Academic Pharmacy Now: 2022 Issue 3

Academic Pharmacy

The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Care That Enhances Quality of Life

NOW

Volume 15 2022 Issue 3

Palliative care requires an interdisciplinary approach, and pharmacists are partnering with other healthcare providers to offer team-based support and treatment for patients. 16

Also in this issue: The Pandemic’s Effect on Emotional Intelligence 8 Foundations Supporting Pharmacists 12

Pharmacists Help People Live Healthier, Better Lives.

who we are @AACPharmacy

Academic Pharmacy The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Pharmacists Help People Live Healthier, Better Lives.

1400 Crystal Drive, Suite 300 P Arlington, VA 22202 703-739-2330 P www.aacp.org

Founded in 1900, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is the national organization representing the interests of pharmacy education. AACP comprises all accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy, including more than 6,600 faculty, approximately 63,800 students enrolled in professional programs and 4,800 individuals pursuing graduate study.

NOW

CEO & Publisher

Lucinda L. Maine Editorial Advisor

Lynette R. Bradley-Baker

Editorial Director

Maureen Thielemans Managing Editor

Jane E. Rooney

Letters to the Editor

We welcome your comments. Please submit all letters to the editor to communications@aacp.org.

About Academic Pharmacy Now

Academic Pharmacy Now highlights the work of AACP member pharmacy schools and faculty. The magazine is published as a membership service.

Editorial Assistant

Kyle R. Bagin

Communications Advisor

Stephanie Saunders Fouch

Change of Address

For address changes, contact LaToya Casteel, Member Services Manager, at lcasteel@aacp.org. ©2021 by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. All rights reserved. Content may not be reprinted without prior written permission.

Art Director

Tricia Gordon Digital Designer

Sean Clark

AACP’s Professional Supporter Program

Freelance Writer

Joseph Cantlupe

Promotion Supporter

Freelance Writer

Emily Jacobs

Freelance Writer

Athena Ponushis

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2022 Issue 3

Volume 15 2022 Issue 3

@AACPharmacy a look inside

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Advancing Diversity Initiatives A DEIA Task Force is leading an AACP environmental scan to better understand the challenges, needs and opportunities facing deans as they pursue DEIA efforts.

Did the Pandemic Enhance Empathy?

Research by Midwestern University College of Pharmacy professors explored the pandemic’s effect on students’ emotional intelligence.

community impact

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Support Systems Upholding interprofessional education and practice transformation, pharmacy foundations are bolstering pharmacists working to improve health outcomes.

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Care That Enhances Quality of Life Palliative care requires an interdisciplinary approach, and pharmacists are partnering with other healthcare providers to offer team-based support and treatment for patients.

@AACPharmacy

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Leaving Pharmacy a Better Place In part two of this look back at her career, Lucinda Maine reflects on the progress that’s been made in pharmacy and what lies ahead.

2022

Back on the Big Stage: See What’s New at #PharmEd22 More than 1,500 pharmacy educators, practitioners and students will head to Grapevine, Texas, July 23–27, to be part of the action at Pharmacy Education 2022.

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campus connection publisher’s note

Dear Colleagues: The week I started writing this letter, Lee Vermeulen arrived at AACP’s headquarters to begin a time of overlap with me before he assumes the role of AACP Executive Vice President and CEO on July 1. This is a time of transformation and transitions, as Lee and I will discuss during the final plenary session at Pharmacy Education 2022, our first in-person annual meeting since 2019! We hope to see many of you in Texas in July.

The AACP Board of Directors announced the search for AACP’s seventh chief executive officer in August 2021. The Search Committee was comprised of a diverse group of leaders, including one CEO from a colleague organization outside of pharmacy. A significant number of individuals applied for consideration, offering the committee amazing talent to interview in December. Three finalists were interviewed by the AACP Board in February, and they selected Lee unanimously.

In my opinion, the Board could not have made a better selection. A proven leader in many dimensions, Lee has national and international organization connections. Having spent his career in leadership roles at two major academic health centers, his scope and experience are decidedly interprofessional.

Most recently, he held roles as professor of both Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Kentucky. He was also Chief Efficiency Officer for the UK Health System, serving alongside other executives in the C–Suite.

As Lee explained to the Search Committee and the Board during the interview process, he had been seeking ways he could return to his professional roots and recommit his career to the advancement of pharmacy and pharmacy education. As he told the Board, “Despite continuing to work on pharmacyrelated projects and interacting frequently with student pharmacists and pharmacy residents, my career path had largely taken me out of the pharmacy world. I viewed this as a unique opportunity to serve our profession in an incredibly impactful way. The AACP strategic plan articulates the key areas we must focus on, so being given the chance to contribute to that work is an incredible honor… and it’s a rare opportunity, indeed, to be given the chance to follow in the footsteps of an icon of pharmacy practice and leadership.”

The stories in this issue speak directly to the transformations spreading across the pharmacy profession. The demand for pharmacists and scientists with expertise in pain and palliative care is growing and will continue to do so as the population ages in the years ahead. The three foundations profiled offer significant support to transform individuals and pharmacy practice, especially in the community setting. As PhRMA Foundation President Miller said, “Apply [for our grants]! I can’t fund you if you don’t apply!”

These stories are all aligned with priorities in the AACP 2021–24 strategic plan. Transformation, academic innovation, DEIA and well-being drive our programs and services. Significant programming in each area will be part of the education lineup for our summer meeting. And don’t miss the Closing Reception on Tuesday evening. It will be a celebration of a great meeting and a fond farewell to AACP’s sixth CEO after 20 fantastic years of service to academic pharmacy and beyond. My thanks to each of you for making this time so remarkable.

Sincerely,

Lucinda L. Maine, Ph.D., R.Ph. CEO and Publisher

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campus connection

Advancing Diversity Initiatives A DEIA Task Force is leading an AACP environmental scan to better understand the challenges, needs and opportunities facing deans as they pursue DEIA efforts.

By Emily Jacobs AACP’s strategic plan for 2021–2024 focuses on preparing pharmacists for changing environments. Part of this strategy aims to address diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism (DEIA) issues, starting with an environmental scan. An environmental scan studies a target community to determine its collective experience and the needs of the individuals involved. Specifically, AACP’s environmental scan aimed to better understand DEIA-related topics among academic pharmacy faculty.

Upon reviewing the strategic plan, AACP’s Council of Deans Administrative Board decided to launch the scan as soon as possible to establish a foundation of information that AACP and member institutions could use for related initiatives.

The chair of the Council of Deans, Renae Chesnut, selected committee members from a pool of interested Council members to create a DEIA Task Force to plan and conduct the scan.

Exploring Resources and Soliciting Stakeholders’ Perspectives The task force set out to gather and review existing research and resources related to DEIA. This included previous AACP

initiatives, white papers and reports from the Argus Commission (a standing committee that includes the past five AACP presidents). The task force examined resources for both individual and institutional use. For example, some of the tools were available to help individuals examine their own cultural understanding. Others were meant to help institutions conduct scans and surveys related to DEIA factors.

The task force considered the findings of similar disciplines, such as medical and nursing colleges. The scan also examined existing research that was not necessarily associated with academia but involved DEIA topics.

