How a C+D Job alert took me to an army base in Germany

It was a C+D 'job alert' email that led Kat Darby to leave her NHS hospital career in the UK. After spotting the C+D notification, she applied “on a whim” for the job as lead pharmacist at a pharmacy at Rochdale Barracks in Bielefeld, north-west Germany.

Luckily, her instinct turned out to be right. “[It was] the best possible career choice I could have made, both in terms of the experience I have had here and the people that I work with,” she tells C+D.

So what makes up a typical day at the barracks? Ms Darby says the routine is flexible. “That’s what I love most about this job – every day is different.”

Generally she spends mornings clinically checking, final checking and answering queries from patients and prescribers.

Afternoons are usually spent on more complex enquiries, management activity, and doing advisory work – such as authoring patient group directives, policies, and future plans.

“Because we are a small community, I have the opportunity to be involved in every aspect of pharmacy service design and delivery, from the day-to-day running of pharmacy, to the higher-level strategic planning for the service in future.”