Meet Steve Turner of Turner Pharmacist Staffing and Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Turner.

Hi Steve, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Boozhoo! Indizhinikaaz We sho ish cobenais – Gaawaabaabiganikaag. Hello! My name is Steve Turner and I’m from the White Earth Nation of Ojibwes, we call ourselves Aanishinaabe. In fact, I was born and raised there.

My dream is twofold: To serve my people in the capacity of a healthcare provider as well as honor the gift of music I believe Manidoo/Creator bestowed upon me.

The only reason I moved out of the great state of Minnesota was to pursue my dream of being a professional Country music singer/songwriter. I also am a pharmacist, a career I came to later in life.

My love of Country music comes from both of my parents. My Dad had a unique effect on me as my earliest memories in life are of him playing the guitar and singing us Country songs. Mom and he had and still have a stack of vinyl albums as well as a set of 8 track tapes we listened to growing up. Mom’s love of coupons also provided us stacks of single vinyl where there was one song on each side.

I am a songwriter. A skill I hope to hone and shine in every place I am but specifically Nashville. My family recorded two albums. One entirely of songs we wrote. Another of gospel tunes, 2 of which Mom and Dad shared lead vocals. I’ve heard my mother sing in church but never has she taken such a grand role. Their voices in tandem will reside in my head for the rest of my time on this Earth.

In an effort to redistribute more of the resource of time to honor what I consider to be my gift, I have since started my own contracting business, wherein, I provide staffing services to Indian Health Services throughout the nation. I worked as a subcontractor staffing for the Winslow Indian Healthcare Center in Winslow, Arizona. Yes, the “standing on the corner” Winslow, Arizona.

I am currently finishing up my own contract where I also staff as a pharmacist on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. I also manage registered nurse or RN subcontractors also in the Indian Health Services system.

I have been blessed to be in the position I am, where I can follow two career paths.

My music path most recently brought me to the destination of a recorded album right in Nashville. I worked with Banner Music in this pursuit and I am ecstatic with the resulting album that this association has provided. I’m still pinching myself over the experience!

That recording happened most recently in December of 2020. I also work with Hitz & Branding who have been the major push behind the marketing effort for this album. I have five singles released and a CD to show for our efforts.

The vision I have for 2022 is a return to performing after almost two years of COVID restrictions. The coast isn’t exactly clear but I plan on making performing, be it in person or virtually, a bigger part of what I do ongoing.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It absolutely has not been a smooth road.

A large part of me believes that life just simply isn’t easy but I seem to have a knack for choosing a tougher trail. I have consistently considered pharmacy to be the hardest thing I’ve done to date. Pursuing pharmacy was a tougher trail not only due to the challenging coursework but also because it took me away from music for a time.

I undertook the challenge of more school not only for the promise of a professional career on the other side but also with the resolve that I would return to music. Since pharmacy school, my biggest challenge has been to strike a balance between these two careers.

As tough as that’s been, I truly believe I’ve made significant strides toward this balance, and every day I’m getting closer and closer to the ideal balance I set out to achieve. Something tells me I’ll always feel like this balance is something to work at no matter how far along I go.

Another challenge has been leaving the community in which I’ve worked. It’s tough when you get to know people on an everyday basis to then, knowing you need to move to pursue your dreams in earnest, have to say goodbye to those everyday relationships.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still in contact with people from each of those communities, but it was still very challenging to move on.

We’ve been impressed with Turner Pharmacist Staffing and Consulting LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My business was born out of necessity as I undertook what I considered the necessary career change from an everyday employee to a subcontractor who can take a month or more off staffing to tend to run my own businesses. This has been another challenge where I continue to learn more and more every day about the life of a contracting entrepreneur.

I went from staffing somebody else’s contract with Indian Health Services (IHS) which is what I mean by a subcontractor in my situation, to staffing my own contract, also with the IHS. The challenges of managing my own contract have been immense but also worthwhile for me.

I added a subcontractor to my current contract and now have expanded to add yet another subcontractor who staffs as a registered nurse also with the IHSs, so my business is expanding. What a blessing!

The biggest challenge but greatest reward is bringing a quality candidate to work for the IHS system. IHSs are meaningful to me as a Native American. This is where we as Natives can receive critical healthcare throughout our lives and I get to add quality folks as part of my business to this healthcare system thereby increasing the level of service delivered to my people. This is very satisfying!

The thing that sets me apart from other contracting businesses is the drive to add quality people to the IHSs because of who I am, how I was raised, where I was schooled and taught how to be a pharmacist as well as where I grew up. I was born and raised on a reservation and have a unique perspective having received healthcare from IHS facilities for the vast majority of my life.

I went to school at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy at Duluth where we were taught how to deliver those high-quality services. In fact, I was told by one site for whom I subcontracted that I was hands down the best contractor they’ve worked with and they said they see many contractors come through their system. That kind of feedback made me feel as though I was effectively employing what I learned back in Pharmacy school.

I am Indian-owned, so an Indian Small Business Economic Enterprise, delivering quality candidates and excellent customer care not only to the patients frequenting these IHSs but also to staff throughout the facility too.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Working with me in terms of the healthcare subcontracting business would be to simply contact me with your CV at turnerpharmaciststaffing@zohomail.com.

Perhaps, either as a pharmacist or as a registered nurse, you haven’t found you’re forever home so to speak, and would like to earn a good wage providing excellent customer care to a patient population in need of those services. If this sounds like you or someone you know then either reaches out to me and/or share with them this potential opportunity.

In order to support my musical journey please visit https://linktr.ee/steveturnermusic. There’s a website attached where you can follow and support by dropping your email, buying a t-shirt, a ball cap, a koozie, a CD or sticker as well as taking in the latest single or each and every one of those things.

There’ll be a link to my FaceBook music page as well as all of my socials where you can also show your support. We’re looking to do more performing as we learn better how to live in a COVID-affected world but reach out and tell us your favorite locations to take in live music and we’ll do our best to make it there.

I thank you in advance for any support or simply good wishes you may have for me. Thank you!

Contact Info:

• Email: turnerpharmaciststaffing@zohomail.com
• Website: https://steveturnermusic.biz/
• Instagram: steveturnermusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveTurnerCountryMusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/STurnerMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg-JGU2P7uzniJOmDBjiAjA

Image Credits
@TJTurnerPicture TJTurnerPictures.com and Jenn Zeller of South Dakota Cowgirl Photography