Blogs

ASHP APPE Rotation- Week Two

By Sara Loftus posted 4 hours ago
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What a fantastic second week here at ASHP Headquarters! There were over 120 members in Bethesda this week due to Policy Week. It was not the regular 8 am to 5 pm at the office; it was early mornings and long days filled with great conversations, lectures, advocacy, and networking. As a student on rotation with ASHP, I had the unique opportunity of participating in Policy Week and observing the discussion of various ASHP Policy Councils.  ASHP’s Policy Week is where appointed ASHP members from across the country come to together to discuss important topics in today’s healthcare with the purpose of initiating ASHP professional practice policies around these ...
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ASHP APPE Rotation - Week One

By Sara Loftus posted 9 days ago
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​ Since January of this year I have been planning and preparing for my rotation at ASHP Headquarters in Bethesda, MD so it is crazy that my first week is already finished! Going from living at home with my family to living with my husband and two dogs, to living on my own in a new city for a whole month is a brand new experience for me. From unpacking and figuring out the Metro Bus system, to finding my way around headquarters and getting started on projects, it has been an amazing first week. What I love most about being here is the people that I get to work with every day. From the security guard who escorts me to the elevator, my co-externs, my preceptors, ...
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About me and my Heritage

By Taracia Chappell posted 11 days ago
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I am an American with Inuktitut heritage.  Half white and half Alaskan Native.  I've always been able to look on both sides of the fence. I am 45-year-old woman and have been married for 29 years to the father of my 2 children.  We are planning on renewing our vows within the year!  My mom was born in Koyuk, Alaska.  I have 3 sisters and 2 brothers.  I was the youngest till my little brother was born.  We moved along Sacramento, Ca., Oregon, and landed in Moses Lake, Wa. where I met my husband and I moved in with him when I was 17.  I finished high school and we had our first son on my 19th birthday.  He, Dennis; who is 26 is still living with us today. We also ...
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Maintaining context

By Dennis Tribble posted 15 days ago
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I read a summary of a JAMA article that described a research study on the impact of restricting access within an EMR system to one patient chart at a time, the notion being to test whether such restrictions would reduce placing orders on the wrong patient. Interestingly, the restricted group had a slightly higher error rate (90.7 errors/100,000 orders vs. 88/100000). Further, it was discovered that over 66% of the order sessions for unrestricted users involved having only one patient record open at the time. While that last statistic makes evaluating the impact harder, it does appear that, at least in this population of users, physicians had learned a ...
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Career Malaise?

By Sara White posted 23 days ago
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Rebecca Knight in How to Beat Mid-Career Malaise offers the following advice. We all have times when we wonder, “Am I at the right organization? Am I in the right job? And is this all there is?” These questions are especially agonizing for mid-career professionals who may be searching for fulfillment while juggling demands at home and intense financial pressures to earn.  How should you address a mid-career crisis? What actions can you take to improve your professional satisfaction? How can you combat the dullness and tedium of your workaday life? And how can you tell if it’s time to make a drastic change? What the Experts Say Mid-career malaise ...
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The ten biggest threats

By Dennis Tribble posted 28 days ago
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The World Health Organization has release a list of the ten biggest threats to global health in 2019 : Air Pollution and Climate Change Non-communicable disease Global influenza pandemic Fragile and Vulnerable settings (estimated to affect 22% of global population) Antimicrobial resistance Ebola and other high-threat pathogens Weak primary health care Vaccine hesitancy (estimated to be the cause of 1.5 million deaths worldwide) Dengue HIV (nearly 1 million deaths per year) In looking at this list, one wonders what we, as pharmacists, might directly address in our communities and practices. Please permit me to suggest the following: ...
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ASHP Summer Internship

By Kelsie Ellis posted 29 days ago
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If you’ve been following my posts thus far you know that I’ve had an eventful summer! This completes my 10 th week as the ASHP Summer Intern. As my internship with ASHP comes to a close, I’ve reflected on the many experiences and skills I have gained. For starters, I have developed professional relationships with countless of accomplished ASHP members who serve as national pharmacy leaders at the forefront of advancing the profession. As I found my home here this summer, I began to take more initiative in how I wanted my last month to go. As I share my experiences with you, I hope that it inspires you to do the same. Any and every opportunity that presented ...
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Want To Stop Procrastinating

By Sara White posted 08-18-2019
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If you like podcasts check out Before Breakfast which is under 10 minutes and has great tips like writing smarter emails. 5 Ways to Finally Stop Procrastinating What are the reasons we procrastinate? How can we overcome the habit? Procrastination isn’t just a human problem. Newton’s First Law of Motion says that a body at rest will stay at rest until compelled to do otherwise. Dare we say it? The entire universe procrastinates. But just because procrastination is universal doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. And too often, we find ourselves procrastinating when we know we shouldn’t. We mutter, "I should really be working," as we check Facebook stand ...
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ASHP Assumes Leadership Role in GTMRx Institute to "Get the Medications Right"

By Paul Abramowitz posted 08-12-2019
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Dear Colleagues, ASHP recently announced that we have joined the Board of Directors of a very promising new organization called the GTMRx Institute . Launched in mid-April, the Institute seeks to enhance life by ensuring appropriate and personalized use of medication and gene therapies. The organization is bringing together critical stakeholders to advance the adoption of a systematic approach to medication use to save lives and reduce costs through comprehensive medication management (CMM). The GTMRx Institute recognizes that physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare providers need to work together convincing payers, providers, the public and others ...
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What Will Your Legacy Be?

