Jonathan did a wonderful job of sharing his story and opening the students' minds to the wide array of career paths that exist. Many of the students in the class are interested in community pharmacy so Jonathan's discussion was an excellent reminder of how integral community pharmacists are in the betterment of the community as well as promoting adherence for the individual. One of the things that Jonathan said really stuck with me. I am paraphrasing, but he said something along the lines of, "As a pharmacist I may be able to impact my patients, but as a pharmacy manager, I am able to impact all of the pharmacy staff and in turn impact all of their patients." What a great reminder of our role in healthcare! I think the same can be true for sharing information about community resources availalbe to assist the underserved. If we know that information and share it with one patient, they may share it with two people and so on. As pharmacists, we owe it to our patients to not only be knowledgeable about medications, but also about resources to assist in accessing medications.
The final thing I took away from last week's class was a new lab activity. Jonathan was peppering the students with questions similar to those that he asks of his pharmacists. I used that idea and developed a station in lab around the importance of using analogies and simple explanations for complex patients.
I am always amazed at how much I learn in this elective. Can't wait until next week!