‘Advocate for yourself ‘cause no one else will’

By Connor Reed, Tanner Rogers, Kyler Vaughn, and Amelia Whitkanack

Current student pharmacists and pharmacists alike are aware of daily challenges the profession faces. At Harding University College of Pharmacy, we have a unique opportunity to get involved in advocacy at the state level. This past year, the four of us took the reins in our Political Advocacy course and did exactly what Arkansas State Sen. Ron Caldwell once encouraged us to do: “Advocate for yourself ‘cause no one else will.”

Integral part of the legislative process

In the beginning of the spring 2019 course, we helped to develop and testify on behalf of two separate pieces of legislation that would expand the scope of practice for pharmacists in Arkansas.

The first piece of legislation was “To Authorize a Pharmacist to Initiate and Administer or Dispense, or Both, Certain Types of Tobacco Cessation.” This bill was created in part with our college of pharmacy, which in fall 2018 was awarded a grant by the Arkansas Department of Health. Funding for this contract was derived from monies that were previously used to outsource the tobacco quit-line to an out-of-state company. This bill—HB1263, which became Act 651 when passed in April—awarded pharmacists, for the first time in Arkansas, the ability to have prescriptive authority by allowing them to initiate tobacco cessation products in a community pharmacy setting through a statewide protocol.

The second piece of legislation was “To Authorize Pharmacists to Provide Access to and Administration of Oral Contraceptives.” Although this bill failed in the legislative session, there was great progress made in educating legislators and the public on how the involvement of pharmacists in having prescriptive authority, under a statewide protocol, would help close the gap of many unmet health disparities in Arkansas.

The legislative process for each bill began in the fall before the start of the 93rd General Assembly of Arkansas in January. The political advocacy group—which includes Associate Professor Rodney Richmond, BSPharm, and the four of us—quickly became involved with the Arkansas Pharmacists Association (APA) and planned the best tactics to get each bill through their respective committees. The advocacy group made several trips to the Arkansas State Capitol to attend committee hearings, speak with legislators to hear their concerns, and also attended the APA Legislative Reception to further discuss with legislators the importance of the pharmacy bills being heard.

Through the legislative efforts, many different contacts were made that helped to provide support for the issues. One of those contacts was Michel Keck, the Arkansas Government Relations Director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.  Keck had heard there was a group of students who were working on a bill to help increase patient access to smoking cessation products across the state. Since this was also an issue related to the efforts of the American Cancer Society, Keck helped by advocating to legislators and testifying before both Public Health Committees as a representative of his organization on the importance and impact pharmacists could make on improving access for patients in Arkansas.

The opportunity to partner with and be recognized by an organization that is not led by health professionals and shared a common goal of improving patient access allowed the advocacy group to establish relationships and appreciate the efforts other organizations are making in Arkansas.

Proof that students can make a difference

Advocacy through politics can be a unique challenge for a student pharmacist. It strays far away from the traditional coursework of pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, medicinal chemistry, and other science-based courses. Through this course, we, along with our fellow students, learned the proper way to approach and advocate on pharmacy practice issues with state-elected officials.

Each student had the opportunity to testify during committee meetings on the pharmacy practice issues. After testifying during committee, the students were pleasantly surprised that the legislators wanted to hear their opinions. This provided solid validation that the students were included in the legislative process. It also gave validation that pharmacy practice issues were important to the state legislators of Arkansas.

Through the experiences in the political advocacy course, the biggest takeaway was seeing the importance of advocating not only for ourselves or the profession, but for the patients. Legislators want to hear from their constituents. A simple phone call letting the local legislators know about current issues that are being faced, opinions on those issues, and how voting one way or another would have a significant impact on pharmacy, is important to share. Being involved is one of the single greatest things one can do for the profession of pharmacy.