Walmart pharmacy manager Tania Cantin is making a difference in her community every day.
For Tania Cantin, being a pharmacist is all about helping people. In fact, it’s her favorite part of the job. Whether she’s leading her team at community health events or making it easier for one person to get their medication, Tania puts her patients first. It’s what makes this pharmacy manager at Walmart Supercenter 865 in New Braunfels, Texas, love her job. “I appreciate my job every day,” she says.
So, naturally, when Tania learned that a person in her community was driving five hours round-trip every month to get medication, she knew she had to act. The patient was traveling to a Houston Walmart, where a long-acting injectables program provided once-a-month treatment for a mental health condition. Tania jumped into action.
In under two weeks, her team of 11 associates completed the training to set up their own long-acting injectables program. “I’m very proud of my team,” Tania says. “They know how important it is to take good care of our patients.”
Each month, the team helps that grateful patient, who has replaced a five-hour journey with a local visit to Tania’s team.
Tania’s long journey to Walmart
When Tania thinks about that patient, she recalls her own long journey to the Walmart pharmacy counter. She started pharmacy school in Cuba, but didn’t finish because she and her family emigrated to the U.S. in 2000.
“In the beginning, it was hard,” Tania says of those first years in Miami, Florida. She didn’t speak English. She did every job she could to put food on the table. And gradually, she learned English.
Eventually, she went to school to become a home health aide, then a certified nursing assistant and then a medical assistant. “I wanted to do something related to patient care,” she explains.
At age 40, she finally returned to pharmacy school. “I was the oldest in my class, but at that point in my life, I knew what I wanted to do.”
Her dream job
After graduating, she knew she wanted to find a job at Walmart. She dreamed of starting her pharmacy career at the place that had cared for her family when they first moved to Miami.
Her family didn’t have health insurance and money was scarce. Her Walmart pharmacist helped by suggesting over-the-counter medications. Tania was also grateful for Walmart’s low-cost $4 prescriptions.
“I felt like I owed the company because our Walmart pharmacist helped my family, myself and our community so much,” she says.
So Tania applied to just about every Walmart in South Texas. She was hired in Uvalde, Texas. Just six months later, she was promoted to pharmacy manager in Devine. And when a position opened in New Braunfels — five minutes from her house — she took it.
A big shot in her market
Given her history with Walmart pharmacy, it’s no surprise that she’s eager to pay it forward. What she loves about her role as pharmacy manager is that she can improve people’s lives. And, she explains, it starts with her team.
She leads her team by example, takes feedback to heart and answers every question her associates ask. Her passion for patient care is — dare we say — contagious!
It appears her leadership style is paying off: Store 865 leads its market in immunizations. Tania and her team run clinical service events in the community. They provide immunizations to people who may not have access to primary care. “We make sure everybody gets their flu shot or any other immunization they need,” she shares.
“I went to pharmacy school because I want to help patients,” Tania says. “And at Walmart, that’s what we do!”
