Humanity in Pharmacy: Interview with Dr. Kenneth B. O'Shea

Take the time to acknowledge your patient as a whole. There is so much to a person that isn’t in a chart.

1)? ? What is the main difficulty that you have had as a transgender pharmacist in retail pharmacy?

Dr. O’Shea?????

“In my own personal experience, the exhaustion of daily masking. Like in any retail setting, you interact with people of all walks of life, and with all differing personal beliefs. Some of those beliefs are hurtful towards people ‘like me.’ You have to learn quickly who you can be more open with, and who you can’t, but in most cases, it’s easier to just… exist in whatever space they assign you in their own heads. I still look very femme, and so I have to live in that space for about 13 hours every day, and it’s just plain exhausting.”

2)? ? How could retail pharmacy companies change to better accommodate transgender patients and pharmacy staff?

Dr. O’Shea?????

“This is one of my biggest things! There is one easy way to fix this. Allow a place on prescription labels for the patient’s proper name, and then the patient’s legal name (if they are different). It would allow medications to still be billed properly to insurances, but without causing any dysphoria to the patient both at home when taking the medication, but also in any face-to-face interactions with pharmacy staff. Or at least a place on the label for the patient’s pronouns. It’s so easy. Or at least it seems to be to me, but I don’t know anything about medical coding.”

3)? ? Transgender medicine is very similar in terms of controversy to abortion medicine. What is the best way to deal with healthcare professionals who don’t feel comfortable caring for transgender patients, particularly pediatric patients, based on "conscience clause" reasons??

Dr. O’Shea?????

“I wrote an essay on this actually in my P3 year. My stance was essentially that, in order to provide a safe space for both patients and pharmacists with specific beliefs, there needed to be a 'buddy system' of sorts. If you are a pharmacist with beliefs that prevent you from filling hormone therapy for any patient, then you are responsible for finding another pharmacist that will tackle your part of that workload for you. If you don’t do that part, then you’re failing your patients.”

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4)? ? Is there anything you would like to add on this topic of retail pharmacy and the transgender community???

Dr. O’Shea?????

“I wish I had the mental energy to focus on this question, because I probably could think of a lot.”

5)? ? Please tell us about this bakery with your partner we’re hearing about.?

Dr. O’Shea?????

“My partner Cody (they/them) and I owned a bakery in Norfolk, VA called Baked AF. It was gluten-free, diabetic-friendly, and keto-friendly. Cody started the bakery before we knew each other, and mainly did sweet mini bundt cakes. Eventually, after I came on board, we started making kolaches as well, branching out into savory flavors. (I also went on a tart kick – I love making pies and pie crust.) We calculated the net carbs for each pastry so that our diabetic customers could dose their insulin accordingly if necessary. We eventually had to close due to COVID, but one day maybe we'll pick something up again.”

6)? ? You left the pharmacy industry and at some point came back. Why did you leave and why did you come back??

Dr. O’Shea????

“The short story is that pharmacy was making me depressed to the point where I was heavily considering taking my own life. The stress and burden of constantly being overworked was wrecking my personal relationships, I never saw my daughter, and I was just miserable all the time. I ended up working for an insurance company, doing research for Medicaid contracts, but I never felt like I was doing any actual good. Working on the government side of things was very… disheartening.”

7)? ? Please talk to me about the cool outfits. How do people react??

Dr. O’Shea?????

“Ohhhh my goodness! I love dressing up. I’ve only been at my home store for four months now, so I’ve only been able to dress up for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I already have patients excited about my winter suits. I have a green and red suit for Christmas Eve, black and green for Kwanzaa, and a blue and silver suit for Hanukkah.”?

8)? ? What advice would you give pharmacists and other healthcare professionals caring for transgender patients??

Dr. O’Shea?????

“Take the time to acknowledge your patient as a whole. There is so much to a person that isn’t in a chart. In my own life, almost all of my friends who are transgender have had at least one bad experience with a medical professional, and that causes a lot of anxiety at appointments. Patience and understanding go a long way.”

9)? ? What advice would you give healthcare professionals when working with transgender colleagues?

Dr. O’Shea?????

“Be respectful and open-minded. I’ve only ever had one bad experience with a coworker, but luckily it was only one shift. The bare minimum you can do is use their proper pronouns/name. But that is quite literally the minimum. Learn what the transgender community is going through. Be informed. It is so exhausting having to explain why I’m hyper-aware of political trends, or why I’m anxious going into a public bathroom when there may be another person there. Just be empathetic; that’s the core of everything.”