From 01/19/2011 (I've been a little busy and forgot to post this!)
Yesterday, we finished therapeutic modules at ONU. It was such a
relief to know that we didn’t have to learn any new chemical structures
or get asked (again) which drugs we can use to cover Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Today, we started a Pharmacy Administration module. For years, I have
been hearing from my peers in the class above me that pharmacy
administration is a series of business lectures that you only need to
listen to if you plan to own your own pharmacy. They were wrong. My
professor brought in four pharmacists today, from a wide array of
careers, who spoke to us during a two-hour Q&A session. They
emphasized the importance of learning human resources concepts,
understanding formulary management, pharmacoeconomics, and medication
safety. Each of them also stated that they never understood how
important it was to learn these concepts while they were a student.
I couldn’t help but parallel this situation to an article I recently read in AJHP, Pharmacy residency training and pharmacy leadership: An important relationship.
In this article, Marianne Ivey and Margo Farber state that pharmacy
residencies were originally created to help develop pharmacy leaders for
the health-system. They also state that ASHP accreditation standards
state that a PGY1 is “to accelerate growth beyond entry-level
professional competence in patient-centered care and in pharmacy
operational services, and to further the development of leadership
skills.” The rest of the article takes the time to explain that pharmacy
residencies have migrated away from emphasizing the leadership and
managerial skills that residents should receive in addition to clinical
training. Being an advocate for pharmacy leadership and residencies, I
agree! While I haven’t completed a residency yet, I see parallels
between their article about resident/preceptor attitudes and those of my
peers.
Overall, I think it all comes down to separating and teaching
everyone the differences between management and leadership. Yes, there
will be portions of our pharmacy administration module that are strictly
devoted to accounting and inventory management. Residents receiving
clinical PGY1 training need to have those basic managerial skills to the
understand the decisions being made by pharmacy administrators. How
else can we defend our department within the health-system?
At the same time, there are large portions of our module that instill
leadership skills and the knowledge to move the profession forward.
Those skills are always hard to teach and to understand in the
classroom... but are perfect for residency training. Residents have the
passion necessary to be leaders in our profession, something especially
needed during this leadership crisis. Between the two components,
practitioners will have the skills needed to be successful in the
future. I can only hope that my classmates realize the same significance
as we go through these five weeks of lecture. I know I have.