Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA, PAHM

The senior care market is exploding. The first class of baby boomers is projected to turn 85 in 2031. In the United States, 10,000 people turn 65 every day. The exciting part is that there are so many career opportunities to serve this unique and growing population. Now is the time for senior care pharmacists.

Read our interviews with the 4 pharmacists in our ongoing 

® series. Each one has an amazing senior care pharmacy story. These pharmacists also shared their stories with students at an American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Annual Meeting.

In this final installment of the series, Sharon F. Clackum, PharmD, BCGP, CDM, FASCP, president of Rx Answers, LLC, tells her pharmacy story.

Clackum grew up in several states—Texas, Georgia, and Florida&mdash;because her father was a pilot.

“We lived on a rural farm and moved from there to a sub- division outside of Fort Lauderdale, a culture shock. I went to high school in Plantation, Florida, was a band geek, and decided on pharmacy as a career in my junior year. Initially, I wanted to be a marine biologist with the park service and worked at Everglades National Park, but decided on pharmacy after I determined I would always be on food stamps working for the park service, and I will save that for my retirement job. But, I have been scuba diving since I was 14, and still enjoy it today.”

Clackum was also influenced by her parents guiding her toward a career in pharmacy. “My mother was insistent we all go to college, and my dad wanted his girls to be able to support ourselves independently. My sister became a nurse,” she said.

A first-generation pharmacist, Clackum started in health care long before she went to pharmacy school, as a volunteer in a hospital. She was influenced by her involvement in the student chapter of the American College of Apothecaries and met a woman apothecary owner who also did consulting in the community.

Since earning her PharmD, Clackum has worked in hospitals and community practice. She has managed multiple apothecaries, started an AIDS program in Atlanta, and consulted for the Georgia Department of Corrections. Clackum has also worked in small retail and large big-box pharmacy. After surviving 9 company mergers, she left a consulting job and assisted living long-term care pharmacy to start her own independent consulting firm in 2009.

“My first consulting job was part-time in a state prison—a very eye-opening experience,” says Clackum. “I decided on senior care pharmacy consulting while running a small pharmacy that specialized in assisted living and nursing home business. I started speaking to elderly groups in the community and really enjoyed the interactions. The personal and professional satisfaction of positive outcomes to the interventions I suggested while working with these folks fed my desire to continue and expand my practice.”

Clackum appreciates that consulting can mean practicing within a variety of settings. She currently practices in a blend of long-term postacute care settings and managed care. She consults with health care plans, insurers, and municipalities. “I have started a home IV/hospice company from a grant to provide these services in rural settings. I have consulted in prisons, mental health facilities, developmentally disabled group homes, the community, assisted living, nursing facilities, managed care, both employers and insurance plans, surgicenters, and specialty clinics at employers,” she says.

WHAT SHE LOVES MOST ABOUT SENIOR CARE PHARMACY 

Clackum likes the variety of senior care pharmacy. “[There is] something new every day, both business and clinically derived— an ever-changing environment that forces me to be engaged and grow. It also allows me to meet folks from different walks of life and expand my horizons.”

CHALLENGES AND FRUSTRATIONS IN SENIOR CARE 

“Legislation, legislators, and rule-makers need to get out of their offices and engage with the real world,” says Clackum. “Rules and regulations are often made and have a negative impact because the people creating them have never set foot in a nursing home or assisted living facility. Some of the current opioid regulations make no allowance for the elderly who have trouble with transportation, in getting to the physician or [getting to] the pharmacy,” said Clackum.

Clackum sees only a blue sky of opportunities in senior care pharmacy. “With the new payment models, chronic care management, pharmacists embedding into physician practices, specializing in disease management—the future is bright and more exciting now than even 5 or 6 years ago. People are willing to pay out-of-pocket for many of these services, and family members pay as shared [in part 1 of this series]. The traditional long-term and postacute care options, and community-based models are not going away either,” she says.

