Pharmacy Careers series: Interview with Kaniksha Aggarwal on a career in Prison Pharmacy
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This year the Pharmacy Show will be hosting a series of interviews, webinars, and E-learning resources focusing on professional development and careers. In this brand-new Pharmacy Careers series we will be sharing career advice, highlighting key resources, and shining a spotlight on different paths pharmacy professionals can take beyond the dispensary.
To kick off our series, we are taking a look at a pharmacist working in a unique setting that is often overlooked as a career path professionals can take. Our Content Lead, Barney Ridley, sat down with Kaniksha Aggarwal (recently featured in C+D’s list of pharmaceutical excellence, The Pills 2025) to briefly discuss her experience as a prison pharmacist and offer an introduction to the world of working in a prison…
A career in prison pharmacy
Kaniksha Aggarwal has worked in the prison sector since 2020. As the first permanent pharmacist in her position, Kaniksha is acutely aware of the misconceptions and the stigma surrounding a career as a prison pharmacist.
It is her desire to dispel these misconceptions that led her in 2024 to found Prison Pharmacy Connect, a platform which raises the awareness of working in prisons and aims to change the perception of working in a prison pharmacy.
“I was interested in the aspect of stigma and how to overcome this.”
Beginning her career almost a decade ago in community pharmacy, Kaniksha started as a pre-registration pharmacist at Franklins Chemists in 2015. After quickly progressing to Pharmacy Manager within the year, she decided to transition into mental health pharmacy, before finding her passion in working in prisons.
In 2023/2024, she became the first prison pharmacist to apply and succeed in attaining the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Fellowship Scheme, which Kaniksha says “reinforced my commitment to raise awareness of prison pharmacy among future leaders.”
“I never thought I would pursue it as a career,” Kaniksha admits.
“I’ve always been attracted to different sectors of pharmacy, often those where resources are limited and associated with stigma. It means we’re not just providing medicines to people but overcoming systemic issues which also need to be addressed.”
Breaking the stigma
“The stigma associated with working in prison often deters applications,” Aggarwal notes. However, she believes that if people were to get a firsthand experience of prison pharmacy, the stigma surrounding working in prisons would quickly be dispelled.
“It’s important people come to visit the prison even for a day to see if they would like to submit their application, as many may have pre misconceptions which could easily be clarified through a visit.”
A major contributor to the stigma attached to the career is the perception of all prisoners as dangerous and intimidating. While Aggarwal admits that there can be times when the role is intimidating, this misconception is overblown.
“It can be [intimidating] but rarely so. No one is intentionally going to harm you,” Aggarwal argues, “and from what I’ve heard and seen from people in prison, they are more likely to trust healthcare staff than prison officials.”
“You can’t go wrong by saying hello to someone,” she says.
“People often think we only dispense methadone to everyone, that everyone has misused substances. They overlook the fact that if someone has a physical health condition in the community, they will have this in prison too.”
“Mental health is rife in prison,” Kaniksha highlights, “It would be useful if pharmacy professionals had a basic awareness of this to better understand the challenges that we face when supporting someone through their sentence.”
Prison Pharmacy Connect
Eager to break the stigma around working in a prison, Kaniksha is launching a podcast through Prison Pharmacy Connect to not only debunk misconceptions about the work itself but to tackle misguided perceptions around people who are serving time in prison.
“[Prison Pharmacy Connect] connects with people through podcasts who have lived experience of prison to share their experiences of pharmacy and healthcare.”
“This will help reduce stigma for people working in this sector and those residing there,” she continues.
Kaniksha argues that overcoming this stigma and truly understanding the people you help is vital, not just for work in prison, but for all pharmacy careers, “Meaningful service improvements come from listening to those affected by the service.”
A hybrid between primary, community, and secondary care
Pharmacy in a prison setting is a hybrid of different disciplines, requiring expertise across multiple areas of care. “Prison pharmacy draws on parallels from community, hospital and primary care with its own niche of mental health and substance use,” Kaniksha explains.
She says prison pharmacy mirrors primary care, with the dispensary element of community pharmacy and screening of prescriptions that happens in hospital – all combined with seeing people face to face in clinics, which feeds into multidisciplinary teamwork alongside doctors and mental health professionals.
“We are also working in collaboration with the wider prison system which can sometimes hinder a person’s access to healthcare and medicines.”
She highlights the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork “to ensure we are all working together to provide the best care within our roles and responsibilities.”
A challenging but rewarding job
Like any role in pharmacy, working in a prison has its own unique challenges. “Last-minute transfers or releases can be challenging,” Kaniksha explains – although she acknowledges that NHS England’s Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) for prisoners being released is helping prevent disruptions to care.
There are also challenges when it comes to discussing medications with patients, “Particularly in an environment when the individual has no control over anything as it is, they may also not have control of their health given the restrictions in the prison formulary.”
Despite – or perhaps because – these hurdles, Kaniksha remains passionate about her work.
“Working with limited resources pushes you to do the best you can, and this is what I love – going into the unknown but at the same time, having a wealth of multidisciplinary staff to support you.”
Kaniksha believes prison pharmacy plays an important role in rehabilitation. “If used safely, medicines can help people live longer, they can also help people better process their thoughts to decide their next steps in life after imprisonment.”
She also highlights how pharmacists can be a valuable resource for prisoners who may not have previously engaged with healthcare. “Most people don’t even realise they can speak to a pharmacist, and when they do, they jump to the opportunity to discuss medicines.”
Pursuing a career in prison pharmacy
Alongside her continued goal of raising the awareness of prison pharmacy as a career path for those currently in the pharmacy profession, Kaniksha is looking to attract and inform the cohort of pharmacists who will qualify as independent prescribers in September 2026.
Hoping to attract the next generation of talent, Kaniksha says a key change she’d like to see in her role is “the openness to welcome work experience in prisons, so future leaders have an understanding of this sector which would provide a better systemic overview of pharmacy.”
For those considering a career in prison pharmacy, Kaniksha offers straightforward advice: “Get some work experience, be prepared to leave your phone outside, leave your stigma hat at the door, always say hello – and if you say you’re going to do something, do it. Otherwise, don’t say it at all.”
Kaniksha Aggarwal will be speaking at this year’s Pharmacy Show on ‘Thinking outside the box: pharmacy careers in unique settings.’
Don’t miss out on your chance to hear Kaniksha and other sector leaders sharing their stories and key career advice at Birmingham NEC this 12-13 October.
This short interview is part of our brand-new Pharmacy Careers series. If you or someone you know would like to participate in an interview, webinar, newsletter entry, or speak at the show about their career story, please get in touch with our Content Lead at b.ridley@closerstillmedia.com.
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