Getting Started as a Medical Writer for Pharmacists in the United States and Canada

In this special webinar session, I had the pleasure of teaming up with one of the coaches at the Happy PharmD, Janan Sawar, to host our guests Milena Murray, June Stevens, and Warda Nawaz discuss how pharmacists can transition into medical writing.

Brief Background on our guests

June worked in retail for ten years after graduating from pharmacy school. She dabbled into medical writing part-time for about 5 to 6 of those years. About six months ago, she decided she was going into medical writing full time.

In Milena’s case, she is in academia but wanted to do something extra with her skills. Currently, she has a quarterly column with a magazine and takes up freelance gigs. 

Warda graduated from pharmacy school in 2019 and has worked in retail while contributing her quota to the fight against COVID-19 through vaccination. As a writer at heart, she explored writing on the backdrop of her scientific background and found a suitable niche in medical writing, working as a freelancer. 

How did they make them switch to medical writing?

For June, she stumbled upon a course in medical writing that set the pace for her and showed her how to set up her freelancing business. Milena came across a coaching class that helped her overcome her imposter syndrome, improve her writing skills and launch herself as a writer. Warda wanted more flexibility in her work schedule and desired to impact her patients’ lives more, but retail was not allowing her to do all of these. She started networking on Linkedin and received coaching from the Happy PharmD. She realized her love for writing and was able to incorporate that with pharmacy through medical writing.

The impact of coaching on their medical writing journey

June knew the value of coaching from her time as an athlete and saw reasons to join the Happy PharmD’s coaching program. Coaching helped her overcome imposter syndrome and become aware of her writing potential. Milena was already a professor and had carved out a niche for herself in academia but felt she could do it now, and coaching helped her achieve that. Her job as a professor perfectly dovetails with her side hustle – writing, and she generally feels a lot better about herself. Warda needed coaching to leverage in achieving her career goals. They all agree that they saw coaching as an investment for the life they wanted and one where they would see returns on investment soon afterward. 

Conclusion

You can get started as a medical writer without getting an additional certification or qualification. Our coaches at the Happy PharmD are ready to help you achieve your goals faster by leveraging their knowledge and experience and assisting many pharmacists to transition into medical writing roles. With our coaches, you will gain clarity on the kind of medical writer you can become and create a strategy to help you land a job or start your freelancing business. Click here to book a call with us today and start your journey to becoming a medical writer.