Sisters in Pharmacy: Collaboration and Inspiration

Lizzy Bulla, PharmD candidate in the Class of 2027, arrived at the UCSF School of Pharmacy with a mentor already in place — her sister, Sabrina Bulla, PharmD, a Class of 2021 alum who is now a clinical pharmacist at Stanford Health Care.

Their parallel paths to pharmacy have created an ongoing support system, as professional peers and as roommates, much to the delight of their parents.

The Bulla sisters are the first generation in their family to graduate from college and to attend graduate school. They both began their pharmacy careers as pharm techs after working in retail pharmacies as undergraduates. Sabrina also paved the way for her younger sister as a member of the school’s first class to graduate from the 3-year accelerated curriculum.

“I tried not to admit it for a really long time, but [Sabrina] definitely influenced me,” said Lizzy. “As the little sister, I always wanted to be different, but I did want to go into health care and medicine. I always thought I wanted to go into nursing, but she convinced me to get experience at local retail pharmacies. I really enjoyed it.”

Beginnings in pharm tech

Sabrina was always interested in science and math and leaned toward studying health care. During her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, pathophysiology was her favorite subject, and was where she began learning about medication. “I liked anatomy as well, so pharmacy felt like a good fit. I ended up getting my pharm tech license and told my sister she should do the same because even though it’s a tough job, it’s a great job, and you can transfer anywhere.”

Seeing Sabrina apply her clinical pharmacy skills at home ultimately convinced Lizzy to pursue her PharmD while completing her undergraduate studies at UCLA. “When I was living at home and Sabrina was at UCSF, she helped me give medications to our grandpa,” she said. “That’s what got me interested in the way medications work, and made me realize there are so many different aspects to pharmacy.”

A clinical care connection

Sabrina’s interest in clinical pharmacy began during her advanced practice rotations at UCSF, and continued into both her residency and her current specialization at Stanford Health Care. “I was specifically interested in transitions of care, because it was a good way to bridge inpatient and outpatient care,” she said. “The face-to-face interaction is very valuable and rewarding.”

Lizzy is currently in the same ambulatory care internship at Kaiser Permanente her sister once had, and her previous rotation was in transitions of care. She said she still has a long way to go before her advanced rotations, but she is inspired by her sister to do more inpatient care. “We connect over nerdy science things at home,” she said.

Two-way inspiration

The sisters describe their home life as a pharmacy collaboration.

“I do a lot of preceptorship in my job, so sometimes I can help Lizzy if she’s working on figuring things out, like if they want my opinion on a case,” Sabrina said.

Lizzy said new pharmacy guidelines are a frequent topic of conversation at home.

“[Sabrina] learns them on her own, and they are also embedded into the UCSF curriculum that’s updated every year, but it’s a refresher for her when I bring things up,” she said. “She also gives me great advice about adapting to change and being flexible, because things change quickly all the time when you’re moving to new rotations and internships and new classes.”

Sabrina, meanwhile, takes inspiration from seeing her sister navigate the ever-evolving field of pharmacy. “I can see how much more integral pharmacists are becoming in the clinical space,” she said. “It’s adding so much value to patient care, and that’s been really exciting for me to see.”