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Kentucky Pharmacy Students Make a Tough Sell to Senate Leadership on Capitol Hill

By James Blackmer posted 07-21-2015 21:13

  

I jumped at the invitation to attend a leadership conference for pharmacy students this summer in Washington D.C. It helped me achieve two goals: First, to be productive during my time away from the University of Kentucky, and to advocate for the provider status bills in Congress. It was perfect timing since I would be so close to our national legislators. 

In the past, I have been active in Kentucky, visiting the capital in Frankfort to advocate for collaborative care and pharmacists prescribing of naloxone. Going to school at the University of Kentucky, I was limited in the members of Congress that I could persuade on provider status, because all of Kentucky’s representatives, Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, John Yarmuth, Thomas Massie, Harold Rodgers, and Andy Barr, already supported the bill in the House. That left me with my senators, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, who I knew would be tough to meet with due to their high profiles and busy schedules.  Senator Paul is a current presidential candidate and is busy fundraising and gathering support for his campaign.  Senator McConnell is busy with his duties as majority leader in the Senate. 

After sending thank you emails to my congressmen, I contacted the offices of both Senators and waited... and waited... and waited. Finally, a week before my trip to Washington, D.C., I received a reply from Senator McConnell's office confirming our meeting time to discuss S. 314.  Hallelujah! In preparation for the meeting, I researched Senator McConnell, S. 314, collaborative care in Kentucky, and provider status in other states.

 The day before the meeting the Senator’s staff emailed me and asked if we they could move our meeting from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Unfortunately, when I got this email I was on a flight across the country, so I could not reply until late in the evening. When I landed in Washington D.C I quickly replied saying that the change would work for us. Since our meeting was pushed back to the afternoon we expected to have a calm morning, but boy were we wrong. At 8:22 a.m. Senator McConnell’s office replied to my email saying they would like to change the meeting back to the original time of 9:00 a.m., and panic set in. Since we were in casual wear we quickly ran up to our hotel rooms and changed into our formal attire. We then hurried to the Capitol in an attempt to be on time to our meeting with the Senator. We climbed up the stairs to the first door we saw and waited in line for security. As we approached the metal detector the security guard asked us for our staff identification and since we did not have any we quickly hopped out of line. On approaching to the second door we again realized it was a staff only entrance and continued to make our way around the building. Out of breathe with sweat covering our foreheads we finally reached the guest entrance and made our way to the Senator’s office.

The meeting went very well. As we started the meeting our group--Catherine Serratore, a student at Sullivan COP, and my UK COP classmates, Kevin Mercer and Kevin Chen, and I--were a little nervous, but once the ball started rolling, we become comfortable advocating for our profession. We began by thanking the staff for all of the work Senator McConnell and his office have done for the country, and the state of Kentucky. We then moved on to discuss how pharmacists' education has been very clinically focused the past 20 years, and how well our profession is prepared to take on the expanded role S 314 would offer. Next, we explained the role pharmacy residencies play in further preparing pharmacist to take on this clinical role. We also discussed the role of pharmacist in the state of Kentucky, mentioning topics such as the expanded role of Medicaid through the ACA, collaborative care responsibilities, and naloxone prescribing by pharmacists. The staff seemed interested in the topics, and they asked questions that led me to believe that they did not already know much of the information that we were presenting to them. At the conclusion of the meeting, we made a call to action asking his staff to support the bill moving forward. 

Overall, I believe that the meeting was a success, and I feel that Senator McConnell's staff member, Legislative Director Jennifer Kuskowski, was more informed on the role that pharmacists play in allowing patients more access to healthcare in underserved areas. I plan to follow up with Ms. Kuskowski later this month in order to let her know that I can answer any questions she has regarding pharmacy topics.

This was an opportunity I never expected to have before coming to pharmacy school. Looking back I would highly recommend this to any pharmacy student, or practitioner. It felt great to advocate on behalf of the pharmacists of Kentucky and across the country. Even if the Senator doesn’t sign the bill, I am confident that he and his staff are more informed on the abilities pharmacist have to make a greater impact in healthcare. Next time you are in Washington D.C set up a meeting, inform your legislators, and try not to be late. 

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