Mock pharmacy at Detroit Goodwill fights pharmacy worker shortage, provides opportunity

Kristen Jordan ShamusDetroit Free PressTears streamed down Chinonoso Chijioke-Chukwuma's cheeks as she told her story of struggle and perseverance.Surrounded Tuesday by 39 other new graduates of pharmacy schools from all over Michigan, Chijioke-Chukwuma and her colleagues all were about to get their very first pharmacist white coats with their names embroidered on them and their first jobs at CVS stores across the state.It was the beginning of an effort to recruit and train Detroiters for jobs in pharmacies, which, like the rest of the health care industry, faces serious worker shortages.A single mother, Chijioke-Chukwuma came to the U.S. from Nigeria nine years ago, and was committed to becoming a pharmacist; her own mother died of a medication error."When I was choosing a path in life, I chose to become a pharmacist because I wanted to counsel patients about how to choose their medications wisely," said Chijioke-Chukwuma, 43, of Romulus.A complex path to her white coatShe enrolled fi...