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As a
Pharmacist, how will I make a difference
in the profession?
By Renee
Riddix-Hilliard, Pharm.D. Candidate University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
As a pharmacy
student, I have begun to pave my path of how I will make a difference
in the profession of pharmacy as a pharmacist. First, I am and will
continue to play as active role in increasing the number of students
who pursue the profession in a capacity that has never been explored.
To begin to fulfill this goal, I have founded a high school tutorial
program, A Bridge to Academic Excellence, to which students from the
University of Maryland schools of pharmacy, medicine, law, dentistry,
and physical therapy participate. On many saturdays during the school
year, we tutor approximately eighty high school students in
mathematics. in order to inform and encourage students to become
pharmacists, I have arranged for mentoring and internship committees
to be created through our program. The pharmacy-mentoring program is
comprised of a group of pharmacy students that invite the high school
students to participate in some of their professional and social
activities. The pharmacy internships we are developing involve
volunteer or stipend paid work sites where the high school students
can learn about pharmacy during the summer months.
When I become
a pharmacist, I have been asked and intend to remain on the board of
the tutorial program as the project coordinator. my faculty advisor
for the tutorial program is applying and seeking numerous grants and
other funding to support and expand the program. With additional
monies, the program can be enlarged to become a model for all
pharmacy schools around the country. When the public observes the
impact of A Bridge to Academic Excellence Tutorial Program on
society, the image of pharmacists as educators who have a fountain of
knowledge that they are willing to share will be enhanced.
Secondly, as a
pharmacy student, I have begun to be an information resource for the
minority community and other pharmacists. At present, I give free,
mini-lectures on disease state prevention, management, and medication
counseling for my faculty preceptors at workshops for health
professionals and my local church. As a pharmacist, I intend to
expand these lectures to include all churches in Baltimore City and
surrounding counties at no cost to the patient. These lectures will
continue to make a difference in the knowledge base with which
consumers are equipped. Furthermore, they will empower the patient to
play an active role in his/her health care.
Since I have a
particular interest in the disadvantaged and minority communities who
tend to avoid seeing a health care provider until a major
illness/event occurs, I believe that I will be a valuable asset to
these populations. In addition, I believe the response rate of
patient's attending their local church as opposed to going to a
facility, such as a doctor's office or clinic, is and will continue
to be very high because the environment of the church communicates
trust and integrity. I am convinced that my operating as a pharmacist
in this capacity will improve the image of the pharmacist as an
information resource that can be trusted.
Moreover,
there is sufficient evidence in the literature to support that a
pharmacist's interventions have a positive impact on the health of
the patient. If I could attract other colleagues within the
profession, to help by volunteering one day a year, we could offer
multiple disease state management seminars and counseling to patients
on an individual basis in different communities. The more pharmacists
I can recruit to join in this cause, the greater number of events we
can have a various sites within a year.
Also, as a
pharmacist, I can be an information resource for the physician of the
patients to which I give medication counseling. I can serve as the
gap between the patient and the physician. For example, I was
reviewing a patient's medications when she told me that she was
cutting her extended release blood pressure tablet in half because
she was experiencing side effects and the strength was twice the
amount she normally gets so she thought the doctor made a mistake.
When I informed her that she should not be cutting the tablets in
half because of how they were made to work and that she should
contact her doctor, she requested that I contact him for her because
she felt he was too busy for her. After the session, I contacted the
patient's physician to make him aware of what she said and had been
doing. This small, but significant interaction may have saved the
patient from having uncontrolled hypertension, increased her
compliance, and facilitated future communications between the patient
and the physician. When I become a pharmacist, I think that being a
liaison for the patient and doctor in the community will make a
difference in the profession of pharmacy.
Thirdly, I am
convinced that as a pharmacist, I can make a difference in the
profession of pharmacy by implementing practical, non-invasive
patient monitoring programs in retail pharmacy. Currently, I have
begun an osteoarthritis research project that simply requires a
questionnaire and a simple monitoring to gain evidence on the value
of a little data collection, which doesn't require a large amount of
the pharmacist's time. Should the outcome of this project become
evidence for the proposed idea, it may be published in a journal.
Furthermore, I plan to design, implement and teach other practical
disease state management projects to retail and/or consulting pharmacists.
Lastly, I will
make a difference in the profession of pharmacy by supporting and
developing programs that supply medications and medical services to
the elderly and financially impoverished. Despite the fact that I
have not been able to actively begin working on this goal to date, I
have found a resource from which to begin. There is a clinic located
in Columbia, Maryland for which I have visited while I was completing
a rotation with a pharmaceutical company. The site was in need of a
pharmacist who would volunteer one-half day per week to dispense
donated samples of medication to patients. Initially, as a
pharmacist, I plan on becoming involved with this organization as a
dispensing pharmacist. I believe I have to first meet the present
need prior to doing anything else. From there, I intend to learn the
business, enlarge the scope of its vision, and extend it to other
clinic sites.
In summary,
when I become a pharmacist, I intend to make difference by creating
and implementing ideas for disease state management, mentoring high
school and pharmacy students, teaching pharmacists and other health
care professionals about disease state management, uniting
pharmacists to volunteer time to provide services to the
disadvantaged, providing medication counseling, and facilitating
communication between patients and their physicians. Although I am
contemplating of where I will be employed as a pharmacists, whatever
I choose must allow me to demonstrate that I am providing a necessary
service that is beneficial to the patient as well as give me the
opportunity to present ideas to expand and/or enhance what I do. |
