Small steps to big dreams in rural pharmacy

Elaina Anderson wasn’t a stranger to Lakeland before becoming a university transfer student. Her father is an alumnus and her mother a Lakeland staff member. When she was looking for a way to make her dreams of becoming a pharmacist come true, she felt that Lakeland’s university transfer program was the perfect place to start.

“My mom is the one who suggested I try university transfer as a stepping stone,” Anderson explains. “I was born in Vermilion and I’d done kindergarten to Grade 12 in town. Coming from classes of only about 35 students, I could try just dipping my toe into postsecondary by trying out Lakeland first. With my whole family history at the college, I had always heard good things about it.”

During high school, Anderson had worked at the hospital and, after finding a passion for health care, completed job shadows in different roles. She fell in love with pharmacy. Anderson enrolled at Lakeland taking courses in chemistry, biology, sociology, calculus and nutrition. She lived in residence on the
Lloydminster campus, getting involved in campus events and expanding her network at Lakeland. She met students intending to transfer to the University of Saskatchewan, like she was.

“University transfer really prepared me for university,” she says. “I did better in my classes because of the way the instructors taught. They really do care about your learning and want you to know the content. It got me used to what university expectations were but with better access to resources and teachers. It’s a lot easier to get used to university life without being thrown into a class of 600 people. It was so beneficial.”
Anderson took university transfer courses in 2016-17 and then 2018-19 before transferring to the University of Saskatchewan’s pharmacy program. She graduated with distinction and is currently working with Alberta Health Services as a hospital pharmacist at two hospitals in the northwest zone.

“I worked up here as a student last summer so I was very happy to return as a licensed pharmacist,” Anderson says. “The job is just as I was hoping it would be. I get to work collaboratively with the rest of the care teams at the hospitals. Work as a new pharmacist is always a learning curve but I’m very grateful for the pharmacy mentors I have and the support from other rural pharmacists.”