As we commemorate this week, I am pleased to share that We’re Your Pharmacist, our national public awareness campaign, is off to an outstanding start. Creating recognition and visibility for the essential work of our members is the driving force behind this initiative.

Since launching the campaign in late May, we have reached tens of millions of people with impactful member stories that showcase the many ways pharmacists contribute to patient care. But there is much work to do and many more stories to tell. Next month, we will launch the We’re Your Pharmacist podcast to bring even more stories to our audience. Over the coming months, we will feature new perspectives — patients, physicians, nurses, and more — to increase the public’s understanding of the vital work you do. Please consider sharing your story.

Serving as medication specialists can be incredibly rewarding but challenging as you and your colleagues support the complex needs of patients while navigating a constantly evolving healthcare landscape. That’s why ASHP continues to advance our longstanding commitment to foster the well-being of the pharmacy workforce and ensure the profession has the resources and support it needs to thrive.

This year marks a significant milestone for the ASHP Well-Being Ambassador program, with the final cohort completing its training. Since launching in 2022, more than 4,500 participants—pharmacists, technicians, residents, executives, pharmacy faculty, and student pharmacists—have learned proven strategies to build resilience, support each other, and foster cultures of well-being within their healthcare organizations. Your participation has been essential in creating sustainable change.

This program would not have been possible without federal funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration, thanks to provisions inspired by the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act of 2022. ASHP is strongly advocating for Congress to reauthorize this critical legislation to ensure programs like these continue. We are also supporting the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation on several other important healthcare workforce initiatives. Most recently, as part of a national coalition, we urged hospitals to ensure credentialing applications do not include intrusive mental health questions.

We have also partnered with other national organizations to support the pharmacy workforce. Our longstanding participation in the National Academy of Medicine’s Well-Being Action Collaborative ensures the pharmacy workforce is represented as it plans efforts to support healthcare workers in the coming years.

Last month, ASHP and our pharmacy partners observed Pharmacy Workforce Suicide Prevention Day, which we established in 2023 to raise awareness and promote discussion about a critically important yet often stigmatized topic that disproportionately affects healthcare professionals, including the pharmacy workforce. Our special resource page contains the curated information you need as we work to help safeguard the mental health and well-being of our colleagues.

One of our newest resources is the ASHP burnout calculator, an interactive tool available to assist organizations in understanding the financial costs of occupational burnout. Share this tool with your C-suite to encourage meaningful investments in supporting our pharmacy workforce.

We encourage you to visit our dedicated Well-Being & You Resource Center for the latest collection of well-being content, including toolkits for state affiliates, webinars, and podcasts. And join us for a range of wellness-related programming at the 2024 Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s sessions include training pharmacy technician leaders to reduce burnout, forging one’s professional identity, and maximizing public service student loan forgiveness. The impacts on well-being are diverse, and so, too, is our programming.

We hope that you will help us spread the word about the important work you and your teams do every day to improve patient care in our communities. And know that we are committed to supporting the well-being of the pharmacy workforce and helping you thrive in your essential work keeping patients healthy.

Thank you for all you do for your patients and our profession.

Sincerely,

Paul

Posted on October 23, 2024