What is your official name and title?
My name is Hamisi Msagama, a Pharmacist and a graduate of Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Where are you currently working, and what does a day in your life look like?
I am a Pharmacist intern at Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam, and as an intern trained in the hospital setting, I take part in drug usage monitoring, patient safety and promotion of rational use of medicines. I am also part of the Multidisciplinary Team that detects and reports adverse reactions related to medication and vaccines.
What are you most passionate about in your Pharmacy Practice?
Pharmaceutical care and intervention not only in hospital settings but also in the promotion of Global Health and Global Health security. I am most passionate about how we, as Pharmacists, can be part of these important interventions that ensure the world achieves “health for all” by working closely with other healthcare providers.
What do you love most about being a Pharmacist?
Leave alone the diverse nature of this noble profession, but the fact that I can touch and bring positive impact directly into peoples’ health makes me fall in love with being a Pharmacist every day. Dealing with something as valuable as (drugs and vaccines), and maintaining their safety and quality puts Pharmacists on a pedestal to daily improve and impact patient care and safety.
What keeps you going as a Pharmacist?
The need to provide interventions in different communities keeps me going. Throughout my journey, I have been part of community engagements through different public health projects so as to understand the challenges and how I, with other health professionals, can provide sustainable solutions to make these communities healthier. I feel like it’s a call to help the community around me that keeps me demanding more from myself as a Pharmacist.
What’s that one thing you enjoy doing apart from being a Pharmacist?
I can say I am a multifaceted individual. I enjoy being in leadership and being involved in activities that give me an opportunity to solve a problem. For the past 4 years, I have been leading different youth Health Organizations with the aim of building capacity to create a responsible generation of youth in the Health sector as well as to propose solutions for health challenges to our policymakers and authorities.
Any advice to the young pharmacist?
We have the potential and responsibility towards the communities around us, and we should not limit ourselves and confine ourselves to dispensing. There is a lot we can be part of out here. Be a leader, take part in public health policy designing, and be a complete Hospital Pharmacist who participates in ward rounds and reviews patients. Endeavour to develop an interest in learning new things and, last but not least, learn one thing or two about technology in the medical field. Keep abreast with the global changes and milestones in the profession.