Daily Routine Of A Pharmacist In Medical Writing

Here is how my journey into medical writing and in extension blogging started. This may be of help to other pharmacists who may have interest in medical writing.

Let me introduce myself. I am a community pharmacist by trade. However, I started medical writing when I was in pharmacy school. But before I started medical writing, I wrote different categories of articles for blogs. The wide acceptance prompted me to focus on medical writing.

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I decided to create a blog with focus on pharmacy school, drugs and health. The reason I want to focus on blogging and medical writing is because I want an easy life where I can in most cases work from home and be flexible. So many work from home jobs require different levels of expertise, experience and pay is fixed or specific. However, I realised skills needed in medical writing are not difficult and the pay can grow over the years into millions of dollars if done right.

Medical writing

I was still in school without experience in the profession when I created a drugxpert blog. Combining school work and blogging was not easy. It requires a lot of time management.

There is a difference between blogging as a student and blogging as a worker. There are days I run out of data as a student. The decision to buy another data bundle is difficult to make because the money available may be for school work or even feeding. However, data bundle cap is now a thing of the past. Also, I wrote mostly in school when I was in school which is different now that I focus in the community pharmacy business.

Also, the experience I have gathered over the years from practice contributes to my writing. It has improved most of my content. And I have learned about health and drugs through blogging.

Daily Routine As A Medical Writer

I wake up in the morning with an idea of what the day will look like. The first thing I do is go through my mails and social media. If I have where to go in the morning, I try to get ready for the place. And I consider if there will be an opportunity to write when I get there. In most cases, I go to work in the morning. I can spend 30 minutes at home writing or typing before going to work. And because I have some free time at work, I take my book there to write. I dislike typing at work.

I also have the habit of monitoring the blog everywhere I go. When I get home, I try to type all what I have written during the day. When I am done, I check my mails and social media again. I sleep as much as possible.

I bought a reading table. Do you know that I don't use that table for anything concerning blogging? I don't write or type on it. I prefer my foam. To explain, this article was written at work on a table but I am typing it here on my foam in the morning. The days I am not going out at all, I spend most of the time writing and typing. On a few occasions I step out alone or with friends. It is days like this I clean up my house.

It was when I started blogging that I used to work until midnight. Then I spend nights writing, typing or designing the blog. That was because either power company restored power supply only at night or that is when my head works better when designing the blog. And I needed to grow the blog fast.

When I was in school, most of my topics were on school activities. Even when I left, I still have so much to write about pharmacy school. However, after writing what I think will make the life of pharmacy students easy I focus now on community pharmacy and health.

There are days I run out of ideas what to write about. I just let inspiration direct my mind. There are days I have what to write but my mind is not in it. To get out good work, I need to wait for the right time.

To get more topics, I scan through my daily activities with friends, neighbour and patient. I try to use my blog to answer some of their questions even if they don't see it. Somebody else with the same question will.

As a content creator, I have come to realise that not all articles go well with certain groups of persons. It is common to get called out and insulted. In some cases, you get commendation. And there are some articles that I spend so much time and energy writing only to get low acceptance from the public. I take solace in those articles I did not proofread yet got massive acceptance.

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I must not forget the calls and emails that come almost everyday asking for clarification of certain topics including odd hours. But one sweet thing about medical writing is that you can decide to sleep all throughout the day without writing because you are your own boss.

But I will never regret even venturing into medical writing. I learn and keep learning about topics I think I already know. It has really improved my knowledge a lot about disease and health. My patients benefit.

Did I fail to mention the calls and messages from senior colleagues in the industry? Or those from persons outside the shore of Nigeria? I bet you know the joy such brings. Medical writing is my dream and blogging is like a profession to me.