I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but there seems to be a call out there for practicing community pharmacists unaffiliated with pharmacy ownership to organize for the protection of their profession. Maybe it’s because things are moving way too slowly in bringing community pharmacists into the kind of healthcare role they should inhabit. Or it might be because it seems, with the government changes going on, that things are going backwards, and that the regulators really don’t get it.In other words, there’s a feeling that we need something different than what we have had, because that seems not to be working.I've heard discussions amongst pharmacists, and received communications from others, saying that staff pharmacists in community practice should organize themselves into a group or association to start to get their perspective heard. The feeling is that there is a need to elevate the professional side of pharmacy in any discussion, and that community pharmacists demonstrate that professionalism in a way others seem not to understand or appreciate.Maybe it’s not a bad idea, but the reality is, it takes a lot of work to organize, finance, and gain credibility for a new group. We already have pharmacist organizations. Community pharmacists may complain that these groups have fallen short and failed to get the discussion to where it needs to be; however, there is another side to this argument. When I left the directorship of my professional association, I was the last non-owner community pharmacist on the board. Those still on the board were all smart people, strongly committed to improving the lot of pharmacy in the province. It’s not their fault that the staff pharmacists’ perspective is not represented at the directorship levels: the fact is, staff pharmacists—the kind of practitioners who make up the largest majority of pharmacists in practice—are not running for election.If you want to organize to ensure that your concerns are addressed and your message is heard, and you are part of a majority that can outvote all of the other constituencies combined, wouldn’t it be easier to simply take over the existing organizations? Being association members will certainly help with financing the infrastructure to run these things. Joining committees, becoming a board member, attending meetings and conferences—all these things will get you—and your ideas—heard.Or, we can just leave things the way they are now, and hope things work out the way we want.But isn't that how we got where we are now?
