International Women’s Day’s theme for 2024 is “Inspire Inclusion”, according to the official website, “When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment”. At Locate a Locum, we have multiple female colleagues across roles in sales and marketing, operations, product and development.

We’ve recently heard from team members about their experience working with Locate a Locum. First up, we have Claire Robb, Locum Support Team Lead, who shares her experience of joining the company and how she has been inspired by one of our colleagues;

“Getting the opportunity to become a Team Lead and the challenges that come with it. It has been amazing so far! My biggest inspiration has been Justyna (Locum Success Lead). She has been nothing but amazing and supportive since joining the business and has helped me develop into the type of Team Lead I wish to be with following her example.”

We also heard from Office Manager Mary Lambert who discussed the career advancement she has witnessed since joining the company;

“I’ve seen employees be promoted within a few months of joining the company - coming in at a relatively junior level and now running a team. I've watched people learn and grow both professionally and personally. People never cease to amaze me - everyone has a story and that story is usually pretty interesting!”

It’s important to remember that Locate a Locum isn’t only a community of women internally but also the wider healthcare community in the UK. We asked our locums to nominate a female colleague who displays values of professionalism and care to local communities and teams and one nomination has stood out to us from Cherisse Walker:

“I’d like to nominate Nicola Parry, a locum who works at my branch. She goes above and beyond in every aspect of community pharmacy; recently a patient was struggling to buy food and using his glucogel to control his sugar levels she went over Tesco and bought him all essentials after issuing a CPCS for the glucogel.

This is just one example where she goes way beyond her duty of care. I could list so many more examples including assisting patients source out-of-stock products from alternative pharmacies and dropping them off on her way home. She is inspirational and a credit to community pharmacy.”

Whilst we love International Women’s Day as a chance to highlight the incredible efforts of our team and the locums using the platform, it is only one day. This conversation is something to have every day when making choices that should always #InspireInclusion.