“Each of these values on this chart represents exactly that—a life that once held value. Every overdose is one too many and means that someone out there is losing someone they love.” These are the paraphrased words of Laura Palombi, PharmD, MPH, professor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, from a talk about her work addressing the substance use disorder (SUD) epidemic that I heard while I was still an undergraduate student. I will never forget the experience of explaining to her that those dots on her graphs were from my hometown, and that not only could I put a name to three of them, but I could also describe the impact their losses had on my small, rural community. Dr. Palombi’s work is a huge inspiration for me, and it’s a big part of why I pursued pharmacy as a career. I now work to specialize in supporting those with diverse mental health needs and SUDs.

Student pharmacists’ schedules can often be extremely demanding, with the need to balance schoolwork, extracurriculars, a job, and more. With hustle culture—an environment that emphasizes hard work and long hours above all else—being ever more present in society, it can be easy to think of self-care as lazy or selfish.