The role of a Women’s Health and Paediatric Pharmacist at Gateshead Health

Sarah Browbank, a Women’s Health and Paediatric Pharmacist has worked at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust since October 2018 across the emergency department and acute medicine. Sarah has been in her new role as Women’s Health and Paediatrics Pharmacist for a few months and describes how her role fits into the Trust, “My new role will be working across services for women and paediatrics, to support medicines management, medicines safety, medicines optimisation, and clinical support.”

The role involves working across all areas of women’s health and paediatrics. It will be supporting nurses, midwives and medical staff to help deliver safe care in regards to medication, and help women and children get the best from their medication. This will help to reduce risk, minimise errors and maximise treatment to help patients.

Currently, a typical day in the role is getting to know the areas across the hospital, learning how things work on each ward, getting to know the staff, and aiming to be able to work clinically to support the areas with medication advice. 

Sarah comments on her new role in pharmacy, “The best part about my job is being able to work in a team to help ensure and improve patient care, and help those to get the best out of their treatment.” Sarah works across various teams and her role looks at how pharmacy can help with that particular service.

Women's Health and Paediatric Pharmacist
Sarah Browbank, Women’s Health and Paediatric Pharmacist

The future of service is bright and the team hopes to have a pharmacy team incorporated into the clinical service and optimise the staff skill set. The role is brand new and evolving; Sarah worked in the emergency department for 5 years, is proud of how the pharmacy team are supporting staff and patients in this area and wants to replicate this across the hospital. The aim is to have a pharmacist working clinically to deliver patient care, alongside supporting other staff members to do the same.

I am excited about this role, and the future of women’s health, maternal health and child health, and I am privileged and passionate about being involved in improving these services and patient’s quality of life

Sarah Browbank, Women’s Health and Paediatric Pharmacist