Watsons provides career path for pharmacists

MANILA, Philippines - Even if Watsons Personal Care Stores (Phils) Inc. has been operating its pharmacy for barely 20 years, it has beaten its rival (who has been around for over six decades) in providing a career path for pharmacists.

In fact, we hire pharmacy assistants fresh from the schools and then train them on the job and ask to work their way up — four steps — until they get hired by other Watsons chains abroad, proudly said Robert Sun, Watsons chief operating officer.

At Watsons they train their pharmacists to become consultants and they have really been good at teaching their customers the alternatives to their prescription drugs, including pushing even the generics and unbranded medicines.

“We at Watsons want to be known both as a beauty and healthcare center since we do not just attend to beauty products but more on wellness and therapeutic medicines, including maintenance drugs,” Sun said.

He said the pharmacists at Watsons have gone even beyond just dispensing or selling medicines. “We package the antibiotics for instance in seven-day boxes (in collaboration with United Laboratories) so that we will get the complete compliance of the customers to take their medicines as prescribed by doctors.”

He said Watsons is now closely working with the pharmacy schools and asking them to send their students for on the job training at their stores.

Sun said Watsons Philippines was able to send a lot of pharmacists to foreign posts because they are badly needed by our peers abroad. “They prefer Filipino pharmacists because they are very diligent, they do their homework well, they have better communication skills and they are very hardworking and dedicated,” Sun noted.

Of course, he said, we prefer that they stay here. But we can’t stop them from wanting higher paying jobs abroad, because they are definitely offered high rates by our counterparts.

Watsons on Tuesday, launched its first real corporate social responsibility project for its employees, staff, vendors, contractors and their families, who hardly have medical insurance or HMO coverages.

 Called Hand In Hand with our Loved Ones, the CSR program was launched at the SM Sta. Mesa last Tuesday which saw the participation of thousands of employees and their families obtaining diagnostic tests like blood pressure, ECG, blood sugar, medical and dental consultations, X-ray, bone scan, tooth extraction and filling and workshops on geriatric help and disaster preparedness.

The event saw the participation of 250 volunteer doctors, pharmacists, employees and their families and other medical professionals.