Jesse Inkster
Jesse Inkster
Pharmacist
Profile submitted by: Anastasia Nazaroff
Brief description of role or responsibilities
Jesse was a long-time pharmacist at CDH in several different roles. He was always meticulous and compassionate about patient safety & care and was known to bring safety issues or inefficiencies to the forefront to be resolved. But it was when he became the pharmacy manager at CDH which saw the greatest transformation of a struggling department.
Describe how the individual or team made a positive contribution to patient care or their pharmacy department:
Morale at the CDH pharmacy was often low due to chronic understaffing, crushing workloads, and aging infrastructure/equipment. Several staff had fled the department for greener pastures prior to Jesse’s management role. We often joked that the department was the “little pharmacy that shouldn’t”. When Jesse was hired as the department manager, some people came rushing back. People knew that he would get things done and believed in his vision of a better pharmacy and work environment. His determination and advocacy resulted in more funded staffing positions to accommodate the growing needs of the hospital. He fought hard to support both pharmacists and technicians, whether that meant declining unnecessary additional work, streamlining or improving existing processes or systems, or jumping into the trenches to help out himself. He was never a micromanager, and delegated to those with greater expertise than himself. A trait very rare in managers!
Pharmacy staff in hospital can often lose sight of the patient, only seeing a name on paper; however, Jesse’s priority was always the patient and he never lost sight of that. It fostered greater compassion for the patient and improved patient care in the department as well. His positive relationship with physicians, nursing and pharmacy, and his sense of humor and trust in his staff allowed for people to breathe and enjoy the job more. He made working hard in challenging circumstances more tolerable.
While Jesse will be the first to say that managing people is his least desired job, and I am sure he acquired some grey hairs doing it, he ended up being one of the best pharmacy managers I have ever had the pleasure of working for in my 15+ years working in pharmacy. Kudos Jesse.