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS INTERESTED IN SENIOR CARE PHARMACY 

Regardless of major, Clackum tells all the students she encounters seeking advice to enjoy the profession they are pursuing. “You will spend more time working than any other portion of your life. You must enjoy your career, or you will end up miserable and changing professions,” she says.

For pharmacy students in particular, she shares that the future is what you make it—regardless of the decade. “There will always be people who say the sky is falling, and you’ll never find a job. Pursue one and you will find it. You just may have to work harder to realize your dream.”

Clackum can remember some of the best career advice she ever received regarding good leadership skills. “The best leader surrounds themselves with people who know more than they do, and delegates responsibility,” she says. “That leader acknowledges that success was a group effort, and not a personal achievement. No one will work harder for you than someone who feels appreciated and valued. Loyalty starts at the top and works its way down the line. Also, encourage all your coworkers to grow personally and professionally, and be gracious when they leave. If you’re the boss, be the boss everyone wants to work for. Last, dress for the position you want, not the position you have.”

In conclusion, senior care pharmacy offers many amazing career choices for the pharmacy student or practicing pharmacist who wants something different. As you can see from Clackum’s story, there are tremendous opportunities for both pharmacy and business skills development in senior care.

, is a pharmacist, attorney, entrepreneur, preceptor, author, podcaster, and pharmacy benefit practice leader at Apex Benefits. She offers sincere thanks to all 4 senior care pharmacists who contributed to this series.

If you missed our first 3 articles in the series, 

Articles

In this final installment of this Pharmacy Careers® series, Sharon F. Clackum, PharmD, BCGP, CDM, FASCP, president of Rx Answers, LLC, tells her senior care pharmacy story.

Senior Care Pharmacy: One Exploding Population, Many Career Paths (Part 4)

The senior care market is exploding. The first class of baby boomers is projected to turn 85 in 2031; in the United States, 10,000 people turn 65 every day. The exciting part is that there are so many career opportunities to serve this unique and growing population. Now is the time for senior care pharmacists.

Read our interviews with the 4 pharmacists in our ongoing Pharmacy Careers® series. Each one has an amazing senior care pharmacy story. These pharmacists also shared their stories with students at a recent American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Annual Meeting.

The third senior care pharmacist featured in this series is Craig Stiens, PharmD, cofounder of Medication Managers and COO of RxConcile.

Stiens was one of the first college graduates in his family. “I grew up on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio. In high school, I was a pitcher on the baseball team, and [I was] on the golf team. I was the senior class president, in charge of the spirit committee, involved in tutoring students in the community, [and I did] community service repairing old buildings in the inner city. My freshman and senior chemistry teachers were pharmacists as well. I also worked in a community pharmacy when I was 16, mopping floors and delivering meds.

“My senior year, we had to do a career project, and I chose pharmacy. My grandfather also said if he could have attended college, he would have been a pharmacist or a dentist. I also love to teach.”

Stiens’ high school experience working in a local independent pharmacy, along with the influence of his teachers, pointed him toward a career as a pharmacist. “My pharmacy was sold when I still had a year left in pharmacy school. I worked for a couple of independents and chains over the next 4 years. One of the independents serviced a couple of local nursing facilities. I would often fill their unit-dosed boxes [during] the day. The pharmacist would go to the facilities and do the consulting once per month. I knew about senior care but was not really involved.

“After graduating, one of my peers from pharmacy school, Chad Worz, started to work for an independent LTC [long-term care] pharmacy. He talked me into working with him. He had a vision for changing senior care pharmacy, and he knew it would be exactly what I would like to do and was good at. He wanted to see patients in the LTC facility, not just review their charts. He wanted to talk to the patients, nurses, and doctors, and help them make better decisions about their medication therapy.”

