Reneka Artis

Clinical Pharmacist Supervisor at Aetna

Bachelors of Science in Biology

Doctorate of Pharmacy

Licensed Pharmacist in Virginia

• What inspired you to go into the health field/Pharmacy?
  • “I have always had an interest in science and learning about how the body works. I knew I wanted to do something in the health field that was patient-centered but I didn’t want to work with blood or bodily fluids. Pharmacy seemed like the perfect fit.”
• What was your path to your current job?
  • “I started my career in pharmacy as a pharmacy technician. As a pharmacy technician, I was able to observe the daily duties of a pharmacist which validated that pharmacy was the career path I wanted to take. I went to pharmacy school and earned my doctorate degree. I initially worked as a retail pharmacist in a chain pharmacy. I then worked as a staff clinical pharmacist reviewing prior authorizations for Aetna before being promoted to clinical supervisor of the department.”
• What are the basic roles and responsibilities of your job? 
  • “I remotely manage a team of pharmacists who review prior authorization requests for Medicare Part D via fax and phone. I monitor phone calls and fax topics for appropriateness, perform quality assurance to make sure clinical determinations are made within CMS guidelines, review time cards and time off requests from staff, delegate duties as necessary, train and coach staff pharmacists, and other duties as needed.”
• What’s your favorite aspect or most rewarding aspect of your job? 
  • “My most rewarding part of the job has been training other pharmacist and watching them grow and excel in their job. I work remotely and another favorite aspect of my job is being able to still work in the field of pharmacy from the convenience of my own home.”
• What is the most surprising aspect? 
  • “I would say that the most surprising aspect is also being able to work in the healthcare field remotely. People are usually surprised when I tell them I’m a pharmacist and I work at home. One thing that attracted me to the field of pharmacy was the various settings of pharmacy. Most people automatically think of pharmacists only working in retail pharmacy but there are many other pharmacy settings.”
• What is the most challenging aspect?
  • “The most challenging aspect is always staying current with the field. There are always new drugs coming on the market and I have to take responsibility to keep current and knowledgeable about the new drugs.”
• What advice would you give to someone getting into the health field?
  • “To make sure that they get experience in the field either through working, volunteering, or observing in some capacity  to make sure that is the career path they want to pursue. Make sure that you really care about what you are doing and not doing it for the money because no amount of money can make you happy in a career that you don’t enjoy and are not passionate about.”

From this interview, I’ve learned that to be a Pharmacist you need to be responsible for keeping up with the new drugs that are introduced to the health field. It was interesting to find out the different settings of pharmacy like retail, hospital, correctional facilities etc. I plan to take into account her advice about going into the health field and volunteering and assuring that this is really what I want to do.