Welcome to this special recap of Your Pharmacy Career podcast, proudly produced by Raven’s Recruitment - Australia’s experts in pharmacy career and locum services for over 30 years.
In this deeply moving episode of Your Pharmacy Career Podcast, host Krysti-Lee Patterson speaks with early career pharmacist and harm reduction advocate Emily Turkovic — a professional whose path into pharmacy was shaped not just by academic interest, but profound personal loss.
Episode Summary
Emily shares her journey from uncertainty about her post-school direction to becoming a champion for harm reduction through the Take Home Naloxone (THN) program. With rare honesty, she opens up about losing her brother Isaac to an accidental overdose and how that tragedy became the catalyst for her advocacy work. Through courage, vulnerability, and action, Emily has turned personal grief into purpose — using lived experience to drive change in pharmacy practice and education.
This episode is a must-listen for pharmacists, students, and healthcare professionals seeking to better understand the human side of harm reduction, the power of empathy in practice, and the potential for young pharmacists to lead meaningful change from the very start of their careers.
Key Takeaways from the Episode
Lived experience can be a powerful professional driver
Emily’s journey illustrates how personal grief, when met with courage and support, can evolve into powerful advocacy and leadership.Empathy is foundational to pharmacy practice
Emily emphasises the importance of compassion in dealing with patients and carers — recognising that those entering a pharmacy may be experiencing the worst day of their lives.The Take Home Naloxone (THN) program is saving lives
Emily’s internship project delivered over 400 naloxone doses in two days, showcasing how pharmacists can meaningfully contribute to overdose prevention in their communities.Normalising conversations around harm reduction is crucial
She encourages pharmacists to integrate naloxone conversations into everyday counselling, just like spacers with inhalers — removing stigma and making safety standard.Pharmacists should be self-advocates
Emily’s outreach to QUT led to teaching opportunities and public speaking engagements. Her message? Don't wait for permission — put your hand up, even if you feel scared or underqualified.There’s no “one path” to a fulfilling pharmacy career
From community pharmacy to academia, peer review, and harm minimisation — Emily exemplifies the value of portfolio careers and following your passions as they evolve.Education must include real stories
She calls for pharmacy education and CPD to incorporate more lived experiences, especially around harm reduction, to bridge the gap between theory and real-world impact.One story can change everything
After publicly sharing her story at a harm reduction event, a young woman told Emily it gave her the courage to speak about her own brother’s overdose — a moment that affirmed Emily’s mission.Fear shouldn’t dictate decisions
Emily shares that embracing fear — rather than avoiding it — has opened doors to some of her proudest professional moments, including becoming a university guest speaker just two years post-graduation.
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Full Episode Transcript
Speaker 3 (00:01)
Welcome to Your Pharmacy Career Podcast, proudly produced by Raven’s Recruitment, the experts in pharmacy career and locum services for over 30 years. Every episode is your gateway to new opportunities in the pharmacy profession. From expert advice to inspiring success stories, we're here to spark ideas, guide your career and help you achieve your goals. Stay tuned. The next step in your pharmacy journey starts here.
Speaker 2 (00:26)
Hi everyone and welcome back to Your Pharmacy Career Podcast. I'm your host, Krysti Lee Patterson. And today we're joined by early career pharmacist and harm reduction advocate, Emily graduated just a couple of years ago, but her journey so far has been shaped by lived experience, resilience and a deep commitment to helping others. We're going to talk about her start in pharmacy.
her incredible early career opportunities and the personal experiences that have shaped who she is both as a person and as a pharmacist. Emily, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:57)
Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be on today.
Speaker 2 (01:00)
Let's
start at the beginning. What led you to become a pharmacist?
Speaker 1 (01:05)
Yeah, of course. Well, I think like many pharmacists, we didn't actually know what we wanted to do after school. I had a natural talent, I guess, for chemistry and science and PDHPE. I was on the HSC honor board for New South Wales for PE. So I've always loved that side of the science and I've always loved talking and helping with people. I don't know why, it's just something I think built into me that I just love helping others. So when I finished school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I put in for paramedicine and biomedicine.
I got in for both and I was thinking, I don't know, this is just not clicking for me. And then I looked at QT, went into their health page and went through every single health science there is and went, can I see myself doing that? No, I can't. And then I just stumbled across pharmacy. I was like, okay, this sounds pretty interesting, pretty cool. I got into it. I started doing the course and I was lucky enough to start working in pharmacy in second year. And was very fortunate to have a really good owner.
