[Roundtable Discussion Part 2] Don't Let Failure Remain Failure. An Attitude of Continually Learning from It Will Pave the Way for Your Future.

In our first-year classes, we were scheduled to have one-day tours of a hospital and a pharmacy as part of our early practical training, but we couldn't visit the hospital due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I should have been able to grasp the differences between hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists through those respective training sessions, but I missed that opportunity. I'd love to hear about these differences from Miura, a practicing pharmacist, and Assistant Professor Jibiki, who also has experience as a pharmacist.

Since I only have experience in a hospital setting, I can only offer a hospital-side perspective, but I believe a major difference is whether or not you handle injectable drugs. With the spread of home healthcare, I think more pharmacies are getting involved in mixing injectables, but it's much more frequent in hospitals. Also, hospitals offer more opportunities for direct interaction with various paramedical staff, such as doctors and nurses. On the other hand, I think community pharmacists are the ones who build long-term relationships with individual patients and their families as their regular pharmacist.

So there are significant differences in the people you interact with and how you interact with them.

At Keio University Hospital, many patients are hospitalized for short periods. While you might become familiar with those who are repeatedly admitted, most interactions are short-term. If you want to build long-term relationships with the same patients, being a community pharmacist might be a better fit for you.

I agree with what Miura said about the differences between hospital and community pharmacists. A hospital pharmacist collaborates with various medical professionals while reviewing medical records. Community pharmacists also have opportunities to work with many professionals, but the difference is that this collaboration happens within the community rather than within an organization. However, the fundamental communication with patients is the same.

So community pharmacists are more closely involved with the local community.

That's right. Community pharmacists are responsible for public health activities and pharmacotherapy within the community.

I've had chances to go to local pharmacies, but since I've been fortunate enough never to be hospitalized, I didn't really understand what hospital pharmacists do. I'm glad I could hear about it today.

Go, is there anything in particular you'd like to do during your fifth-year hospital practicum? For example, providing medication counseling to patients or experiencing dispensing. As someone on the receiving end of students, I'd like to ask for my reference.

Since I can practice dispensing at the university, I'm more interested in the unique hospital experience of providing medication counseling to patients. I'm a little nervous about it, though...

Sugimoto, who works at a pharmaceutical company, and Matsuura, at a medical device manufacturer, do you ever have opportunities to actually meet or talk with patients?

When I was a clinical research associate, I often visited medical institutions and had the chance to review patient charts. I once saw a chart that said a patient's condition had greatly improved after using a new drug I was developing. Just reading those words made me happy. Although I don't meet patients directly, their feedback on the effects and their impressions reach me in some form. Those patient voices are my motivation. I think this is something pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies have in common.

I graduated from the four-year Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, so I don't have a pharmacist license. However, just like Sugimoto, I receive market feedback on products I was involved in developing. I also have opportunities to interview users about their experience with prototypes. In those situations, hearing comments like "it would be easier to use this way" or "it would be great to have this feature" becomes a motivation for research and development.

So there is interaction with patients even in a corporate setting. Although there's a difference between direct and indirect contact, I can clearly see how patient feedback leads to a sense of purpose.

The first time I went to explain medication to a patient by myself, I was scared because the responsibility for that patient's treatment fell on me. Or when I propose a prescription in response to a doctor's inquiry, I feel that responsibility. There's both the anxiety of "what if it doesn't go well?" and the reflection of "maybe my approach was a bit off this time," but I believe that accumulating such experiences builds confidence. Trial and error when you're young is absolutely necessary.

So you shouldn't be too afraid of making mistakes.

Could I ask about some of your experiences with failure?

I've had so many failures, I'm not sure which one to talk about... I once made a patient in a clinical trial very angry. At that time, I reflected that I might not have been able to empathize with the patient's feelings. In a clinical trial, you're being treated with a drug that isn't yet on the market, so it's natural to worry, "What if I can't use this drug anymore?" So, of course, there will be days when they are emotionally unstable. I think my failing back then was not being able to understand that.

Even when things like that happen, you don't get discouraged, Assistant Professor Jibiki?

Ultimately, being thanked by the patient is the greatest reward. Even when things are tough, a single word of thanks allows me to pick myself up and try again right away. I'm glad I found a job like that.

When I was in charge of clinical trials at multiple hospitals, I had a lot of documents to prepare and send to the hospitals by a deadline. I couldn't manage it with enough time to spare, and since courier or postal services wouldn't make it, I had to arrange for a motorcycle courier for same-day delivery. I think it's important that when you fail once, you think about how to avoid making the same mistake next time and come up with measures to ensure it goes well. That's why you should make plenty of small mistakes while you're young. You just need to reflect on your failures and learn to think ahead.

At the stage of shipping investigational products, I caused an accident due to my mistake. In a situation where this would have caused trouble for our partner company, a veteran from the production floor proposed a solution based on their years of experience, and that's how we got out of the jam. Work at a company is almost always done in teams with many people. That trouble with the investigational product shipment happened in my first year as a professional, but I decided to use that experience of being helped to help others recover if someone around me fails in the future, and to build up that kind of experience. Learning from failure is permissible when you're young. I think it's better for your own growth to fail while you're young.

I've always had a very negative image of failure, and I get discouraged easily whenever I make a mistake. But now I see that the attitude of learning and continuing to learn from failure is what leads to career advancement. Failure isn't necessarily all bad, is it?