28/09/2020
Coming from a family of lawyers meant that it was a given for me to scale the heights in the corridors of justice just like my dad and mum, or at least so I thought. I wish I could lie that all along while growing up I dreamt of becoming a Pharmacist and making a difference in patient care but I am too candid for that. Growing up, I simply just wanted to be exactly like my mum, then she was a Magistrate, I write this, she is a judge of the High Court. She is a very hardworking, diligent, full of Integrity but what struck me and still presently does is the track record of her work ethic that she left behind in every station she has worked. At least this to me, was just it, I knew that whichever path life puts me on, this was to be a non-negotiable for me.
Fast forward, I got to high school and fell in love with the sciences. I slowly but surely veered off my dream to do Law and wanted to do Medicine, precisely be a Neurosurgeon. A desire that I held so dearly to the completion of my form four. Come the results, being at the exact cut off entry point to Medicine(MBChB) was not funny & it meant two things; that I would either be lucky enough to be able to pursue it or depending on how competitive it was then, the cut off points would be raised and I would miss out. As fate would have it, the latter happened, I was called to my second choice, Pharmacy.
Just around the same time I had also applied for Medicine at Moi University as a Privately Sponsored student but their response tarried. Sooner than I knew it, I joined The University of Nairobi psyched to start my path in Pharmacy only to get my invitation letter to Moi University. God, indeed sometimes has some sense of humor, as some writer once said. I turned down the offer.
Through these experiences, one important truth is profound to me, that sometimes it’s in meeting that closed door or getting that negative response that sets you on a path or puts you on a pedestal to your God given purpose.
I willingly took the challenge to pursue this course and I do know that I am right where I need to be. Most of the decisions I have made along the way stem from a desire to make and be the change that I would so much want to see in a profession that has slowly deteriorated over the years reducing us to Glorified Drug Shopkeepers. However, this does not dishearten me anymore because I know that I can make a difference right where I am.
My internship experience, was my game changer. I interacted with senior Pharmacists who mentored me and pushed me beyond my comfort zone and preformed limits. They helped me learn how to think on my feet and beyond the box. For this I will forever be grateful.
I am very passionate about Patient Centered Care and outcomes. I do sometimes feel, the word passionate doesn’t do justice to the zeal, but hey.. It is this that drove Dr.Kelvin Odongo and myself to form the Patient Centered Care_360 online platform, a multi disciplinary forum that brings together medics with a sole reason to network and provide better patient care and keep them on top of things in matters health. This has also seen me pioneer a few programs and schedules for the Non- Communicable Disease Patients , specifically Diabetes & Hypertension that have come my way. Seeing a patient smile, really just does it for me. This really fulfills me. I like and enjoy providing practical solutions.
I am into business, Medware Supplies, providing real time solutions to the modern and busy medic. I am also a writer at maryannefavour.blogspot.com. I have a keen interest in research and piloting the findings of the same to impact healthcare.
My current interests are broad, from Clinical Pharmacy, Global Health, Health System Strenthening and Supply Chain. I am keeping an open mind as I hope to specialize soon. Perhaps you’ll meet me in a lecture theatre! I’m that dynamic! Haha!
I see myself as a leader. I always want to be a pacesetter and influence people to look within, get a glimpse of how much they have that can change the world, then hopefully mould and steer them towards making that change.
Should life put me on a path that paints a world that I don’t like to see. Think of me as that agent of change that’ll get a brush and create the type of world I would love to see. That’s pretty much about me.
We have been equipped all our life, moreso by God, the Grand craftsman of our Purpose and every experience we have gone through has inevitably prepared us and set us on the path to our destiny. I choose to live a life not driven by fear but by love. So I love and value what I do.
DR. MARYANNE ONG'UDI.
PHARMACIST.
MEDICATIA HOSPITAL, NAROK.