Incorporating a wide range of existing research not only informed the environmental scan but also helped the task force avoid redundancies.

“We looked at a lot of models, because we wanted to make sure that whatever ends up in our final report, that they are proven models that can be quickly put in place to help forward individual organization initiatives,” said Dr. Jennifer Robinson, associate dean for professional education, Washington State University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the task force chair.

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“We looked at a lot of models, because we wanted to make sure that whatever ends up in our final report, that they are proven models that can be quickly put in place to help forward individual organization initiatives.” ­—Dr. Jennifer Robinson

Once the task force reviewed available information, its members discussed areas of interest related to DEIA within academic pharmacy. These discussions involved strategies for engaging stakeholders, including deans, associate deans and department chairs from pharmacy schools around the United States. AACP’s most recent Interim meeting (held in San Diego in February) was an ideal location to gather feedback from these stakeholders.

Task force members met with deans and department chairs to hear their perspectives on DEIA issues at their home institutions. Topics included admissions, student

affairs, curriculum and administrative processes.

Meeting attendees from across the country offered ideas on additional support or training that would help them learn more about how to bring DEIA into their workforces.

The DEIA Task Force also is comparing those discussions with an existing diversity tool known as A Framework for Advancing Antiracism Strategy on Campus, created by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. The tool lists 10 potential areas of focus for diversity initiatives in individual academic institutions, including admissions, hiring and resource allocation.

This framework offers loose guidance for higher education institutions, since each institution’s DEIA efforts and needs will vary depending on their location. Because the AACP Council of Deans initiated the task force, it focused primarily on the experience of academic leaders rather than students.

“Part of the reason that we wanted the faculty and staff experience is because faculty, staff and administrators create the culture in which students learn,” Robinson noted. “And so students, when they’re in that culture, they influence it. But I think the level of influence is probably higher from faculty, staff and administrators. That being said, I think that it would be a huge misstep if you were moving forward with DEIA efforts on your own campus and you didn’t include students in that process. They are key stakeholders that need to be involved.”

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Multiple Paths to Pursue The DEIA Task Force is currently writing up their findings in preparation for publication. Several key themes emerged from the environmental scan.

One clear finding is that there is no single solution or approach to DEIA efforts. This can be helpful for institutions who may be concerned about approaching DEIA in the “right way.”

This flexibility extends to the metrics that institutions use to measure DEIA success. Schools may consider both qualitative and quantitative measurements. For example, institutions may look at rates of on-time graduation among different student groups and track those rates over time. More qualitative measurements could include conducting regular campus climate surveys and observing how different populations respond over time.

After all the task force members have finished writing up their findings, attention will turn to publication.

Contributors aim to present their findings at AACP’s annual meeting this July in Texas and offer resources to institutions involved in DEIA efforts. “I believe that this is an ongoing process and the piece that the task force is doing right now is just a small part of the whole process that needs to occur so that we can continually get better,” Robinson said. “I don’t know that DEIA efforts will ever actually be done.” P Emily Jacobs is a freelance writer based in Toledo, Ohio.

The scan also found that relationship building—both at the individual and institutional level—is crucial for DEIA strategies. This includes relationships and communication between administrators and faculty, among faculty members and between faculty and students. This could help guide pharmacy schools to develop new approaches for supporting stakeholders and create an environment built on trust. Robinson noted other overarching themes that emerged from the scan: •

Work needs to occur at both the individual (micro) and institutional (macro) level.

•

Aspire to do better, acknowledge our role individually and institutionally and act to support meaningful change through structured continuous quality improvement.

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Invest in relationships, build trust and promote individual and shared vulnerability.

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Increase emotional intelligence to increase self-awareness, self-management, relationship awareness and relationship management.

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Go beyond only looking at race, while not forgetting the impact of race.

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Work with nursing, medicine and other health professions to build DEIA across professions.

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Did the Pandemic Enhance Empathy?

Research by Midwestern University College of Pharmacy professors explored the pandemic’s effect on students’ emotional intelligence.

By Jane E. Rooney Many questions linger about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects on students, the workforce, the economy, and the mental and physical repercussions that are still coming to light. When classes were forced to go virtual, students missed out on face-to-face connections with peers as well as professors and patients. While the situation had its drawbacks, including increased stress and isolation, in many instances faculty quickly adapted to develop creative solutions and students demonstrated compassion as everyone endured struggles together. Several Midwestern University College of Pharmacy professors wanted to investigate the role the pandemic played in changes to students’ emotional intelligence. Using responses from an Emotional Intelligence Appraisal (EIA) selfassessment to determine changes from August 2019 to July 2020, the professors published their findings, “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Emotional Intelligence of Student Pharmacist Leaders,” in the January 2022 issue of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education (www.ajpe.org/content/86/1/8519).

Two of the paper’s authors, Dr. Kellie Goodlet, assistant professor, pharmacy practice, and Dr. Erin Raney, professor, pharmacy practice, noted that prior to the pandemic, progression through the college’s Leadership Development Program was associated with increased EIA scores. Regarding the outcomes they expected to see, “One hypothesis was that we would see more variability in the change from initial to final EIA scores, whereby some students would see significant increases while others would see decreases due to increased isolation and stress caused by the uncertainty of the pandemic,” Goodlet said. “But we saw greater increases in EIA scores pretty much across the board, and most significantly for the emotional intelligence skill of relationship management, which involves using awareness of personal emotions and the emotions of others to communicate effectively.”

Increased emotional intelligence, she continued, “has been associated with improved communication, conflict management, resiliency and job satisfaction, which we believe to be important skills for healthcare professionals. The emotional intelligence skill of relationship management, which increased the most for the pandemic cohort, is also associated with the ability to feel empathy toward others and taking the time to really understand where another person is coming from. We believe this supports the potential for this cohort to have more effective interactions with patients and their fellow clinicians.”

Capitalizing on Connections The Leadership Development Program at the Glendale campus of Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, a voluntary co-curricular program that spans six academic quarters within an accelerated, three-year Pharm.D. curriculum, includes an EIA self-assessment at the beginning and end of the program. Raney, a member of the faculty team that designed the program, supported a longitudinal experience to allow students to continue to develop themselves and explore their strengths while they maintained a leadership position. “The concept of emotional intelligence and self-reflection at the beginning and the

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campus connection

“It will be interesting to see if we can look at these students to find out how they might have a different perspective on a patient’s experience. It’s a reminder that pharmacy is more than making sure the right medication is prescribed but looking at emotions and meeting patients in the needs of their situation. These students developed their professional identities during a time when we were all challenged in our identities as pharmacists.”

—Dr. Erin Raney

end fit well with leadership training,” she explained. “After attending quarterly seminars on various leadership concepts, students get feedback from a faculty mentor on their individual written reflections. That mentor works through the growth and development of the student and helps them create a plan to continue on in their development after the program.”

Reflections and feedback from students in the post-program survey indicated that “some did find that the pandemic allowed them to have intense practice in terms of selfawareness and managing emotions,” Raney continued. “We found that a big part of emotional intelligence is managing yourself and your emotions and being aware of others and how to manage those relationships. We thought there would be a negative impact on their ability to interact with each other. But it really provided this wonderful opportunity to grow in that area to be aware in terms of the struggles of what others were going through and finding connection in that.”

