Old school pharmacist Ian McMichael had plenty of advice for the Waikato University pharmacy class of 2025 as they began their journey towards joining a profession on the move. Senior writer Mary Anne Gill discovered what those tips were.
Waikato University Pharmacy School’s first intake including Jamie Mitchinson, fourth left front row, and Chaney Solomon-Wilkinson, back row extreme right, join Te Huataki Waiora Division of Health staffers, pharmacy and Chemist Warehouse representatives and pharmacist Ian McMichael, centre rear, in TT Block’s top floor. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Switch off your social media and learn to listen, like and love people, solve problems and become empathetic.
Then when you talk to someone dying of cancer, or someone who has been sexually abused, a change gender person or a mental health patient, you will understand because you have become a good listener rather than an observer.
Ian McMichael
That message from veteran Hamilton pharmacist Ian McMichael to the 22 students, soon to be 25, of Waikato University’s new graduate-entry pharmacy programme. The advice clearly had an impact.
Within minutes, as they introduced themselves on day one of a programme expected to help solve the “dire pharmacy workload problem”, Tauranga’s Jamie Mitchinson had taken his advice on board.
“I’m excited to get stuck in and learn ……. and delete Facebook,” she said.
Mitchinson and the others excitedly spoke to a range of industry and university guests about what led them to the university’s two-year Master of Pharmacy Practice programme and the lecture room in Te Huataki Waiora Division of Health in the TT Block late last month.
Their experiences, ages, backgrounds and journeys were varied; some had science degrees, another had a master’s degree in biology, a couple had come via nursing and other healthcare professions, been researchers, qualified as pharmacists overseas or been pharmacy technicians in New Zealand.
Kellann Kemp of Gisborne watched during her introduction by Chaney Solomon-Wilkinson from the Coromandel in the centre, both want to return as pharmacists to their communities. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
All needed a major in one of the molecular sciences – biochemistry, biomedical science, chemistry, molecular and cellular biology, pharmacology – and achieved a B grade average in their final year.
They hailed from Auckland, Palmerston North, Coromandel, Gisborne, India, London and Brisbane and will undertake 375 hours of primary practice in community, primary care and hospitals as well as time in the lecture rooms.
Students will learn pharmacology, pharmaceutics, the law, ethics and pharmacy practice.
“I’m really excited about deepening my pharmaceutical understanding and applying it the real world,” said one.
A mother of two had been at home raising two daughters for the last six years.
“I’m so excited about this. Hopefully I can come out of my comfort zone,” she said.
“My whole point is to learn more about medicines and put it into a research background or somewhere clinically so I can do better for patients and the community,” said another.
Chemist Warehouse managing partner and regional manager Saif Al-Sheibani, who provided four scholarships of $10,000 each and a model pharmacy which he and Prof Rhiannon Braund officially opened by cutting a ribbon. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Chaney Solomon-Wilkinson is from the tiny settlement of Manaia on the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula where the nearest hospital is 40 minutes away and there is only one little pharmacy in town.
“And that’s pretty well our healthcare system,” she told The News.
The 25-year-old was nearing the end of her undergraduate degree at Otago University where she studied science, pharmacology and microbiology.
“I was looking for the sort of jobs that I could do with that and a lot of it was lab-based work and a lot of agriculture work in the Waikato.
“I knew I wanted to work with people, and I have experience in retail and stuff and I know I like working one on one with people, so I was like ‘how do I combine being face to face with people and my pharmacology background?’ Pharmacy. It was a natural progression.”
Kellann Kemp of Gisborne left, and Chaney Solomon-Wilkinson from the Coromandel both want to return as pharmacists to their communities. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
She knew Auckland and Otago universities did it but not that there was now a third pharmacy school in Waikato.
“I’d been in Otago too long; I was ready to be back here so by chance I just looked at Waikato and saw they had this new programme happening and so I applied.”
Solomon-Wilkinson is excited at the options she will have in two years and the impact she could make in Manaia or other smaller communities like it.
The studies mean she will add more to her student loan.
“Here’s the thing, pharmacy should hopefully have a better pay. I’m excited to try different things because obviously if you don’t know anyone doing pharmacy and you’ve never looked into it. It’s just about getting the feelers and stuff,” she said.
Head of the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences Prof Rhiannon Braund said the programme was developed to produce a new pipeline of pharmacists.
Jan Adams, Honorary Professor at the University of Waikato’s Te Huataki Waiora School of Health with Operations division manager Sharmila Kannan. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Because the students already had a background in fundamental science, they could hit the ground running, she said.
McMichael, who graduated with a Diploma in Pharmacy in 1979 from the Central Institute of Technology, went on to own and operate Pharmacy 547 in Hamilton and serve as the Pharmaceutical Society’s president, told the students pharmacy had been a “fantastic career for me.”
“You have chosen an ancient and fantastic profession, a profession on the move.
“Stop Facebook and social media for the next two years. That’s one piece of advice I will give you and I hope it sticks.”
Chemist Warehouse managing partner and regional manager Saif Al-Sheibani speaks to the two-year Master of Pharmacy Practice programme intake in the Te Huataki Waiora Division of Health lecture room. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The university last month also welcomed its first cohort of students to a graduate-entry midwifery programme developed in partnership with midwives and maternity service providers in response to workforce shortages.
It joined the nursing programme, which started in 2021 and delivers two programmes that lead to becoming a registered nurse. The university is now the largest provider of graduate-entry nursing in the country.
Chaney Solomon-Wilkinson from the Coromandel
Division of Health pro vice-chancellor Jo Lane said the university was committed to meeting the region’s health workforce needs and worked in collaboration with stakeholders.
Next cab off the block is expected to be a new graduate-entry medical school which will focus on selecting students who are committed to careers in primary care and who come from underrepresented, underserved Māori, Pacific, remote and rural communities.
No date has been set for the first intake of 120 students while the university works with the government on a business case, but Otago University recently told new Health minister Simeon Brown it had capacity to increase enrolments with some of the $380 million funding tagged to build a medical school in Waikato.
Michael Hammond, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand, Prof Rhiannon Braund, Chemist Warehouse managing partner and regional manager Saif Al-Sheibani, in the new model pharmacy.