ONE CAREER, MULTIPLE GIGS IN SENIOR CARE PHARMACY

Stiens is a cofounder of Medication Managers, LLC, an independent consulting group. In addition to LTC consulting, he helped open and manage full-service, not-for-profit pharmacies, and he works 3 days a week in a federally qualified health center and primary care office, where he sees patients and teaches a class for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Stiens is also the COO of RxConcile, a telehealth business that is focused on educating patients about their medications as theytransition from long-term or postacute care to their homes. To decrease hospital readmissions, RxConcile initiates a conversation with patients about their home and discharge meds, and the company prepares them for their future visits with the primary care provider. The conversation is recorded, so it can be reviewed by caregivers, family members, or the patient.

Stiens loves the challenge of “having access to all of the patient’s health care information, [including] medications, diagnoses, [and] lab results....The ability to collaborate with nursing and medical staff and then include the patients in treatment decisions is the most rewarding part of my practice,” he said.

When asked about the parts of senior care pharmacy Stiens finds most challenging or frustrating, Stiens said, “First, overmedicated patients that we inherit when we take on a new home. Now that all medications can be viewed as inappropriate, I hope to see a stronger move within the profession to deprescribe.

“Second, the push for provider status across [the] pharmacy [industry] makes me crazy. If we were moving toward a fee-forservice model, I would say, ‘Be careful what you ask for.’ Someone other than the patient will determine your value; a third party will never reimburse you the full value of your service.… We have NPI [National Provider Identifier] numbers. We have the ability to create relationships with payers and employer groups. We do not need provider status,” he said.

Stiens sees an opportunity in senior care pharmacy to meet with patients where they are already living. “Patients are desiring to age in place. They don’t want to end up institutionalized. We need to take health care to the patient. The in-person, hands-on, looking deep into the patient’s eyes [and] soul and discussing their health care, needs to be the start of the relationship. We can also use technology to enhance the relationships that we have built. We need to meet the patient where they are, and embrace motivational interviewing. If the patient is part of health care decisions, she or he will have a better chance for success,” he said.

Stiens suggests that students get involved at the state and national levels when they are interested in any field of pharmacy. “Help shape the future, or someone else will do it for you. We have a tremendous need for senior care pharmacists coming our way, and the practice will need to change and adapt faster now than ever before. Be creative and be fearless. You need to take risks and put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to fail. You will fail if you are pushing yourself and the profession. Embrace it.

Learn from it. Try not to repeat it,” he said.

The best advice Stiens ever received was to follow his passion. “If you’re in it only for the money, please change your profession. Find what you love to do, and do it with passion. If you are good at what you do, the money will come.”

In conclusion, senior care pharmacy offers many amazing career choices for the pharmacy student or practicing pharmacist who wants a new challenge. All 4 stories shared throughout this series show that senior care is a strong area of growth, opportunity, and professional reward for the pharmacist.

If you missed our first 2 Pharmacy Careers® interviews in this series, with 

. Keep an eye out for our next featured senior care pharmacist.

 is a writer, pharmacist, and consultant based in Indianapolis, Indiana. View her website at www.erinalbert.com.

Senior Care Pharmacy: One Exploding Population, Many Career Paths (Part 3)

During the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) Annual Meeting in Fall 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland, 4 amazing pharmacists working in senior care pharmacy shared their career stories with a handful of students in pharmacy, as part of the Feldman Lecture (scholarship keynote). As a new employee of ASCP, I had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall and hear their stories. What struck me—beyond the exciting, interesting, and unique stories of their careers&mdash;was that they were all radically different, but they all had served seniors in pharmacy.

The senior care market is exploding, with projections of the first baby boomer aging to 85 years in 2031. Now is the time for senior care pharmacists, as 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the United States. There are so many career opportunities to serve this growing population.

Four senior care pharmacists are being featured in 

® , and each has an amazing pharmacy story. In this issue, Erica Estus, PharmD, BCGP, clinical professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, is our second featured senior care pharmacist.

Estus grew up in Middletown, New York, a suburb about 60 miles northwest of New York City.

“In high school, I studied a lot, loved to learn, had good grades, and was in just about every extracurricular organization. I took dance lessons and worked at my dad’s pharmacy. My school was in a pretty rural area, and I had a close group of friends who were just like me,” she said. “High school was actually a really positive experience. I don’t feel like it was nearly as drama filled as it seems now, thankfully.”

