While working at CVS Health before the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act for COVID-19 was declared, I saw many patients turned away from the pharmacy due to age restrictions for most vaccinations. One patient interaction stuck with me: I was working with a mother who did not speak English and her daughter was translating on her behalf, stating that they were not able to see a primary care provider due to financial circumstances. Financially, providing her child with the vaccine at the pharmacy would have saved them a lot of money and time.

I had the opportunity to participate in Texas Pharmacy Day at the Capitol on February 28. The event was an incredible experience, providing me the chance to advocate for policies including expanded pharmacist immunization authority with state legislators.

House Bill 1105 by Rep. Four Price and Senate Bill 749 by Sen. Pete Flores aim to expand access to vaccines by authorizing pharmacists to order and administer CDC-recommended vaccines to children 3 years of age and older, with the consent of their parent or legal guardian, and to delegate vaccine administration to a certified pharmacy technician. I believe this legislation will support higher vaccination rates since pharmacies are generally accessible to the public and often have extended hours of operation. Such increased access to vaccines can help limit the spread of preventable diseases.

One of the highlights of Pharmacy Day at the Capitol was the opportunity to meet with our legislators. We spoke to them about the importance of expanding access to vaccines and how pharmacists can play a crucial role in achieving that goal. Hearing and sharing different perspectives and experiences with my pharmacy colleagues empowered me to voice the significance of pharmacists.

In addition to meeting with legislators, the legislative briefing afforded students the opportunity to learn and to gain a deeper understanding of the issues affecting our profession. Overall, the presentation provided valuable skills that we were able to use when meeting with our legislators. It helped us to feel more confident in our ability to present our ideas effectively and to build relationships with legislators that will be beneficial in the future.

We learned about the importance of being concise and clear in our messaging. We were taught to identify the key points we wanted to make and to frame them in a way that would be easy for legislators to understand. We also learned about the importance of using data and statistics to support our arguments and how to present them in a way that would be compelling.

The presentation also covered how to build relationships with legislators and their staff. We were encouraged to be respectful, polite, and to listen actively to their concerns. We were taught to encourage discussion and to use our conversations as opportunities to educate legislators and their staff about the important role of pharmacists.

Pharmacy Day at the Capitol was an important event for us as student pharmacists, and it highlighted the critical role that pharmacists play in the health care system. We were able to advocate for the needs of our profession, learn from experts in the field, and build valuable relationships with legislators and other student pharmacists.

Attending the event was an incredibly empowering experience that has left a lasting impression on me. It has strengthened my resolve to advocate for the needs of my profession and has inspired me to continue to push for change in the future. Witnessing the power of collective action and seeing the impact that our voices can have on health care policy has made me want to get more involved and make a difference in my community and beyond.

The experience has inspired me to continue advocating for the needs of our profession, both now and in the future. It has shown me the power that comes from speaking up and using our voices to effect change, and it has given me the skills and confidence to continue doing so as TPA-ASP Policy Chair next academic year.

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Trinh is a P2 student at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy and serves as Policy Committee Chair-Elect for the TPA Academy of Student Pharmacists.

If you had asked me to join the Texas Pharmacy Association during pharmacy school, I would have replied, “TPA? What’s that?”

When I realized right before starting my P4 year that there was an entire state association dedicated to pharmacy and that it was offered as an elective rotation, I knew it was going to be great experience and something very different than my other rotations.

During the first couple weeks of my TPA rotation I dove right into helping with the 2022 TPA Conference and Expo. After long hours in the office helping the TPA staff organize everything and put all the little details together, it was truly amazing seeing the whole conference come together in mid-July at the Hyatt Regency in Austin.

Seeing pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians come together from Texas (or even out of state) to show support for the pharmacy profession was really awesome, and it made me love pharmacy a little more than I already did.

In addition to the Conference and Expo, I was invited to sit in on board meetings and legislative hearings with my preceptor, TPA CEO Debbie Garza. That’s when it really sunk in that I had chosen a very informative elective. Getting to see behind the scenes in pharmacy was really eye opening and made me realize the amount of work that we don’t see happening in our pharmacy world when we are behind the counters. Being so accustomed to science-based courses, I didn’t think much about the government affairs side of pharmacy. Now I realize how important it is to this profession.

This rotation was both rewarding and challenging at the same time. Getting exposure to different pharmacy settings was my goal for my P4 rotations. This rotation gave me the exposure I was looking for, and more! I walked away from this rotation having gained so much knowledge about what the Texas Pharmacy Association does and what it stands for.