And not just a really good owner, but a great leader and mentor. I think that really started me being like, okay, this is what I want to do with my career. She's really innovative, really caring, and really just one of the best for patients and her staff. And I saw that and go, okay, yeah, this is what I want to do. And then I've just been following that little path ever since. And this is where I am now, which is one year out, which I'm very grateful for.
Speaker 2 (02:21)
no, I love that. And it's so special when you get a really good pharmacy from your very first one, which is really amazing. So what was your internship like?
Speaker 1 (02:31)
I loved my internship. So I guess I was delayed a little bit in finishing pharmacy. I failed a subject. I had some personal stuff going on. So I didn't finish with my cohort, which was a little bit sad at the time, but it made me really hung up for like, okay, when I'm an intern, I'm going to smash out my internship. I was really, really lucky. I got an internship in the Foots group. So they're just outside of Brisbane in the Ipswich area. So they're more regional compared to a big city and
I had a great owner again, very lucky, great owner, great mentor, great leader. And I thought to myself, okay, this is where I'm going to prove to myself, like I will be the best intern pharmacist I can. And I said to myself, I'll be intern pharmacist of the year. Never actually happened. I did get nominated, but that's how I sort of had this mentality. Like, doesn't matter that I was behind, like I'm starting now and I'm going to be the best that I can. And I did my internship and in my internship, you do a health promotion. I guess this is how my little career has started.
And I thought to myself, okay, I don't want to do asthma or blood pressure readings. Like I want to do something different, something exciting. We came across the take home naloxone program, which helps reduce opioid overdoses in the community by supplying naloxone, which reverses them. And not many pharmacies were doing them at the time. This was only like a year ago. I thought, why don't I do this? I had a personal experience of my brother dying from an accidental overdose, not from opioids, but from drugs. And I was like,
This is just a normal thing that happens. You know, this happens to everyday people. Why don't I do this project? I was really fortunate to have a great owner who was happy for me to talk about my personal experience as well and wanted me to do it for the team. So I did a health promotion, take home a locusone, how to save lives. And I believe we did 400 doses of Nixoids out in two days. I think I did about
200 and something on the first day. And I thought, no, this is too good. Let's run it for another day. And then we did like another 200 after that. Then from there, I posted on LinkedIn and I just showed what I did and it just caught on like wildfire. I had interviews after that. And yeah, that's how my internship sort of ended with me being in a bit of a spotlight for harm reduction advocacy work.
Speaker 2 (04:40)
I'm so sorry to hear that about your brother. That would have been a really horrible time for you and your family to experience something like that, especially someone so close to you. And it's interesting, like as a pharmacist as well, you learn about these things, but you never really think it will happen to you. And so what was that experience like if you don't mind sharing maybe a little bit about that time in your life, just so that people that maybe
had that experience before can understand it a little bit more and maybe look at it a little bit differently without judgment and stigma associated with it.
Speaker 1 (05:17)
Of course, look, grief's really hard and everyone deals with grief in a different way. And the way that I dealt with mine is how I dealt with it and that's okay. How someone else might deal with it, that's okay. It's really about survival. It's whatever gets you through and up through the day, that's okay. So I lost Isaac. It was just after Christmas. He was having a party with some friends. You know, they were just doing drugs and alcohol as many young boys do. think we-
can all reflect back when we were younger as well and be like, okay, yes, we were surrounded by this. And he mixed too many drugs or too much alcohol, was downstairs in the car park, found unconscious, unresponsive. The ambulance was called, he had a cardiac arrest on when they arrived, brought back to life. And then he was transported to the rural Brisbane where he was there in ICU. Now, his, obviously his heart stopped beating. So his liver and kidneys then went into failure. And what actually took Isaac's life is that
He got Mucormycosis if I'm pronouncing it right, which is a really rare fungal infection. And it's very, very common in Australia. It's in all our dirts, essentially. And you realize that when someone is so sick, like their body's just trying to survive, a small thing like a speck of dirt was the reason Isaac passed away, because it has a 99 % fatality rate if it's found in your bones or your blood. And that's eventually what happened. He had a little scratch on his knee. They were cleaning it out. It was infected, cleaning it out, cleaning it out.
to the point where it was almost at WMPT and we were having conversations every day. was changing, you know, it's one leg, it's two legs. We'll see how he goes. And then by the end of it, was just that it was in his boat and there's no point to continue on. So during that time, I think I realized it was at COVID as well as that how important someone's health is, but how important your responsibility as well to make sure that your health is at its best. This was the whole COVID vaccination thing. I just remember thinking if someone went into that hospital, into that ICU unit,
who had COVID, Isaac would be gone way earlier than how we had him for six weeks in ICU. So I think I've learned a lot of respect in saying that like it's up to us as well to protect others. So to be vaccinated, know, to be educated as well.