Estus’ father, a pharmacist, influenced her career path.

“At one point [during] junior year in high school, I announced I wanted to be a writer and major in communications. [My dad] told me, ‘Absolutely not. You’ll never get a job!’ So, although I was angry and felt defeated for a few days, I opted for pharmacy. I never looked back,” she said.

Estus’ husband has influenced her, as well.

“My husband, Todd, is also a pharmacist, and we started dating in high school. I was a sophomore, [and] he was a senior. He wanted to be a pharmacist and was working at a local pharmacy when we met. His plan was to go to a community college to save money and then transfer into a pharmacy program. He came into my dad’s pharmacy looking for a job, and I was taking out the trash when I walked by him strolling up the aisle heading toward the pharmacy. When I asked him about it the next day in study hall, he said, ‘That guy wouldn’t give me a job.’ That guy was my dad. Todd ultimately was hired, we dated through attending different pharmacy schools, we got married, and all was good.”

In addition to her family’s influence in pharmacy, Estus left behind a corporate position and opted to work part time for a long-term care consultant as she balanced raising a family with her career. At the same time, her husband trained her to be a consultant pharmacist, because he was working in that capacity. She later applied for a full-time position at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy.

ONE SENIOR CARE PHARMACIST, MULTIPLE GIGS 

At the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, Estus coordinates and teaches a geriatric pharmacotherapy elective to students in their third professional year.

She also has a practice site at a local assisted-living facility, with help from fourth-professional year students each rotation block. In addition, she oversees the first professional year of the experiential education program in service learning and is the faculty adviser for the student ASCP chapter.

Estus said that having an impact in senior care is professionally rewarding.

“The value that we have as pharmacists and the relationships we build, [along with] exposing students to a practice of pharmacy they did not know existed in long-term care, but also working with patients directly in the community, I find rewarding. When I ask students, ‘Why did you take this geriatric elective?’ I emphasize that pharmacists will work with older adults in all settings, not just long-term care,” she said.

Estus cited affordability and nonadherence as 2 major challenges in senior care. “We have student programs that help clear confusion about Medicare. And the idea of many seniors never actually speaking to a pharmacist, because medications are delivered and they never go inside a pharmacy. I think it is important for everyone to participate in the process [of health care, and] understand why meds are needed, keeping them if necessary, and using the safest alternatives possible,” she said.

“Seniors are at home instead of traditional long-term care facilities, and many times families are overwhelmed with medication management. There are so many untapped opportunities to work with seniors and families in the community, in addition to roles that go beyond nursing homes,” Estus said.

Estus said that some of the best advice she ever received was to not take a job just for the money. “What opportunity will it offer you later? Think about work-life balance in the long term. Multiple part-time positions ultimately allowed me the opportunity to pursue my full-time position,” she said.

Estus also suggests that students have passion, motivation, and are driven for senior care. “With our aging population, I encourage students to pursue opportunities in senior care and look for nontraditional roles that take them outside [the] community and even [the hospital setting] at times,” she said. Estus also views communications skills as vital.

In conclusion, senior care pharmacy offers many amazing career choices for the pharmacy student or practicing pharmacist who wants something different. The sky is the limit!

® previously featured Dee Antimisiaris, PharmD, CGP, FASCP in the first article in this series. Keep an eye out for future featured senior care pharmacists. 

During the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) Annual Meeting in Fall 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland, 4 amazing pharmacists working in senior care pharmacy shared their career stories with a handful of students in pharmacy, as part of the Feldman Lecture. 

Senior Care Pharmacy: One Exploding Population, Many Career Paths (Part 2)

The senior care market is exploding, as 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the United States and the first baby boomers are projected to turn 85 in 2031. Pharmacy students considering a career in a nontraditional pharmacy field should know that there are many opportunities to serve this unique and growing population.

