Years ago, as a result of eviction from our home due to war, my family restarted life in Brazil as refugees. I grew up in Brazil where I experienced a wonderful life and received excellent education thanks to my loving parents, and where I attained a great sense of adaptability, humility, empathy, courage, resilience, and respect for others. These attributes all followed me as I built my pharmacy career, one which began in Brazil and matured here in Canada, the country to which I immigrated and have built a beautiful family with my husband.

I love being a pharmacist for a number of reasons. Most importantly, however, I have a deep desire to help people achieve and maintain optimal health, one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves. I want to be there for the people, providing support when people need assistance, assisting them with all of their pharmaceutical and health needs. Seeing patients progress in their healthcare journeys gives me a sense of purpose, and it is this that makes me most proud to be a pharmacist.

Being a pharmacist gives me a clear realization that I am helping a patient to the best of my ability within my scope of pharmaceutical care. I enjoy providing the necessary attention that patients require. Most of the time when patients come to the pharmacy, we get the opportunity to learn much more about their lives and lifestyle choices than other healthcare providers. As a result, pharmacists can impact patients’ health more than others. Along with the traditional pharmaceutical care that we have always provided, we are now also able to prescribe for minor ailments. This allows for an even greater fortuity for significance as we are able to sit down with patients and be a greater part of their recovery. Having the pharmacy being a patient destination for minor ailments is a great achievement for our profession!