The Pharmacist is NOT A Wh*re

There’s a new book out on pharmacy entitled the opposite of this post. (Not a title I would have personally chosen.) Clickbait-y title of the book aside, I read it, because who doesn’t love controversy, especially about one’s own profession? As a lawyer, I generally love a good case or controversy.

However, I have a few issues with it, and I debated whether or not to say something. But, saying nothing isn't exactly my style...

So, here we go.

While I agreed with several parts of it, I do not agree with all of it. In fact, I disagree most with one of the author’s biggest calls to action at the end of the book: for all of us - including patients - to write and talk to Congress, lawmakers, boards of pharmacy and the press about the mistreatment of pharmacists in the profession by employers, and to let the universe know of their abuses, including on the grounds of endangering the public.

First, while I generally agree with the idea that our lawmakers should be aware of what is going on in highly regulated industries (like healthcare and pharmacy) where I DISagree, respectfully, with the author of the book I’m mentioning, is that by writing a few letters, someone else is going to save our profession and cause positive change.

THE ONLY PEOPLE WE CAN CHANGE ARE OURSELVES. NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE PHARMACY; WE MUST SAVE OURSELVES. Your Congresswoman or Senator is not going to fix this for you. The local healthcare journalist won’t fix it either. The only person who can change it is Y-O-U.

So, if you’re a pharmacist and you’re in a miserable job—where you don’t get to eat a proper meal, take a 15 minute break, or have time to go to the bathroom while you’re working—respectfully, whining about it to your Congressperson (or even worse, having your patients complain about it) is not going to fix the problem. Your Senator or Governor doesn’t care. If you feel like you're a danger to the public because you're too pressured to pump out prescriptions like Pez, again, that's back on you. Part of being a professional is knowing where to draw the line on safety. You're getting paid to keep the public safe, and if you can't do that in your current job, then it's back on you to find another job where you CAN.

What WILL fix the problem is educating yourself and moving into a setting of pharmacy practice that ALLOWS you these basics when it comes to the workplace. If you don’t like your job, polish your skills and keep learning and growing on to another gig in pharmacy that DOES make you happy or more professionally fulfilled.

Here are some REAL SOLUTIONS to FIXING THIS PROBLEM: 

1. Listen to podcasts on the profession so you can understand the range of options in pharmacy for your career development and different practice settings. There's a LOT more out there these days than retail/community pharmacy and hospital, but you need to get educated on those options - no one is going to do it for you.
2. Get more education. Earn a certification — there are over 215 of them now. Or, if you want a longer road to furthering your education, go back to school and get a master’s degree. Or add on another degree in a different field.
3. Network with colleagues — inside the industry, and better yet, go outside your industry and network. 
4. Join professional associations, and 
5. Volunteer your time and skills and learn some NEW skills along the way.
6. And I'll suggest the HARDEST way of all - CREATE YOUR OWN NEXT GIG. I've done it more than a couple of times now. And it's not easy, but it's sometimes the BEST way to get you into the position that is best for y-o-u. I've written about entrepreneurship and personally built businesses and jobs for myself in the past. I've also built job proposals that didn't go anywhere, or that were rejected. But at least I TRIED!

I've been in pharmacy for over two decades now, and I've had my fair share of great jobs, and less than ideal jobs--including working 12+ hour days, going without a formal lunch or dinner break, and dealing with little, if any help in a variety of pharmacy practice settings, including retail pharmacy. I've had amazing bosses, and terrible ones. But, whenever I felt mistreated, or felt I wasn't learning anymore, or just had it with the working conditions, or was laid off, I worked on myself and my own skills in order to move on to something else. Of course, I talked to mentors, colleagues, professors and others to help provide guidance, but I knew at the end of the day, the only person who could change my situation was and is me.

I’m always glad to see more books and writings on pharmacy. Don’t get me wrong. Providing different points of view is important. And I agree with said author that pharmacy has a LOT of room for improvement as a profession, and we do need to take our profession back in many ways. But what I don’t support is when people point fingers and demand others to fix and solve their own problems.

To my colleagues in pharmacy: we need to solve our own problems. Looking for others to solve our profession's problems isn’t going to get the job done. While pharmacy certainly isn’t a perfect profession (which profession IS perfect, anyway?), the only ones who can really fix it are staring at us in the mirror. And unless that pharmacist staring back in the mirror at you is Buddy Carter, you're wasting your time by talking to Congress.

Channel the energy into something you can control: yourself.

___

Erin L. Albert is a pharmacist, attorney, entrepreneur, writer and preceptor. She is also senior director of education at the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. However, her opinions here are hers and hers alone. More suggestions on how to fix pharmacy's problems, some of which are mentioned in the book above, are over at her Medium blog.