During the 2018 American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, 4 amazing pharmacists working in senior care shared their career stories with a handful of pharmacy students. As a new employee of ASCP, I had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall and hear these pharmacists speak, and what struck me was realizing that although they all served senior patients in pharmacy, their experiences were radically different.

Throughout all issues of Pharmacy Careers® in 2019, I’ll explore each pharmacist’s story in-depth to provide students with a glimpse into the dynamic and diverse field of senior care pharmacy. Our first featured senior care pharmacist is Dee Antimisiaris, PharmD, CGP, FASCP, an associate professor in the University of Louisville Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Dr. Antimisiaris grew up in Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, and Monterey Park, California, where she enjoyed biking, swimming and surfing. She had a passion for math and science, which led her father to influence her to go to pharmacy school.

“He told me that ‘pharmacy is a great profession for women,’ and he didn’t mean it in a biased way,” Dr. Antimisiaris said. “My mom was a judge, and observing her career and that of a physician, I found them to be options that would be difficult to keep in practice by working part time, especially with young children.”

After pharmacy school, Dr. Antimisiaris completed a clinical residency in geriatric pharmacy at the VA-Sepulveda Geriatric Pharmacy Residency Program in Los Angeles, during which she worked with innovators and leaders in senior care. After her residency, she returned to Hawaii and, inspired by her experience, decided to work in long-term care.

“Long-term care duty in Hawaii is an experience in rural health. The care homes do much with little, and as such, when the pharmacist [comes] in every month, sometimes they wanted me to help assess a patient or they would want me to help figure out what to use instead of another drug not easily available, since the pharmacy only delivered once daily,” Dr. Antimisiaris explained. “But, most of all, the rural care homes taught me the special meaning of caring for elders and those who can’t care for themselves in a tight knit community.”

ONE PHARMACIST IN SENIOR CARE: MULTIPLE GIGS

Dr. Antimisiaris currently leads the Fraizer Polypharmacy and Medication Management Program at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, where she educates students on polypharmacy-related topics, conducts research on polypharmacy and medication use, and performs outreach to nonacademic stake holders regarding polypharmacy.

“With the departmental shift to pharmacology and toxicology, my day-to-day has shifted from clinical care and the education of postgraduate learners to primarily research, with the same ongoing effort to collaborate outside of academia with other stakeholders,” she stated. “I always make sure to stay up-to-date with senior care practice. I provide case consults at our medication management clinic once a month, and I fill in for long-term care consulting pharmacists when they go on vacation.”

In addition to feeling grateful for the opportunity to work with and learn from her colleagues, Dr. Antimisiaris views serving seniors as a privilege and points to her patients as what she loves most about senior care.

“[I like] protecting older adults from the lack of appropriate oversight that the complex health care system of today offers,” she said. “Caring for older adults is a very meaningful practice, and it seems that there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t feel like I’ve made a difference.”

All professions and areas of pharmacy practice have their challenges, and senior care is no exception. Dr. Antimisiaris cited legal regulations over medication, access, and affordability, as well the complexity of care, as some of the biggest challenges faced by pharmacists in the senior care setting. “Anything from formulary choices to long-term care regulations and lack of access to care are so frustrating for the senior care pharmacist,” she stated. “The subjectivity and complexity of regulations often result in barriers to adequate and appropriate care.”

A related frustration highlighted by Dr. Antimisiaris is the inability to influence those regulations, formularies, and access.

“At the level of the individual long-term care facility, we can help correct issues due to our face-to-face interaction with the staff and residents, but our successful collaborations and interventions cannot go beyond the care facility to impact broader and more permanent improvement,” she explained. “This illustrates the importance of your professional organizations and why we should support them. They do take the fixes we find in day-to-day practice, as well as the problems we identify, and give us a voice that can reach the outside stakeholders that adversely impact care.”

THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT FOR SENIOR CARE PHARMACY

In spite of these concerns, Dr. Antimisiaris sees global opportunities to improve senior health.

