Jordyn Williams (center) receives the 2019 APhA–ASP National Patient Counseling Competition winner's plaque from Toni Rose, PharmD (left), of CVS Health, and Autumn Peterson, a member of the APhA-ASP Awards Standing Committee.
By Jordyn Williams
One of the major aspects that drew me toward a career in pharmacy was the opportunity to educate and interact with patients. This passion motivated me to compete in the local APhA– ASP Patient Counseling Competition during my third year of pharmacy school at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) School of Pharmacy. I knew that this would be a great opportunity to help develop and improve my patient counseling skills, but I was still nervous to participate. However, our Patient Care Vice President encouraged me to challenge myself, and this led to the most memorable night of my pharmacy career: winning the APhA–ASP National Patient Counseling Competition at the APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition in Seattle this past March.
Real-life prep
To prepare for the local and national competitions, I watched videos of previous winners and familiarized myself with the medications and grading rubric. Although this was very helpful, I believe that my experiences prior to the competition are what really helped me to be successful.
By working at a community pharmacy for the past 6 years, I have had the opportunity to counsel many patients and answer their questions. During my General Medicine IPPE rotation, I counseled hospitalized patients on high-risk medications, which pushed me to develop my empathy skills and tailor my counseling to the individual needs of each patient. In addition, APhA–ASP provided me with many opportunities to exercise my counseling abilities at screening events in our local community. Together, all of these different experiences have allowed me to become comfortable and confident when counseling patients, which played a huge role in my success during the competition.
I felt calm and excited in the local competition. I tried to focus on making the encounter feel natural instead of just attempting to hit all of the points on the checklist. I was thrilled to place in the top 10 finalists on my campus, and I was extremely honored when I was chosen as the representative for the national competition at APhA2019. I spent additional time preparing for the national competition by studying the medications and practicing mock patient encounters to ensure that I was comfortable with the information.
Success in Seattle
I was extremely nervous for the first round of the competition in Seattle. But as soon as the patient encounter started, I felt a wave of calmness spread through my body as I pretended that I was at work educating a patient. All day, I anxiously waited to see if I would advance and was ecstatic to see my name on the list of top 10 finalists. During the final encounter, I was challenged to counsel a distressed patient who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I made it my goal to ensure the patient felt comforted and understood by expressing empathy and compassion. I left the case feeling happy with my performance, but doubtful that I did well enough to place.
Being recognized as a top 10 finalist at the APhA–ASP Awards Ceremony was an amazing feeling, and I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. My heart was pounding as they announced the top three competitors. When I was not recognized as the second runner-up, I mentally accepted that I may not have placed but reminded myself how proud I should be to even be standing onstage. When my name was announced as the winner, I think my jaw almost hit the floor. I have never been so shocked in my entire life!
That night, I was overwhelmed with all of the support and congratulatory messages I received, even from people I had never met.
Establish trusted relationships
Winning the APhA–ASP National Patient Counseling Competition was such an honor and reflecting on this experience has taught me so much. The competition made me realize how important effective patient counseling is and how student pharmacists must embrace the opportunity to impact patient care in this manner. Whether it’s through work, school, or volunteering, all students should strive to counsel as many patients as possible to become more comfortable.
Effective patient counseling is so much more than just reading information to the patient. In the pharmacy profession, we must show empathy, understanding, and compassion to all patients in order to establish a trusted and open relationship with them. It is up to student pharmacists to show the community the vital role that pharmacists can play in patient care, and effective patient counseling is one of the first steps in this process.