Leadership in Clinical Pharmacy

As students, we are encouraged from our first year in pharmacy school to take on leadership positions and establish ourselves as leaders among our peers. Often times, it seems we have all come from backgrounds of having leadership positions that when a leadership opportunity appears in our midst, we all grapple for the spot. With this in the back of my mind, it surprised me when I read the article titled, “Is there still a pharmacy leadership crisis? A seven-year follow-up assessment” in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. According to this article, there is a predicted shortage of pharmacists in managerial positions at hospitals.

Many young pharmacists in clinical settings are unwilling to give up patient contact and clinical skills to work in an administrative position. I understand individuals’ needs to work in a challenging clinical setting, but I also hope that pharmacists are able to shape their profession by taking on administrative roles. Ideally, hospital administrators will be able to work with their pharmacists to create hybrid administrative positions that can be split between administrative and clinical practice.

Moving Forward in 2013

The relatively unglamorous world of compounding pharmacy clashed abruptly with national media through the tragic fungal meningitis outbreak resulting from contaminated methylprednisolone. As I sit down to write this entry, the Centers for Disease Control report 696 cases of fungal meningitis across twenty states with 45 deaths. A practice that may have been under the radar for many Americans, compounding pharmacy has officially been brought into the spotlight for both public and legal scrutiny.

It is easy for me to see, even as a first year pharmacy student, how a disaster of this magnitude has the ability to negatively impact the world of pharmacy. Although the New England Compounding Center was practicing well outside established compounding pharmacy best practices, it is not a stretch to believe that the trust many Americans had in the practice of compounding pharmacy will be diminished. 

When members of the profession tarnish the practice of pharmacy, it is the responsibility of pharmacists as well as students to present the practice professionally. In 2013, pharmacy must put its best foot forward and continue to make progress in the improvement of patient care and safety.