“In addition to the aging of our population in the United States, the population is aging globally,” she said. “There are opportunities to collaborate internationally in order to share skills and solve ideas, as well as provide education, and there is always more research and collaborative work to do with the interprofessional health care team.”

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS INTERESTED IN SENIOR CARE PHARMACY PRACTICE

Dr. Antimisiaris recommended that students interested in pursuing a career in senior care first gain exposure to caring for older adults.

“Make sure that working with older adults is for you. Students can get this experience by working in the retail setting, a longterm care facility, or senior centers. Keep in mind that senior care is not limited to long-term care facilities and that senior care skills translate to just about any practice setting,” she advised. “Additionally, consider completing a residency in geriatrics and identify a mentor who works with older adults.” Dr. Antimisiaris concluded by sharing the best career advice she had ever received.

“Learn to appreciate the mundanity of excellence,” she said. “There is value in slowing down and doing the seemingly mundane tasks so you can truly digest topics and develop habits that lead to excellence or innovation.”

Senior care pharmacy offers many amazing career choices for the pharmacy student or practicing pharmacist who wants something different. As you can witness from Dr. Antimisiaris’ story alone, the sky is the only limit! ®

, is a writer, pharmacist, attorney, and former professor. Follow her on Twitter (@ErinLAlbert) or at her website (erinalbert.com).

Pharmacy students considering a career in a nontraditional pharmacy field should know that there are many opportunities to serve this unique and growing population.

Senior Care Pharmacy: One Exploding Population, Many Career Paths (Part 1)

In an article published in the fall 2018 issue of 

®, we explored perceptions of women in pharmacy and their leadership opportunities.

After more than 30 interviews with women in pharmacy at a variety of career points, we found that women early in their careers had mixed feelings and perceptions about leadership roles within the profession, midcareer women generally felt more disparity between genders and leadership opportunities, and women later in their careers felt most optimistic about options for women leaders.

Due to a serious lack of women at the helms of health care and pharmacy organizations, it is now important to discuss actual methods for getting more women at the heads of organizations. Based on research and strategies that have worked for other industries, here are some suggestions for how we might gain more women in leadership in health care and pharmacy.

Create continuous discussions on career trajectory.

 Retired pharmacist Marianne F. Ivey, PharmD, suggests that collegial conversations about career options need to occur in all stages of one’s career. Dr. Ivey noted that although these conversations were not as prevalent when she started her own career, they are now more frequent.

This falls on managers, as well: Dare to have collegial conversations with your direct reports. Great managers and leaders are always assessing the positions and responsibilities of employees and whether all parties would benefit from changes.

Buy from businesses owned and managed by women.

 If women are making the majority of purchase decisions in the United States, they can support other women with their wallets.

Provide more flexible work arrangements and paid time off. 

The more flexibility and paid time off that employees have, the more likely they are to remain engaged and loyal to the pharmacy or health care organization. We should be aware that stress in the workplace can lead to a lot of detrimental issues for women, including burnout, career dissatisfaction, and fewer opportunities for leadership.

We need managers and executives to step up and not only mentor women but sponsor them as well. Sponsorship happens when a senior member of a leadership team fights for a junior employee’s growth. In particular, women in senior positions need to mentor other women.

I have witnessed women who pull each other down rather than supporting, mentoring, and sponsoring one another; this must stop if we want more women at the helms of organizations. Women in junior-level positions also need to be given opportunities to “grow” into positions rather than being thrust into managerial positions without experience.

Promote quotas and diversity on boards and in senior leadership.

 California appears to be the first state to require gender balances or gender quotas on boards for companies. This may be controversial to some, but it has been documented repeatedly, including in a 2017 report by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, that boards with more diversity and women are more profitable. Therefore, capitalists should be on board with this idea, and savvy corporations should put quotas in place long before states or jurisdictions require them.

Initiate more pharmacy leadership postgraduate training programs.

