Assignment: Health Professionals Pre Pharmacy Paper

1. Evaluate the field. How do you feel about it? What do you feel are the pros and cons of the field? Do you feel like you could fit into the field as a professional? Why or why not? What was your reaction to the speakers and the presentation?

a. What would be your responsibilities? Your day-to-day tasks? How do these align (or not) with your current skill set, and how do these align (or not) with your interests?

OR

2. Research a condition this profession can treat. How do they treat it? What are the latest developments for this condition or treatment (i.e. technology, new discoveries)?

OR

3. What kind of demographics do this field or specialties in this field treat? What are the pros and cons of treating the general population, as opposed to a certain patient population? Which do you feel is best suited to you, and why?

Assignments will be graded based on the following:

• Pass = Answered all questions, include in response thoughts on readings from the recommended list or cited sources that relate to the profession

Many pharmacists will remember how it feels to share with someone that they are a pharmacist or student pharmacist and receive uninformed replies. Most people are not aware of the broad scope of pharmacists’ responsibilities or the variety of pharmacy practice settings. Most would have a difficult time envisioning a pharmacist who was not involved with the physical handling of medications. Even some colleagues in other health professions fail to recognize or appreciate the level of education and magnitude of training required to practice pharmacy today.

While objectively capturing the public perception of pharmacists on a large scale is difficult, the representation of pharmacists in the media has primarily been negative, with pharmacists largely portrayed as victims or villains.1 Rosenthal and colleagues’ 2011 survey of 100 community pharmacists in Canada found that participants viewed themselves primarily as “dispensers of medication” rather than patient-centered practitioners.2 Ongoing negative media portrayals of pharmacists and a lack of progress in elevating awareness have contributed to misperceptions about the professional role of pharmacists.

An underdeveloped public understanding of the profession may not seem of paramount importance or urgency. However, the general public represents, among other things, patients who determine through trust and expectation how engaged a pharmacist can be. Also, misunderstanding of the profession may cause other healthcare professionals to not engage in collaborative practice agreements or legislators to not see the importance of increasing accessibility and reimbursement mechanisms for pharmacists. Finally, the general public includes prospective pharmacy students and the people in their lives who influence their career choice. Just as public misperceptions have the potential to impact pharmacy practice, misperceptions of pharmacists among prospective health students may result in insufficient numbers of quality applicants to PharmD programs. This is a particularly timely issue given recent declines in the pharmacy applicant pool.

Applications to PharmD programs have been in steady decline since 2012. Around this time period, anecdotal reports of a contracting job market began to surface. However, the 2014 National Pharmacist Workforce Survey reported a balance of supply of and demand for pharmacists in the job market. Furthermore, in the fourth quarter of 2017, the Pharmacist Demand Index (PDI) ranged from 2.88 to 3.22, on a scale where a score of three signifies that demand is in balance with supply.3,4 Nevertheless, applicants to PharmD programs decreased from 17,630 in 2012-2013 to 13,728 in 2017-2018.5 Conversely, medical, nursing, and physician assistant training programs have not experienced a similar decline. In fact, the number of applicants to US medical schools has increased by at least 1,000 since 2010.6 The National League of Nursing reports that 64% of bachelor of science in nursing programs turned down qualified applicants from 2010 to 2014.7 Likewise, physician assistant programs experienced a 10.7% increase in total applications submitted from 2014 to 2017.8 Each profession undoubtedly has its own stereotypes and public perception challenges. Nevertheless, the profession of pharmacy is experiencing an expansion of opportunities and nontraditional roles, including but not limited to involvement in precision medicine, specialty pharmacy, public health, and leadership. Evidence demonstrates growth of pharmacy practice settings and a balance of job supply and demand, yet applicant interest is declining.

Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and physical therapy all require a strong science knowledge base and solid communication skills. The ideal prospective student for most health professions is, in most cases, similar. Most of these students have taken similar prerequisite coursework and are interested in becoming a medical professional because they want to use their science knowledge to help people. Practitioners in each of these fields certainly have the potential to impact societal health. However, not all health professions are universally understood, and some are more publicly respected than others. Multidisciplinary evidence from students actively pursuing admission to medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and physical therapy programs suggests an appreciation for the pharmacist’s role on the health care team, yet a poor understanding of the pharmacists’ corresponding responsibilities and practice settings.9 This raises a few questions: Are prospective health students less likely to apply to pharmacy school because the public image of pharmacists is unknown or misunderstood? Do prospective health students who may be better suited for a career in pharmacy apply to other professional programs? Finally, do pre-pharmacy students apply to pharmacy school with misperceptions about the profession? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then there is an opportunity for improvement as a profession.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource