Collaborative Care Award
Maricor Del Rosario
Pharmacy Manager
Save-On-Foods Pharmacy #987
Williams Lake
Winning the trust of her community was an uphill battle for Maricor Del Rosario. At the age of 23, she was thrust into a staff pharmacist role at the Save-On-Foods Williams Lake store. Here, she was the youngest employee in the dispensary. The previous pharmacist had worked there for 15 years prior to her arrival.
“It was challenging to break the walls,” Del Rosario said. “I recall one time, a patient asked me if they could see the pharmacist, and they wouldn’t believe that I am the pharmacist. My assistants are all born-and-raised in Williams Lake and I could see they had this connection with the patients that I hadn’t seen anywhere else in bigger cities like Vancouver or Surrey, or even Prince George.”
An international pharmacy graduate, Del Rosario arrived in Canada in 2004 after finishing pharmacy school in the University of the Philippines. She attended the International Pharmacy Program in University of Toronto in 2005. She’s been with the Save-On-Foods team since, first receiving training in the Lower Mainland, then spending about four months practicing in Prince George, before relocating permanently to Williams Lake in 2006.
Being alone in a new community was difficult, but Del Rosario occupied her time by volunteering in seniors’ homes when she wasn’t at work. Otherwise, she spent her days in the pharmacy, even when she wasn’t scheduled.
At the time, one of the pharmacy’s goals was to win back a partnership with the local hospital’s dialysis unit. Del Rosario introduced herself to the nursing staff as the new pharmacist at Save-On-Foods, and began meeting with renal patients and reviewing their medications.
“This is how it all started. I would follow up with patients at home, I would engage the nurses, and they learned that I was someone who they could come and talk with right away about their patients’ medications,” Del Rosario said.
The effort paid off. She began recognizing her patients throughout town, and they saw her, too. They welcomed her as their new pharmacist. And when her husband from the Philippines also moved to Williams Lake, she felt like a part of the community.
“These patients, I started seeing them everywhere in town. It really is a small community. I was camping and there was this patient who was in the dialysis unit, and we happened to be camping in the same area. It was like I knew everyone,” Del Rosario said.
Del Rosario also began working closely with mental health and addictions services in the community, including a detoxification facility and several organizations providing care to Indigenous patients. These include the Three Corners Health Services Society, the Gateway Stabilization Unit, the Nenqayni Wellness Centre Society, and the Renner House.
“This topic is close to my heart because my brother went through the same thing. To see all these people try to overcome addiction, I always commend them,” Del Rosario said.
And because many of her patients are Indigenous Peoples, she has been working with their communities to help improve how information is communicated about Plan W covered medications. One of those initiatives resulted in all Plan W covered products being labelled with orange signs in her pharmacy for ease of recognition.
“I have loved starting all these relationships within the community,” she said. “We would go out to First Nations communities and do medication reviews. It takes a long time to earn their trust, but now I am able to discuss medications with them and to help them understand why their medications are needed. The impact to their health has been amazing.”
To her, there is no trick to collaboration beyond being genuine and caring in sharing her knowledge as a pharmacist with other health providers.
“If you’re collaborating with other health care professionals, you’re giving the patient the edge to be successful in achieving the best of their health,” Del Rosario said.
“I am so thankful to my whole staff — Wilfred, Jedda, Jill, Linabel, Sarah, Shauna and Bright — I would not survive a day at work without you. All the nurses in the mental health unit in our hospital, the mental health clinic in Williams Lake, Lori and Sheila from Three Corners Health, and Kim, the new nurse practitioner; and everyone in the dialysis unit — it’s amazing how you help our patients. And my Save-On Family, the head office, I really need to thank them. Chi, Bless, Allen, Livia and Gary, for the support they have provided me.
“They’re always there, and they treat us like family.’