You are interning at a community pharmacy. You get a prescription for a blood pressure medication for a commercially insured patient. When you run the claim, you find that the patient’s insurance prefers mail order and the patient will have to pay a $20 co-pay to get it filled at your pharmacy as opposed to $0 co-pay for mail order. The patient takes the prescription back to fill with the mail order and avoid the co-pay. But now you are left wondering, “How did that happen? Why the difference in co-pay?”

The post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) was a sauna upon our arrival. The air conditioning units were disabled during the night to conserve precious energy. The team, consisting of nurses, nursing students, surgeons, midwives, gynecologists, pharmacists, and student pharmacists gathered into a large circle to join hands for a brief prayer and then run through the day’s plans. We then headed upstairs to the primary care clinic above the PACU and surgery rooms. Our task for the day involved updating the small dispensing pharmacy’s inventory and then counseling Haitian patients visiting the primary care clinic on their medications.

I still remember the nervousness I felt the night before my pharmacy school interview. I was convinced the admissions committee would want to know exactly what area of pharmacy I hoped to practice in and what my entire career plan was. The truth is, I didn’t know. I knew only that I sought a role in the health care arena and that I wanted to make a positive impact on patient health and quality of life. I knew pharmacy would afford me the platform to accomplish those goals, but I wasn’t exactly sure where in the profession I belonged.