BPharm, PgCertPharm Res (Dist), RegPharm NZ, PhD
Nagham earned her BSPharm, Postgraduate Certificate in Research Pharmacy, and PhD at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Her dissertation focused on deprescribing in older New Zealanders.
Nagham began geriatric pharmacy as a specialty early in her career during her practice as a registered pharmacist in New Zealand. “I felt overwhelmingly drawn towards helping older adults manage their medications in a variety of settings including aged care facilities, geriatric hospital wards and community settings, which solidified my passion to conduct further research in the field of Geriatric Pharmacy,” she said. Specifically, she was interested in learning how to best promote pharmacist roles that involve optimizing medication regimens for older adults.
She has practiced as a community pharmacist and in the hospital setting. She was appointed the South Canterbury District Health Board Pharmacy Services Manager and managed a team of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, charged with delivering high quality pharmacy services to patients in the region.
“I was drawn to the postdoctoral fellowship at the Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy at UW due to its esteemed reputation. Learning from Shelly Gray and Zachary Marcum, who are pioneers in this research field, is a wonderful opportunity and I am very grateful for this special experience and all it has to offer.”—Nagham Ailabouni, PhD, Senior Fellow, UWSOP Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy Research, Education, and Outreach
Some of these roles involved being a sole charge pharmacist and others were pharmacy manager positions. She also worked as a clinical pharmacist in two hospital pharmacy departments and was appointed the South Canterbury District Health Board Pharmacy Services Manager. There, she managed a team of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, charged with delivering high quality pharmacy services to patients in the region.
As her dissertation research shows, her main research interest is deprescribing, the process of reducing or discontinuing medicines in older people. Her passion is to research methods that can help to seamlessly integrate deprescribing in clinical practice, as well as develop tools that can encourage prescribers to ‘deprescribe’ and empower older adults to consider deprescribing one or more of their medications, which they believe they may no longer need or may be causing them more harm than benefit.
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