Karla Wright MPS has followed her curiosity into pharmacy practice, education, governance and, most recently, motorsport.
What inspired you to pursue a career in pharmacy?
If you had asked me at 16 what I wanted to do with my life, I would have said music.
I started playing the cello when I was 7. For almost a decade, I had the privilege of performing with the Queensland Youth Orchestra, spending much of my childhood and early adulthood immersed in rehearsals, performances and practice.
Music taught me discipline, patience and persistence. But it also taught me to listen. When I unexpectedly found my way into pharmacy, that lesson came with me.
My first full-time job was as a pharmacy assistant. What began as a job quickly became a fascination. I was drawn to the science and complexity aspects, and how medicines can transform people’s lives.
I saw that pharmacists occupied a unique place in healthcare. We are accessible, knowledgeable and often the first point of contact when people need help.
How has your career evolved over the past 20 years?
Curiosity and a constant desire to keep improving remain at the heart of my career. They have taken me through postgraduate study, Home Medicines Review accreditation, clinical training and opportunities I never imagined as a pharmacy assistant.
One was involvement in Queensland’s first pharmacist prescribing pilot for uncomplicated urinary tract infections, demonstrating what pharmacists can contribute when our clinical capabilities are trusted.
My career has taken me across community pharmacy, clinical services, education and governance. Through community pharmacy, I had the privilege of being present in people’s everyday lives. While clinical practice taught me evidence and precision, education taught me our responsibility to the next generation of pharmacists. And through governance, I learned that change requires people willing
to step forward.
How has your work with the Australian Pain Society shaped your approach to care?
It reinforced that healthcare is rarely about simple answers. People living with pain can spend years trying to feel heard. Sometimes the most important thing we can do is slow down enough to understand the person behind the condition.
Working with the APS changed the way I listen and reminded me that healthcare is ultimately about people.
That is what excites me about pharmacy’s future. Prescribing, medicines management, preventive health and multidisciplinary practice create opportunities for pharmacists to contribute more deeply to patient care.
What advice would you give to early career pharmacists?
Stay curious. The opportunities that shaped my career rarely arrived with certainty. Often, they looked like an unfamiliar responsibility or something beyond my comfort zone. I said yes because I knew I would learn.
That curiosity has recently taken me somewhere else unexpected: motorsport. Sports car racing seems far removed from pharmacy, but the more
I experience it, the more familiar it feels.
Preparation is key. You need to learn the car, understand conditions, listen to feedback and refine your technique.
However, while preparation gives you something to rely on, you need to remain alert and adapt in the moment. That feels remarkably relevant to pharmacy.
We prepare through study, guidelines, experience and professional development. Yet no two patients are identical. We need the knowledge to make sound decisions while remaining open to new information.
How do you define success as a pharmacist?
Don’t underestimate the impact of what happens quietly – whether it’s a patient whose medicines finally make sense, a person living with pain who feels heard or a student who gains confidence because someone encouraged them. These moments may never appear on a CV, yet they often matter most.
