Guest blog from Betsy Elswick, PharmD, FAPhA
January is often a season of firsts. From dropping the ball in Times Square to our first day back in the office after a holiday break, we are accustomed to these annual “firsts.” That includes a new semester on the horizon, new health care updates (i.e., new immunization schedules, new food pyramids), and more. But change can be so hard. Compounded with new clinical guidelines that we may not always agree with, change can be downright scary.
As a mom, I worry about how these changes affect my teenage child and also how they may affect their children one day, too. Our decisions and actions today will create ripples and waves for generations to come. However, in these tides of uncertainty, I am reminded that we remain in control of our personal decisions. And each of us have entered a profession where we took an oath to “apply (our) knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of (our) ability to assure optimal outcomes for all patients.”
As a faculty member accustomed to writing test questions, I know that items related to the “application” of knowledge require some of the most vigorous decision making by the test taker. To “apply” the information given to us as pharmacists requires that we also consider the entirety of the patient, including their social determinants of health and motivation to embrace and make changes. So, as we enter a new year that asks us to apply our new knowledge of updated guidelines, may we enter this space acutely aware of all the other domains that surround our patients. May we be aware of changes that allow us to share in the decision-making process that is essential to ensuring that our patients embark on pathways for good health.
And on the difficult days when we wonder why and what else and what if…
Perhaps we think about Loren Eiseley’s story, “The Star Thrower.” Eiseley tells the story of a narrator observing a young person who makes his living collecting artifacts from the sea. However, when the young person finds living starfish on the beach, he takes the time to throw them back into the water. Some parables revise the rationale that when asked why the young person throws the starfish back into the sea, if there are a hundred more on beaches just like it, he replies, “it made a difference to that one.” But in Eiseley’s original writing, the star thrower replies with a specific rationale, “The stars throw well. One can help them.” The star thrower’s decision making is twofold: 1) the starfish is perfectly designed for throwing and 2) the thrower is perfectly situated to return the living starfish to the sea to survive. Eiseley ends his story in the same way it began, with an image of star throwing. However, this time, it is not the narrator/observer who is simply observing another person saving starfish by casting them back into the sea. The observer additionally becomes the star thrower and in that reversal of roles, we begin to see the “perfect circle of compassion” throughout life’s many changes, , “the completion of the rainbow of existence.”
I’d challenge each of us to read “The Star Thrower” and think of our “starfish” moment(s) in pharmacy today or this week. What are we observing? And what is our unique opportunity to become the star thrower? Each of us has done something that mattered to someone else recently. And while we may think it to be relatively small, it is/was certainly important to someone else. What is your starfish moment today? What will be your starfish moment tomorrow? How do we share in ensuring the success of our patients and others today and for the days to come? None of us can do everything alone but we are part of a community, and within that community, we all can work together, each of us doing our small, but meaningful parts. Wishing you a 2026 that finds you moments of light, good health, happiness, and many starfish moments.
Image by Betsy Elswick, Dana Point, CA
Resources
- “Oath of Pharmacist.” American Pharmacists Association, 2025.
- Eiseley LC. The Star Thrower. Times Books, 1978.