Tiernan McDonough MPS, PSA’s 2026 AMH Aged Care Pharmacist of the Year, is helping to develop onsite pharmacists from the ground up.
What has your career looked like so far?
I worked as a community pharmacist for many years in Brisbane, intermingled with casual CrossFit coaching, before transitioning into hospital pharmacy and undertaking medicines reviews for older adults.
After working part-time as a GP pharmacist, I moved to Adelaide to begin a PhD at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Now, most of my time is spent working on my PhD, part-time as an Aged Care On-site Pharmacist (ACOP), and casual academic work.
Why aged care?
The most rewarding roles I’ve had are my volunteer positions working with people living rough on the street or fleeing family violence. While aged care is very different, I get to work with vulnerable people who deserve respect, dignity and care. The longer I work in aged care and develop relationships with residents, staff and other engaged pharmacists, the more passionate I become.
What are the challenges and rewards of working in this setting?
There are persistent assumptions about what pharmacists do; we’re often seen only as gatekeepers or suppliers of medicines. Residential aged care facilities (RACFs) have functioned without an onsite pharmacist for such a long time, so it’s hard to change their mindset and say ‘I’m here to help, let me take on these jobs that fit my expertise so you can prioritise those that fit yours’.
Onsite pharmacists need to come in open-minded, flexible and proactive, and show the RACF how they can add value. But when you do, the rewards are immense. I’m constantly in awe of how skilled, kind and generous the staff are – nurses, carers, leisure staff, allied health, GPs, and many others. We can directly see the impact and value we bring, both to individuals and at a systemic level.
Tell us about the training program for onsite pharmacists you’re developing.
UniSA, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, is developing a dedicated, flexible workplace-based training program for Aged Care On-site Pharmacists – aiming to enhance their practical skills and provide opportunities to learn from and with others. We know pharmacists can effectively review medicines and lead on deprescribing. In aged care settings, the training program should also help pharmacists function as communication conduits to improve collaboration and information sharing by implementing case conferences into services, facilitating communication between health professionals, and acting as ‘detectives’, digging into histories and health records to provide essential information for decision-making.
What are the next steps?
It’s officially crunch time for this project. We are finalising the co-design element and working to make it available to all pharmacists in aged care settings who want to access it. My ultimate hope is that the program will offer a widely available peer learning network where everyone can learn from each other, with a structured component for those motivated to pursue it. I have also developed The Aged Care Pharmacist Podcast to provide a platform for pharmacists to share insights and hear from experts in various fields of aged care.
How could the ACOP program improve?
By allowing pharmacists to grow into more senior roles. The current model provides a wonderful opportunity to improve quality use of medicines, but there are limits to where we can progress.
Once pharmacists gain experience, we should be afforded opportunities to progress into system-level governance roles across organisations, as well as provide support and mentorship to new pharmacists coming through.