So I think that's one of the things I learned. Look, it was really hard at uni. think I tried to work it off. Like I remember it's really messed up when I think about it now, but I remember I was in the back of my storeroom on FaceTime with my family because there were restrictions in COVID and the priest being there with Isaac and me just at work. And I'm just like, oh, I don't need work off. I'll just, no, it's fine. Isaac will be fine. And I think that's just the way I dealt with it. It's like, no, no, everything will be good. Isaac will recover and you know, I don't have to take any time off work. And I do regret that a bit. kind of wish I just
took it for what it was, but at the time that's all the tools that I had was just say it's okay and it'll be okay and keep sort of brushing it off. But it was, it was a lot to deal with. I was very lucky to have a very supportive boss as well. It was there for me, but it's really made me get a lot of empathy for patients. Like when Isaac passed away, I remember driving to the hospital when he passed and I remember just thinking, this is the worst day of my life. And that people are just driving to work.
People are just complaining that their prescription is taking 10 more minutes than it does. And I'm just like, I like, it felt so surreal. I was just like, what is this? And I remember just being in the elevator and there was just other people in the elevator. And I remember just being like, you have no clue what's going on in my life. So I think I've realized that like when people come to the pharmacy, know, a little bit frustrated or a little bit mean, I just go, okay, what's going on in your life to make you like that? And I shouldn't be the person.
to push back the energy that you're giving me. I'm gonna give you a little bit of sympathy and empathy and care, because it's probably what you need, not someone to be like, oh, why are you so rude or anything like that. So I feel like I've developed very quickly a lot of empathy for other people, especially caregivers as well. It's a really tough life looking after someone who is really, really sick.
So I think even just having conversations to family members in the pharmacy and giving them a bit of support and asking how they are can go a mile as well. So yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:21)
You're so right in that you really don't know what's going on in someone's life. yeah, as pharmacists working in the pharmacy, people are coming into the pharmacy, possibly having the worst day of their life, as you said, and we have no idea. And it is so easy sometimes to get into the grind and sometimes life can get a bit stressful in the pharmacy, but just remembering and taking that time to.
Yeah, have that compassion and understanding I think does go a long way. I just like hats off to your boss as well for during that period of time, being able to support you and yeah, being able to give you that opportunity to go and have phone calls and conversations while you're in the pharmacy. And you're right, everyone deals with things differently. I've in my own career. My mum actually was really quite sick at one point in time and she was in ICU for about eight weeks and it's
really difficult. And yeah, you do sometimes want to just throw yourself into work to try and think about anything of things will get better, but they don't. And yeah, she happened to get sepsis, but she was she did come out of that, which is which is good. So she's still with us today. But again, I think until you experience something like that, don't really realize the impact of some of these conditions. I accept this, I had no idea that
Yeah, the survival rate was so low, even in Australia. So I can sympathise with you with what happened with your brother, like getting an infection. it's, you would think that in today's world that shouldn't happen, but it does. So with sharing your experience, like you've only, this has only happened, like only if.
Speaker 1 (10:57)
Yeah, exactly right. Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:04)
really a few years ago and you've been quite open sharing this journey. What helped you find the courage to share that especially by someone that is so early in their career and I don't want to assume things but I'm sure there's probably things that I thought if I do this is it going to impact my career negatively or positively so what actually yeah it gave you that kind of push to to start sharing that story.
Speaker 1 (11:30)
Looking back when it happened to me, I gravitated a lot towards other people who's experienced loss. I think that's really important about finding your community where you don't feel like you're the lone wolf. So I really looked up to Jessica Feeney. If anyone who knows her, she lost her little girl on the Gold Coast. I ran about the same time I lost Isaac. So she publicly shared her story. And I remember just thinking.
