Look for that one moment, that one person, and know that the impact you had on them that day was their everything. That is your why. Believe it. Celebrate it.
We have been given an opportunity to remarkably reframe the perception of our profession. Our journey will be defined by how well we tell our story.
Editor’s note: The following is adapted from comments delivered by Dr. Briscoe-Dwyer during the ASHP Pharmacy Futures 2024 meeting, held in June in Portland, OR.
Thank you, everyone. It is certainly the honor of a lifetime to stand before you today as your next President. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve this great profession and for the people who have made today possible.
You have heard the quote that “it takes a village.” Well, for me, it took an entire state. Thank you to the membership of the New York State Council of Health-System Pharmacists for your support, enthusiasm, and excitement as we shared this journey. Serving at the local and state level was the beginning of my passion for being involved in ASHP, and I will always be proud of being a past president of the New York State Council.
I stand before you as your 81st President. It has been over 60 years since someone from New York was elected President of ASHP. Dr. Lou Jeffrey was ASHP President from 1962 to 1963. As one of ASHP’s youngest presidents, Lou went on to do incredible things for the profession after his presidency, including serving as president of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. Sadly, we lost Lou in 2002, but I am very happy that his son Dr. Paul Jeffrey—also a pharmacist—is here with us today.
One of the greatest gifts I have received from this profession is the people it has brought into my life. To my Pharmacy Family—you are the people I never knew I needed. You have made my life richer in knowledge, love, and laughter, and I am a better person for having known you. Thank you.
My husband Kevin remains my greatest love, my staunchest supporter, best friend, and confidant. I am beyond grateful to share my life with you. Your love and strength get me through every day. Days like today—when we are celebrating—are the easy ones, but you have been there for the hard days too, times when I just needed someone to believe in me.
Finally, I am incredibly grateful to my parents, Alton and Mary Jane Briscoe, who showed me what living a life of service meant. Early one morning when I was 7 or 8 years old, a man drove off the road and hit a tree in front of our rural home. My parents were awoken by the sound of his head lying on the horn. After they called for a rescue squad, it took nearly 45 minutes for them to arrive. I remember them talking later that morning and saying, “What if that had been one of our kids?”
A few weeks later, there was a meeting in our home and the first volunteer ambulance squad in our small town of Laurens, NY, was born right at our kitchen table. This was the first time I saw in action the words of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has.”
It was because of their example of service that I answered the call to join this profession. Service is the foundational premise on which our profession was built.
It is the first line in the Oath of a Pharmacist: “I promise to devote myself to a lifetime of service to others through the profession of pharmacy.” I want you to remember that because later on I’m going to ask you to say it with me: “I promise to devote myself to a lifetime of service to others through the profession of pharmacy.” As we talk about the future and all that is to come, we must ensure our foundation, our call to service—the thing that unites us—remains strong.
One way we can accomplish this is by telling our stories. You have just heard how I became a pharmacist—everyone has that story. More important are the stories about why we became pharmacists.
The two most important days of our lives are the day that we’re born and the day we find out why. How lucky we are that we get to live that “why” every single day There is joy in living our why every day. Let us take the time to acknowledge and celebrate that.
Last October, Becca, a specialty pharmacy liaison, was living her why. While trying to contact a patient with diabetes to arrange for delivery of her insulin, she discovered that the patient was at that moment living in her car with her 9-year-old son. Without judgement or pity, Becca arranged to meet the patient in a public place to deliver her insulin. After delivering the medication, Becca asked if there was anything the patient needed, and the patient stated that she had money and food but it was getting cold and she didn’t have a coat. Becca immediately went to her car, got her fleece jacket, and gave it to the patient.
None of this was included in Becca’s orientation to the job. It was a human response by an individual who focused on providing the best service possible for a single patient at that point in time. Things like this happen every day, and these are the stories we need to tell.
When we examine stories in the media about pharmacy and pharmacists, we hear terms like “unsung heroes,” the “invisible ingredient,” and (I hate this term) “ancillary.” This is what happens when you let other people tell your story. No one else can speak the words from your lips. Starting today, let us make it a priority to tell our own stories. We are pharmacy, it is our story to tell, and we get to decide how this story unfolds.
A dear friend was recently hospitalized for a CABG procedure complicated by COVID-19. After 78 days of hospitalization and cardiac rehab, Tom was ready to go home. The only thing he needed was to complete two more days of treatment for a UTI. His physician wrote his discharge orders and sent the prescriptions to the local chain pharmacy. I received a panicked call from his daughter, who reported that no pharmacy in 150 miles was able to get the antibiotic and Tom could not be discharged without it. The antibiotic was an IM dose of amikacin. I asked to have the prescription sent to one of my outpatient pharmacies and obtained the doses and supplies necessary to administer it. I then delivered it to their home and oversaw the administration of the first dose.
