A Reinvented Portrait of the Pharmacist

Finding Harmony in Diversity

Dr. Willette Burnham-Williams, assistant professor, university chief diversity officer and Title IX coordinator at the Medical University of South Carolina, addressed generational differences in the workplace. She had the youngest member of her team review her presentation before the conference. He told her to change the title, pointing out that the conversation was about an intersection of generations, not a collision, and that it was about inclusion. So she did not spend much time defining generations by their differences, but instead looked for common ground.

Burnham-Williams reflected on the strengths each generation can contribute and the need to change divisive language. She encouraged leaders to look through another person’s lens and to steer conversations to what colleagues might share. “Change the conversation, first from a negative to a positive, listen to those individuals in your organization who might currently be feeling like they’re not being heard because you’ve boxed them into some generational pigeonhole and look for an opportunity to bond across shared vision and goals,” she said.

As far as strategies to bring generations closer together, Burnham-Williams believes in cross-generational mentoring, being sensitive to each generation’s idea of fairness and values and remembering that change happens one conversation at a time. “If you hear someone refer to students as slackers, say, ‘Stop,’” she said. “Say, ‘I understand we have our differences, but our role is focused on their successes and you cannot make them successes if you approach them as slackers.’”

Dr. Richanne Mankey, president of Defiance College and a mediator, finds herself taking a deep breath in the middle of such conversations, which is how she opened her keynote address. She shared her perspective on effective ways to engage employees to consciously develop a positive culture. Defining morale as how campus feels and culture as how staff live and work together, Mankey shared a Peter Drucker quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

“When I came to Defiance College [as the first female president], the board of trustees wanted to hand me a strategic plan,” she said. “I asked them to please not hand me a strategic plan, I thought it needed to be reviewed by me and have my touch on it.” The board agreed and Mankey was able to present a plan that reflected her campus and her vision. She used this story to speak to servant leadership.

Before she took her strategic plan back to the board, she unveiled it to campus. Her staff said that was dangerous and questioned what would happen if people didn’t like it. Mankey replied, “Well, we need to know that.” So she held sessions in the coffee shop for faculty to share their thoughts. “Engaging other folks, bringing people to the table, knowing where the decision lies but engaging in the conversations that lead up to that decision” is how Mankey balances servant leadership with vision.

Mankey noted other leadership traits she tries to demonstrate: listening to understand, not to respond; leading with a big “L” (your leadership position) and a little “l” (your perspective and values); and finding ways other than shame to motivate. She acknowledged that transformational change requires vision and it’s hard to do, but encouraged everyone to do it anyway. She offered the inspiring words of scholar and activist Angela Davis: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change, I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

Voicing the Value of Pharmacists

As the Pharmacists for Healthier Lives campaign builds a strong national network to help elevate the perception of pharmacists and get their voices heard in the media, AACP asked attendees to share stories that merit attention. Pharmacists stood up and shared stories of student-run pharmacies; faculty members featured on the local news; students participating in state preparedness training; efforts to emphasize the accessibility of pharmacists for vaccinations; and bringing telepharmacy to towns that did not have access to healthcare.

Then attendees were asked to recall moments when a pharmacist impacted someone’s life. One dean talked about a clinical trial where gene therapy helped a patient who had been disabled by back pain for years. He was featured in the cover story of the college magazine, photographed on a playground with his children, illustrating that pharmacists do research that can change lives. Another told the story of a patient complaining of a cough/cold, but a student pharmacist asked questions and decided to send the patient to the emergency room, where the patient had a pulmonary embolism. Another shared the story of a student who was eating lunch on rotation at the hospital when he performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved a man choking at the table next to him. (Members who would like to share stories can post them on PharmacistsForHealthierLives.org to add them to the campaign network.)

President-elect Dr. Todd Sorensen gave a sneak peek of what to expect under his leadership by contrasting two stories. First, he recalled a meeting with behavioral health professionals to potentially partner, increase access to care and create sustainable practices. None of them had a meaningful relationship with a pharmacist and they lacked understanding of pharmacy training, so they could not see how the two groups could support each other and approach the legislature in a way that would benefit state residents. Next, he recalled introducing himself to the president-elect of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians, who immediately said, “It’s great to meet you. I will never work in a clinic again that does not have a pharmacist in it.”

“Why the difference? What’s going on there? What does that mean for us?” asked Sorensen, who plans to focus on AACP Strategic Priority 3, to promote academic practice partnerships and involve pharmacists in practice models that lead to progress in practice transformation. “We need to move from interprofessional education, which is a focus we have had for a number of years, to interprofessional practice,” he said.

He asked attendees to imagine a world where every medical practice has meaningful relationships with pharmacists, built on trust and respect. “I envision that,” Sorensen said. “Patients’ health would improve. We would create powerful advocates that would tell our story for us. We would create a new job market that doesn’t exist right now, or only exists in small pockets. And we would enrich the lives of our graduates in a professionally meaningful role that they would aspire to, and encourage others to join our pipeline and pursue a career as a pharmacist.”

Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.