Cultivating emotional intelligence can help pharmacists improve interactions with patients as well as other healthcare providers. “Developing EI enhances leadership opportunities and strategies. EI is embedded into pharmacy practice,” Raney said. “Whether it’s a difficult patient to work with or a challenging situation managing a health condition, being able to handle those things professionally is core to EI. A pharmacist has to be able to pick up on cues from patients and other members of the healthcare team. They need to be able to detect if a patient is having an emotional [response] and be able to connect with the patient and manage that relationship. In practice with patients and other providers, the leadership that a pharmacist needs to show would be enhanced with high levels of EI.”

Goodlet pointed out that the EIA score increases were most pronounced for relationship management, with the increase for the pandemic group representing a doubling over the non-pandemic group. “One hypothesis for this mentioned in the paper is that the pandemic may have underscored the value of social relationships. With in-person gatherings limited, students may have had to proactively seek out opportunities to strengthen their personal relationships, and subsequently may have been more present and focused during their interactions in order to make the most of them,” Goodlet noted. “Conversely, no difference in the change in social awareness (the other EIA skill related to social competence) was observed. But this made sense given the potential increased difficulty in reading others’ emotions during lockdown and during the time we all were a bit ‘mask blind’ and had difficulty reading expressions.”

Raney added, “It was a difficult time of transition and to have students reflect on that as an area of growth and strength building was a positive finding.” One thing that the pandemic highlighted, she continued, is that “compassion is essential to connect with a patient in their healthcare experience. Having students go through a challenging experience while they are learning is very humbling. I hope that it will help them in the long term. It will be interesting to see if we can look at these students to find out how they might have a different perspective on a patient’s experience.

It’s a reminder that pharmacy is more than making sure the right medication is prescribed but looking at emotions and meeting patients in the needs of their situation. These students developed their professional identities during a time when we were all challenged in our identities as pharmacists.”

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“With guided self-reflection and mentor support, challenges can yield opportunities for positive personal growth even during an event as uncertain and upending as a global pandemic. Being an effective pharmacist requires not only a solid foundational clinical knowledge, but the skills needed to apply and communicate this knowledge to patients and the interdisciplinary team.”

—Dr. Kellie Goodlet

Weaving EI Into Educational Experiences Goodlet and Raney see an opportunity to incorporate emotional intelligence in pharmacy school curricula.

Students could identify their baseline emotional intelligence using a measurement tool early on in leadership or introductory courses. “It could be developed through rotations and clinical aspects. In a classroom setting it would require a lot of connectivity. Many students are working with faculty advisors so that’s an opportunity to weave it through the curriculum,” Raney suggested. “The way we did it through a voluntary extracurricular opportunity, we found that for a student to identify their EI score it’s helpful for them to have a long period of time to practice it. Whether it’s over one year or an entire three- or four-year program, they take the concepts and actively use them and reflect on that.

Having mentorship from a faculty member is very helpful. A longitudinal mentorship allows students to see patterns and enables them to develop further.”

Goodlet agreed that giving students space and time to build these skills is crucial to their professional growth and something that pharmacy schools can help nurture. “It is important to offer time for guided reflection within the curriculum to allow students to process and reflect upon their experiences,” she said. “As noted in the paper, with guided self-reflection and mentor support, challenges can yield opportunities for positive personal growth even during an event as uncertain and upending as a global pandemic.

Being an effective pharmacist requires not only a solid foundational clinical knowledge, but the skills needed to apply and communicate this knowledge to patients and the interdisciplinary team. Emphasis on emotional intelligence supports the development of these skills, as well as the

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fostering of personal resiliency to support professional wellness.”

The paper’s authors concluded that despite the upheaval caused by the pandemic, continued support from pharmacy faculty helped students build resilience. Lessons from the pandemic can be applied in the future when difficult circumstances arise. “If we are challenged further with pandemics or situations where the norm is turned upside down, we shouldn’t give up as educators to still push the students to grow through that,” Raney said. “Instead of seeing a difficult situation as an indication that we have to put things to the side, continuing to push through could be an opportunity to help students develop. A lot of them had important individual growth. Having that mentorship during that time was still really important.”

Goodlet noted that she was impressed by the resiliency that the students demonstrated. “I found it notable how students commented how beneficial it was just to take the time to pause and reflect,” she said. “Healthcare is a high-intensity, fast-paced profession, and it is common for us to adopt that intensity and go-go-go mental state both in and out of work.

The stay-at-home order during the early pandemic may have allowed some of these students to slow down and breathe…

‘I’m at home, I’m not going out, what do I do now?’ And this is where I think the students’ experiences in the leadership development program came into play, as they have all worked with faculty mentors to hone and develop their selfreflection skills throughout the program, which may have given them the framework needed to identify and process their emotions without becoming overwhelmed by them.” P Jane E. Rooney is managing editor of Academic Pharmacy Now.

campus connection

Connect with Pharmacy’s Best and Brightest pharmon.careerwebsite.com About PharmON

Give Your Opportunities Added Visibility

Established in 2022, the Pharmacy Opportunities Network (PharmON) is a national career center where a diverse array of corporations, associations and other entities can post experiential learning opportunities, such as internships or jobs, to thousands of current Pharm.D. students, residents, fellows, graduate students and practicing pharmacists.

Reach more than 60,000 Pharm.D. and graduate students and 142 schools by posting a learning opportunity on PharmON. Your job will stay topof-mind for learners through multiple distribution networks, including:

The length of each experience is up to the host entity and, while many internships are traditionally available for 10 to 12 weeks in the May to August timeframe, the co-sponsoring organizations encourage host companies to think about flexible experiential learning opportunities.

Opportunities can take place on site or remotely and can occur all year.

Questions?

Visit the AACP website for more information, including comprehensive FAQs, at www.aacp.org/resource/ pharmon. Contact Tom Maggio, Public Affairs and Engagement Manager, with any questions about PharmON, at tmaggio@aacp.org.

• Regular email marketing through AACP’s numerous student and member listservs • Regular announcements on AACP Connect, the organization’s online member community • Frequent exposure on AACP’s social media channels, including LinkedIn and Facebook

Extend the Reach of Your Opportunities Connect with thousands of prospective candidates by posting your experiential learning opportunity on PharmON. Packages and pricing include: 30-Day Posting: $199 60-Day Posting: $398 Job Flash™ Package: $299 • Posting for 30 days and job emailed to all opportunity seekers Premium Internship Job Flash™ Package: $399 • Posting for 30 days and job emailed to all opportunity seekers • Pinned as a top job in an individual’s search results • Highlighted on the PharmON homepage

Sponsored by: Academic Pharmacy NOW  2022 Issue 3

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community impact

Support Systems Upholding interprofessional education and practice transformation, pharmacy foundations are bolstering pharmacists working to improve health outcomes.

