There are pharmacy students who are excited and committed to the legislative process and advocating for the profession from day one. I was not one of those students. Quite frankly, the terms “policy” and “advocacy” intimidated me, so I steered clear of policy related events my P1 year. I thought, “What difference could one student pharmacist really make?”
My mindset dramatically changed thanks to experiences during my P2 year. Through my leadership role in my university’s SSHP and the Texas legislature being in session (Texas state legislature only meets every two years), I became involved in planning and executing various policy driven events. One event included inviting pharmacy leaders from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy and Texas Pharmacy Association to participate in a panel. I was familiar with the big ticket policy items, such as provider status and scope of practice, but until this moment I didn’t understand the importance or impact of these policies. This event led me to become more involved in policy events within the College of Pharmacy, and I even participated in Pharmacy Day at the Capitol in Austin, Texas.
I have since become interested in policy and advocacy at the national level. Luckily through my summer internship with ASHP, I was presented with an opportunity to visit Capitol Hill. During this visit, Doug Huynh, Director of Federal Legislative Affairs at ASHP, Autumn Pinard, ASHP Summer Intern, and I were able to meet with legislative staff members for Congressman Eliot Engle (NY) and Congressman Peter Welch (VT). We discussed ASHP’s drug shortage priorities and current drug pricing legislation in the Senate, as well as shared stories of our experiences with drug shortages. Sharing my story was powerful in educating the legislative staff on how these issues impact the pharmacy profession and most importantly our patients.
Through these experiences, I learned a valuable lesson – when it comes to advocating, this is my profession and individually, I can make a difference. As student pharmacists we learn to empower our patients, so I beg the question, shouldn’t we also empower ourselves?
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at kelsie.ellis@utexas.edu.
Be on the lookout for my next blog post covering my experience as one of the ASHP Summer Interns.