Jamila Negatu / Monday, January 22, 2018

A case of “patient care fever”

University of Florida students Kyle Kirkpatrick (left) and William Gerwe (right) practice blood pressure screening techniques and counseling so they can help engage patients in the community during Operation Heart activities, as Khurrum Qureshi (center

Getting involved in an organization like APhA–ASP can be intimidating for any first-year student pharmacist. The magnitude of the organization with more than 130 chapters and thousands of student members is daunting to someone who just considers themselves lucky to be in pharmacy school. This is exactly how I felt in my first month as a student pharmacist.

Looking back, I can’t help but think how fortunate I am that my curiosity was stronger than my reservations about getting involved with APhA–ASP. It was APhA’s mission to advance patient care that interested me the most, so naturally I looked more at the patient care projects available through my chapter.

My legacy begins

Attending the first health fair of the year in the fall of 2015, a screening for high blood glucose and blood pressures at a nursing home, is all it took to begin my legacy in patient care through APhA–ASP. I quickly began jumping at opportunities to join the patient care projects in my chapter to see what I wanted to pursue the most. Operation Diabetes stood out to me as a project that makes a large impact, not only on the community, but also on the students who volunteer. While each operation has its unique goals that help influence the events and initiatives that are put in place, Operation Diabetes was where I found myself as a first-year student who was beginning to develop into a leader.

A year of event planning and regional awards for the operation my co-chair and I put so much effort further fed the “patient care fever,” as I liked to call it. Elections for the next chapter executive board came around and I thought I would be a good fit for the Patient Care Projects Vice President (PCPVP) role, where I could help guide all the operations to success in our chapter. I was on the way up the patient care ladder when I was elected as the PCPVP. I got to work holding meetings with the leaders of each of the projects, contacting the other campuses’ PCPVPs to set collective goals, and offering myself as a general sounding board for new ideas.

Being in a position to lead all of the patient care projects in their event planning and documentation felt like a lot of responsibility. But with that responsibility came a huge sense of accomplishment every time one of the chairs came up to me with a smile on their face after their event went successfully. I was happy that I could be there for them while they were going through the same process I did as an Operation Diabetes co-chair. I was reliving my experiences through their efforts with every patient care event, and I knew I had truly found my niche in APhA–ASP.

An opportunity arises

Working on the APhA–ASP Chapter Achievement Report over the summer of 2017 was when I noticed an opportunity. For something as vast as the University of Florida’s APhA–ASP patient care campaign, there was no one to unite the PCPVPs consistently throughout the year. Unlike our policy, international, and president teams, patient care did not have an executive liaison to coordinate all three campuses during the reporting cycle. I brought up this opportunity for a new position—a Patient Care Executive Liaison—and the idea got a lot of support from all executive boards. Seeing an area for improvement and a way to stay involved, something that I had been doing since being an Operation Diabetes co-chair, is how a new position was born!

Find your spark

The patient care projects in APhA–ASP were so amazing for me as a first-year student pharmacist that they shaped who I became in the organization and in my chapter. They helped me practice every skill I learned in class while helping me feel like I made an impact in my community. Patient care isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean one should refrain from getting involved because they are afraid.

Speaking from my first-year self, all it takes is one event to set your path. I have watched fellow chapter members have these same “Aha!” moments in the organization. It is the “patient care fever” at work, and I wish every student pharmacist had the opportunity to find their spark.

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Tags: Student Magazine

Transitions Magazine

A case of “patient care fever”

My legacy begins

An opportunity arises

Find your spark

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