New Practitioner Award
Brad Adams
Pharmacy Manager
Save-On-Foods Pharmacy #988
Vernon
If there is time enough to lean, there is time enough to clean. It was an oft-repeated phrase in the restaurant where Brad Adams first learned the ethos of perfection and excellence, an ideal that defines how he continues to hold his work decades later.
The Salmon Arm native no longer works in a kitchen. Graduating with his Doctor of Pharmacy in 2022, Adams found himself entering his third career at the age of 43, with the hope that he would discover where he’s meant to be.
He had always found his own path. Growing up to an accountant father and an elementary school teacher mother, it was perhaps by chance that his first occupation was as a dishwasher at a restaurant owned by a top chef from Britain. Here, he discovered his passion for the kitchen, helped along by tales of cooking for royalty, of travels around the world, and of the possibilities a career in the culinary world could bring.
It didn’t take Adams long to become one of the top students in his culinary program at Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University), and a practicum in one of B.C.’s top kitchens led to a full-time role at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver at age 18.
During his final two years, he earned a position at The Five Sails, the hotel’s five-diamond fine dining restaurant.
“There was a lot of pride in that. Most students don’t walk into a job like that right out of culinary school,” Adams said.
He continued to grow. Eventually, Adams was hired to be an executive sous chef, commanding a team of 120 people in a sprawling casino complex — in Moscow, Russia.
At the Vernon Village Green Save-On-Foods Pharmacy where he now works as pharmacy manager, Adams is still wearing his chef’s uniform: his white coat, his kitchen clogs; and the work is precise, requiring extreme accuracy and perfection, each step just as important as the last. Like in the kitchen.
“Being a chef was a high effort, a high anxiety, and high-speed kind of career,” he said. “But even so, the risks and rewards are a little different when it comes to health care. They’re not leaving with a bad meal. The work must be taken seriously. It can make life-changing differences to people’s lives.”
Though he no longer works in the kitchen, pharmacist Brad Adams still wears his "chef's whites".
Adams returned to Canada after six years in Russia. He wanted to be closer to family. His elder relatives were getting older, needing care, and it was time to come home. Back in B.C., he became a mortgage broker, driven by curiosity and a desire to build financial security in real estate. He committed fully like he had always done in the past, but something was missing.
“It’s a highly emotional thing for people buying properties,” he said. “I’d take on the emotional stress of the client, do the work, and clients would go back to their bank for a better rate — even after the bank had originally said no.”
The experience left him searching for a role where his effort made a lasting difference, where people truly respected and valued his support.
That desire brought him to pharmacy. Returning to university after more than 15 years was daunting. From learning to take notes again, learning how to compile study resource materials, to managing stress, he found support among students who wanted to learn collaboratively, and among professors who became mentors.
He found encouragement in faculty like Simon Albon.
“He genuinely wanted to know who I was,” Adams said. “Pharmacy school is like trying to drink from a fire hose, but Simon cared about making pharmacy school a supportive place, not just academically, but socially and emotionally, too. He wanted the university experience to be reflected on positively by his students.”
After receiving his PharmD, Adams accepted a position at Save-On-Foods pharmacy in Vernon, where he was quickly promoted to pharmacy manager. Under his management, Adams has been seeking opportunities to embrace the full scope of pharmacy services, and to apply more clinical skills in everyday practice.
“During a practicum at Lakeside Pharmacy Kelowna, I learned the difference a great team of clinicians can make for patients. Though I’m now practicing somewhere else, I have tried to follow their mentorship in my practice. I still turn to the pharmacists at Lakeside when I need it,” Adams said.
Patients are often surprised to learn he is new in the profession, but despite his recent entry into practice, Adams has already sought opportunities to support the next generation of pharmacy professionals.
The team at Save-On-Foods #988.
Students he has mentored attest to his ability to listen, and in his ability to turn small moments into teachable lessons. For the past year, he has also been teaching as a sessional instructor in the pharmacy technician program at Okanagan College.
“During my three years at Interior Health, I worked next to Richard Slavik. I always appreciated how he included me in clinical conversations and was generous in sharing his knowledge with me, even when I had some seriously dumb questions. I’m grateful for that, and I try to be that person for others now,” Adams said.
As for the future, Adams would like to grow. It may be his third career, but he believes, this time, he’d like to stay, at least for the time being.
“If pharmacy were a dish, it would be something deconstructed. Messy at times. Some components are tough to swallow on their own. But when it’s all put together, done right, it’s something truly valuable,” he said.