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| Top 10 Mythical Reasons for Not Being Involved in Pharmacy Organizations |
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by Michael J. Schuh, BS, PharmD, MBA - December 6, 2011
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The rank and file members of pharmacy have always depended on local, state and national pharmacy organizations for continuing education (CE) credit and a meal or two along the way. Besides meals and CE, what do we think these organizations are for? What is our perception of them and the people who are heavily involved with them such as officers, council members and the like? Why are we as a profession so passive about being involved? There are many reasons and maybe some are the wrong ones. For some of those, I would like to help dispel some that may be myths. Allow me to enumerate (tongue firmly in cheek of course!)…
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I don’t have the time
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I don’t have the money
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It is inconvenient to go to meetings because of my work schedule or location of the meeting
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I will see and interact with people I don’t like much
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People join and participate in these organizations to pad resumes and CV’s
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Those in charge don’t do much but sit around and live off my dues
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The leadership in these organizations have done nothing for me personally over the years but offer CE
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I don’t like the food at meetings
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Information at meetings is biased
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I am a curmudgeon and xenophobic
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We all have time if we make time. How about that weekend trip to the in-laws you hate? What better reason to get out of that than attendance at a meeting that is “required” for you to stay employed in your profession? If you work every other weekend or every 3rd it’s tough right? You bet! So join the local pharmacy organization, network with your colleagues and find out where the jobs are where you don’t have to work so many weekends!
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Huh??? One or two hundred dollars? You probably spend that on a tune-up on your “Beamer” or Mercedes convertible last month. Maybe that’s what you pay your yard man for two week’s worth of mowing the lawn. We as pharmacists are not as a group always rich but membership helps us stay employed. I will expand on that later.
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So you can’t make every meeting or work until 9 PM on Wednesday night. Swap with your partner so you can go and swap again so they can go next time. If the ride is a long one, go green and carpool! One of you can sleep in the car on the way back!
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I personally don’t like anybody and would prefer living in the Alaska wilderness and I go to meetings and participate, so that’s no excuse.
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Some do. Most don’t. Most participate for CE and/or food. Heaven knows you should put your participation on you CV. I certainly do. Believe it or not, some go to make a difference. They want to change the profession into something that we all want to be enthusiastic about and to help create jobs we all feel good about going to every day.
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Maybe one of the biggest myths. Folks I know who are heavily involved in the pharmacy organizations work their fannies off doing the administrative work for the organization, but more importantly, they are the glue that holds the profession together by monitoring legislation introduced that can erode and flat out destroy any current or future role of pharmacists in healthcare. These folks, usually for NO PAY, put in countless hours for us so we can blissfully go along every day not thinking much about how we can become irrelevant and unemployed with the stroke of a lawmaker’s pen.
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See #6. These are the folks who fight our battles for us legislatively. Our dues hire lobbyists so we can have a place at the table to express our views as a profession to fend off constant attacks on us to curtail our involvement with patients, limit our ability to practice in a way that utilizes our unique cognitive skills, or to even exist! I know. We don’t want to dirty our hands in the filthy world of politics, right? WRONG!!! Pharmacy’s avoidance of politics is precisely what has held us back over the years as a profession. Being involved legislatively protects the professional gains we have achieved and expands the number of pharmacy practice models to create pharmacy jobs. That’s right. These organizations and leaders in them help protect the profession to maintain and to grow a more diverse profession which creates pharmacist jobs.
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It usually beats a bologna sandwich at the pharmacy counter or the food available in the hospital cafeteria! If you don’t like the food, carry the leftovers home to feed the dog. Trade what you don’t like for something you do with the pharmacist next to you at the table. Isn’t that what you did in grade school anyway?
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You are a trained professional for crying out loud! With all the journal clubs you have attended, you can’t recognize bias? Oh, and by the way, if a company is sponsoring the event, might there be some bias? Nah!!! Bias or no bias, you will get much needed information about medications, especially new ones to help you help your patients.
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What can I say? Maybe not a myth. Stay home, write a check. You’re the reason we don’t join pharmacy organizations or go to meetings anyway.
There you have it! Feel free now to be more involved! It is not a bad idea becoming a member of at least one local and one national organization to give a better overall perspective of the profession that feeds us. Pharmacy is a small world and you never know if a colleague you met while participating in a pharmacy organization or attending a meeting is one who can offer you a job. Maybe a job that is way better than the one you have.
Michael J. Schuh is a clinical pharmacist and in Jacksonville, Fl. His practice involves providing collaborative medication therapy management (MTM) services to patients, working as a community pharmacist, and teaching.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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| fifi mcree (alaska) |
on 07 Dec 2011 at 3:30 pm |
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| here's one: we are controlled by the chains - why waste the time to meet? |
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