I wonder what the profession of pharmacy would be like if those of us that have chosen to become pharmacists and pharmacy technicians would get a little more respect?  It’s a question I am thinking a lot about lately.  I sure would like to get a little more respect at work. 

     I just finished reading a great post from The Angry Pharmacist.  His post focused on the relationship that retail pharmacists usually have with physicians and the need for a better professional working relationship between the two medical disciplines.  I couldn’t agree more but this issue of respect goes well beyond just our relationship with physicians.  What about patients?  Or how about our employers?  Think about the store manager in the front of your local pharmacy that doesn’t work in a healthcare field but is thrown into a situation where their livelihood and ours in interwoven. 

    For many years now it seems like the profession of pharmacy is the healthcare profession that is everyone’s favorite whipping boy.  We don’t seem to garner any kind of reasonable amount of respect with most individuals.  And I can’t help but wonder why that is. 

     For me, the blame is placed more on ourselves.  Few pharmacists would like to admit that as a profession and as an individual practitioner we rarely stand up for ourselves or others within our profession.  That yelling patient is a paying customer at your retail pharmacy so they are usually excused for bad behavior or even rewarded by our employers with gift cards.  This only places incentives for future bad behavior and does nothing to foster a healthy respectful relationship between patient and pharmacist. 

     And then there is the age old friction between the medical community and the profession of pharmacy.  An inferiority complex is apparently possible for an entire healthcare profession if you look closely.  And the average MD does nothing but foster this attitude with the superiority complex they force down our collective throats.  They are in fact the “real doctors” of the healthcare world.  We are considered drug experts at best but most often simply pill pushers.  Some people even imply we could be replaced by robots, reference books, or even some smart phone application that helps patients find the right medication for a given ailment.  That to me is not respect! 

    But as much as I’d like to complain about how pharmacists are treated in general I know in my heart that a lot of our problems are self inflicted.  If a profession continues to allow people to walk all over us we can’t exactly get too upset when the inevitable happens can we?  We are as much to blame for our reality as that doctor on the other end of the line that won’t even ask us for help with a treatment plan or return our calls if we have questions or problems that need addressing.  It’s a shame too because together we could really help people manage diseases and live longer and healthier lives. 

    But I do have some hope for pharmacists gaining some respect and I’ll tell you a story to explain why I haven’t given up on the whole idea of respect for our profession.  I know that it is possible to gain respect.  I’ve seen it personally.  And if all pharmacists worked towards the goal of gaining respect for the profession it will inevitably happen.  It just takes time and a lot of effort.  And that isn’t the easy answer or the popular finger pointing response to the problem. 

    My story is from way back in pharmacy school.  I was on my rotation at a very well known teaching hospital in the southeastern United States.  I was on a floor reviewing a patient’s labs who was very sick and required antibiotics.  I was talking with a couple of interns about this patient’s care when a head pops in the patient’s room we were standing in and asks me if I have a minute to go look at something. 

    The person who popped in that room was a clinical pharmacist at that hospital.  He was also a preceptor but I wasn’t his student that month.  He was very popular among pharmacy school students and his rotation was always among everyone’s favorite choice when signing up for clinical rotations.  Even though I wasn’t his student he still wanted me to see something.  And I knew this was going to be good because he was excited to show me a patient and their very challenging medical problems. 

    The patient in question had a very drug resistant bacterial infection.  This patient was in serious trouble and to complicate things even more there were now questions about his renal function.  That only complicated treatment options more as we collaborated outside this patient’s room to discuss our options.  To make matters worse he was deteriorating fast and an action plan needed to be developed and it needed to be do done fast. 

    As this clinical pharmacist spoke about all of the issues this patient had and the treatment plan he developed for this patient going forward I was only half listening and half observing.  I know I should have been paying attention but I could help but notice what was going on around this pharmacist. 

    You see he had been at this hospital for years.  In the process he had gained a great deal of respect from all of the doctors and specialists in this very prestigious hospital.   He was working with some of the most gifted physicians in the country.  And as I watched this pharmacist talk some of these who’s who among the nation’s best doctors were listening to him and taking notes.  They were hanging on his every word like he was telling the most incredible story.  It was a sight to see!

    The doctors went with this pharmacist’s treatment plan down to the dosing schedule and monitoring perameters.  They followed his lead and he delivered.  The patient slowly recovered and even moved out of a critical care room by the end of my rotation month and to this day I was amazed by the results of that treatment plan developed by that one pharmacist.  And as I worked on other patients that month I told the attendings I worked with that this pharmacist was affiliated with my pharmacy school.  Those physicians couldn’t stop singing his praise and explaining how critical he was as part of the treatment team at this hospital.  It was unbelievable to see at a hospital where you would think only the biggest egos on the planet would work. 

    From that point on I knew that this lack of respect that most pharmacists complain about could be corrected if we simply show what we can do.  Even that rogue attending at this big teaching institution that wore jeans and a polo shirt in defiance of the strict professional dress code gave this clinical pharmacist all the respect in the world.  Hospital administrators would stop me and ask if I knew this pharmacist.  It was impressive to say the least.  They were all greatful to have him available because they knew he brought valuable insight to any treatment problem or patient case that came into their hospital. 

    So yeah, Angry is right in the fact that most of the physician/pharmacist relationships in the healthcare world can be described as strained at best.  And it is true that most patients couldn’t care less about what we know or what we can do for them.  They just want to know what their co-pay is and if they can drink with a given prescription.  And yes, most employers treat us as expendable robots who don’t even deserve a lunch or bathroom break.  But there is hope for us and I have seen it back when I was working in that teaching hospital years ago. 

    Our profession needs to stand up and demand the respect we aren’t already getting.  We need to become a critical wheel that turns our healthcare system and improves outcomes for patients.  And we need to show that we are capable of great things but only when there is mutual respect with our patients, co-workers, physicians, and even our employers.  We can’t sit back and allow ourselves to be victims and then complain about the way a doctor or patient treats us after the fact.  It’s time to demand that respect we deserve.  And the change has to come from us.  If we take the lead then good things will happen.  If we sit back and do nothing then history will repeat itself.  What do you think?

The Redheaded Pharmacist

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