Pharm. SORINA AURICA

Invest in health! Invest in you! Every pharmacist tends to achieve its own maximum potential.

A pharmacist with a professional experience approaching eagerly the age of adulthood, Sorina has been working for over 17 years in various branches of the pharmaceutical sector, and from passion and a strong inner will, she has chosen to continue the health manifesto in another way. In 2015, together with other pharma professionals, she founded an association that promotes health and health education, The Invest in Health Association. Since the first discussion with Sorina, it is easy to see that one of the values in which she believes in and that guides her existence is deep faith and belief. Belief makes us stronger, helps us overcome obstacles, faith and belief are the foundation for a healthy, moral and professional ethics.

• ● Each of us has a different, freely chosen career path, tell us why you chose to build a nonprofit organization in this capitalist world in which we livein and who absorbs all of us and guides us to profit oriented minds?

I started my career in the fifth year of college working initially as a pharmacy assistant. It was the first contact, quite shocking with the real world. With real people. People with serious health problems with chronic illnesses, elderly people who did not have money to buy their medicines, mothers with severely ill children, veterans who were barely able to live. My experience in pharmacy has continued for three years as a pharmacist, then another four years as chief pharmacist. During all this time, I had no way of not to root myself in the pain, the illness, the suffering of othe people. I felt their need for empathy, compassion, information, support. This seed of desire to do more for the people around me has been there for a long time, but it is two years ago that it was planted, and this very dear project arided: Invest in Health Association. And also I found my true vocation, to promote health.

• ● Why did you think such an approach might be have an echo? How did this change your perception of the pharmacy profession?

I chose to build a nonprofit organization to support and promote health in all its aspects and forms and also health education.

I think sensitivity and empathy bring us closer as people. No matter in which field we work in, I think we should not forget that we are human beings, working for people and for the benefit of people.

I understood more how important it is the health as a concept during my other professional experiences. In the past 10 years I have worked in the commercial area of ​​the pharmaceutical industry and have coordinated the purchasing department within different pharma distribution companies. Being the interface between companies and authorities and, respectively, between companies and drug manufacturers and distributors, I have entered another circle of reality, I have broadened my overall picture of this area of ​​health.

So having an ample vision of what health and pharmaceutical industry means, I chose to contribute through a personal project that has gathered together and resonated with other healthcare professionals and thus we created Invest in Health Association.

• ● In your opinion and experience, did the pharmacy profession arrived to its full potencial? Have we reached the peak of the pharmacy profession?

For many years, the pharmacits have teamed with doctors and together they were in the service of people. They advised them, prepared potions and remedies, supervised their treatments. It’s true that the times have changed, the industry and technology have advanced, developed, drugs have changed the fate of mankind and increased the life expectancy of people, but somewhat broadly looking at the role of the pharmacist in society, it remained the same. He is still, in most cases, the first to reach the patient, he is still at the service of the patient through everything he does and this regardless of the branch in which he works in. If we were to graphically represent the evolution of the pharmacy profession, I would not choose a graph that has a maximum point, but rather one that would lead to a continuous evolution. After all, each stage is good, because it brings change, and change means new lessons, another perspective.

So every day is a peak of the pharmacy profession.

As for each individual, as it is in life, and in the professional sphere, depending on his/her skills and personality, each pharmacist tends to achieve his /her own maximum potential.

• ● Tell us about a moment that triggered awareness and how it influenced your existence?

I admit that after graduation I did not have a clear career path in my mind. I do not know if I chose, but rather I followed a drecognised path, that of a debut within a pharmacy, as I have already said. There, I have discovered my communication, coordination, and business perspective skills, which have propelled me and have been of great help in the next phase of my work, that of coordinating the commercial activities in an ethical and deontological manner. All of this gave me a clear overview of the pharmaceutical sector.

I can say that I am a person, a pharmacist with a vision and a clear mission, to promote health, to be closer to people. I am a pharmacist who is said to have had a beautiful ascension and career, I am grateful for all the professional experiences, for the knowledge gained step by step, but apart from all the figures, achievements and discoveries, I say it outright: people are all that matters. I do not think we can find a maximum potential in the current times ignoring one of the past. My opinion is that regardless of the field in which we work in, the human side is as important as the technical side. And as pharmacists, we work with people, both as physical bodies, but also as emotional beings.

And, let’s not forget, health is a result of internal harmony. The maximum potential to which I tend to is to maximize personal and professional experience and to give meaning through the programs supported by the Invest in Health Association. It matters to do things for each other, to support each other, to give chances, to build together with people, for people and for the benefit of the people. And then everything we do will last. Going beyond the pharmacy profession, to convey this humanist message, I expanded my education by learning how to be a blogger, motivational speaker, personal development counselor, trainer, health communicator. I attended different events conferences, I supported personal development workshops, and above all, I have been advocating continuosly for health as an integrative concept.

• ● If you were to give an advice, what would that be?

Invest in health! Invest in you!

• ● How do you integrate your passion into everyday life? Is there time to have a passion?

Time is a finite resource and it is a friend and an enemy. There is always time for the things we love, we are passionate about. I like to write, read, listen to music. I’m a bohemian by nature, one who likes to have time for all this. Simple things, of course, but bringing wealth and joy. Without them you can not live!

• ● What are your plans for the future? What did you set up for the medium and long term goals?

The future is being built today. I am a visionary, in everything I do, I have a structure in mind, planning is necessary, even if time changes the dynamics of the facts. What I want for me, Sorina, is to be a better person, more open, more informed, more cultivated, closer to God and closer to people. Specifically, I have set up for myself a goal that the Health Invest Association should be involved and develop as many educational programs and health promotion as possible. And that’s why funding is needed, because good intentions are not enough. Whithin the next year, two financing generating actions are planned, namely: accessing EU grants / funds and putting together a business partnership to support the association.

• ● If someone would like to contact you to ask a few questions?

Any channel of communication is welcome, but talking to the face to face, shaking hands is the best way to communicate.

Flash Questions:

• ● What is your daily ritual?

Wake up at 6:30, morning prayer, coffee and breakfast on Pachelbell rhythms, Canon in D, planning the day’s activities. 15 minutes for me, a moment of nature awareness and all in the background of a gratitude of being, living, enjoying another day of my life. Today is just a day.

• ● What is the best advice you have received in your career?

To be open to opportunities.

• ● Who inspires you?

People who help their fellows, without expectation, without going to the ramp, simply out of their need to give from what they are, from what they have.