For Kelsey Melgaard (fourth from left), self-advocacy has supported her successes and made disappointments easier to move on from.

By Kelsey Melgaard, PharmD, MPH

As a student pharmacist, you learn a lot about advocating for patients and the profession. But what about advocating for yourself? Self-advocacy is often discussed in the context of disabilities, but this skill is applicable and essential for anyone. 

As you strive to be an effective health professional, it is important that you develop the ability to meet your own needs so that you can most effectively care for patients. However, this must be done carefully, as there is a delicate balance between advocating for yourself and being perceived as arrogant, lazy, or needy.

According to Google Dictionary, self-advocacy is “the action of representing oneself or one’s views or interests.” To me, this means that I need to have a good understanding of myself, my values, interests, strengths, and needs in order to be able to represent myself. Further, I need to develop these skills in order to adequately represent myself with confidence in order to make progress in meeting my goals.

Jonathan Marquess (Mercer University)
1991–92 APhA–ASP National President
My wife, Pam, and I are the owners of 10 community pharmacies in Georgia. In addition, I am the President/CEO of The Institute for Wellness and Education, a disease management company. Throughout my career, I have been actively involved in local, state, and national professional organizations. I served on the APhA Board of Trustees from 2011–14, and recently was elected as an NCPA national officer. In 2012, I was named Georgia Independent Pharmacist of the Year, and in 2016 was awarded the Daniel B. Smith Practice Excellence Award.  

Susan Staggs Vos
(The University of Tennessee)
2002–03 APhA-ASP National Member-at-large
My current focus is on student admissions, curriculum, and student services at The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. My classroom teaching is focused on pediatrics, global health, and professional development, and I also co-direct the college’s teaching and learning curriculum for residents. I have served as a preceptor in pediatrics, academic leadership, and a global health experience in Belize, and published articles and presented topics on experiential education and preceptor development in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Italy. The joy of my life is being a wife to Jeremy and a mom to Claire and Emily.

As a student pharmacist, I was hopelessly indistinguishable from the rest. I remained in the shadows of my peers who received better grades, who held more prestigious internships, and who connected better with faculty. I knew I would end up in community pharmacy, but that was okay, I liked the fast pace and patient interactions. By the time I was even a month into my APPE rotations, I was already familiar with the question: “So what are your plans for next year?”

As my peers started making Excel sheets to compare their top residency choices, I started looking for jobs. Residency was always in the back of my mind, but I wondered, “Who would want me?” I thought I was most certainly not competitive enough and was just one of thousands of other student pharmacists applying.