For Alexis Page, PharmD, being 'Fearlessly Authentic' means "having a drive to always want more for your patients, colleagues, and the profession."
By Alexis Page, PharmD
As a student pharmacist, I was hopelessly indistinguishable from the rest. I remained in the shadows of my peers who received better grades, who held more prestigious internships, and who connected better with faculty. I knew I would end up in community pharmacy, but that was okay, I liked the fast pace and patient interactions. By the time I was even a month into my APPE rotations, I was already familiar with the question: “So what are your plans for next year?”
As my peers started making Excel sheets to compare their top residency choices, I started looking for jobs. Residency was always in the back of my mind, but I wondered, “Who would want me?” I thought I was most certainly not competitive enough and was just one of thousands of other student pharmacists applying.
The person who nudged me over the edge to apply was a community pharmacy resident who I was fortunate enough to work with in the fall of my APPE year. She gave me advice that still sits with me today, which was: “Don’t not apply because you’re afraid.” That’s when it dawned on me that being afraid was the thing holding me back. I was petrified of not matching and worried about postponing life and the promise of a pharmacist’s salary, but I was also terrified of missing opportunities if I didn’t apply. While I was initially hesitant to apply for a community-based pharmacy residency position, the encouragement of my friends, family, and mentors convinced me to submit my PhORCAS application. Match Day came and I matched with my top choice, Kroger Pharmacy with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA.
Tapped into my true passion
I have been elated, exhausted, overwhelmed, and overjoyed throughout my year as a resident. The experiences and education that I gained this past year have been invaluable because I finally tapped into my true passion in community pharmacy. I always knew I liked community pharmacy, but now it fuels me. Through the mentorship of my site coordinator, Anne Harrison, PharmD, BCACP, and my residency program director, Jean-Venable “Kelly” R. Goode, PharmD, BCPS, FAPhA, FCCP, I have been given the tools and opportunities necessary to identify my passion of helping expand patient care services in community pharmacy.
To many students, community pharmacy is “retail,” just as it was to me only a year ago. Community pharmacy to me now is a breadth of patient care services just waiting to be unlocked. I have been shown what barriers there are to implementing advanced patient services and I crave solving these problems. I see community pharmacists in other states prescribing, conducting point-of-care testing, and coming up with creative solutions to advance patient care and think, “Why not Virginia? Why not Kroger?” The practice of community pharmacy is changing, and I plan to take advantage of the momentum to advance our scope of practice and increase patient access to high quality care.
With only a few months of residency under my belt, I proposed the idea of a fellowship with the focus on leadership and management to my VCU and Kroger mentors. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would become a reality, but it did! For this 2019–20 academic year, I am the first Community-based Pharmacy Leadership and Management Fellow with VCU and Kroger Pharmacy.
Notes to my first-year self
If I had the ability to talk with my first-year self, I would let her know that not everyone finds their passion during their first year, or even by their final year of pharmacy school. It’s alright to not know what you want to do while on APPE rotations and to instead discover what you love after graduation. I would tell my first-year self to find mentors who are going to listen to your crazy ideas, believe in your ability as a student and pharmacist, and never stop looking for the passion that will make you excited to wake every morning. I believe I was a late bloomer, and all the credit goes to the mentors in my life who have shown me a different side of community pharmacy.
Being “Fearlessly Authentic” to me means having a drive to always want more for your patients, colleagues, and the profession. It’s a feeling of dissatisfaction with the status quo and the appetite to want to change and improve it. It’s about shaking off any fears you carry and diving into experiences that you didn’t think you could accomplish. If an average student like me can accomplish so much, then think of the possibilities for you.