Advocacy is the answer
Shivani Modi, PharmD, is an executive resident in the APhA Pharmacy Practice & Government Affairs Department in Washington, DC.
The pharmacist’s role has evolved drastically over the past few decades. It’s become more apparent that pharmacists are an essential part of the health care team when promoting and delivering patient care services. With the ever-evolving profession and pharmacist’s role, diverse opportunities for all practitioners have arisen.
During the pandemic, pharmacists administered COVID-19 vaccinations, prescribed medications, conducted tests, and provided monoclonal antibody treatments. Most pharmacies are located within a 5-mile radius of population areas, and that makes pharmacists the most accessible health care professionals. Pharmacists can reach and serve all populations, including the most vulnerable. Like other health care professionals, pharmacists want to keep their patients satisfied by increasing prescription volumes and offering services that are convenient and optimize their health outcomes.
The question is, how do we meet everyone’s needs and yet prevent pharmacists from burning out due to lack of payment and resources, and shortage of staff? I believe advocacy is the answer.
Witness to the impact
Most pharmacists who choose to join the profession have a vision and mission to contribute to serving patients. In order to continue to provide services that improve patients’ quality of life, we must advocate to expand the scope of practice. By providing medication therapy services, we are ensuring that patients are adherent to their medications and stay out of the hospital, which also leads to overall cost savings for the patients and the country.
As a student pharmacist, I was very involved in advocacy through various state and national associations. I was a policy vice president for my APhA–ASP Chapter and served as a legislative chair for the Maryland Pharmacists Association. Additionally, I worked as an intern for a community pharmacy, where I was able to provide most of the services listed above to our patients during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic.
I have seen the direct impact of advocacy being implemented in patient care services. While I was a legislative chair, one of the bills introduced in Maryland would allow pharmacists to immunize children 3 years and older in direct contrast to the original law, which allowed them to immunize children 9 years and older. Once the bill passed and CDC recommended this population to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, all pharmacists were able to administer immunizations to children 3 years and older in Maryland.
Join us
In my current role as an executive resident in the APhA Government Affairs department, I’ve had an opportunity to lobby and advocate for pharmacists. There is still a lot more work that needs to happen for our profession, so we are better able to cater to our patients; for example, recognizing pharmacists as providers.
Join the advocacy campaign today to advance the profession and help our patients!