By Sara White posted 08-04-2019
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What Is Legacy Thinking? Beginning With the End in Mind (Mind Tools) suggests the following. Plants those seeds, watch them grow, and start to build your legacy." The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."– Nelson Henderson, Canadian pioneer Quincy leans back in his office chair. It's his last day on the job, and he takes a moment to reflect upon his achievements – and his regrets. He's troubled by the feeling that time has passed by in a blur, and that he's missed his chance to build something that will endure. Like Quincy, many of us lead hectic lives, and this makes it hard to see beyond the demands ...
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My Summer Internship at ASHP – Part III

By Autumn Pinard posted 07-26-2019
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If you have been following my blogs up to this point, then you probably are well aware that I have been at the ASHP Headquarters in Bethesda, MD completing a Summer Internship. It has truly been a wonderful experience. I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects ranging from researching topics to writing an issue synopsis, revamping and updating web-pages, participating in the development of student membership recruitment campaign materials and several other projects in-between. My time here at ASHP also included many meetings with staff from various departments. It has been a pleasure hearing everyone’s story and their path to ASHP. Every single ...
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ASHP Internship – Capitol Hill Visit

By Kelsie Ellis posted 07-24-2019
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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 ...
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Is Perfectionism Getting In Your Way?

By Sara White posted 07-21-2019
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Caroline Ceniza-Levine in Is The Quest For Perfection Actually Hurting Your Progress? Four Ways To Keep Perfectionism In Check suggests the following. As pharmacists we must always be a perfectionist when we handle patient drug therapy however it is the rest of our career and life that it gets in the way . During a recent keynote on success strategies for both work and life, one of the attendees asked about how to deal with perfectionism. I have heard from people who spend so much time completing a project that it’s late. Others spend so much time on a project that they fall behind on other equally important or even more important tasks. Still others ...
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My Summer Internship at ASHP – Part II (Summer Meeting 2019 Edition)

By Autumn Pinard posted 07-10-2019
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This summer I was able to attend the ASHP Summer Meetings in Boston, MA. It was my first experience at an ASHP meeting and it was the best first meeting I could have attended. I arrived on Saturday and as I made my way from my hotel to the convention center for registration I stumbled upon the pride parade that was taking place right outside. It was such an exciting day! After hitting the registration desk and exploring the area around the convention center, I started my Summer Meetings experience. As you can see from my itinerary below, it was a busy 5 days – but it was a wonderful 5 days! I made so many connections with so many people from all over the country. ...
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ASHP Summer Meetings ‘19

By Kelsie Ellis posted 07-09-2019
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My name is Kelsie Ellis, and I am a rising P3 at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. I recently attended my first ASHP conference, the 2019 Summer Meetings in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to Summer Meetings, I experienced a whirlwind of emotions. I finished my Institutional IPPE rotation the day before flying to Boston and I knew when I returned I would have a three day cross-country drive from Texas to Maryland in order to start a highly anticipated internship with ASHP. On top of that, I was the only student from my university attending the conference, which for me meant either lurking in the back of every session or making new friends. ...
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ASHP, Well-Being, and You

By Paul Abramowitz posted 07-08-2019
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Dear colleagues, There is a great deal of national attention on the issue of healthcare provider burnout, which is affecting our pharmacists, pharmacy residents, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians at unprecedented rates. As many of you know, burnout is a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment. Moreover, there is a significant correlation between poor well-being of healthcare professionals and worsening patient safety. In May 2019, the World Health Organization clarified that burnout is an occupational phenomenon caused by chronic workplace stress that needs to be monitored and better understood. ...
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Managing Your Boss

By Sara White posted 07-07-2019
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Managing Your Boss Developing an Effective Working Relationship Mind Tools offers the following suggestions We all want to work for someone who's confident, supportive and respectful, all of the time. But even the most dedicated bosses can have their weaknesses. They may lack experience, or have trouble juggling competing demands. They may seem unappreciative or overly demanding, or be absent when you need them. Or perhaps you just don't "get along." Yet a good relationship with your boss is key to a happy work life, to the success of your team, and to making progress in your career. So what can you do to bridge the gap between where you are now and ...
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Is Multitasking Efficient

By Sara White posted 06-30-2019
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Multitasking Can It Help You to Get More Done? (Mind Tools) Do one task well, not multiple tasks badly! When you're busy, it can be tempting to tackle multiple tasks at once. For example, you may be in a project team meeting, hoping that no one notices you're checking your email and updating your to-do list for the day! Three jobs done in the space of an hour sounds far more productive than just listening to the project update. But is it? Multitasking and the Myth of Productivity Multitasking has been put under the microscope many times. And most of the research comes to the same conclusion: a high level of multitasking doesn't equal high productivity ...
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ASHP Policy Week 2018 – A Reflection as a New Practitioner

By Angela Goodhart posted 06-26-2019
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​Wow! What a week! As a new practitioner, and a young one at that, I was a little nervous about the input I would have to offer and the role I would be able to play on the Commission on Affiliate Relations (COAR), but I need not have worried. After an orientation with Kasey Thompson, COO of ASHP, to lay out the week, we had a welcome network reception where ASHP President Kelly Smith encouraged us to go all in “#4ourpatients.” As I was introduced to my fellow members of the COAR by chair Lorrie Burns, everyone was welcoming and expressing excitement to hear my perspective at our discussions throughout the week. After dinner out in Bethesda together, we finally ...
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Start to Cultivate Your Learning

By Kimberly Boler posted 06-22-2019
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 Summer is an exciting time! The flowers are blooming, and there are feelings of embarking on new beginnings. Whether you are new to the pharmacy profession or a seasoned technician looking to take on a more advanced role, there are a variety of skills you can start cultivating to help you achieve your goals.   Get Involved. Become a member of a committee at your place of employment or join a professional pharmacy association like ASHP. Being around like-minded people is a great way to learn to walk the walk and talk the talk. Involvement can also be as simple as attending continuing education events or volunteering for drives for a cause.   ...
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