By Athena Ponushis

The communal need for pharmacists may be more evident than ever before, as the pandemic highlighted their role in strengthening public health. Pharmacy foundations have always seen their worth and are eager to further their work. Foundations are supporting pharmacy education to help realize practice transformation. They are validating student pharmacists and backing them with financial support. And they are providing practicing pharmacists with tools to help them advance the profession. With all the advances in science and all the support waiting in the wings, one thing is clear: it’s an exciting time to be in pharmacy.

Learn More: American Foundation of Pharmaceutical Education https://afpepharm.org PhRMA Foundation https://www.phrmafoundation.org Community Pharmacy Foundation https://communitypharmacyfoundation.org

pharmon.careerwebsite.com

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The American Foundation of Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) strives to support pharmacy education and research in schools and colleges of pharmacy across the country. President Ellen Woods saw the value of pharmacists in her past profession, raising money for hospital foundations and specific diseases. “I worked on a lot of projects with pharmacists, developing collaborative relationships with them, dealing with specific diseases, and I saw that they were the answer to a lot of pressing public and patient health issues. That’s what drew me to the profession,” Woods said. “I see more value in them than I think, at times, they see in themselves.”

AFPE provides predoctoral fellowships in pharmaceutical sciences, with some that are more specific supporting research in pharmaceutics, and one that is narrower, focused on parenteral drugs. Another noteworthy award recognizes a student focused on reducing healthcare disparities and improving health outcomes for underserved populations, possibly researching sickle-cell anemia, asthma, maternal and infant mortality or access to medication. An award rooted in clinical pharmacy (that is a collaboration with ASHP Foundation) recognizes a researcher working toward improving health outcomes in hospitals and ambulatory care settings.

“One of our awards that I find interesting is our Gateway to Research award. It’s for Pharm.D.s and it is a mentored research project that’s meant to do two things: One, they see whether they have an aptitude and interest to go on and get a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and do research. The other

community impact

wonderful benefit of it is, when they go into the workplace, especially in clinical settings with interdisciplinary teams, they need to understand research, they need to be able to interpret it, help patients interpret it, help caregivers interpret it, and work with other team members who rely heavily on research,” Woods said. “We have done post-interviews with people who received these awards 10 to 15 years ago, and they found them very valuable, even if they didn’t go on to pursue a Ph.D. in research. So it’s a great award and a great experience.”

Collaborating with honor societies such as Phi Lambda Sigma, Kappa Epsilon and Rho Chi, AFPE helps fund applicants for the first year of pharmacy school. The foundation also honors faculty with a Mentor of the Year award, interviewing current and former students to speak to the value of their mentorship.

“I’m very proud that we also fund AACP’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning award, focusing attention on an area that is underfunded and under-researched, how we teach, what works best,” Woods said. “We have been funding that award for four years now and it’s incredible. A lot of research has been done in interprofessional education, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-racism research and how it’s taught.”

One study engaged student pharmacists in social determinants of health through Photovoice, a piece of software used to compel social action. Another study, focused on creating an inclusive climate within pharmacy practice, looked at perceptions and exposure and how they influence pharmacists as they join the workforce. Another looked at interprofessional simulations on emergency response. Some of these studies, Woods believes, have really moved the needle, because now schools are considering interprofessional competencies and not training students in the isolation of their profession.

Passionate about practice transformation, Woods sees AACP’s new Transformation Center as an important devel-

opment and indicated that AFPE may sponsor some travel awards to support its goal. “It’s such an important area that has been developed a little bit in the other professions, but not to the level that pharmacy is going to do it,” she said.

She’s also excited about the Pharmacy Opportunity Network (PharmON), a collaborative effort among AACP, AFPE and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) that she helped visualize. “The diversity of occupations is far greater than what someone who goes into the profession thinks they can do. I remember looking at my LinkedIn account and thinking, ‘Huh, she works for Mary Kay cosmetics, that’s an odd job with that training. Then I realize she’s a scientist for them. You wouldn’t think about the whole cosmeceutical area, and there are a whole lot of areas, the supply chain, it just goes on and on where the training is so valuable but the network of connections wasn’t there,” Woods said. “We even have pharmacists who advise venture capital companies…so it’s just the application of this wonderful training, it’s underutilized and there’s a variety of careers where they can really shine.” PharmON intends to connect pharmacists, practicing and aspiring to such opportunities.

AFPE’s board, 62 experts at the top of their fields, review applicants and each year Woods said those experts are awed and impressed by the quality of work that comes out of pharmacy schools. AFPE’s work is to uphold such aims as interprofessional education and practice transformation. “We are a great resource because we are small enough and nimble enough, but have existed for nearly 80 years, so we have an opportunity to be able to change and address really important issues,” she noted. “It does not take a long time for us to pivot to an area where we see need. We even have companies come to us for specialized research and say, ‘We’re looking for research in this particular area. Can you identify the top schools that do work in these areas?’ They provide funding for the research, and it’s been wonderful because they would not know where to go, but we do because we see what comes out of the schools. They apply to us all the time, so we see the bodies of work that they are doing, which is far beyond what anybody would imagine.”

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Funding Researchers at Pivotal Stages The PhRMA Foundation supports researchers on the frontiers of biomedical innovation and values scientific independence and data-driven decision making, enabling young scientists, empowering patients and encouraging collaboration. “We fund pre-docs, post-docs and early career scientists. We fund them because these are critical junctures in an academic’s life,” said Dr. Amy M. Miller, president of the PhRMA Foundation. “We hope that our work increases the capacity of academic labs to do their research.”

“We want to fund researchers to train the new generation of practitioners, we want to train researchers who can be external partners to therapeutic manufacturers, and we want to fund the researchers who are providing that pipeline of talent to the industry.”

The PhRMA Foundation funds research in four buckets: drug discovery, drug delivery, translational medicine and health outcomes and value assessment. One research project from that fourth bucket, “Family Matters: Expanding the economic value paradigm for precision medicine diagnostics to include the costs and health consequences of family members,” awarded to Dr. Wendy Ungar, senior scientist, child health evaluative sciences, at Sick Kids, Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, focuses on patient centeredness and innovations in personalized medicine. This is one of Miller’s favorite topics, as she worked as executive vice president at the Personalized Medicine Coalition for a decade. “This particular project is exciting because it is looking at germline diagnostics for the possibility of health consequences in family members.

We see this in some areas like Lynch syndrome, but it’s not primary care yet, though it is incredibly significant,” Miller said. “For a long time, just getting doctors to order these tests was a challenge, and I find it absolutely fascinating that we are now getting to the pharmacoeconomics of testing because that has not been closely examined before.”

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The PhRMA Foundation also advances scientific research by supporting student pharmacists exploring the discovery and delivery of targeted therapeutics ranging from cardiovascular medicines to cancer treatments. “By intention, we have a pretty broad call for our research awards because our desire is to fund those frontiers and if we’re too prescriptive, we’re not going to reach those frontiers,” Miller pointed out.

When she stepped into her new role as president less than a year ago, Miller was unaware of the breadth and depth of what pharmacy schools did. “I am impressed that they are involved in drug delivery programs within academia and industry. I am impressed that they are involved in translational medicine, looking at that bedside issue and bringing it back into the research clinic to figure out solutions that matter to patients immediately, and making sure that the best options for patients are available to them and affordable for them,” she said.