Wow, like someone else experiencing this grief and you know, every grief looks different, like I said before, and you know, losing a child, especially a little three year old, I can't even imagine what that would be like. But the fact that she was being able just to talk about it made me feel like that it's a normal thing to talk about. I'm very fortunate that my family as well, we've all dealt with it, you know, quite good in a sense. You know, we've all spoken openly about Isaac, we didn't bottle it up and we had time to grieve altogether.
So I was at peace with the grief a little bit as well. And then just seeing, yeah, like how impactful sharing your story can be has made me keep wanting to share it. When I was an intern telling my staff for the first time, you know, my brother died of an accidental overdose, I was really quite embarrassed and a bit ashamed to share it. But if they got such a good response from it and my owner was like, this is amazing, like you're really changing lives. was like, okay. And then it was just another opportunity and trying to push past those fears.
And then get good feedback. Emily, thank you so much for sharing. know, you have this, it's great to hear. I'm like, really? You want to hear this? Like, I'm just still embarrassed about it. And actually the most, most impactful thing that's happened is I spoke on, it's called a talk grief and then Molly Bell hosts Terry White Farmers of the Year in Toowoomba. And it's just trying to normalize conversations about grief. don't, I'm going to get emotional about this, but that's
Speaker 2 (13:13)
I'm trying to hold in my emotions as well. ⁓
Speaker 1 (13:16)
I
was really nervous. I asked Molly if I could help out and she actually said, yeah, become a guest speaker. And I was like, no one wants to hear my story about my brother passing away from accidental overdose. know, it's, don't think it's really relatable. I don't know how I can impact people's lives. I don't know how I'm going to move the crowd. And I just started spiraling a bit, full of anxiety. Then when I got there, I said to my partner, all I want to do is change one person's life.
This is really nice. Anyways, I got up in there and spoke and it was good and the audience really liked it and I was really proud of myself and you I thought that was it. And there was a young girl who was, I think my age, a little bit younger, came up to me in tears and she said, thank you so much for sharing. I also lost my brother to an accidental overdose and you've given me the courage, you've given me the courage to speak about it. And I remember just being like, my goodness.
All I wanted to was help one person's life just by speaking my story. And you know, I fumbled and I spoke too fast and I probably missed details, but I've moved someone to talk about their story. And I was just like, wow, this is why we have to keep talking about it. Because even though when you talk to a crowd, you feel like you're not having any change, you don't know that it could be that one person's life that you save.
And that's why the take on Naloxone program is so important as well is because even though you might be giving it out to all these patients that are on opioids and you may not help anyone, the fact that you could save one person's life is huge. And I feel like the take on Naloxone program shows that it saves three lives a day. And I really just want to put importance that three lives is massive. If you were to save one person's life, it's huge. And I think the numbers we go, it's just three, it's whatever, but it's massive. Just making a small change can make
huge effects on anyone's life or the community in the world. So I feel like even though I'm still scared and embarrassed and ashamed to talk about it, I know that I'm doing good out there. And even if it's a small amount of good, that's enough for me. So yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:09)
Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing that and also for Mollie for having that platform as well. That's amazing. If you can just connect with that one person, you never know the impact you're going to have on people's lives. And you mentioned like sometimes statistics might sound a little bit small, but at the end of the day, that is someone's life. That's their everything. And the people whose lives that that person touch, it's their everything as well. So it does actually have a huge impact.
I wanted to touch a little bit about the Take Home Naloxone program and you were so successful in giving out hundreds of these products to your patients and customers at the pharmacy. What do you think that pharmacists can do to make that process simple? So for example, like I think everyone is aware that it exists and that this product exists.
that maybe don't know how to have the conversation because maybe they also don't want to offend the person either and make them feel like, we think that they're going to do mistaky behaviors. I kind of would love to see it be no different to recommending like a spacer with a Ventolin or even like just being part of a first aid kit. Like I'd love to see this being rolled out in like first aid training. I think it's really important that people know about it. What's
been your experience in making that program successful.
Speaker 1 (16:34)
think it's just making it the standard. This is the standard that if someone gets an opioid, someone gets a take home naloxone or gets educated on harmonization. you know, dosing and when to take it, you know, if you're taking any other drowsy medicines that can increase your risk of having an adverse reaction and education as well is huge. It's really big. You know, you don't know what you don't know, but I think if you really want to implement it in your workplace, you need to be educated on it. There's some great resources.
