Home - ICHP KeePosted

Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

Hi Tech
Introducing Kristine Vankuiken

by Kristine VanKuiken, CPhT- ICHP Technician Representative

My name is Kristine VanKuiken and I am your new Technician Representative on the ICHP Board! I know some of you and hope to meet many more in the coming year. I met some of you at the 2018 ICHP Annual Meeting. I thought that all the presentations were very informative. One of the things that I will be asking of you in my new position is for your ideas and input as to what can make your ICHP experience better.

I have been interested in pharmacy since I was in high school. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents as a child, and as they aged and developed medical conditions I was concerned that most of the time they did not seem to understand for what they needed all of their different medications. They lived in a time when a person just did as their doctor told them to do. I always thought it would be helpful if someone could actually explain to them the purpose of each drug. Then I thought, why couldn’t that person be me? I could learn these things and help them as well as other people. That reality did not happen for my grandparents but I continued to pursue my dream. I went to college with the intention of becoming a pharmacist, but life intervened so I became a CPhT instead and I have never regretted my decision. In my career so far, I have worked in many different positions of pharmacy, from inpatient to outpatient and from employee to leader. I have enjoyed each and every one of them!

Being a pharmacy technician encompasses so many different aspects of pharmacy and I hope to hear many of your stories and ideas. I also hope to be able to get other technicians that are not currently ICHP members involved. I would love to work with those of you that are already members to accomplish that. My boyfriend recently attended a training workshop for his job and, as he described what they learned, I thought it seemed quite relevant to some of my goals of my new position at ICHP. The theme was HELP ME HELP YOU! That is my message to you my fellow technicians!

HELP ME HELP YOU!

Please reach out to me as much as you like. You can email me at kvankk@uic.edu. I would love to get to know all of you and hear what kinds of things are important for you as a member of ICHP. I welcome all questions, concerns and suggestions. I promise to do my best to HELP YOU!

Talk to you soon,
Kristine ■