Now, I may not have received 4 years of postgraduate education, plus 3 to 7 years of residency, and 12,000 to 16,000 hours of clinical training like Tom’s physician did.1 But I didn’t need to know how to diagnose his UTI to know how to treat it.
My point here is that healthcare is a team sport. When we focus on service that is truly patient-centered, not profession-centric, everyone wins. Let pharmacists be true disrupters in healthcare and lead the way in spending less time focusing on practicing at the top of our scope and concentrate instead on practicing at the top of our mission.
And that, exactly, is the point of the ASHP’s public awareness campaign. We’re Your Pharmacist is designed to demonstrate to the public the positive contribution that we have on patient care; that care is better and safer when we are part of the care team. This campaign is not just an opportunity to tell our story but also an obligation to step up and do the things we say we can do. This campaign will only be successful if we all put actions behind those words.
As we look to the future, we will see transformation occurring with a speed unlike anything we have ever seen before. There is data to support the fact that it takes 17 years for practice changes to be fully adopted and implemented. We don’t have 17 years—in some cases we don’t have 17 weeks. We no longer have the luxury of time to be comfortable with the changes we need.
We want pharmacy’s story to be that we adapted and evolved our profession to keep pace with the rapid changes in healthcare. We are leveraging opportunities in AI, pharmacogenomics, robotics, and digital health to improve patient care.
And ASHP is there every step of the way, enabling us to tell these stories through meetings like this, the Pharmacogenomics Accelerator, and the Section of Digital and Telehealth Practitioners. Pharmacy technicians now have The Pharmacy Technician Society as an outlet to share their stories.
The ASHP Office of Government Relations needs our stories to demonstrate to politicians, and the people who elect them, that we are not the unsung heroes, we are not invisible, and we most certainly are not ancillary. So, let’s do that!
By telling our stories we can weave together the tapestry that is our history, our future, and our right. Stories built on a foundation of service. Stories that unite us. Stories that capture the powerful voice of this profession. And your voice matters. If you haven’t done it already, stop by the ASHP booth and sign up to tell your story. You all have one. I know you do.
Having a united voice is something we all want. What better way to create that united voice than by looking at all we have in common? What we all have in common is our oath. Regardless of where you practice now or how you got there, we all started on this path by reciting our oath. I am asking you all to take a step toward unity by standing with me now and uniting our voices in reaffirming our call to service. Please stand and join me in reciting our Oath of a Pharmacist. The words will appear on the screen behind me.
I promise to devote myself to a lifetime of service to others through the profession of pharmacy. In fulfilling this vow:
■ I will consider the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering my primary concerns.
■ I will promote inclusion, embrace diversity, and advocate for justice to advance health equity.
■ I will apply my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal outcomes for all patients.
■ I will respect and protect all personal and health information entrusted to me.
■ I will accept the responsibility to improve my professional knowledge, expertise, and self-awareness.
■ I will hold myself and my colleagues to the highest principles of our profession’s moral, ethical, and legal conduct.
■ I will embrace and advocate changes that improve patient care.
■ I will utilize my knowledge, skills, experiences, and values to prepare the next generation of pharmacists.
I take these vows voluntarily with the full realization of the responsibility with which I am entrusted by the public.2
That, my friends, is the sound of unity. The sound of strength. Like each one of us, the oath has undergone transformation over the years but, also like us, stands stronger today ready to face the future.
As we conclude, I would like to highlight some things for you to leave here with:
There is joy to be found in pharmacy. The profession is strong and poised to forge new paths, with all of us together leading the way.
Tell people your stories. Be proud of what you do. There is no story too small to tell because there is a patient and a family behind each one. And listen to your brothers and sisters in pharmacy because they have stories too. Once we put our stories out there, they forever become part of our history and our foundation becomes stronger.
Live your service with arms wide open. Define your mission and practice to achieve it. Find. Your. Why. Every. Day. Look for that one moment, that one person, and know that the impact you had on them that day was their everything. That is your why. Believe it. Celebrate it.
We have been given an opportunity to remarkably reframe the perception of our profession. Our journey will be defined by how well we tell our story. I am excited to join you on this journey and have never been more proud to stand before a group of people and proclaim: “My name is Leigh Briscoe-Dwyer and I am a pharmacist.”
Disclosures
The author has declared no potential conflicts of interest.
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