Student Perspective:

The 2017 ICHP Leadership Retreat was held at the Allerton Park and Retreat Center in Monticello, Illinois. The retreat began around noon on Friday with lunch and an ice breaker session. The group started with the leadership session led by ICHP President, Travis Hunerdosse, PharmD, MBA. His presentation focused on how to strengthen leadership skills. This session was informative, interactive, and was truly enjoyed. All participants shared their knowledge and experiences that they went through as a leader. After this session, the group had free time to enjoy the weather and the hiking that Allerton offers. After the hike, we attended dinner and the social networking hour. During that time, I could meet and talk to individuals and hear personal stories, both pharmacy and non-pharmacy related.

On Saturday, the group started early in the morning with a session led by each Division Director. The goal of this session was to celebrate successes within each Division and identify topics that will help ensure the continued success of ICHP and advocacy of pharmacy. It was helpful for me as a student to realize how important it is to advocate for the pharmacy profession. Often, students do not fully understand why advocating for their profession is important. However, this retreat showed just how important it is. Personally, I was unaware of the multi-level impact and how important it is to keep up to date on pharmacy related laws. After this leadership retreat, I learned that a small amount of time can make a big difference, particularly when large numbers of people act together towards a common goal. As a student leader of ICHP, it is my job to advertise why advocacy of the profession is important to pharmacy students and pharmacists.

As a student, I was hesitant to attend the leadership retreat at first because I felt overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of the event. However, when I arrived everyone welcomed me and treated me as if I had attended before. They shared their experiences as clinical pharmacists and as ICHP leaders, which made me challenge myself to become a better student and a better leader of the ICHP student chapter. I would like to thank the ICHP leaders who gave me opportunity to attend the 2017 Leadership Retreat. When comparing the past to the present, it is clear that the duty of pharmacists in modern society is changing at a fast pace. When pharmacy students are involved in the issues affecting pharmacy, and we take steps to influence policy through the legislative and regulatory process, we can help shape the profession that we will be entering in the future.

Resident Perspective:

In October 2017, I had the opportunity to attend the ICHP Leadership Retreat at the Allerton Park & Retreat Center in Monticello, Illinois. Normally, this retreat is only for pharmacist and pharmacy technician leaders in ICHP, but I was lucky to go as a member with my rotation preceptor at the time and ICHP President, Travis Hunerdosse, PharmD, MBA. I did not know what to expect from this retreat, but I was pleasantly surprised at all the information I learned and how fueled with energy I became during the discussions about the pharmacy profession. During the group discussion, many items were brought up about advancing the pharmacy profession through the pharmacist and pharmacy technician roles. Listening to the ideas of the ICHP leaders and bouncing around my ideas as a new practitioner helped to keep the conversation going. The biggest thing I took away from the weekend experience was how important it is to get involved in an organization. This involvement might be monthly committee calls, attending leadership events, or volunteering for events. The more people you can connect with, the better it is for the profession. I met so many practitioners from all over the state, and it is always helpful to form a network of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help progress the role of pharmacy in healthcare. Pharmacy technician development is just as important as the pharmacist because we depend on each other and need to work together at the top of our licenses. This retreat allowed pharmacy technicians to get involved in leadership roles and discuss how to increase technician involvement in organizations. Since the retreat, I have become an active member of the New Practitioners Network and the Ambulatory Care Network to keep networking and learn how others are practicing throughout the state of Illinois.