I've done some CPD platform and learn Rx about it. There's some from the PSA, there's heaps of free ones out there. And through those learning activities, you can develop ways and how to actually talk to patients and normalise it. For me, I make it super simple. don't, I just say you'll probably never have an adverse reaction from this medicine, but if you do, you can have take home Naloxone at hand just in case.
It's really that simple. doesn't have to be like, I think you're going to overdose on this or I'm a bit worried about you. It's just saying you'll be fine. But if not, here it is, keeping your first aid kit and just remind patients that you have access to it because that's what saves a life. So I think it's just education, making it the standard in your workplace as well as that, no, this is what we want to do. And then just trying and failing. Like when I first spoke about the take-home naloxone on nicoid.
I would have been terrible counseling a patient. I would have been like running around, you know, all these different things, explaining how the mechanisms work. And at the end of the day, it's not needed for a lot of patients. It's just, you know, trying what works and working on it and going, okay, next time I do it, I'm not going to go completely down the receptor path. And then you do it again. It's just trying and failing and not being scared to just try is the main thing. Like what's the worst that can happen? You give out a take on an Nixoid and they say, no, that's okay. It doesn't matter.
doesn't impact at all. But imagine if they say yes and the feedback you have as well is what keeps it going as well. There's so many instances patients have been like, what? This exists? this is so good. I remember once I had a patient say, do you mind if I get some more because my mum's auntie or something like that is also on it and I'm worried that you know something may happen to her. So it's just small things like that but just making it an everyday conversation it's nothing scary to talk about at all.
Speaker 2 (18:43)
Yeah, I think sometimes as pharmacists, we overcomplicate things. It's in our nature. If I'm completely stereotyping, but yeah, just keeping that message really simple. yeah, like you said, what's the harm? Yeah, that's exactly it. So what do you think that our pharmacy profession could be doing better in this space in terms of like harm reduction?
Speaker 1 (18:53)
What's the huh? Exactly right. Yeah.
Look,
I think there's a lot more education that's needed and a lot more education that's based on lived people's experiences and engaging with these people who've experienced loss or harm and learning from them and how they would like to be treated compared to being like, ⁓ this is how it should be done because that's not always the case. A lot of times if service delivery, you need to take it not from what we're giving, but how people are receiving it and learning from them.
I'd love to see more live people's experiences in educational material, definitely. I'd love to see pharmacists championing harm reduction. I think there's still stigma about talking about harm reduction.
Speaker 2 (19:42)
Yes, there is, which is so sad, but I think it's a natural thing that happens. But I think if we can normalise it a bit more, I mean, we're in healthcare.
Speaker 3 (19:53)
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Speaker 1 (20:09)
Exactly. Like that's our job is medication safety. It's a harm reduction just goes hand in hand with it. So I'd love to see more voices of pharmacists and a pharmacy assistant or anyone talking about harm reduction. You know, one person's voice like can do a lot as well, like I said. So it'd be great to see other pharmacists going, yep, I do it at my work and it works great. So sharing voices would be great.
Speaker 2 (20:31)
And I think by having more lived experience in our education and training that will produce stigma and help people to understand more and then they'll be more likely to participate and talk about and share it. I think that's really important. So because sometimes it can be hard to learn about things and not have like an example case study or understand from that patient perspective. I think that's really.
really important, especially for our profession because we're dealing with people every single day.
Speaker 1 (21:01)
Yeah, I think it just normalizes a lot of times of harm reduction. We think the worst case scenario, we think of people who are wanting to harm themselves, who are doing illicit things, but the data doesn't show that. It shows it's happening just to everyday people who may have mixed up their medicines or don't realize that two medicines cause drowsiness. And they're the people that we're trying to reach as well. They're the majority. So I think we got to keep that in mind and not just think worst case scenario and you know, the most horrible. Yeah. Cases.
Speaker 2 (21:29)
wanted
to touch on something that you mentioned earlier on that when you experienced what happened with your brother Isaac, your family were a big support and spoke very openly about it, which I think is amazing. What was it like growing up with your family and has any of the values from your parents or even your brother shaped the type of pharmacist that you are today?
