Pharmacist Awareness Month 2017

Hello all!

This is not a food-related post, instead, this is my first of potentially a couple of posts, regarding Pharmacist Awareness Month (PAM) 2017! Sorry not sorry if you are not in the mood for some soap-boxing 😉 PAM is celebrated in March, of every year, and every year its something that I love to get involved with.

This post started because I had an odd experience today. As part of preparation for my teaching rotation, I was asked to write a “Philosophical Teaching Statement”. The first thing I said when I read that email, was “And what in the name of goodness is that?”. Oh, it turns out it is just a fluffy as you might think. Its an actual essay, in which one discusses their thoughts on their “teaching beliefs”.

Given that I have never been a preceptor before, I initially panicked a bit, thinking “Well, I am so new to this, how could I possibly have any beliefs about it?”. My first draft was very technical. Strictly an expanded list of general things I wanted to cover with my student and why. Things like “Providing feedback that is actually objective, constructive, useful and timely is important”. My gut said it wasn’t happy with it, so I left it for the day, enrolled another couple of fabulous volunteers into my project, came home, put on my jammies, and started over.

I was not expecting this to turn into an emotional reflection on how all the great preceptors I’ve had over the past six years have shaped my practice. I was not prepared to let my fluffy creative side come out today. But it escaped anyways!

The way I practice pharmacy, it is a quilt. Made of all these little squares. And I have been so fortunate that so many of my preceptors and mentors have contributed squares to my quilt. So when I think about the philosophy I have, going in as a first time preceptor, I want to be worthy of contributing a square to someone’s quilt. Because its that quilt that keeps you warm on the darkest days of your practice, and motivates you to be the best you can be for your patients.

I think its kind of fitting, that I get to have my first student as my own little present for Pharmacist Awareness Month. At a time when we are celebrating how far the profession has come, and promoting our role in patient care, with our teams and in the community, I get to contribute to inspiring the next generation of practitioners, who will continue to grow and optimize our role even further, which is pretty neat 🙂

Additionally, I will be celebrating PAM 2017 by writing some posts about what I actually do as a Hospital Pharmacist. It is kind of mystical isn’t it? My patients still get a surprise when I show up at their bedside, and sometimes my family still asks what exactly I do all day. So, in that spirit, I look forward to sharing some pharmie geek details with you all as we mark PAM 2017!

xoxo

Sarah