Clinical Pharmacist
Huntington Memorial Hospital
Los Angeles, CA
As a student pharmacist, I was very involved in our school’s student chapter of CPhA and served as chapter president. When I think back, I felt so connected to our profession and fulfilled with the health fairs, student development programs and other events that we organized and attended. While adjusting to life after pharmacy school and residency, I realized that I had fallen into a routine, a sort of plateau one would say, and missed the connection that fueled my passion for pharmacy.
I was recommended to join CPhA’s Leadership Development Institute by a previous preceptor and felt it was my opportunity to give back to the organization that started it all for me. I hoped that LDI would help me with life-work balance, create networking opportunities and sharpen my leadership skills; it ended up doing that and so much more.
My LDI project involves researching health-related applications available on smartphones to help patients better track their medications and health. In the long term, I hope to one day be able to make an easy-to-use health tracking app targeted for older adults. As a part of my current job, I provide anticoagulation and heart failure monitoring and management services in an ambulatory care clinic nestled in a hospital health system. I also help carry out our pharmacy department’s medication history program in the emergency department (ED). Whether in clinic or the ED, having an accurate record of patients’ medications is crucial to providing a high level of patient care. However, we often see patients do not have any documentation of their medications and struggle with remembering their medication names, dosages, etc.
With the ever-growing use of smartphones in all age groups, there is an opportunity to educate patients regarding effective and safe apps available at their fingertips which may help in storing information to have handy at times when they least expect it, like a visit to the ED. With patients having this important information readily available, benefits include decrease in medication related errors and improvement in patient care. LDI has helped me with this project by providing support and encouraging me to think outside the box.
My favorite part about LDI has been the impact it has had not only on my work life, but my personal life as well. At the start of this program, we focused on learning more about ourselves by creating a “values, interests, strengths and needs” chart, which is something I now refer to often to re-connect with myself and what truly makes me happy. LDI gave me the tools to reassess my life and remove things that were cluttering my time and focus more on the things that were valuable to me. With investing more time on activities that made me feel complete, I quickly saw a change in myself. I was managing my time better, communicating more effectively, dealing with conflict differently and making sure to celebrate even the smallest wins.
One word that resonated most with me through this experience was GRIT. I didn’t know too much about grit before going through LDI and now I try to make this concept a part of my everyday life. With grit in mind, I feel I can tackle any obstacle that comes my way and bounce back from adversity. I will carry with me the invaluable skills and knowledge obtained through this program as I navigate through the rest of my pharmacy career and life. I am so grateful for CPhA, LDI’s facilitators, learning coordinators and fellow participants for such a great experience learning from each other and growing together on this journey.