The experiences I had were so unique, and getting to work alongside Debbie was such a privilege. One of the main things that she talks about that has stuck with me is the need for pharmacists to unify as one and show up for the pharmacy profession. TPA sheds light on current events that happen behind the scenes in pharmacy, and there’s no better way to unify everyone and receive relevant news that applies to our profession than to be involved with the Association.

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Kobeissi completed a six-week rotation with the Texas Pharmacy Association during the summer of 2022.

As a student pharmacist, it often feels like our pharmacist days are a million years away. We are hyperfocused on checking our boxes and getting the grades, never giving much attention to the world outside of our pharmacy school bubble. After all, there is already so much to learn and so little time! The thought of tackling government affairs and politics on top of the many hats we already wear presents a monumental challenge, so we leave it on the back burner until it is really important.

Like many of us, I had little to no regard for the importance of advocating for my profession during pharmacy school. However, I took advantage of the unique opportunity to do a fourth-year rotation at the Texas Pharmacy Association in an effort to learn something new and experience something out of my comfort zone. Ignorance may have been bliss, but watching TPA lead the efforts to unite and empower everyone in pharmacy, regardless of their practice setting, ignited a newfound passion for advocacy.

Right off the bat, I was immersed in all things TPA. I had the privilege of starting my rotation by sitting at the table as TPA’s Nominating Committee interviewed nominees for the Board of Directors. It was a great way to understand the roles and responsibilities of each position while learning from a group of passionate pharmacy role models.

Throughout the remainder of my rotation, I had the chance to experience the many aspects of TPA. From sitting in on various TPA meetings as well as a Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP) Informal Conference with TPA’s Professional Recovery Network, I had the chance to observe TPA as the exclusive association leading the grassroots movement to drive our profession forward.

In addition, I was afforded the opportunity to sit in on multiple meetings with the Texas Department of State Health Services, where TPA was the first to receive the latest information on the rapidly changing COVID-19 guidelines and recommendations implemented in pharmacies across the state. Lastly, I had the chance to attend a TSBP meeting and watch as TPA’s CEO, Debbie Garza, led the way with testimony in favor of initiatives that would later be proposed rules regarding non-sterile compounding and patient counseling.

Despite all the wonderful efforts TPA is making, the Association’s greatest strength is its members’ presence. Unfortunately, the numbers do not accurately reflect our profession’s strength. With our profession evolving and the pandemic highlighting our value, pharmacy’s visibility and involvement are now more paramount than ever.

Of course, as pharmacists, we are the drug experts. Yet, the countless images depicting pharmacists as behind-the-counter pill counters do not accurately represent our profession’s expanding scope of practice. Despite our individual pursuits of different avenues within pharmacy, we all must unite to move our profession forward and overcome the outdated depiction of a pharmacist.

While my six-week rotation with TPA has come to an end, my efforts to stay involved and move our profession forward have not. My TPA rotation challenged me, pushed me out of my comfort zone, and showed me so many things I didn’t even know I did not know! I am so grateful I had the opportunity to meet the incredible team dispensing the prescription for change, and I am looking forward to applying everything I learned at TPA to my role as a pharmacist.

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Chebat completed a six-week rotation with the Texas Pharmacy Association during the spring of 2022.

F or many Texans involved in healthcare, the coronavirus pandemic posed challenges that presented severe consequences: podiatrists unable to perform routine foot exams for patients in nursing home facilities; chiropractors altering the adjustment schedules of clients in the middle of therapy; surgeons delaying elective procedures in order to provide triage space for COVID-19 treatment, and nurses uprooting their lives to serve patients across the country; the list goes on and on.

Despite the strain that the pandemic placed on healthcare professionals in Texas, pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians have once again proven their worth as vital members of the healthcare community. In fact, COVID-19 may have been the greatest opportunity in decades to advance and secure the future of our profession.

As an older, non-traditional pharmacy student with a degree in agricultural economics, my perspective of pharmacy has constantly evolved since I began pharmacy school in 2019. After losing my mother to cancer in 2017, I began to look for a career beyond my family’s small business that would allow me to have the impact that my mother’s oncologist and oncology pharmacist had on my family.

My brother Cody and I were both accepted into the Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Tyler in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Since that time, we have learned that the profession is dealing with significant change.

From pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform, community pharmacy workload requirements, the increasing need for pharmacy residency experience in order to provide clinical care at an institutional setting, the imbalance between new graduates and new pharmacy job creation, and the growing student debt load of the average pharmacy graduate ($175,000), our profession is faced with obstacles that are unique and require innovation to solve.

