Awards for local pharmacy staff
Three front office assistants from Hillcrest Pharmacy in Springs were awarded the top three spots in the Front Shop Assistant of the Year 2015 competition.
These women were awarded first, second and third place respectively during an annual award ceremony held recently in Auckland Park.
Feliska Botha (20) was the winner of the competition and won a pharmaceutical bursary and a money voucher, which she will use to study part-time to become a pharmacist.
Carmen Watt (24) took second place, and Vallery Raubenheimer (66) was third.
Feliska says she never thought they stood a chance of winning the competition, but were surprised when they were notified about making it into the top 10, and then the top five.
This annual competition is run over four months and entrants needs to complete the four questionnaires published in the Frontshop Pharmacy magazine each month to enter the competition.
“We were each invited to give a presentation on what our work entails in front of a panel of judges and I think it went quite well,” says Feliska.
Completing her registration forms for 2016, she says she is excited to be able to study and work at the same time.
According to Alexia Carboni, a pharmacist at Hillcrest, there were 800 entries and the pharmacy is proud to have taken the top three positions for two consecutive years.
Last year saw employees Kayla Vermaak take first place, Roana Pillay second and Linda Leech third place.
Another employee, Cassandra Labuschagne, was second in 2011.
“The competition spans over the entire year and at the end of the year, the top 10 entrants in the country are asked to attend an oral examination, where they have to answer questions from a panel of judges about pharmaceutical products and the industry,” says Alexia.
The judges are key players in the pharmaceutical industry.
“We always encourage employees to continue with their professional development,” says Alexia.
She adds the questionnaires are also a great way of keeping up to date with current developments as “medicine is always changing”.
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