Transcript
"We have thousands of pharmacists in New Zealand..."
"Pacific pharmacists?"
"One percent or less than one percent of Pacific pharmacists in New Zealand."
That's Diana Phone, an academic at the School of Pharmacy in Otago talking about the low number of Pacific pharmacists in the country.
There are around three hundred thousand Pacific people in New Zealand, but not enough Pacific pharmacists to meet the needs of this growing population.
President of the Pacific Pharmacists Association Kasey Brown says Pacific pharmacists are able to understand culture and body language of their people.
"Body language and culture is quite big and if there's no understanding of that, then that also makes it difficult to engage with your pharmacy, so it's not all just language, a lot of it is about culture and how we as Pacific people respond to the way we've been spoken to and how we like to involve more families rather than just being an individual."
Ms Brown says medical jargon can throw anyone off fully understanding their medication needs.
According to her, knowing how to converse in a way where Pacific people don't feel threatened or embarrassed is essential.
"A lot of it is cultural indifferences and not understanding the best way to speak to someone around an illness and trying to explain those medications, 'on an empty stomach' what does that mean? Starving? Does that mean starving? We Pacific people like to enjoy food and in the company of other people, so it could be embarrassing bringing out your tablets."
Diana Phone says health literacy is difficult for Pacific people to understand, when English is a second language.
"The health system in New Zealand is quite complex and if you're not from New Zealand or even if you are from New Zealand and you're not from the health sector it can be quite confusing for you to understand where you need to go or basic information about how to take your medicines and all that can be really confusing."
Ms Phone says having more Pacific pharmacists on board will help break down the barriers Pacific people currently face in the healthcare system.
"You don't have to be a pharmacist to work in a pharmacy, you can also be a pharmacist technician, you can also be a pharmacy assistant, just being able to walk into a pharmacy and seeing a Pacific face, you have that instant connection."
Paediatric consultant at Middlemore hospital in south Auckland Teuila Percival agrees that more Pacific pharmacists are crucial to improving the health of the community.
"They often will go through the really practical aspects of medication with patients both in hospital and in the community and so it would be really good to have Samoan speaking, Tongan speaking, Cook Islands, Niuean pharmacists who can work with our communities. It would be great if we could have more."
A pharmacist in central Auckland Natalia Nu'u says she often hears about the shortage of Pacific pharmacists.
"Every time I meet people and I say, oh I'm a pharmacist, they say, 'Oh! I've never met a Samoan pharmacist' or 'oh! I don't know any other..' and so the latest statistics there's officially only 38 Pacific pharmacists and considering there's about 300,000 Pacific people living in New Zealand, it's not nearly enough to be servicing our community."
The Pacific Pharmacists Association is working closely with tertiary institutions to increase the awareness of the career pathway.
This is Sela Jane Hopgood.
