Happy pharmacy week everyone! This is a week to acknowledge and appreciate all of the hard work, the love, and the dedication that pharmacists, interns and technicians pour into the profession. I for one have been lucky to study under amazing pharmacists, learn from incredible preceptors, collaborate with hard-working technicians, and grow with my insanely talented classmates. I'm going to start off this week with some insight into what I love about this profession and what I do every day.

1. Pharmacists are the most recognizable and accessible healthcare professionals in the community. We're also one of the most trusted professions. This enables us to tackle health literacy problems within the community head on and to provide education and counseling to our communities. Working in a community pharmacy for the last four years, I've seen my preceptor connect with our community and work to improve their health literacy. He has the uncanny ability to break difficult scientific concepts into a language our patients can understand and learn from. I've always admired this and it has definitely highlighted the impact community/ambulatory care pharmacists have on public health.

2. We improve patient safety and reduce drug errors. This one may seem self-explanatory but I've been consistently impressed by the diligence and attention to detail my preceptors have displayed. Our healthcare system is not perfect, and patient care can be really complicated. Having a pharmacist's eyes on the medications can be critical to providing the safest and most optimal care to our communities. I've been a part of many teams on my rotations who have welcomed the voice of the pharmacist for that exact reason. I've also been that voice a few times myself (team trying to add a beta-blocker to a patient with a heart rate of 32...can anyone say bradycardia!?). If we want the best outcomes for our patients its vital that pharmacists be included on all healthcare teams.

3. Our practice is expanding (exponentially)! Currently there is a push for pharmacists to have provider status. What does this mean? We're looking to be classified under Medicare Part B as providers, a status given to other healthcare professionals such as physicians, PAs, NPs, social workers and midwives. Without this designation we face barriers in compensation, coverage of services, and inclusion in ACA delivery models. Being granted provider status would allow us to help medically underserved communities and fill in the gaps in care.  Even more awesome, some states allow for collaborative agreements between pharmacists and prescribers to provide advanced patient care. It differs per state but this means that in some agreements we can provide intervisit care, titrate medications and order labs under a prescriber.

4. We're team players. I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by other healthcare professionals who love having us around, and I love having them to learn from! I've learned so much from MDs, DOs, NPs, nurses, PAs, social workers, dietitians, other students and MORE. I truly believe we are only as good to our patients as we are to each other. And its only together that we can hope to turn our healthcare system around and work cohesively to bring stellar, efficient care to every one.

This was brief but I hope ya'll got the big picture: we're awesome...and we do more than count by fives (age old assumption...never say this to your friendly neighborhood pharmacist). So this week, take the time to thank your pharmacist, your technicians and your interns (or you know, bring them a donut). We work hard to keep our communities safe, educated and healthy. And to my fellow pharmacy folks, enjoy the week!

P.S I made the above graphic/took this photo at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, a must-see for my fellow healthcare peers