Speaker 1 (21:50)
Yep, definitely. So I did come from like a poorer family. My mom very highly educated, go get a pusher, but often put study before, I guess, financial benefit for the family. So she does have a PhD in law, in health law. So she's killing it, absolutely killing it. Got asked to speak at the World Health Organization in Geneva, but growing up was difficult. We didn't really have much money at all. Being the youngest, I'm the fourth and the only girl. I think it taught me to grow up quite.
quickly because I always wanted to hang out with my brothers. I always had to try to act a little bit older and want a bit more. I think coming from that, I've just always wanted to push myself to do more, to want more than what I had growing up, which was not much. My brothers have all done entrepreneurial businesses. Elijah's now one of my brothers doing it.
property development, Eden was doing in like luxury watch sales, Isaac had his own business as well. So it's really shown me that you can do anything that you want to do. You just got to have, guess, the courage to say it, the passion to follow it through and the discipline to keep on going. So definitely I've taken on all those values and that's where I am now, one year out of my internship, but I'm doing podcasts about my career. So look, it's definitely impacted me heaps just to, to, but anything, I guess it's.
You can do anything that you want to do.
Speaker 2 (23:09)
And was that something that your parents instilled in you? Because it sounds like that was definitely a theme with all your brothers as well, that it didn't matter where you were brought up, where you lived, what you had. Hey, just work hard and you can succeed. Is that something that they did promote? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:27)
Look, I'm reflecting on my mom now that I've gone a little weird pathway. She was a teacher. Okay, first of she got a fine arts degree. Then she became a teacher. Then she specialized in teaching German. Then she owned her own naturopathic business for 10 years. Then she went on to health law. Then she was doing a PhD. So I feel like in a way I'm sort of following her. I spoke to her the other day about this and she said that
she found that as soon as she felt that growth sort of limit that, I can't do anything more here, let's change it. What else am I interested in? And I think that is actually quite rare because a lot of people have one job, they have it for years and they retire. Where my mom was like, no, no, this doesn't value me anymore. I think I can do more of this. I'm going to switch and change, which is sort of what I'm doing now. I'm seeing other opportunities. I'm saying yes to them. So yeah, I do think it has impacted me a lot. Her just being that example. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:19)
Yeah, I love that. It's almost well now there's a proper term for that. It's called a portfolio career. So she was the OG portfolio career woman. I love it. But I think that's so true. Like if it's and if I also look at my own career, I haven't stayed in one spot for very long, but I tend to, yeah, if it's if I'm not serving the people I'm with or the job that I'm doing, or I'm not getting anything out from it either, and I'm not growing, I'm not learning, then I
think it's time to move on. I actually think that's a good thing because not only do you as a person get more experience, and I think it's really good to learn from all different types of people, not just in pharmacy, but outside of pharmacy as well. But then also too, for the people that you connect with in all these different roles as well. I think that's where a lot of innovation comes from as well, which is great. But I'm really excited to see what's next for you and where you have you got any ideas as to what's next?
Speaker 1 (25:15)
Look, I am currently working three jobs. I'm pushing, my days are taken, but I've just started working in the education space. So I work at QUT as a sessional academic, and I'm also doing your editorial peer reviewing as well with the LearnRx program. So I'm loving that. I'm loving helping students and helping, maybe not having patients face to face now, but helping my colleagues or helping interns. I think the Take Home to Lockstone program started that for me on that education piece. And now I'm just like,
This is fun. This is great. This is what gets me up in the morning, but who knows? I'm still loving community pharmacy. I'm at Chatter. I love being out there with the patients, but I just, yeah, don't know where I'm headed, but I know whatever, which way I go, it'll be the right decision.
Speaker 2 (26:00)
Yeah, 100%. And that's pretty amazing that you've got a role at the university already. I'll be honest, I think, yeah, you'd have to have a PhD or something like that to be able to to lecture. So how did that role come about?
Speaker 1 (26:14)
Yeah, so I guess this is a really good example of being your self advocating for yourself. After my sense of the take home Naloxone program, I reached out to the head of QUT Pharmacy and I said, I would love to do a presentation on it. He said, yeah, we'd love to have you on. I presented and there were my old lecturers were like, who only just taught me like a year ago? We're like, Emily, you're great. This is amazing. It's great to see you do this. The students are really engaged. They asked if I could do some marking. I was scared. I was nervous. And I said, yeah, why not? I'll do some marking.
And then from that, was, would you like to be on one of the court, one of the units? And I was really, really, really hesitant to take it on. I felt like I didn't have enough experience. I feel like I'm not the best public speaker. I was a good student, but not the top of the class. was just like, had all this self doubt. And I actually spoke to one of the lecturers and he said, don't let fear stop you. And I was just really taken aback by that. I was like, oh my God.
