APhA–ASP Chapters have put the “Stronger Together” mantra into action.
If you would have told me 2 months ago that I would be completing my last months of pharmacy school rotations confined to this desk at home due to a worldwide pandemic, I would have said you were crazy. Nevertheless, here I sit, on the cusp of adding PharmD with a Master’s in Virtual Meetings to my credentials. If you are a final-year student pharmacist like me, you may feel cheated out of the culmination of what has been years of blood, sweat, and tears leading up to this moment.
In dynamically unprecedented times like these, it is easy to lose perspective. Why did we do this? Was it for the cap and gown? Was it for the walk across the stage? Or was it for the fancy social media post showing all our friends and family our accomplishments? For many, I would hope the choice was for the person on the other side of the counter; the person who may consistently mispronounce the name of their prescribed medication, or may not understand what it’s for or how it works.
It has been nearly 100 years since we have experienced anything quite like COVID–19. The world is a lot smaller now than it was then. Add technology, travel, and 6 billion more people on the planet and you have yourself an outbreak scenario that would have seemed unfathomable during the 1918 flu pandemic. What a time to be on the front lines and an integral part of the health care team. Currently, student pharmacists across the country are not only adapting to socially distanced education, but many are finding new and innovative ways to make a positive impact on their communities.