Mr Lee Wee Beng was nominated as a Shining Star as part of the PSS initiative

1. Why did you choose Pharmacy as your profession?

At 18, I barely had any idea what I wanted to do in life and I picked Pharmacy. The point is - we can never know our preferences until we explore choices – much like how we won’t know which kind of Campbell soup we like until we pick a few to try…

2. Why did you choose to be a community pharmacist?

I am deeply curious about the endless complexity of human communication and felt that a retail environment is a fertile ground for exploration.

As a bonus, the exposure to diverse health issues through customer interactions have sharpened my ability to make connections among various symptoms to come up with recommendations.

3. What helped/motivated you to be where you are today?

Firstly, I strive to make insightful connections regarding customers’ health issues and follow up with impactful recommendations. Secondly, I am a firm believer that human interactions can be full of surprises. With these 2 mindsets, I strive to engage customers as best as I can. Time and again, my beliefs are validated as I witnessed the unfolding of a typical pharmacy encounter into a significant medical intervention or an emotionally enriching journey.

4. Who would you say is your role model, who inspired you to excel in the pharmacy field that you choose?

Both Prof Lim Lean Huat and Prof Sim Meng Kwoon from Dept of Medicine, NUS. Knowing them is an immense privilege and is a landmark in my life. Their impact in my work and life is monumental and vast. It will be too ambitious to summarize their significance in this interview.

5. What is your advice for your fellow pharmacists and for people who are considering this career?

Firstly, if you want to make a difference and practice at a higher level, be ready to wield your expertise and make clinical judgments. Deal with clinical uncertainties.

Secondly, relationship building always comes first. Customers are not textbook scenarios; they will not volunteer all necessary information. If there is a lack of comfort and trust, they are unlikely to share crucial information and they may end the interaction too soon before anything can be elicited. We can have vast clinical knowledge but it amounts to nothing if we lack the ability to establish trust and leverage on the trust to elicit good information.

Thirdly, we cannot love all and serve all. Accept our limitations for now. Not all customers will respond amicably to our overtures and there bound to be customers with problems that we can’t solve. Failure to reconcile with setback and unhappiness can lead to burnout.

Finally, when faced with job unhappiness, talk with the people you trust the most and who will listen non-judgmentally. Keep them close to you; they are likely to be your career mentors as well. I was fortunate to have my preceptors, Yew Meng, Joy and Siew Fong; and also a group of colleagues whom I confide in.

6. Given that Singapore will be experiencing one in three citizens aged 65 and above by 2030, how do you think pharmacists can contribute to the healthcare of this group of people?

Our colleagues in the hospitals have been dedicated to the care of this patient sector, but they are heavily committed. To maintain the quality of health services, we need to divert some of these healthcare needs to the community pharmacy. There is great potential for community pharmacy to offer quality services in terms of dispensing, counseling, monitoring and performing interventions if needed.

The successful execution of the AIC-PSS-Community pharmacy nursing home project in 2011 is a testament of our expertise in pharmaceutical care. Just like how AIC has generously funded the project, we hope the government can subsidize healthcare expenditures in community pharmacy. More Singaporeans can enjoy healthcare services in community pharmacies.  

Such change bolsters the commercial viability of community pharmacies. This stimulates more investments in augmenting pharmacy facilities such as expanding our formularies to include generics and even dedicating facilities for pharmaceutical care services. The partnership is a win-win-win for community pharmacy, the government and the people.

7. What is the most memorable moment your career?

The ability to transform routine pharmacy encounters into fruitful interactions forms the theme of my memorable moments.

In 2012, I made an intervention which was so unexpected. I received a script for Augmentin, everything was in order, I could have just dispensed. Curious as always, I began talking with the customer. To my surprise, she has already taken the antibiotics for 3 days without improvement. Her symptoms suggested sinusitis with atypical pneumonia. I called the doctor and recommended Clarithromycin for 2 weeks with mucolytic and a corticosteroid nasal spray. She responded to therapy in less than 2 days. Because of my intervention, she ended up spending much more. Despite that, she gave me a $50 Starbucks voucher. It was a show of gratitude that touched me deeply. This underscores the wonders of human interaction. Furthermore, as we exercise judgment and legal power, we earn trust and respect. More people will see us as wise clinicians.

8. Describe your career progression path

I have been practicing for about 1.5 years.

2011 - Inaugurated the Drug Information Service in Watson’s. Worked with AIC and PSS to launch nursing home pharmaceutical care project

2012 - Analyzed nursing home pharmaceutical care project data which was presented by Fatimah at the Singapore Pharmacy congress 2012. Received service excellence “gold” award from Singapore Retailers’ Association.

2013 - Will be receiving the “star” award from Singapore Retailers’ Association Embarking on clinical teaching and working with Pre-Registered Pharmacists.

9. Can you describe a typical day at work?

I start work at 10.00am and devote most of the time engaging with customers. It is invariably the interaction that I find intellectually rewarding. I take the time to understand my customers’ health and medication needs and help them make the right medication choices. This keeps me alive at work. I leave the dispensary at 10.00pm, exhausted but satisfied at the end of the day – recalling the “special encounters” and impactful things done at work.

10. What do you think are the important skills that a pharmacists needs to be equipped?

5Cs – Curiosity, Charm, Courage, Connection, Clinical

Curiosity – An unceasing interest to stay proficient and expand capabilities. An interest in exploring customers’ underlying needs

Charm - The ability to develop rapport and gain trust at the start of interaction. How comfortable a customer is when talking with us will determine the quality of the interaction, how much information we can glean and our chances of influencing them with our clinical opinion.

Courage – The fortitude to exercise clinical judgment and legal powers, for the interest of our customers. At the same time, a willingness to be responsible for the actions taken.

Connection – The ability to integrate verbal and visual information from the customer and arrive at a clinical judgment or inference about their conditions.

Clinical – It is self explanatory. But this skill needs the presence of 4 other skills to function optimally.

11. What is your wish list to your patients/the public who comes to you?

In moments of indecisiveness, we often hear customers saying “I will ask my doctor about it”. I hope that one day we will hear customers saying: “I will ask my pharmacist about it”. This will be a monumental leap forward by the profession.

Currently, a substantial fraction of customers perceive pharmacy service as a cash-and-carry transaction, especially among the locals. In general, customers come to us telling us what medicine they want. This somewhat underutilizes our expertise.  Moving forward, I wish more customers will understand our role as medication experts and seek our expertise in meeting their healthcare needs.

On our part we will continue to engage them, arouse their interest to know more, explore their needs and offer them sound advice.

Customers' Compliment of Mr Lee Wee Beng

   Shining Star is a PSS initiative to showcase our role models in Community Pharmacy