COVID-19 provided our profession with a platform to shine and a mechanism by which we can address the obstacles standing in our way. By taking the lead on immunization, pharmacists were able to showcase their worth each day by serving their communities and fellow Texans.

In my home of Smith County, student pharmacists from our college were able to volunteer for shifts with faculty preceptors to administer vaccines via drive-in vaccination hubs, administering more than 1,000 vaccines each day at our local fairground facility and convention center complex. Community pharmacies like Brookshire Grocery Company also dedicated multipurpose facilities with lots of space to administer vaccines to hundreds of Texans per day. Finally, institutions like Christus Trinity Mother Frances offered vaccinations to both healthcare staff and their families.

COVID-19 gave the Texas Pharmacy Association (TPA) even more bargaining power to tackle PBM reform in the Texas Legislature last spring, addressing and mitigating one of our obstacles for the future of the profession. As a student pharmacist, this made me beam with pride knowing that those that have gone before me are sacrificing their time and lending their expertise to make a better future for my me and my brother as pharmacists.

Overall, COVID-19 has given me a greater appreciation of pharmacy and the adaptability of our institutions to continue to produce the most accessible and versatile healthcare professionals. With the nation now dealing with another variant (Omicron) and COVID-19 booster vaccines available to eligible patients, our profession continues to demonstrate its worth and resilience to fellow Texans.

Of the seven core values of my college of pharmacy, optimism is my favorite. Despite the unique obstacles facing pharmacists today, I truly believe the best days of our profession are still ahead.

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Gilbert is a P3 student at The University of Texas at Tyler Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy.

The 87th Texas Legislature was in full swing as I began my final fourth-year rotation with the Texas Pharmacy Association. The weeks flew by in a whirlwind as I navigated through various Zoom meetings, tried to understand the bills affecting pharmacy, and grappled with the political complexities that are the foundation of our society. Looking back, here are a few key takeaways on policy and advocacy that I learned on this rotation.

The Political Process Is Not as Complicated as It Initially Seems

The political jargon and various processes can be difficult to understand at first. Politics is like a game where you have to understand who the players are, the rules of the game, and what rules can be broken. As you piece things together, it begins to make more sense—just give it time and ask questions. This is why TPA employs a fantastic team of lobbyists to guide us through the process.

Politics Can Be Exciting

Too often, government is termed a “boring” topic, especially among us science-minded folk in the pharmacy world. I have experienced first-hand the excitement that comes with a successful public hearing or watching a bill being debated on the floor of the Texas House or Senate.

During one field trip to the state Capitol, I donned my white coat to show support for pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform legislation being heard in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. In a rare move, the committee unanimously voted the bill out of committee that day. Finally, people were beginning to understand the plight of pharmacists against unfair PBM practices!

The excitement in the Senate chamber and in follow-up meetings with TPA members and lobbyists was a refreshing change of pace. Our bills were moving, and that movement spurred a glimmer of hope. Having legislators so passionate about pharmacy issues because of our advocacy efforts provided a glimmer of hope that our profession is valued and recognized.

Your Voice Matters More than You Think It Does

While I did not testify myself on behalf of TPA’s immunization and test-and-treat bills, I helped write the testimonies and helped prepare pharmacy witnesses for potential questions. Hearing words I wrote spoken in a committee hearing was an empowering and energizing experience. My voice does matter. My words do have impact. I can make a difference.

So can each and every one of you. Show up for hearings to register your support or opposition, call or email your legislators, tell your stories, and share your experiences. Legislators remember this when they are making decisions.

Involvement Is Meaningful

Whether you are a TPA Board member, just pay membership dues, or fall somewhere in between, the importance of being a TPA member is paramount if we want our profession to survive and thrive.

Pharmacy has huge opponents in the insurance and medical industries. We need as many people supportive of TPA as possible to move the profession forward for our practice abilities, for our businesses, and for our patients.

Getting involved in policy and advocacy can seem complicated, messy, and confusing. Don’t let that deter you from fighting for what you believe in or for what your profession needs. It is worth it. Regardless of your practice setting, regardless of your interest (or lack-thereof) in politics, involvement is important, impactful, and meaningful.

I encourage each and every one of you to step outside your comfort zone and go do something to advocate for our profession. Take that one extra step and venture outside the pharmacy bubble. Learn about the issues facing other people and our society. Be open minded and open to hearing new perspectives. Not only will you be better able to relate to your patients, but you may discover something new about yourself as well.

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Humpert completed a six-week rotation with the Texas Pharmacy Association during April and May of 2021.