“Doing the postgraduate program in aesthetic pharmacy was a dream of mine from 5 years ago, but since my work schedule was 6×1 I couldn't do it, because the format was classes on Saturday and Sunday every 15 days”
This is the reality for many professionals, and it was no different for Dr. Gabriella Martins Albino. A 2012 graduate of UNIFENAS – Universidade Jose do Rosário Vellano, she did internships in laboratories but worked about 9 years serving customers at drugstores in the city of Poços de Caldas – MG.
Between schedule availability and other issues, the dream of completing the postgraduate program in aesthetic pharmacy had to wait to come true. “When I made the decision to leave my job so I could do the specialization, I found out I was pregnant and had to put all my dreams on hold to deal with that; although she was very much wanted, it wasn't a planned pregnancy”, she says.
Keeping her job for the sake of stability, her day-to-day increasingly stopped making sense with her life purposes. She says that besides the intense pressure for sales and targets, she witnessed situations that shook her.
“I couldn't stand seeing a mother have to choose which medicine to buy for her child; of 3 or 4 she would take only one, so I ended up buying the medicines and giving them to her, and in the end I still had to try to sell vitamins even knowing the person couldn't afford them”, she recalls.
With the pandemic, Dr. Gabriella saw an opportunity to change her life; exhausted by grueling shifts and already dissatisfied with the profession, she seized it “These big companies keep growing and forget about the employee, the pandemic came, my daughter was out of school, and I just got more and more overloaded, until I got sick”.
The alumna says she went through a period of anxiety problems and panic attacks and had to take time off for 6 months. “So I thought: either I leave here and start a new story, or I'm going to end up getting worse and worse”, she recalls.
The start in aesthetic pharmacy
Dr. Gabriella says the pandemic was the trigger for making the decision, “If that hadn't happened, I would have kept living that little life, you know, even though the desire to start my own business had been with me for quite a while”. That is how the transformation of her life began.
After weighing all the possibilities in the pharmaceutical field, she chose qualification in aesthetics as the start of a new career, “Among the options I had, aesthetics is the one that would give me the autonomy I wanted”. In 2020 she began her postgraduate program already in the hybrid format, and says it was the best option “It's tiring, but this way I can spend more time with my family”.
Balancing career and motherhood, Dr. Gabriella finished her postgraduate program and is increasingly passionate about the field, “You can't help falling in love with aesthetics, in 1 month we can change a person's life by improving their self-esteem”, she says.
Since starting the specialization in aesthetic pharmacy, she began renovating her house to open her own space, and today she is realizing her dream at Espaço Gabriella Albino, where she offers a variety of minimally invasive procedures. “Last month I closed my first package of facial procedures, wow, I was so happy, almost R$600 and the client paid by card right then; I kept thinking: wow, this is completely different from what I used to do”.
Fulfilled with her business, she shares her experiences in her new routine, “Besides the financial side, we create a bond with these patients, so we perform the procedure but then give all the follow-up care, and it's light; I think that is the nicest part of these appointments, very different from the pressure I had in my previous jobs”.
Also learn the story of another successful pharmacist, Anny Gabriele Pereira de Oliveira.
Sarah
NEPUGA content team — Núcleo de Especializações Ana Carolina Puga.
