There were several emotive responses to one of my recent blog posts. I read each comment several times to not only get the words, but to put myself in the place of the writers. The general point made was that front line pharmacists face difficult challenges in their long shifts. They have to balance the demands of management, the requests of patients and caregivers, the endless stream of phone calls, and the constant denials and information requests of third-party payers, all while supervising the work of pharmacy technicians and student pharmacists. When I suggested that a large pharmacist employer was pursuing new initiatives, several folks took issue.
At this time of thanksgiving, I’m grateful for these comments and have great respect for the perspectives of my colleagues. It wasn’t that long ago that I was there. At different times in my career, I have been an employee, a manager, and an owner. As an employee, I too sometimes felt I didn’t have the help and support I needed. Even in management and ownership, life as a pharmacist can be challenging, and at times overwhelming.
Despite our challenges, I hope we can all see that we have the talent, insight, and innovative spirit to create a better world. My sole purpose in sharing my observations was to stimulate others to think about their own opportunities. Change is never easy, and we all know how hard it is, for example, to add immunization services on top of everything else we do as pharmacists during our 12-hour shifts. MTM programs take time to develop and even more time once implemented. But we know—somewhere deep inside—that while we continue to dispense safely and accurately, our pharmacy services must grow. “Buy low, sell high” is broken. Margins will never get better on either brands or generics. Chains, independents, and specialty pharmacy owners need to find other ways to pay for the services we know patients need. While we fervently pursue recognition and value (read “compensation”) for our services, we must embrace technology and certified paraprofessionals to give pharmacists the time needed to develop new services and new skills for the pharmacy workplace of the future, if we are to have a relevant role there.
As I wrote in Chain Drug Review earlier this year, we in pharmacy are in an uncomfortable place. Times are challenging, and we’re not yet where we need to be. We have the opportunity to be the disruptive positive force in health care. We have the skills and ability to address the medication-use crisis in this country. I hope we can continue to talk about our profession’s internal challenges while simultaneously pursuing change in the system to allow us to practice the way we’ve been trained. We have a bright future as a profession. The question is not whether change is real or inevitable—it’s how are we going to manage that change.
I recognize these challenges and those faced by those who commented about my blog. I hope we can all focus our passions on positive change. We need all pharmacists as members of APhA, and I wish everyone could attend one of our meetings to see people being the change they want for our profession.
It’s not easy, and APhA will be there to help with this transition. The tide is rising and people are noticing. If we can keep our boats intact as we navigate these rough waters, we will all find ourselves in a much more comfortable place than many imagined.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