You're letting this fear run wild in your head. Like what's the worst that can happen? You do it, you realize you don't like it and now you've learned that you don't like teaching. How cool is that? But it took a lot of courage to say, yep, I'm in it. And now a semester's gone and I am so glad I did it. I had so much fun. I learned so much. I feel like I really challenged myself and I became a better pharmacist for it. You know, I used to, after like before teaching the class, I would review everything. And then when I was...
work, I'd be asking the intern, did you know about this? Do you know what HBS means? A metapar? And just small things that I didn't really know. And I could teach someone else. And that just made me feel so good. So then I look back, I'm like, okay, I'm so glad that I listened to that person saying, don't let fear stop you. And I took the courage to take it because it was one of the best decisions I've made so far in my career. It's been great.
Speaker 2 (27:59)
⁓ I love that. And yeah, just don't let that fear take over. But it's such a normal thing. I still have it today, even before I do a podcast. I've done been doing this for over a year now and I still get nervous beforehand, but you just, you just do it scared. I think is kind of my motto that I, I try to live, live by and yeah, I think there's just some really wonderful things that can come out from also being a self advocate. like what you said, you
Like how scary to just reach out to a uni that you only graduated from literally like the other day and to say, can I present? Like, I think that's just amazing. But you took that first step and now look where that sleep led you to. So I think that's also a great piece of advice to choose, even though you might be scared, but just still have confidence in yourself as well. And if you've got an idea, just reach out to that person.
reach out to that person on LinkedIn or email or whatever if you've got an idea and just try it out there see what happens.
Speaker 1 (28:59)
I remember I heard a really good quote when I was finishing pharmacy. It was something I could be saying it wrong, but it's something like having courage means that you're not scared. It's having the ability to do it anyway, even though you are scared. And I remember being like, ⁓ that's so true. Cause I used to hate public speaking.
I was okay to get up in front of a crowd, but to read something, I was really, really scared. I had some episodes in high school where I froze and I had this really just negative self-talk. And I always used to say, I'm not a public speaker. I'm not a public speaker. And I said, no, I need to start losing that old identity because I can become anyone who I want to become. And I'm going to be a public speaker. And well, look what's happened now. And I thought, I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to do it and get it over and done with and see what happens. And this is what's been happening every time when I did my first take home nox zone.
presentation, I was so scared. I was so scared I was going to fail, was going to stumble and I was fine. And it was okay. And that just built me that little bit of courage to keep on doing it. So if any student or intern, even pharmacists, cause we all struggle with this. Doesn't matter if you're 20 years experienced or you just graduated that like it's okay to be scared. Just do it. And you will be so glad that you did.
Speaker 2 (30:07)
Yep, absolutely. I was just thinking about what you were saying in terms of public speaking and what that means. Sometimes for some people that can just be answering the phone at the pharmacy. I remember when I first started out in pharmacy I was so scared to answer the phone. ⁓
Speaker 1 (30:23)
I can't answer it, sorry.
Speaker 2 (30:27)
Yeah, and but then now like it's just such a normal thing. I think here sometimes they see some of the other staff members that may be a new to pharmacy, or maybe they're just young and they never even use a handheld phone before. And they don't even know how to work the phone system. They get so scared and like, look, it's okay, just answer it. Say hello, be nice. Right. Like it doesn't matter if you don't know. I think that sometimes being that scares you is I don't want to say something wrong, but
Speaker 1 (30:48)
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:55)
I think, yeah, you just kind of acknowledge maybe what you don't know and it's like, oh, I'll just go grab someone else. Well, Emily, thank you so much for your open and honest conversation today. It's been really wonderful getting to know you a little bit more and understand where you got that passion for reduction. And I guess if you reflect on your journey so far, I know you probably think, oh, I'm just a baby pharmacist. I'm just getting started. But what's the moment that you're most proud of?
Speaker 1 (31:25)
I think the moment I'm most proud of would have to be the white coat ceremony that I recently spoke at. I think that just reflects everything that I've been through since starting pharmacy. So head of pharmacy asked me to speak at the QT white coats. That's when you get your white coat for the first time before you see patients and you're pledging the pharmacist pledge. And I got asked to be the guest speaker and I said to Andy, said, Andy, are you sure you want me? Cause I don't feel like I'm.
good enough for this. And he said, Emily, you've really made a name for yourself. And it was so nice to hear that from the head of pharmacy. And I was like, okay, I'll deal with them. And I was super nervous. And on the day even, I remember I was even practicing. I went to the venue a week beforehand to practice. So I knew exactly where the room was. I knew what I would sound like. And when I got there, I didn't realize that I was the only guest speaker. They only have one guest speaker. And I was like, great, that's a lot of pressure to put on me. And I was like, this is intense. I...
