Kylie Birkinshaw has worked across community pharmacy and academia, and now plays a key role in supporting pharmacists through the Community Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot (the Pilot). With a passion for patient care, adult education, and strengthening community connections, Kylie shares her reflections on the Pilot, the challenges of implementation, and what the future holds for the pharmacy industry.

I have really strong memories from when I was a child of going to our local community pharmacy. I remember the jellybeans, and that if you were sick or unwell, that’s where you’d go to get the medicine to make you better. It was always accessible and familiar. That local community pharmacy is still run by the same family--it's owned by their children now, and my parents still go there as well.

I wanted to do something where I could tap into my communication skills, and help people-- especially helping them find health solutions. So that led me to a career in community pharmacy.

I’ve always leaned into things that are new,exciting, and sort of unknown. Especially things that let my grow my skills as a pharmacist.
I remember times when I’d be working late at night and a patient would come in and I’d know they had shingles, but I couldn’t do anything. I’d think, “I hope they got the care they needed.” Now, being able to close that loop is just so rewarding. It’s great to be working more collaboratively with our health colleagues and to finally be using our skill set to our full potential.

I’ve always worked in community pharmacy, but I’ve also had a role in education and academia, which I love. I’d previously helped teach a nurse prescribing course at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), so when I heard about the Pilot, I thought I had the right skill set to support pharmacists through this evolution in our scope of practice.
Throughout the Pilot, my role has changed a bit, but I like to image it like a pipeline – supporting people at all stages, from early learning through to real-world application in their pharmacy. I’ve been involved in upskilling pharmacists, particularly through university partnerships like the one with James Cook University (JCU), which has been fantastic. Now I’m also helping support pharmacists with implementation – figuring out how to put these new services into practice in their pharmacies for their communities.

Being able to do more for our patients is the most rewarding part. We’ve always been there – through COVID and everything else – and now we’re able to take that care to the next level. Being able to sit down in a consult and take the time to really listen and treat the patient as a whole so that they’re not just their symptom. We can find out the patient's ‘Why’ - Why here? Why now? Why do I feel this way? – and that’s been huge.
Pharmacists are already some of the most trusted health professionals, and this just helps solidify that trust. Patients love it too – I often work evenings and they really appreciate being able to access care at a time that suits them. I’ve even had patients who were surprised that these services weren’t already available in Australia, because they’re so common overseas. Being able to work more collaboratively with our other colleagues across the healthcare industry has been rewarding as well.

A big part of it has been education. It’s not just pharmacists and pharmacy staff. It's also educating the public about the new services we can offer and what might be involved.
As pharmacists we’re immersed in the training and across all the changes, but for people in the community, it’s a new model. They know we vaccinate, but now we can do more – and that’s a mindset shift. Until now, patients have come in expecting a quick chat at the counter, but now we can do more. So when we help them it might take longer because we’ll go into the consult room, take clinical notes, and ensure we’re getting the full picture so we can provide them the best care possible.
The other challenge is for pharmacists themselves. We’re used to doing so much for free, and now we’re having to transition into valuing our time and expertise. For me, it was around that shift and how I transitioned my practice from the counter to the back room to have a discussion. Patients are happy to pay, but it’s about us recognising the value too.

It’s here. The future is now. New graduates will come out as prescribers, ready to go. Scope of practice will just be part of usual practice now, like vaccinations.
This expansion to our scope of practice is going to really reinforce that we are one of the most accessible and trusted health practitioners out there. That’s why I think it’s so important for experienced pharmacists to upskill and do the training too. They’ve got so much knowledge, so the potential for what they can offer their patients is just exponential. This is what patients have always needed. They were coming to us anyway and now we can help even more.