Whew! What a week that was! A full work week of pharmacy-related policies. It was exhilarating to see all of ASHP’s dedicated council members, board of directors, staff members and senior leaders come from all parts of the nation to participate in Policy Week. The members of each council spent full days reviewing and discussing professional issues on pharmacy-related policies from their appropriate councils which included: Therapeutics, Public Policy, Pharmacy Practice, Education & Workforce Development, and Pharmacy Management. During Policy Week, there were guest speakers which provided such great opportunities for networking. While networking, I certainly met many wonderful people in this small pharmacy world and we all know how important networking is for a pharmacy student like myself.
As a student, it was interesting to see what goes on behind-the-scenes. By behind-the-scenes I mean what goes into creating and editing policies that we so commonly follow in the pharmacy profession. And boy it’s a lot of intricate and tedious work that takes great collaboration. Policy week showed inspiring collaboration and hard work.
All of this policy work could not be complete without some advocating for our profession, right?! Legislative Day during Policy Week was a full day of advocating on Capitol Hill. All of us gathered up in designated small groups, marched over to the Hill and spent the day advocating to our appropriate members of congress to discuss pertinent issues related to the pharmacy profession. We discussed issues such as provider status, the 340B program, the current opioid crisis and drug shortages. We respectfully informed our congressmen and women about these issues and how our pharmacists are able to make a difference on these topics and in healthcare.
I, personally was able to meet with the legislative correspondents of Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio. My very own state congressmen! I was even able to meet with Representative Brian Mast himself and he was gracious enough to take a picture with us. A full day of advocating on the Hill gave me an experience of a lifetime where I was able to be part of the fight for our profession and the attempt to better healthcare.
Who would think advocating for our profession would be so much fun?!