Lauren Batty

Trainee pharmacy technician Lauren Batty has worked in pharmacy for a decade but had faced a series of obstacles in her bid to move up the career ladder that may well have put a less determined individual off entirely.

Persisting with her goals, she is doing a level three pharmacy technician qualification, inspiring those around her with her passion and drive to succeed. Her vast experience and willingness to support other students has served her well, and she has already been asked by her training provider whether she would be willing to do some teaching in the future.

Such has been the impact of her work, Batty received several nominations for inclusion in the 2024 Women to Watch list, with one writing that her “outstanding professional behaviours set her apart”.

Our judges agreed and found she was “clearly held in high regard by her colleagues”. They were impressed by her proactive approach, which has included taking the initiative to support other staff by creating several guides around stock control and ordering medicines, as well as visiting a local pack supplier to build a better relationship.

Currently also working in the Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust as a senior pharmacy assistant, Batty juggles shifts with her studies and caring for her young son. She will often come into work an hour early, after dropping her son at school to get some of her coursework done while it is quiet.

Batty had initially thought about training as a midwife, but after taking a job as a pharmacy assistant in her local acute hospital, she was hooked. However, with limited spots for training, she struggled to progress, she explains.

Moving to a community pharmacy, she did counter training — plus a level two pharmacy assistant qualification — still with the hope that the qualification would provide a route to becoming a technician. She just finished that before going on maternity leave, after which she moved to the community trust that supports hospitals and urgent care across the county.

There were tentative plans for Batty to do the next stage when her son was aged three years, but she could not meet the requirement of working for at least 30 hours a week. Her stepfather had also just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she was stretched thin. “There was just too much going on and it didn’t feel like the right time,” she says.

But she never gave up. With the help of the education and training lead at the community trust, she finally found training provider Skills4Pharmacy who were willing to enrol her on part-time hours. Apprenticeship funding has paid for the training and she could stay in her job, which involves a lot of travelling to clinics around Derbyshire.

She explains that she is now doing what she always wanted. “There’s just so many different aspects to pharmacy that I love. The patient care, being able to make a difference for somebody, having that knowledge about treatments that are available and just being able to help,” she says.

Her qualification is around 80% complete and she is excited for the future. The team in Derbyshire is expanding, and they have a lot of new starters coming through who look to her for advice. She says: “I’ve been quite heavily involved in writing guides, reviewing standard operating procedures for new apprentices, working as a mentor and helping people through the training process.”

Batty is keen to encourage the next generation. “Recently, we did a careers event aimed at 12-to-13-year-olds. We had different roles from pharmacy to give them an insight. We had a little aseptic dress-up workshop and a workshop on creating blister packs and reading prescriptions. It was really enjoyable,” she adds.

Being an advocate for the older learner is also something she takes seriously. “People may associate apprenticeships with the younger generation, but having that experience has helped me in the long run,” she says.

Her stepfather passed away two years ago from his illness, but she can always hear him in the back of her mind: “He always used to tell me you’ve got it in you to do a lot more. I did lack confidence but there’s lots of people around me who saw that potential.”

Batty is very grateful for Skills4Pharmacy, who offered the tailored support and flexibility that she had been searching for and wishes such opportunities were more widely promoted. 

Her next step will be gaining more clinical experience, particularly around her interests in antimicrobial stewardship and women’s health. 

She says she can feel herself growing in confidence and in her role. “Taking that next step and doing the drug histories and the checking, at first it almost felt like I shouldn’t be doing it. But I’ve overcome that now, and I know that I’m quite good at it and it’s where I should have been, probably quite a long time ago.”

• Meet the rest of The Pharmaceutical Journal’s Women to Watch 2024 here