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Roosevelt University College of Pharmacy
by Kamila Dymala, ICHP student member Doctor of Pharmacy/MBA Candidate, 2021 (P2) Roosevelt University College of Pharmacy
Once upon a time, there was a person who worked as a sales assistant. That person was an ideal fit for this role, always focused on helping people, attentive, and thorough. Then he/she became a pharmacy technician. Everyone came to him/her for pharmacy advice as he/she got along with everyone and was able to solve most of the pharmacy related problems. Then he/she became a pharmacist who was fully involved in his work. Now, he/she is the manager of the pharmacy team. In each of these professions, he/she brought energy, focus, and devotion. He/she lived happily ever after…This story shows that the passion is not in a chosen profession, but in the person.
When student pharmacists formulate their sense of identity, they often discover that the most important feature that describes them is empathy. They say that they place themselves in the patient's situation. This ability is much more than compassion - it implies understanding the patient's condition and introduces a broader psychological context. Many student pharmacists emphasize their focus on the patient. Student pharmacists claim they are decent listeners and share a belief about importance of active listening skills. Practicing these key skills needs one more important condition - a very high level of internal discipline. Student pharmacists understand a trait of reliability, without which it would be impossible to practice the profession. In addition to these characteristics, student pharmacists recall receptiveness and divisibility of attention. Moreover, they say they must have a good memory - their profession requires continuous training and expanding qualifications.
In the context of what has been presented above, let's try to refer to the thought contained in the title "Who are we as Student Pharmacists?" We are empathic, future professionals, who are hard-working with active listening abilities…Great! Identification with the profession is a component of social identity. A high degree of professional identification is particularly important in professions of social trust, which undoubtedly includes the pharmacy profession. Additional questions regarding the significance of this fact reveal only that it is the professional mission. Hence, by describing themselves and their personal identity, student pharmacists understand the importance of the features that allow them to serve the patient.
Mission is the inner consciousness of a person that he/she wants to dedicate. Without this internal decision, the professional pursuit of the welfare of others, and the pursuit of any profession would be only passive. The joy that comes from practicing your own profession, with a sense of passion is unreachable to those who do not have such a sense of vocation.
Is being a future pharmacist a mission? Yes, but only if the person himself/herself treats his/her work as fulfilling a duty. It can be stated with equal certainty that a person chooses the profession that he/she will do and makes decisions about how he/she will do it by his/her own decisions and efforts. We shape our interests, our competencies, and our approach towards work. Every profession should have the same vocation: do your job, whatever it is, with full passion, commitment, and energy.
