PHARMACISTS need to be proud of their profession and stop apologising, two speakers told delegates at Pharmacy Connect in Sydney last week.
University of Alberta Department of Pharmacology Chair, Dr Ross Tsuyuki, said pharmacists needed to adopt more positive terms about themselves, if the profession is the achieve its goals.
"Sorry, I'm a pharmacist - I hate that," he said.
"Why do we do that? Why do we teach people that?
"I see this in hospitals quite a bit, where there's a committee there will be nurses, doctors and somebody will say, 'I'm Ross, I'm just a pharmacist'.
"Stop doing that! Such messages convey subservience, a lack of confidence and whatever the opposite of patient care is.
"We can't control everything about our image... but at least we can control the things that come out of our mouths [and] the stuff that we publish.
"We need to respect ourselves before others will."
New Pharmacy Guild of Australia Executive Director, Suzanne Greenwood, echoed Tsuyuki's comments during the Judy Liauw Address (see page 2).
"I've been in this role two weeks and already I've noticed that trend of pharmacists being apologetic about 'Oh, I'm just the pharmacist'," she said.
"That's absolute rubbish. You've completed prolonged training, you've got formal qualifications, you've studied at university, you've completed internships, you've got continuing professional development," Greenwood stated.
"You are professionals...you are health professionals," she said.
"I'm a lawyer by profession, and I hold all other professions in high regard, but speaking with pharmacists this week it's clear that the pharmacy profession itself needs a bit of an overhaul on how you think about yourselves."
Tsuyuki added that pharmacists needed to adjust their vocabulary away from terms like "retail pharmacy" and "store" instead of pharmacy.
"Do any other health professionals add the term 'retail'? Is there a retail proctologist?" he asked.
"Don't call your pharmacy a store - it's a pharmacy.
"It paints us as shopkeepers rather than health professionals."
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 10 Sep 19
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 10 Sep 19