 Although pharmacy schools are increasingly providing students with leadership opportunities, there remains a need for more postgraduate leadership programs. Such programs are provided by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, but they tend to require significant investments in time and money, and extensive applications and sponsorship from organizations and executives, as well as take only a handful of applicants each year. Every school of pharmacy should consider providing some type of postgraduate leadership program for their alumni. We, as a profession, do a good job of requiring continuing education in areas such as pharmacotherapy, so why do we not do the same for leadership training?

Employers can also develop their own internal leadership programs for pharmacists and other health care professionals. Companies who identify their own senior women leaders and put them in front of the next generation of leaders can also benefit, as early-career professionals “can be what they can see.”

Provide equity and creativity in company family care policies.

 Men and women need equal access to family leave for children and elderly parental care. If we continue to punish women who choose to have children or take care of their families, they will continue to be held back from career development opportunities. As care tends to fall on women in families, we have to level the playing field and create opportunities for them to remain in the workforce part-time, whether this be through job sharing or creative and flexible workforce options so they are not penalized for caring for or raising a family. Companies can also provide day care for children or senior care for older adult parents so that the sandwich generations can better help their families.

We have a long way to go to achieve gender parity in C-suites of health care and pharmacy organizations. However, employing the strategies above may help all of us attain a path forward and see more women become leaders over time. Like anything in pharmacy, change is evolutionary, not revolutionary. And of course, to all the women who have gone before us and led in pharmacy: Thank you for your contributions!

, is a writer, pharmacist, attorney, and former professor. Follow her on Twitter (@ErinLAlbert) or at her website, www.erinalbert.com.

Due to a serious lack of women at the helms of health care and pharmacy organizations, it is now important to discuss actual methods for getting more women at the heads of organizations.

Empowering Women Into Pharmacy and Health Care C-Suites

If you really want to distinguish yourself, find your first perfect gig after pharmacy school, and maneuver the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear 2018, it is time to get prepared.

Midyear is one of the largest pharmacy meeting gatherings in the United States, with over 20,000 individuals attendees every year—so don’t go unprepared if you want an amazing residency or fellowship after pharmacy school. Competition is stiff, fierce, and steeper now than ever for the increasing number of budding pharmacists.

Based upon past student successes in conquering this very intimidating and overwhelming experience, here’s what I recommend:

 If you’re a P2 or P3, find a P4 student who can help walk you through this process. There’s no better mentor than someone who has “been there, done that” recently; some pharmacy schools will assist with this through a process called layered learning.

Challenge yourself to find your first postschool gig before Midyear.

 This might sound crazy—after all, the point of Midyear is for students to look for a cool residency after school, right? Wrong. Shopping at Midyear as a P4 is too late. You need to do your homework before Midyear and plan far in advance.

Plenty of residencies and fellowships recruit long before Midyear. Interested in industry? Look at the Industry Pharmacists Organization’s FellowMatch program. If really want a residency, the match program is not the only avenue, however; you could even consider a nonaccredited residency. Every residency was not accredited at one point, and wouldn’t it be more unique and challenging to help build something new instead of fitting into a decades-old mold?

Create a list of companies you admire and go off the grid.

 This approach may seem strangest of all, but sit down and write a list of companies you admire inside and outside of pharmacy, then research them online. Do they offer internships or apprenticeships? Do they have in-house health care services for their employees? If not, could you help build that for them? Can you jump in and add to the conversation about employee wellness?

For example, one of the companies I love the most outside of health care is Pinterest—they have a “Pintern” program. How cool would it be, as a Pintern, to help them establish a foothold in improving health care and pharmacy? I’ve never worked for them, but perhaps you could.

If you really want to be an active attendee at Midyear instead of simply part of the chaos, follow these steps. By the time the meeting rolls around, you can breathe, avoid panicking, and perhaps even have some fun. Now go earn that A+!

Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA, PAHM, is a writer, pharmacist, attorney, and former professor. Follow her on Twitter (@ErinLAlbert) or at her website (

It might seem a bit odd to discuss ASHP Midyear before the holidays, but it’s never too soon to start looking ahead.