The PhRMA Foundation supports about 40 researchers every year, and Miller estimated that a handful are usually Pharm.D.s. Miller would like to see more student pharmacists apply for PhRMA grants because she would like to see the geographic diversity of pharmacy schools represented.

She added, “Apply! I can’t fund you if you don’t apply.”

Looking ahead, Miller wants her foundation to help train all its funded scientists to speak about their science, giving them tools and opportunities to explain their research in lay terms. She also aims to capture its alumni group, more than 2,500 strong, and partner on career opportunities and mentor matching. She would like the foundation to harness all the pipeline programs of its supporters and connect them to former awardees, current awardees and applicants whom the foundation was not able to fund but found promising.

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Turning Research into Practice

“Depending on the grant, it may be a toolkit, manuscript, The Community Pharmacy Foundation (CPF) provides infographic, but it’s something that we feel will be resources for research and development that encourage new opportunities, innovation and capabilities in community phar- valuable to community pharmacy teams that are trying macy practice, awarding grants to pharmacists exploring new to establish enhanced services in their practices,” horizons in the community pharmacy realm. CPF seeks to be a Brock said. “We make these deliverables readily catalyst for community pharmacists to engage in patient-cenavailable—that’s one of our key features—because we tered collaborative care, resulting in a healthier population that want this information to be accessible to anyone and values the pharmacist as an essential healthcare team member. everyone out there in community pharmacy practice.”

“We have a lot of academicians who are working with community pharmacists to do research and explore some of those innovations in community pharmacy practice, and they have been great partners for us,” said Dr. Kelly Brock, CPF executive director. “That team of an academician and community pharmacist working together on an idea has been a really strong approach.” A recent grant from CPF supported the establishment of the Academia-CPESN Transformation Collaborative. The ACT Pharmacy Collaborative is a partnership between colleges/schools of pharmacy and clinically integrated networks of community-based pharmacies focused on uniting and mobilizing stakeholders and resources to support and facilitate the transformation of community pharmacy practice.

There are currently 96 pharmacy schools that have joined the ACT Pharmacy Collaborative. Many of those are also involved with Flip the Pharmacy (FtP), a multiyear practice transformation initiative that aims to “flip” community-based pharmacies away from point-in-time, prescription-level care processes and business models to longitudinal and patient-level care processes through the use of hands-on coaching. Many of the FtP practice transformation coaches are affiliated with colleges of pharmacy. CPF was the founding sponsor of FtP. In addition to the ACT Pharmacy Collaborative and FtP, Brock said CPF has funded a lot of great ideas in the past 20 years and feels they have a “vault of gold” with all the resources from previous grants. All of the awarded grants can be found on the CPF website (www.communitypharmacyfoundation.org). Each completed grant provides a grant synopsis and some sort of deliverable.

CPF is always looking for the next great idea to advance community pharmacy practice and continues to ask the important questions, Brock noted. “How do we sustain these programs beyond grant funding and how do we scale these programs and really help transform practice across the country so that these ideas that impact patient care can start happening in more places?”

Since joining CPF eight months ago, Brock has been working to increase CPF’s visibility to help community pharmacists reap the rewards of its research. “The intention has always been that CPF funds these projects and the deliverables that come out of them are freely accessible to anybody. CPF does that on purpose so that there are no barriers,” Brock said. “We will continue to fund ideas that we think will truly advance community pharmacy practice.”

By increasing the visibility of past CPF research and continuing to fund innovative projects, Brock hopes more pharmacies will start building new programs, transforming what community pharmacy looks like across the country so that when a patient goes into a pharmacy, they can expect a high level of care and receive enhanced services from their pharmacist. “I believe the research and innovation supported by CPF will continue to prove that community pharmacists impact patient outcomes in a positive way,” Brock said. “Hopefully this will help demonstrate the value pharmacists bring to patient care and pharmacists will be recognized and compensated for the value they bring to the patients they serve every day in their communities.” P Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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campus community connection impact

Care That Enhances Quality of Life Palliative care requires an interdisciplinary approach, and pharmacists are partnering with other healthcare providers to offer team-based support and treatment for patients.

By Joseph A. Cantlupe

When they first learn about palliative care, some student pharmacists are initially somewhat hesitant and reluctant. Dr. Chris Herndon, a professor at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) School of Pharmacy, recalled being instructed decades ago about palliative care. He dreaded it, feeling it was wrapped in death and dying. “I thought it was going to be Godawful,” Herndon recalled. “Now it’s my favorite thing.”

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The prospect of working with families through serious or advanced illness was specifically unappealing. But then Herndon gradually learned what palliative care was all about, and now he thrives in its focus on whole-person care that provides relief from symptoms and stress of an illness to maximize quality of life and minimize suffering.

Herndon, also a clinical associate professor with the St. Louis University School of Medicine, works with chronic pain and opioid use disorder patients within a family medicine residency clinic. His scholarship interest has continually focused on pain and palliative care education. He was principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Pain Education at SIUE and 2019 president of the Society of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacists.

While assisting students working with palliative care patients, he noted that “they were surprised to find that once they got involved, it wasn’t going to be sad or morbid or depressing. They were just blown

away by how rewarding it was to work with patients and families of those seriously ill.” It also forced students to “think about the dynamics of the family situation and the caregiver situation.”

The term “palliative care” tends to cause confusion. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services both stipulate that the tenets of palliative care include a patient-centered and family-centered approach to care with the goal of maximizing quality of life while minimizing suffering. That can be achieved through physical, psychosocial and spiritual means and can involve specialists such as chaplains or even music therapists. As members of interprofessional teams—along with physicians, nurses, social workers and others—pharmacists are becoming increasingly involved in palliative care. Pharmacists also are playing key roles in medication use management, as practitioners evaluate patients’ pain control as well as their emotional and spiritual needs.

A Collaborative Effort As pharmacists expand their roles in care teams providing palliative care and hospice treatment, their work has been magnified due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now claimed 1 million American lives.

Academic pharmacists like Herndon are promoting palliative care instruction, which has been slowly emerging at some pharmacy schools.

It is being taught in the curriculum as well as through didactive and experiential education rotations so students can explore career options in the palliative care field. Advocates would like to see more pharmacy schools enhance their programs and encourage students to consider careers that include palliative care.

Dr. Maria Felton Lowry, an assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and a palliative care specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Palliative Supportive Institute, said too often palliative care instruction has been ancillary to other courses “squeezed into an hour.” When Lowry graduated from pharmacy school in 2015, “there was no integration of palliative care into our curriculum,” she said.

Pharmacists play a crucial role in palliative care, which helps alleviate patients’ pain, anxiety and nausea. “Pharmacists need to be part of that team early on.”

Talking to patients underscored the importance of palliative care, not only among team members but also among the patients themselves, Lowry said. “Finding what this magic we were doing, coming together as a team and asking questions in a different way, treating the whole person.”

ASHP guidelines on the Pharmacist’s Role in Palliative and Hospice Care indicate that palliative care rose from the modern hospice

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movement and evolved significantly over the past 50 years. While palliative care is meant to enhance a person’s care by “focusing on quality of life for them and their family,” according to the National Institute on Aging, “hospice care focuses on the care, comfort and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life. Like palliative care, hospice provides comprehensive comfort care as well as support for the family, but in hospice, attempts to cure the person’s illness are stopped.”

