ASHP: Not Just for Pharmacists Anymore!
By: Vanessa Elliott, M.Ed., CPhT
My relationship with ASHP started as somewhat of a selfish affair, at least on my part. For many years, membership in national organizations – and the related topic of advocacy – didn’t feature in my career as a pharmacy technician. Although I began working in hospital pharmacy nine years ago, I was not involved with ASHP until four years ago.
I was first introduced to the organization when my employer had to mitigate the effects of PTCB’s decision to require technician-certified CE on a rather short notice. They purchased a one-year subscription to ASHP’s PharmacyTechCE.org for all active technicians. As the lead for the team that worked to purchase these subscriptions, I became vaguely aware of the educational activities and advocacy efforts ASHP works on every year. However, I still viewed ASHP as primarily a purveyor of CE credits, at least when it came to technicians. ASHP seemed focused on pharmacists. How could ASHP be an advocate for technicians?
In 2016 I became a member of ASHP for the first time, but it was still for a somewhat selfish reason: to get access to the articles in AJHP. This subscription was valuable to me because of the wealth of articles on the stability of various IV medications, which I needed to maintain our Beyond-Use Date (BUD) book for sterile compounding. Yet, I still only saw ASHP membership as a source of information I needed for my job, not as a group that was working to elevate technicians and advance their roles.
When ASHP announced the new Pharmacy Technician Forum, I began to wonder if maybe I’d been looking at this whole thing wrong. Perhaps the importance of membership is more significant than simply a means to an end. Perhaps it is an example of me advocating for myself and proof that ASHP is in turn advocating for all technicians. After all, more facilities each year are making national certification a requirement for continued employment, and states are adding CE requirements for licensure. Isn’t access to technician-accredited CE a part of advocacy? And if access to CE is part of advocacy, then a tool I use frequently to do my job is certainly a part of advocacy.
My view of ASHP and advocacy has shifted significantly. ASHP membership isn’t useful only for pharmacists. ASHP is actively working for me as a technician by helping me advocate for my colleagues and myself.
That means advocacy is not just fighting for recognition of the work technicians do every day, though that’s certainly a very important goal.
- Advocacy is providing useful education to technicians so we can maintain our licensure and certifications.
- Advocacy is providing tools to make advanced technician roles not only a possibility but a guarantee.
- Advocacy is viewing pharmacy technicians as healthcare professionals by providing access to a shared wealth of knowledge.
Advocacy is what we technicians do anytime we vocalize a need. And the best way to make sure our needs are heard is to join professional organizations like ASHP and its state-affiliated groups.