“My Life’s Journey”

I must admit, that I’ve had a very colorful past since childhood and much credit must be given to my parents who ensure that we had the very basic and any extra’s that they could have afforded. Born as a twin with another sister and two other siblings, my mother ensured that we attended school, engaged in a lot of activities and had good memories of childhood, not forgetting discipline. My father on the other hand worked very hard as a businessman in my country, Guyana, and saw his role as the provider for the family.
While growing up, I was always enthusiastic with becoming a pharmacist. After completing high school, I was sixteen years old and did not have the required age to attend pharmacy school which was eighteen years old, thus I enrolled for a BSN in Chemistry at the University of Guyana. After graduating from the University of Guyana with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, I was employed by the Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation as a chemist, being responsible for the quality control inspection of raw materials and finished pharmaceutical dosage forms. A position that I held until promoted to the office of the production manager, overseeing the production operation of one of the locations. With this position, there was incentives to become a licensed pharmacist that included a paid scholarship and the necessary time off from work to attend school. I completed the pharmacy program at the University of Guyana within two years, graduating with distinction and as the best graduating pharmacist, receiving the Guyana Pharmacist Association prize for that year. While being a student there were a number of prizes that I had been awarded by the University of Guyana and these included The best pharmaceutical dosage calculation student and natural products students. Again there was always some motivation for the best grades. At that time the company, my employer, was sold to a private investor and staff were given the opportunity to remain with the new owner or be paid off for their years of service. I accepted the option of being paid off and started to work with the largest retail pharmacy in my country as a retail pharmacist for a few months before being recruited by one of the leading pharmaceutical distribution company as the pharmaceutical manager. This job entails overseeing the importation and distribution of pharmaceutical items from some of the leading pharmaceutical companies that includes Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline among several others. There were a number of pharmacist that worked under my supervision during this time as medical sales representatives. I continued in this position for a few years and was suffering from “burnout”. The company was very aggressive and everything was done at a very fast pace and involved a lot of travelling however it was very rewarding. I resigned after a few years and wanted a job with a different environment and was willing to accept a lower pay in exchange of some extra time for myself. All of the other managers were much older and seems to cope with their stress differently. I was still in my 20’s. I was offered another managerial position by one of my business acquaintances in the British Virgin Islands. I turned that offer down and instead opted to work as a pharmacist in a medical instution. I really enjoyed the job, made new friends and environment was quite different and relaxing since it was a tourist country. There I met my husband while on vacation and later migrated to the US to start a family as well as join my other family members who had all migrated here.Thus I worked in all the different aspect of pharmacy practice, retail, distribution and hospital settings before migrating to the US.

As a new immigrant, I had many disappointments and new challenges to face to face. Firstly I could not have practiced as a pharmacist nor was given the opportunity to write the pharmacy state board exam without going back to school. I was not prepared to attend school again. As a new immigrant, I secured a job within a financial office and worked a financial service representative for MetLife after going through small periods of studies with MetLife. Here I had a different and enlightening experience and count myself very lucky to walk this path. With the recent economic downturn, I wanted economic stability and opted for nursing. While working, I attended night school. At the same time I had new responsibilities as a mother for my only child. There were a lot of challenging situations around me and many opportunities to quit, however, good grades and a good support system at home were contributory factors to my success. I attended St. Paul’s School of Nursing, formerly St. Vincent Medical School, pursuing an Associate of Science Degree of Nursing, graduating in 2013 and subsequently passing the NCLEX to become a registered nurse in the state of New York. I graduated as the valedictorian after receiving the highest GPA among all the other nurses, in addition to receiving the Dean’s award most of the semesters for outstanding academic achievements. I am currently working as an RN and look forward for a bright and beautiful future.
My life has had many detours but there were many opportunities for self-advancement and invaluable experiences that will definitely shape my future. Despite any challenges I look forward for the warmth and comfort of my “little happy” family.

Individual Strengths

Although over the last two decades, I’ve obtained a wealth of technical skills, which started, on my first job as a chemist, then as a pharmacist and now as a registered nurse, I must admit that most of my experience was not “hands on “. Although technical knowledge was required, I served most of the time in a leadership capacity and with time these skills have only been sharpened by the challenges and complexities of managing different issues.
I’ve also learnt that the management of human resources to accomplish specific goals and objectives hinges on great interpersonal skills, creating an environment that is empowering, motivating, rewarding as well excellent organizing and time management. I have also realized that employees, including myself, have both strengths and weaknesses and with appropriate guidance and mentorship can accomplish a seemingly impossible job.
Most of my previous success resulted from a high level of commitment, diligence and a sense of priority to the task at hand as well adopting a proactive status on issues. My previous experience as a pharmacist fostered an attitude of paying attention to minute details of every matter. Often times, I have taken pride in producing the highest quality of service and/or output in my endeavors, a recipe for good achievements.