Dr. Rabia Atayee, professor of clinical pharmacy and associate dean for admissions and outreach at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, said there is a misconception about palliative care that it is strictly for end of life. “It is much more than that,” she said. “In fact, studies have shown that palliative care, if offered early, can help people live longer with fewer symptoms.” Her major research focus is in the area of pain and palliative care, as well as a focus on pharmacy education.

She is developing and expanding pain and palliative care clerkships for student pharmacists. For students, “the biggest surprise is the emotional aspect; they get very emotional when there is devastating and serious illness and they are confronted with taking care of another human being,” she said.

“Access to palliative care education is limited and variable across pharmacy schools,” said Dr. Kashelle Lockman, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. “It is an important and overlooked and underappreciated topic. That’s surprising given that the first vow in the Oath of a Pharmacist is ‘I will consider the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering my primary concerns.’”

program, and their new Ph.D. in Palliative Care program that launched in August 2021. The Ph.D. complements their online M.S. and graduate certificates in palliative care, and they just enrolled their second Ph.D. class of 17 interprofessional learners.

Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson, professor and director of Advanced Post-Graduate Education in Palliative Care in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, launched the Graduate Certificate Program and M.S. program in Palliative Care at the University of Maryland. McPherson pointed out the many different tentacles of the work: not only understanding pain and symptoms, but recognizing the psychological, spiritual and financial care involved.

“Palliative care is like an extra layer of support. We have to tend to all of the patients’ needs because we are committed to person-centric care,” she told the campus newspaper. “Our palliative care programs were a hit right out of the gate. The Master of Science Program is amazing and many students didn’t want the journey to stop.

There are only three or four Ph.D. pro-

As a student pharmacist, Lockman explored geriatrics and palliative care pathways and “had never heard of palliative care and had no idea that pharmacists could be involved in hospice” until learning about palliative care in an ethics class in her first year at University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Lockman went on to complete the school’s Geriatrics and Palliative Care Pathway. She loved the whole person approach to care and focusing on what matters most to each patient, noting, “We learned about the human approach to medicine.

With all the medicines we can offer, what does each mean to them as a person and how does that fit into their family and culture.”

An Extra Layer of Support Advocates for palliative care education are seeing increased enthusiasm from students who are sometimes surprised and enthralled by the scope of care offered and are interested in the potential career opportunities. One of the most extensive offerings is at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy within the Doctor of Pharmacy

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grams in palliative care in the world, and I strongly felt it was time to have one in the United States. I believe this program meets a pressing need in the palliative care field.”

With a growing number of people suffering from chronic, progressive and ultimately fatal diseases, the need for instruction is imperative, McPherson emphasized. She noted the importance of the pharmacist as part of an interdisciplinary team and evaluating medication prescriptions and “deprescribing” them if necessary, in consultation with family and patients related to their overall condition, pain and life goals.

“There are very good studies showing that superior and good outcomes occur when palliative care is implemented earlier,” McPherson said. “In the trajectory of serious illness, it behooves the patient, the families and everybody to incorporate palliative care at the time of diagnosis of serious illness whether it’s cancer, Parkinson’s disease or dementia.” As professors discuss palliative care in their courses, they must emphasize the need for interdisciplinary teams, which is at the heart of their programs, added Atayee.

“Working as a team is very hard,” Atayee acknowledged. “Ours is a group of highly skilled individuals, all passionate about palliative care and that need to come together to provide good patient care. It takes time to develop working relationships, respect and appreciation for what each team member provides.”

In an academic paper, she mentioned the importance of working as a team, and even having a daily lunch together. Atayee discussed spending “30 minutes a day appreciating each other as human beings so that we can present together when we are taking care of each other as human beings.” Atayee, Herndon and Lockman coauthored a paper outlining the role of a pharmacist on a “transdisciplinary palliative care team” and highlighted the need for “adequate instruction on palliative care and clinical reasoning skills in schools of pharmacy.”

“Delivery of a palliative care elective in the pharmacy curriculum significantly increases both student confidence in their palliative care skills and their clinical reasoning skills in these areas,” they wrote.

Lockman said it is important to properly prepare pharmacists for interprofessional palliative care practice. “That is one of the key components that makes our program valuable and successful,” she said.

Outlining the University of Iowa’s offerings, Lockman said the college integrated 18 classroom hours of non-pain palliative care and 32 classroom hours of pain management across eight required courses.

Since 2016, all student pharmacists spend 50 hours of class time on the principles of palliative care/primary palliative care. The program offers four elective courses in palliative care. Since 2017, 220 students have taken at least one palliative care elective and 36 students have graduated with a 17-credit hour palliative care certificate since 2019.

Board certification in palliative care is not yet available for pharmacists, Lockman noted.

“Chaplains, music therapists, advance practice providers, social workers, nurses and physicians all teach in our palliative care courses,” she said. “Not all schools have access to this kind of resource.” With the university being a grantee of the Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program, Lockman said she is collaborating with palliative care faculty and team members across the country to create a curricular toolkit for palliative care education. “My goal is to expand knowledge of primary palliative care and palliative care as an approach to patient care, in addition to allowing students to explore the idea of palliative care as a specialty. My vision for pharmacy practice in the United States is that pharmacists attain and practice primary palliative care skills. All families deserve access to palliative care, and not just in the final days. Until we expand the reach of palliative care education beyond a few institutions, this will not be possible.” P .Joseph A. Cantlupe is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

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“There are very good studies showing that superior and good outcomes occur when palliative care is implemented earlier. In the trajectory of serious illness, it behooves the patient, the families and everybody to incorporate palliative care at the time of diagnosis of serious illness whether it’s cancer, Parkinson’s disease or dementia.”

—Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson

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@AACPharmacy

Leaving Pharmacy a Better Place In part two of this look back at her career, Lucinda Maine reflects on the progress that’s been made in pharmacy and what lies ahead.

By Athena Ponushis

As Lucinda Maine prepares to retire after 20 years as AACP’s executive vice president and CEO, she considers the challenges and opportunities on the horizon for the pharmacy profession.

To read part one of this article, which appeared in Issue 2 of Academic Pharmacy Now, visit https://www.aacp.org/article/richly-rewardng-career

When you think about the current healthcare environment, what are some of the challenges you see for the profession?

Pharmacists were finding it hard to be excited about their careers before the pandemic. They’ve always been the most accessible healthcare destination, but when doctors’ offices closed and ERs were overloaded with Covid patients early in the pandemic, pharmacists figured out how to be there and be the healthcare provider in their community. And there was a sense of purpose and ‘We can do this,’ even though they didn’t get labeled healthcare heroes the same way that ICU and ER personnel did right away. Of course, when the vaccine came out and the federal pharmacy program emboldened pharmacists, the PREP Act Declaration really put pharmacists right out there, front and center. I think that they felt really good but now it’s gone on too long, and they didn’t get the help that they needed from management in terms of adequate numbers of personnel and PPP, they just had these expectations loaded on top of everything else they were already doing and didn’t get sufficiently reimbursed to do. The profession’s financial model has been broken and is now so severely broken that pharmacists, like other healthcare providers, are just done. And it’s heartbreaking, but it all comes down to the fact that we have not ever been paid for the care that we provide, and we are now abysmally reimbursed for the drugs that we make sure get to the right people in the right dose, safely.

