Introduction

What began as a broad interest in patient care and public health evolved into a rewarding career in chronic pain management for Dr. Murter, PharmD, MPH. With a background in microbiology and a dual PharmD/MPH degree, she took an unexpected but meaningful path into pharmacy—one shaped by curiosity, bold choices, and a desire to improve lives. Today, she’s building innovative pain management services across multiple clinics while helping patients reclaim function and quality of life, one thoughtful conversation at a time.

Why Pharmacy

I chose pharmacy for two main reasons: I wanted to care for patients and serve my community, and I valued having flexibility in my career options. I initially imagined myself working in a hospital setting, but I’m grateful that both my pharmacy education and postgraduate training eventually led me to a field I hadn’t even considered until my APPE year.

Career Journey

My career is non-linear, and I am so thankful that it was. I graduated with an undergraduate degree in microbiology, thinking I wanted to be a primary care physician. I worked as a medical assistant in a rural health clinic, which led me to realize I wanted more flexibility than medical school offered. I had a younger brother in pharmacy school who encouraged me, and we both ended up attending the University of Montana Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Because of my bachelor's, I also applied to the Master of Public Health program and did a PharmD/MPH dual degree.

During my APPE year, I had the opportunity to work with an acute pain management pharmacist for a week and absolutely loved it. After graduation, I worked as a community pharmacist for a year before applying for the Billings Clinic PGY1 with a heavy focus on inpatient care, and I chose Billings Clinic specifically for their acute pain elective rotation. I knew I wanted to do a PGY2 in palliative care and pain management (PCPM), but was not sure if I was ready and delayed applying. I felt more confident in Phase II and applied to the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy PCPM and was accepted. That year was an amazing opportunity to grow clinically and professionally.

I had a few options after graduation, but I decided my next challenge would be building an ambulatory chronic pain management clinical pharmacist position from the ground up, working with Intermountain Health. A few years later and I've expanded to 5 clinics and support Intermountain Health's 5-state footprint at the enterprise level with policy and care development.

Current Role and Responsibilities

A typical workday looks like waking up in the beautiful state of Utah, heading in to one of three physical clinic spaces and answering messages, drug information questions, and working up patients for the day. I see patients until the end of the clinic day, write notes, and send them to referring pain management providers to coordinate pharmacological and nonpharmacological options for chronic pain therapy. I work closely with psychology, physical therapy, and the providers to come up with multiple options for patients to improve function and quality of life. I also participate in a number of patient care meetings where we collectively gather to discuss complicated or challenging patient cases. Between all of this, I have a few hours each week dedicated to enterprise activities and administrative meetings.

Challenges

Chronic illness of any kind can be wearisome, and I think there can be strong responses to that news and care as it continues. Unfortunately, pain is complicated by the opioid epidemic, which continues to affect both patients and healthcare professionals. Sometimes, those conversations about why or why not to consider an opioid medication can have strong emotional responses that are delicate to navigate, both with providers and patients.

Rewards

I think one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is twofold. In chronic pain, there are often no big wins, and I am often helping people who are at their worst. When I can really learn about my patients and who they are, what drives them, and how pain is affecting their lives, I can start working on options to improve their quality of life. It takes time and trust, but it is an honor to get to know my patients and help them improve function.

For example, one of my patients has had pain, breathing issues, and dizziness for years. She developed a phobia and is now housebound entirely. Getting to know her and building her trust allowed her to open up about all the medications she was taking. Turns out she was taking duplicate therapy, and I recommended discontinuing therapy to one medication. With that drug-drug interaction/duplicate therapy problem out of the way, dizziness improved, which led to more walking, which led to less pain! It was a great win for her on multiple levels.

Work/Life Balance

There can be emotional and well-being burnout when working with patients with chronic pain. There is no objective data that I can trend, so it's a collection of narrative trends, which means a lot of time spent listening to patients describe pain and how it negatively affects their quality of life. I have found that the biggest way for me to have balance is to have a creative outlet that is truly so opposite of pharmacy. I am part of the Wasatch Community Symphony and play the violin both in rehearsals and after work. It resets my brain like nothing else.

Also, you can't live in Utah and not have some fun exploring the mountains and hiking trails both in and out of the city. The important thing is to find something that waters your garden that is independent of work.

Advice for Students and Aspiring Professionals

My biggest encouragement would be to just be willing to try new and hard things and put yourself out there! The beautiful thing about being a learner is that there are safety nets and preceptors ready to help, so be bold with who and what you want to be. It can be intimidating, but I am so glad I had preceptors who let me be bold, and I love it when my learners are bold.

For pain specifically, ask a general rotation if you could spend time with acute or outpatient pain management, if they have a pharmacist or provider doing that, and if you aren't ready to commit to a whole rotation. If you are interested in it before APPE year, work with your experiential office to get a rotation in a setting you find interesting.