Reading over my speech, I was just like, I'm so proud of everything I've achieved. And I'm up here, you know, two years ago, I used to say, I hate public speaking. And yet here I am speaking in front of colleagues, students, the head of pharmacy proudly and confidently. It was just such a surreal moment. And I was so, I think I was just proud of myself for how far I've come because, you know, I didn't finish uni on time. I could have easily just quit uni. I could have gone, I hate, I hate pharmacy now.
But I didn't, I just kept at it. You know, I didn't like public speaking, but I kept at it. And I, and I was just there on the day and I thought, this is just crazy how the world just worked. I think it was really nice as well that I did have that delayed finish at uni, but QUT were proud of that for me. They knew that everyone's roads not the same, everyone's journey is not just a straight line.
So it was really like nice to hear that and be supported by QUT and be them to be proud of me. And I think I was just proud of myself when I was going over my notes and all the things that I've done, which yes, I've been a pharmacist for such a short time, but I have had such a big impact in some areas. It was really nice to reflect on. So I think that was so far my proudest moment was being asked back to QUT.
Speaker 2 (33:32)
Yeah, that's huge. And I think back to my graduation and it makes me sound like an old person saying, oh, back then, like it was literally only what like 10 years ago, but we didn't do a white coat ceremony. And it's so sad. We obviously had a graduation, but it wasn't a normal thing for universities to do the white coat. But I think that's really nice and really special. And to be able to share your experience with the
graduating class. That's amazing, so well done for doing that.
Speaker 1 (34:03)
Thank you, yeah, it was really, really cool.
Speaker 2 (34:05)
Now Emily, we've come to the end of our discussion, but I'm sure this is not the end of Emily and we're going to be seeing some amazing things come from your career in the future. Do you have any final words that you want to share with our listeners?
Speaker 1 (34:19)
Yes, I've actually got a quote that I love to share. I'm a quote person. So I I feel like quotes just get you through a rough day. They help inspire you. One of the things that I always remind myself is that to want something you've never had, you must try something you've never done. So if you want to be the best pharmacist possible, work something else, you just have to try something different. Put your hand up for things that you feel like you're not ready for. Say yes to opportunities you know, you may not think you'll enjoy because you never know what will happen in these moments.
like who you'll become from these opportunities as well. So yeah, that would be my advice for students and for even pharmacists as well, just to, yeah, just give everything go and don't be afraid to fail.
Speaker 2 (34:59)
100%. And even if you do fail, doesn't matter. You can just do it again or- fall forward. fall forward. I love that. Well, Emily, thank you so much for sharing your story with so much honesty, generosity and for being so authentic. I think it's really wonderful how open that you've been with your story, your brother's story as well, and how I guess you've embraced almost an imperfect path, but that has turned into your perfect path. What?
Speaker 1 (35:29)
That was just great, yes, in a weird twist of ways, that's how it's happened.
Speaker 2 (35:36)
Yeah. So I just want to thank you so much for joining us to our listeners. Also, thank you for joining us for this important conversation. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please make sure you follow and subscribe to your pharmacy career podcast and we'll have Emily's details in the show notes. Thank you again, Emily. And thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (35:57)
Thanks for tuning in to Your Pharmacy Career Podcast, proudly sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. The PSA is committed to empowering pharmacists through advocacy, innovation and industry-leading professional development. To become a member or learn more about how the PSA can support your career, visit www.psa.org.au.
Don't forget to subscribe, share this podcast with your colleagues and join us next time as we continue to explore your pharmacy career journey.
Final Thoughts
Emily Turkovic’s story is a poignant reminder that pharmacists are not only medicine experts — they are people, often shaped by deeply human experiences. Her example challenges the profession to break down stigma, champion harm reduction, and create space for young voices with bold ideas.
For early career pharmacists wondering if they’re “ready” to make a difference, Emily offers this quote:
“To want something you’ve never had, you must try something you’ve never done.”
At Raven’s Recruitment, we help Australian pharmacists explore career paths that honour their values, leverage their strengths, and support the kind of impact they want to make — just like Emily.