A segment for PBS NewsHour had cameos of about a half a dozen pharmacists expressing their concerns because the situation has them afraid that they can’t keep their patients safe. It’s heartwarming but heartbreaking at same time. It really gives you a window into the heart and soul of phar-

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macists that very few other pieces I’ve ever read or seen adequately capture. The biggest challenges in the profession today stem from the financial models in which we practice.

It is not that the profession has ignored that; we have not and we are making progress. It’s going to be easier to make this progress when we shift more from fee for service into value, because many of those entities that are operating for value know that they can’t achieve their objectives unless they have integrated pharmacists into their practices. That is just so magnificent to see. That’s what the AACP Transformation Center is all about: let’s agitate to move that faster, forward in the right direction. And then let’s make sure we have the academic innovation to prepare the current students to practice at the top of their license in that valuebased care context. Let’s make sure that we have services to upscale the existing workforce so that no pharmacists are left behind.

Speaking of the Transformation Center, what transformations do you see happening in pharmacy education?

When people question whether the Pharm.D. program is of adequate quality, former ACPE Executive Director Pete Vlasses would always say that the graduates of our programs today outshine anybody who has come before them. We’re doing a good job of educating our graduates, we are just not consistently equipping them to get out and change practice.

Now that might be an unrealistic expectation because many of them have gone out and ultimately changed practice, but too many of them get stuck in a rut and don’t think they can change practice, and that’s a tragedy. The magic of the Transformation Center is going to rest in, first of all, the passion for the possible, and then we are going to create

@AACPharmacy

synergies through alliances and coalitions. This is not something that AACP can do alone. One of my philosophies honed from 30 years of association management is that no important endeavor that has happened in the profession has happened with one organization’s wherewithal. It requires collaboration and the Transformation Center is all about collaboration with some of our existing partners and with partners we have not found yet.

A great example: I’ve gotten to know Susan Dentzer quite well, she was with PBS NewsHour early in her career, she’s ultimately a journalist but she has studied healthcare so much, she’s become a health policy expert. She recently became the president and CEO of America’s Physician Groups.

What distinguishes this group, according to Susan, is that the members have all bought into value-based contracting, and I expect to learn that the vast majority of them have already drunk the Kool-Aid for clinical pharmacy integration into their practice. If not, we’re going to give them some Kool-Aid and use that as a new collaboration opportunity for the Transformation Center.

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for pharmacists today and in the future?

I see opportunities in making comprehensive medication management services ubiquitously available to people who need them the most. That can be done in every setting the profession is a part of, including telehealth. There are great examples of that already going on, but we are about to launch a project I am so excited about called the Pharmacy Opportunities Network (PharmON). This project is a collaboration between APhA and the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE). It was actually Ellen Woods’ idea.

She said, ‘I have over 700 people in my LinkedIn network who are all connected to AFPE in some way, brilliant people working in all different kinds of companies, including education, and these companies could host internships, fellowships and APPEs. We started talking about it several years ago. We thought we had to hire a software developer to develop the platform until one day last year, I said, ‘We have one. We already have the AACP career center,’ By 2023 we’re going to be cooking. That is going to let student pharmacists, residents, fellows and even practicing pharmacists appreciate

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the vast number of opportunities out there in the profession.

Pharmacists in their foxholes can’t see it, so we’ve got to give them the visuals. PharmON is going to do just that. It’s also going to show these hosts, the people who are going to pay people to come and intern with them, how amazingly talented today’s student pharmacists are, and that’s going to create new opportunities.

With those possibilities in mind, what advice would you give to a young person who might be considering pharmacy?

First of all, I’d say, don’t pass go, just do it, and here’s the reason why. Everything that I’ve seen change in my 50 years since I entered pharmacy as a pre-pharmacy student—the things that have progressively, albeit too slowly for my taste, changed this profession that I adore—are going to come to fruition sooner rather than later as the world begins to understand that medication use is complicated and it can be dangerous. You’ve seen that statistic that $528 billion a year is cost incurred unnecessarily because medication is not managed optimally, and the only people who know enough about medications to do something about that are the people we graduate. The opportunities are just going to become manifold and some of them will continue to be platformed on the most accessible healthcare destination, which is of course community pharmacy, but even that’s going to change. I just hope it happens fast enough that we don’t lose so many people in the profession. In 2019, incoming AACP

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President Todd Sorensen stated the bold aim that by 2025 the majority of primary care clinicians are going to have a formal relationship with a pharmacist focused on medication management. I said that was going to create the next national shortage of pharmacists. Well, Covid is doing that, unfortunately, but we will be able to tell the story again that there is a future in pharmacy. It breaks my heart to hear students tell me that pharmacists are discouraging them from coming into profession. That’s just so wrong-headed.

It’s an epidemic of egregious proportions, and everything we’re doing to try and fix the pipeline is for naught because of one or more pharmacists telling a prospective student not to study pharmacy.

How do you counter that? If you could speak with that one potential pharmacist, what would you say?

I would share with them the stories of the pharmacists who are doing important work and are incredibly fulfilled. I would tell them in their first year of pharmacy school, if not before, to come to an APhA meeting and meet the passionfilled pharmacists who are making good things happen in their practice for their patients and for the profession. As I often say, I use a Safeway pharmacy and it’s quite close to the milk at the back of store. I know that if I ask my sons, who are now in their 20s, to go pick up some milk and they walk by that pharmacy and see that pharmacist kind of scowling at the computer, it would be the last thing they

@AACPharmacy

would want to do, but I actually happen to know those pharmacists care profoundly about me and my needs. It’s more than what meets the eye. That’s why the stories that we tell in Academic Pharmacy Now are so important, because we’re telling the stories of the people who are making a difference. I believe in the power of storytelling to attract more pharmacists.

What would you say to a student who is interested in the health professions but not considering pharmacy?

I would tell them no matter what branch of care they elect to go into, they just need to make sure that there’s a pharmacist nearby. I’ve done a lot of work in interprofessional education and sometimes I’ll be asked, ‘why does it seem like the pharmacists and pharmacy faculty are so often the leaders of IPE and their university’s program?’ and I smile and say, ‘Oh, that’s really simple. We know that medication use is a team sport.’ All we want others to understand is that there has to be a pharmacist on that team to make it work.

What are your plans for the future?

