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Checking the "other" box

By Amy Holmes posted 03-15-2018 22:08

  

A couple of years ago I attended a kick off meeting with the medical director of our neonatal intensive care unit and our quality improvement coordinator. One of the slides included in this presentation outlined a list of all of the disciplines that they recommended engaging in the project. Pharmacy was not on the list! I was both shocked and dismayed since the condition, neonatal abstinence syndrome, is both caused by and treated with pharmaceutical agents. Several months later I was registered for the neonatal conference associated with this QI project. When I got to the section where I was supposed to select my discipline there was no box to mark for pharmacy. I selected the “other” box since it seemed to be my only option. At the conference I sat with the multidisciplinary team from my facility and didn’t think much about that “other” box. That is until I got to the pharmacist lunch. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to network with other neonatal pharmacists and maybe commiserate over the lack of representation in the initial presentation as well as on the registration form. At the lunch there were 2 other pharmacists. I learned that there were a few other pharmacists in attendance although they had elected not to attend the lunch.

The leader of the luncheon that day was Kelly Burch. I had met her before at a Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group meeting and it was great to have the opportunity to speak to her again. She said that she had been attending this meeting for a while and in the beginning was the only pharmacist. Kelly has been a real pioneer! From organizing this pharmacist luncheon (which has grown in attendance in the years following) to being the first pharmacist faculty member for the Vermont Oxford Network (VON). One final accomplishment that Kelly can boast is advocating for the addition of ACPE CE credits for the VON webinars and annual congress to increase the incentive for pharmacists to participate. There may still be an “other” box on the registration form this year, but I am confident that there will be a pharmacist box to check as well!

Other national and local conferences have also omitted pharmacists from their registration process. It is hard to believe that as far as we have come as a profession, there are still areas where we are forgotten or omitted. Just last month I attended a local perinatal symposium. Although my team, some of whom were on the planning committee, had encouraged me to attend- they still didn’t have a place for pharmacists to register. I definitely provided that feedback for next year.

I think we should all take a lesson from Kelly- are there other specialty areas where pharmacy is underrepresented? I encourage you all to advocate for the profession by getting involved and creating a place at the table if one does not already exist.

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