Now Is the Time to Tell Your Stories, Says Incoming ASHP President Briscoe-Dwyer

With the rollout of ASHP's We're Your Pharmacist public awareness campaign, pharmacists have a unique national platform to highlight what they do every day to help make patients' lives better, says incoming ASHP President Leigh Briscoe-Dwyer.

The campaign — and its importance to ASHP members and the pharmacy profession — was the centerpiece of Briscoe-Dwyer’s June 11 inaugural speech at ASHP Pharmacy Futures 2024 in Portland, Oregon.

Who tells pharmacy’s story?

Anyone can talk about pharmacy. But it’s up to pharmacists themselves to create a narrative that accurately reflects the profession and its members.

• “We are pharmacy, it is our story to tell, and we get to decide how this story unfolds,” Briscoe-Dwyer said. “Once we put our stories out there, they forever become part of our history, and our foundation becomes stronger.”
• The campaign is also an opportunity for pharmacists to show that profession is accountable for doing what it says it can do.
• “This campaign will only be successful if we all put actions behind those words,” Briscoe-Dwyer emphasized.

Kindness counts

A story doesn’t need to describe a life-or-death incident to convey the concept of service that is truly the heart of the pharmacy profession. The everyday stories can be the most important ones to tell.

• Briscoe-Dwyer described how she intervened on behalf of a hospitalized friend whose release was delayed when the friend’s pharmacy couldn’t fill a discharge prescription. The solution? Briscoe-Dwyer had the prescription filled at one of her health system’s outpatient pharmacies — and she personally delivered the medication to her friend’s home.
• Last year, Briscoe-Dwyer said, one of her pharmacy liaisons made a special effort to deliver insulin to a patient who was living in her car with her child. The liaison then gave her own coat to the patient after learning that she was in need.
• “There is no story too small to tell, because there is a patient and a family behind each one,” Briscoe-Dwyer said. These stories, she noted, showcase “why we become pharmacists.”

You are the future

Briscoe-Dwyer said the pharmacy profession is strong and ready to advance patient-centered care. She added that ASHP is eager to support and advocate for members, help them tell their stories, and provide them with tools and resources that help them prepare for the future of healthcare.

• “We want pharmacy’s story to be that we adapted and evolved our profession to keep pace with the rapid changes in healthcare,” Briscoe-Dwyer said.
• “Define your mission and practice to achieve it,” she urged the audience. “Look for that one moment, that one person and know that the impact you had on them that day was their everything.”

Briscoe-Dwyer is system director of pharmacy for the UHS Hospitals System in Johnson City, New York.