I didn’t coin this term but I have adopted it and use it liberally: I am transitioning to my preferment era. That’s different from retirement, but there are a whole bunch of transitions afoot. People who have retired before me have said to be careful about accepting too much before you retire. I’m not done with pharmacy yet, I just don’t have to do it full

time. I took August of 2018 off and it was the first time I’ve ever had four weeks off. I was really able to unplug. I did a lot of driving during that time and I began the process of musing, ‘If you’re not doing what you’re doing now, what would you be doing?’ This was obviously two years before the tragedy of George Floyd’s death, but the way I answered that was, wherever I’m living I am going to spend more of my time addressing unmet social justice issues. I’ve got some writing projects that I want to do that will be pharmacy related, but largely I think I am going to volunteer locally in some capacity that’s yet to be defined. I hope not to be one of those people who says, ‘I’m so busy in my retirement, I don’t know how I ever had time to work,’ because I’ve worked at that pace for 50 years, and there are roses to smell, so I’m just going to create my preferment and really live a good after-full-time life.

I know that this is the right time for me. And knowing that Lee Vermeulen will be my successor, this is the right time for AACP. Lee has characteristics honed by his strategic leadership positions in academic health centers, he is an optimizer, he is more adept at business planning than I am, and AACP really needs that right now. Talk about the right person with the right skillset at the right time. That’s the other thing that leaves me completely at peace, that turning this over to him is the very best thing for AACP and for pharmacy right now.

To my AACP family, I love you. You are the best. P Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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Back on the Big Stage: See What’s New at #PharmEd22 More than 1,500 pharmacy educators, practitioners and students will head to Grapevine, Texas, July 23–27, to be part of the action at Pharmacy Education 2022.

Whether it’s the return to in-person networking, the meeting’s fun-filled location at the Gaylord Texan, or the more than 100 educational sessions, there are countless reasons why the Academy is more excited than ever to reunite inperson at #PharmEd22.

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Connect and Collaborate In-Person: Whether you’re missing the spontaneous hallway conversations or eager to arrange meetings with colleagues onsite, Pharmacy Education 2022 has numerous opportunities for inperson networking.

Check out some of the Pharmacy Education 2022 highlights:

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Get Back to Basics at the Teachers’ Seminar: During this year’s pre-session, Simple Approaches to Complex Teaching and Learning Challenges, attendees can choose from 11 different breakout sessions across four tracks of learning. Topics range from approaching difficult situations in experiential learning to creating an equity-minded classroom to optimizing alternative work-schedules.

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Can’t Make It In-Person? Join the action by purchasing a Live Streaming Pass and you’ll have access to three plenaries and 10 educational sessions delivered live at Pharmacy Education 2022. You’ll also receive recordings of live streamed sessions after the meeting.

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Targeted Educational Programming: Check out all the special, mini and micro-sessions scheduled across the four-day conference that address critical issues in pharmacy education and practice here: www.aacp.org/ article/pharmacy-education-2022-programming

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Earn CE Credits: Attendees may earn 16.00 hours of CPE credit for Pharmacy Education 2022 and up to 4.50 hours of CPE credit for the Teachers’ Seminar.

Be Social With Us! Don’t forget to start sharing your thoughts, ideas and excitement about the conference on social media. Use the hashtag #PharmEd22 across your social media platforms to engage with other attendees, and post your thoughts, highlights and reactions during sessions.

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Keynote Speakers Ready to Educate and Inspire •

Attendees at Pharmacy Education 2022 will experience the energy of three dynamic plenaries first-hand. You won’t want to miss this rare opportunity to interact with industry thought leaders.

Take a look at the top-notch speakers at #PharmEd22:

AACP Annual Meeting July 23–27, 2022 Grapevine, Texas www.aacp.org/pharmed2022

@AACPharmacy Opening General Session Harnessing the Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Engage and Leverage Talent Stefanie Johnson, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Organizational, Leadership, and Information Analytics, Leeds School of Business University of Colorado–Boulder Most of us want to be inclusive but just don’t know what steps to take to get there. Johnson will explain what it takes to make people feel included by digging into our two most basic human needs: to be unique and to belong. She will also explain why this is so important amidst COVID-19 and some of the unique challenges and opportunities that COVID-19 has created for inclusion and belonging. Finally, the presentation will cover strategies that individual people can take to act more inclusively.

Monday General Session Our Shared Commitment to Health Equity Jerome Adams, M.D., M.P.H., FASA Presidential Fellow; Executive Director of Purdue’s Health Equity Initiatives and Distinguished Professor of Practice Purdue University In this fireside chat led by AACP Immediate Past President Anne Lin, Dr. Jerome Adams, a Presidential Fellow and the Executive Director of Purdue University’s Health Equity Initiatives, will help attendees achieve a deeper understanding of health equity and identify strategies for the profession, and academic pharmacy more specifically, to engage in achieving the goals at local, regional, and national levels.

Tuesday General Session A Conversation on Transformation and Transitions Lucinda Maine, Ph.D., R.Ph. Former Executive Vice President and CEO, AACP Lee Vermeulen, Jr., B.S., M.S. Executive Vice President and CEO, AACP Join Lucinda Maine and Lee Vermeulen for a conversation emphasizing both AACP’s rich history and its bright future. Moderated by Stuart Haines, 2021–22 AACP President, the panelists will share insights into the CEO transition at AACP and outline the exciting plans for the future, including the new Center to Accelerate Pharmacy Practice Transformation and Academic Innovation, the 2021–2024 AACP strategic plan, and new initiatives to better support members’ work toward the advancement of pharmacy and pharmacists.

AACP greatly appreciates the support from our meeting sponsors, whose contributions make this event possible: Platinum Sponsors

Certiphi Screening is a leader in student screening, creating and administering the AACP’s centralized criminal background check and drug screening program and helping individual schools and other fields of study build thorough, compliant student screening programs. Certiphi Screening is proud to be a platinum sponsor for the AACP Annual Meeting.

The CORE Software Suite supports both learners and administrators through every stage of the student journey by intelligently supporting student recruiting, experiential education, student assessment, career readiness, and continuing education. CORE Higher Education Group is proud to serve over 90% of Pharmacy Schools across the United States and Canada!

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Educational Day Sponsor

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization that pursues ground-breaking, evidence-based research and educational initiatives that benefit communities, enhance health outcomes, foster equity, and advance public health. For more information, please visit NACDSFoundation.org.

Gold Sponsor

Founded in 2012, Kira transforms the admissions process by combining on-demand, timed video and timed written assessments, and structured live interview technology with existing admissions requirements. Kira is trusted by more than 300 Universities and more than 700 programs worldwide, and with over 1 million Kira assessments completed by applicants.

Bronze Sponsors

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Pharmacists Help People Live Healthier, Better Lives.

1400 Crystal Drive, Suite 300 P Arlington, VA 22202 703-739-2330 P www.aacp.org

Toolkit for Events In March 2021 the American Pharmacists Association selected AACP as a partner on a project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention*, to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and to stimulate vaccine confidence. This project was created to empower pharmacists, as trusted messengers, to reach out to their patients and communities with resources and tools created by the CDC. AACP was selected because our colleges and schools of pharmacy represented a unique channel for community engagement.

In addition, faculty and students had already participated in other events and, in most cases, were able to administer vaccines.

Learn more about the 2021 Vaccine Confidence Campaign events, and how to implement these events in your communities here:

https://www.aacp.org/vaccine-confidence-campaign

*This project was funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — CoAg number 1 NU50CK000576-01-00. The CDC is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this resource do not necessarily represent the CDC or HHS, and should not be considered an endorsement by the Federal Government.