5/3/17
I’ve written some posts before about my mentor and friend, Dr. Christina Tarantola, also a pharmacist-health coach. Like myself, Christina is passionate about creating positive change in the world, and using wholistic approaches to healing. She and her fiance, Adam Martin, have partnered in business as well as love. Their company, The Fit Pharmacist, offers coaching for individuals looking to improve their health by focusing on nutrition and fitness. This year they are launching their business training course geared for pharmacists who are also health coaches. I was in their pilot program, which I cannot recommend enough! Look on their page for more details and to see my feedback in a video review that I left them. I benefited immensely from the course and give Adam and Christina high praise for not only being an incredible inspiration and walking the walk, but also giving us a platform from which we can express our holistic guidance as pharmacist, which is a relatively new concept.
Not many pharmacists run side businesses, especially focusing on prevention and health & wellness. There is often a stigma that the pharmacist profession is about drug pushing, and partly it’s because the name ‘pharmacist’ has the same root word as ‘pharmaceuticals.’ However, what we learned in pharmacy school is that non-pharmacologic means of improving health should always be sought first. In our fast-paced and goal-oriented society, this step is often overlooked and even skipped, in order to hurry up and get maximal results right away. I am part of the many pharmacists that disagree with that plan of actions, but feel they have no autonomy to decide this for the patient.
Another resource I highly recommend is Alex Barker, who is a pharmacists who helps other pharmacists. He does it in one of two ways: he helps them figure out what they can do to improve job satisfaction at their current position, or helps them seek out other avenues of income – such as opening side or primary businesses with their pharmacy backgrounds. I was recently interviewed for Alex’s blog: thehappypharmd.com, so stay tuned for the article! To find out more about how you can get involved in the movement, I urge you to contact Adam and Christina, and/or Alex.
