The following thoughts will be published as my January 2012 editorial in Pharmacy Today.
We all know about the fight-or-flight response from pharmacology class. When threatened, though, the turtle exhibits a third response—retreating into its shell and waiting for the world to get better on its own. The ostrich, head in sand, provides another passive option for dealing with problems.
As pharmacists move into the pivotal election year of 2012, we have much to feel threatened by. Whether health care reform survives the Supreme Court and the presidential election, the inexorable wheels of change will continue turning in our professional world. As they do, we have a number of responses we can take, some more effective than others.
We can disengage from the conversation surrounding changes in health care, retreat to our caves, and hope the storms will pass, or just go through our daily motions as if nothing is happening. But what will those options achieve? As one of the mice in Who Moved My Cheese said, “I guess we resist changing because we’re afraid of change.” That’s true, but do we want to be sitting around in a few years talking about Old Cheese, or feasting on the New Cheese we’ve found?
APhA members are laser focused on finding and, when needed, fighting for the New Cheese. We see opportunity in change. We work together well, and we are capable of leading from where we stand. I’m proud of members like Sandra Leal, a Tuscon, AZ, pharmacist we featured in last month’s mini-profile in Today’s Pharmacists in Action section. She singlehandedly launched a change.org petition asking for the federal government to recognize the knowledge and capabilities of the nation’s third-largest profession by making pharmacists eligible to bill for clinical services provided to Medicare patients. Just 5 weeks later, she had nearly 13,000 signatories to her petition, including pharmacists, physicians, other health professionals, and patients. That’s the kind of response to change that characterizes APhA members. That’s leading from where you stand.
Leal’s zeal for change won’t take root without strong advocacy from organized pharmacy. We need your strength and your numbers to succeed as your advocates! The largest association of pharmacists in the world, APhA has grown well above 60,000 and our average member’s age is younger. We need your support now—that of people who care about pharmacy and want to make a difference in years to come. When we talk to Congress about provider status, we need stories and we need numbers. It will be a fight, but it’s a fight we can win if pharmacists across America are willing to support the effort. Whatever other New Year’s resolutions you’re working on this year, please add this one to your list: I will support my profession by joining and getting involved in APhA, my state association, and another pharmacy group that supports my practice setting.
In turn, and along with the incredible APhA staff team, we promise that we will make the most of APhA members’ time, money, and energy as we fight for a better world for pharmacists.
