• 25 Dec, 2024
• Dr. Sadia Zafar

Unlocking Potential with Dr. Sadia Zafar: How a Pharmacy Assistant Instructor is Bridging the Gap by Empowering Pharmacists in Canada

Magazica: Can you share a bit about your journey from graduating from George Brown College to becoming a Pharmacy Assistant Instructor at Windsor Career College?

Dr. Sadia Zafar: Thousands of immigrant doctors, nurses, and professionals from all walks of life are banned from working because they do not have a simplified and direct way to prove their skills and qualifications. Due to the Canadian system, it takes years of hard work and the expenditure of savings to prove that they can be part of the Canadian workforce. I am one of them. I immigrated to Canada in May 2017. Like any immigrant, I started looking for pathways to improve my qualifications to meet industry requirements. It was a bit disappointing that despite having a Ph.D. degree, over five years of staff pharmacist experience, and 11 years of teaching experience from back home, I was not able to become a part of the pharmacy profession or the Canadian education system. They all demanded Canadian workplace experience. To be honest, this is a mystery I have not been able to solve yet: how can anyone have Canadian workplace experience unless you allow them to step in?

There is not enough guidance regarding what the first step should be in choosing a college or university program that can help you find a job in your field. Most immigration and social services agencies offer to tailor your resume or to help you memorize answers to commonly asked questions in low-paying labor job interviews.

I started applying to different pharmacies for volunteer positions. I wanted to explore and learn how community pharmacy works in Canada and got a volunteer position at an independent pharmacy. In Canada, all pharmacies use pharmacy software to carry out day-to-day billing. I took a short course to learn how to use one of these software programs. I successfully got a position as a Pharmacy Assistant at Sobey’s Pharmacy in Oct 2017. Later I joined Metro Pharmacy in March 2018.

I also enrolled in an Adult Learning program offered by TDSB, which provided me an opportunity to volunteer in a microbiological testing laboratory (Sporometrics) as part of a placement for one month. At the same time, I searched for different colleges and university programs to upgrade and align my existing knowledge and skills with the Canadian workplace. Although a teaching license is not required to teach at community colleges, it was impossible to get a job without any prior teaching experience in Canadian colleges.

In April 2019, I came across a wonderful program offered by George Brown College called the College Teachers Training Program (CTTP). The program included a placement component in which students had the opportunity to gain hands-on teaching experience in Canadian institutions. I completed CTTP in April 2020, just as COVID-19 struck the world and impacted all businesses, including the education industry. Everything moved to the online world. Thanks to my diligent instructors from the well-structured CTTP, who prepared and guided us on how to teach both in person and online, I learned how to adapt and teach with existing resources. I started tutoring Grade 12 Biology online at TutorDoctor. The academic coordinator of this program, who conducted my interview at the time of my enrollment in the CTTP, was skeptical about whether I would be able to get an instructor job after completing the program because I had a Ph.D. in Pharmacy but not in a subject-specific area. However, in February 2021, I was one of the few out of 15 students from our batch who started their career as an instructor. At first, I began teaching the Pharmacy Assistant Program at CDI College, and then I joined Windsor Career College. Recently, I was offered a biology course at George Brown College for the Winter semester of 2025.

Magazica: What inspired you to pursue a career in the education management industry and focus on healthcare settings and clinical research? What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your job?

Dr. Sadia Zafar: With my background in healthcare research and extensive experience in the education industry, I wanted to join the same profession in Canada. As once rightly stated by my professor at George Brown, “Deep inside, we both know academia is one of your worlds. A world where you thrive. A world where you set yourself free.” Yes, teaching is my passion, something I inherited from my father and paternal family.

I have always believed in the beautiful saying by John Steinbeck: “Teachers are the greatest of artists because the medium is the human mind.” I am delighted that, through my teaching strategies, I have been able to inspire some of my students to develop such a strong interest in the pharmacy field that they decided to enroll in a Pharmacy Technician program. The most satisfying part of my profession is when I see my students succeed and apply their acquired skills effectively. Many of my students have been offered positions while doing their placements. Many of my students are pharmacists in their home countries but face challenges due to language barriers and limited familiarity with the Canadian community pharmacy system. It is incredibly rewarding to see them overcome these obstacles and successfully pass the Evaluation Exam, the first step in the pharmacy licensing process. I always prepare my students with key skills: communication skills and skills to operate pharmacy software. In addition to these skills, I believe what makes a healthcare professional successful is empathy.

Magazica: Could you describe a typical day in your role as a Pharmacy Assistant Instructor?

Dr. Sadia Zafar: COVID-19 shifted the paradigm of the education industry. The Ministry of Training Colleges & Universities approved online and hybrid Pharmacy Assistant programs, so I conducted my classes remotely. Only the Compounding module requires an in-person presence on campus. Today, a variety of LMS and teaching tools are available, making it easier to teach remotely and making the content more accessible effectively. These tools help me create my daily lesson plans in such a way that learners have more than one way to engage with the content. If students don’t read, they watch or use visuals. If they don’t use visuals, they can listen to asynchronous videos and verbal narrations.

Magazica: How do you integrate these tools into your teaching methods to enhance student learning?

Dr. Sadia Zafar: The CTTP program provided me with the opportunity for self-reflection, where I learned my strengths and weaknesses. While I was doing the CTTP, I had the chance to practice and learn many free versions of tools and LMS (Learning Management System) while creating an online course. Now I can make attractive and interactive presentations using Canva, Prezi, Padlet, Nearpod, MS Teams, Beautiful AI, and Kahoot. In addition to that, I created an online lesson using tools called InsertLearning, Softchalk, and Canvas. I also learned to use a screencasting software called Jing to take pictures or videos of my screen, which could then be uploaded. While using these tools, I also incorporated my verbal narration along with the visual presentation to address the diverse learning needs of a variety of students. For the first time, I learned how to reduce long URLs using a site called Bitly before integrating them into a slide or any other document. These hands-on experiences have helped me a lot in my professional journey when I have to make use of Canvas, Campus support, Teams, and Brightspace. Campus support provides more administrative support than interactive learning, with limited features for online teaching. Teams are excellent for synchronous classes and meetings. Brightspace has accessibility features for diverse learners, making it one of the best tools for monitoring learner performance.

Many online health science courses are now available, offering easy access and benefiting a large number of students. However, one significant limitation is that science subjects rely heavily on hands-on experiments and experiential learning, which are difficult to replicate in a virtual environment. For some topics, theoretical explanations alone are insufficient. To address this, we can incorporate videos of real-life experiments to enhance understanding.

Additionally, traditional quizzes and question-based assessments in online settings often lack transparency and authenticity. These can be replaced with more meaningful evaluations, such as assignments, data collection projects, or research paper submissions, which encourage deeper engagement and critical thinking. Some institutes are using Turnitin to verify originality, using software for split screen blocking, Lockdown Browser applications, AI-based proctoring, etc.