Introduction: In December of 2018, I submitted an application for the ASHP 2019 Student Leadership Award for the class of 2020. My essay for this application can be found in this blog post, and represents my thoughts on student involvement with the Practice Advancement Initiative and the changing landscape of pharmacy practice in the year 2030. I look forward to engaging in a conversation about student involvement, PAI, advocacy, and pharmacy practice.
Fostering Student Involvement in the Practice Advancement Initiative
The year is 2030, and I’m a third year pharmacy student at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy in Richmond, Virginia. Pharmacy practice has continued to evolve over time, as pharmacists are finally recognized as healthcare providers in all 50 states. Pharmacy practitioners have been advocating for provider status for decades, something that many of our professors and preceptors have been a part of. Pharmacy education is adapting to teach student pharmacists as providers and student organizations are the forefront of this smooth transition. One organization in particular, the Student Chapter of the Virginia Society of Health-System Pharmacists (SVSHP) focuses on promoting awareness of the emerging roles, care delivery models, and new practice settings for pharmacists in a number of different ways.
Increasing awareness of the emerging role of a pharmacist is not only important among students, but among the general population as well. This is a period of time where the persona of a pharmacist is shifting from “the pill counter” to “the person who knows medication best.” Pharmacy practice arrived at this point by students and pharmacists advocating for the profession through the practice advancement initiative. The practice advancement initiative is an ASHP driven movement to transform how pharmacists in acute and ambulatory settings care for patients. By empowering student pharmacists through the practice advancement initiative, we can create a workforce of pharmacists who are strong agents of change.
As a leader, there are many creative opportunities for advocacy that I would encourage my student colleagues to become involved with to promote the emerging role of a pharmacist. The yearly ASHP practice advancement initiative week has been in place for at least a decade, and has the strongest potential to promote the emerging role of pharmacists as providers. Student collaboration amongst different organizations can offer a complete picture of continuity of care from a pharmacy perspective. After all, pharmacists were able to reach provider status only once national pharmacy organizations such as ASHP, NACP, and APhA unified their approach. Local events that pharmacy students can create during the ASHP PAI week include advocacy on capitol hill, education about pharmacy practice in community pharmacies, holding a health fair with free blood pressure and blood glucose screenings, and discussions with health-system pharmacy management about how pharmacy practice can continue to change over the next decade.
For over 20 years, The ASHP Foundation has offered a practice advancement initiative state affiliate workshop grant that aims to advance patient care and pharmacy practice through transformation of practice models. Opportunity for collaboration with the Virginia Society of Health-System Pharmacists (VSHP) has the potential to create a workshop addressing evolving pharmacy practice models, with funding from the ASHP Foundation. Open invites would be extended to pharmacy practitioners and students alike. This opportunity would allow students to explore care delivery models, alongside pharmacists who are currently practicing in these models, while giving both parties the chance to influence change. It’s important that local health-system pharmacy practice stakeholders are present for this workshop so that a discussion surrounding influencing care delivery models can be applied to real life scenarios.
As practice settings for pharmacy practitioners continue to evolve, it remains ever so important that student pharmacists are immersed in the changing settings. Pharmacist practitioners have the opportunity to expose students to newly created health-system pharmacy practice settings. As a student leader, this can be facilitated by including these practice settings in shadowing programs and inviting pharmacists to speak at general body meetings about their unique careers. It is also important that students experience patient interactions in different pharmacy practice settings. This can be created by working with the school of pharmacy’s office of experiential education to seek out preceptors and create rotations at newer practice sites.
Overall, it is evident that the practice advancement initiative is applicable to all areas of evolving pharmacy practice. The practice advancement initiative has helped pharmacy practice achieve provider status by 2030, and will remain relevant as emerging roles, care delivery models, and practice settings continue to change. Pharmacy education should incorporate the practice advancement initiative into continuous professional development courses, creating a pathway for students to become stakeholders in the future of pharmacy practice. Until the pharmacy curriculum adopts the practice advancement initiative, it is up to student organizations such as the Student Chapter of the Virginia Society of Health-System Pharmacists (SVSHP) to create opportunities for students to explore the changing landscape of health-system pharmacy practice.