinical Pharmacist who undertook his residency at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, has been awarded the winner for his presentation ‘Hospital Outreach medication Review to Reduce Opioid Use Following Surgery'.
As the SHPA 2021 Resident of the Year winner, James will officially become the 2022 SHPA Residency spokesperson to support and promote SHPA’s Foundation Residency program to members, and will enjoy one year of complimentary SHPA membership.
Other finalists were Nicholas Anning (Qld), Kelsey Keable (Qld), Anh Nguyen (Vic), Jeffrey Wang (NSW).