Join us as members of the 2023-2024 ASHP Pharmacy Technician Forum Executive Committee share their journey into leadership at the state and national level. Listen as we explore personal growth and professional insights gained through active involvement in professional associations. Discover how you too can make a meaningful impact.
The information presented during the podcast reflects solely the opinions of the presenter. The information and materials are not, and are not intended as, a comprehensive source of drug information on this topic. The contents of the podcast have not been reviewed by ASHP, and should neither be interpreted as the official policies of ASHP, nor an endorsement of any product(s), nor should they be considered as a substitute for the professional judgment of the pharmacist or physician.
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This podcast provides an opportunity to share ideas and best practices focused on professional development, clinical and innovative practices and other topics important to pharmacy technicians. My name is Tommy Fairchild and I'll be your host for today's episode. I'm the sterile compounding technician supervisor at Mayo Clinic in St. Mary's hospital for Rochester. I'm also the vice chair on the members and partners committee for our local state level Minnesota Health Society pharmacists as well as the quality from workforce safety committee with ASHP at the national level. With me today is Tyler Darcy, manager of pharmacy training and development at Boston Medical Center and the chair of the ASHP pharmacy technician forum executive committee. Thank you for joining us today Tyler. Let's get started talking about today's topic, embracing leadership, nurturing confidence and professional advancement in associations. So far listeners who may be meeting you for the first time, could you share a bit about your background and pharmacy technician journey? Hi Tommy, thank you for that introduction. Sure. I ended up as a pharmacy technician almost by accident. I was in school, I was doing an education degree to be a high school history teacher and I was working at a deli and someone had mentioned the opportunity to work as a technician and I thought maybe that would be better than coming home with meat and cheese stuck in my shoes. And so I started working in an outpatient retail setting. From there I got nationally certified, I went to work at an inpatient hospital and since then I have done implementation for automated dispensing cabinets, 340B compliance and in my current role I oversee training and development for all of the technician staff at Boston Medical Center. So it's been an interesting journey. And I kind of I kind of echo some of that too. I started out in the in the retail space and kind of made my way to the hospital and patient setting and you know you kind of just you go along with it and it's it's quite the ride to be in pharmacy. Can you share some of your personal journey outside of that as far as professional organization, ASHP pharmacy technician forum and the impact that they had on your career? Yeah ironically this is you know almost something of an accident as well which is why I always you know try to promote the knowledge of these associations and organizations because I think it goes under the radar a lot of the time. When I started my current job at Boston Medical Center I took over managing our pharmacy technician training program and one of our goals was ASHP accreditation. So I spent a lot of time on the website looking at various resources and that's when I stumbled upon the technician forum and realized that there are opportunities to get involved. Without that coincidence of being kind of handed the goal of ASHP accreditation and that leading me to the website I really would never would have known about the option and so I think visibility and awareness are real challenges in getting technicians excited and involved. As far as career impact it's been huge. I've made tons of connections through the forum and attending live events and my leadership team is supportive and proud of my work with ASHP and TPTS. I can't recommend enough for any technician listening to participate to the extent that they're able to. Nice we kind of touched on this a little bit about professional development and kind of helping your trajectory. Do you think that from your perspective that being actively participating in them has helped you grow both personally and professionally? Yeah absolutely. I think on the professional side you know exposure to different organizations in different ways of thinking has had a huge impact. Being able to learn about a successful strategy employed at a health center across the country and bring that back and replicate the success is phenomenal. I recently attended an ASHP strategic planning event that was all about the intersection of pharmacy and primary care and it's nice to be able to you know get the wheels churning on a lot of different ideas that everyone else not everyone but other organizations have implemented and found success with. On the personal level you also established you know those personal connections with people you'd never otherwise meet. When I attend a conference or event now part of that is looking forward to seeing friendly faces again. So definitely there have been benefits on both the professional and the personal side. Perfect but can you tell us a little bit about a skill or a lesson you learned through your involvement in ASHP and the pharmacy technician forum that has proven valuable in your career so far? A lesson I've known for a long time but has been emphasized through my work with ASHP is the ability of pharmacy technicians to expand and adapt to so many different roles in the pharmacy. Being able to make the case for extended or advanced roles has led to direct impacts on my organization where now I can look back at almost you know I've almost been there for five years five years of work and see technicians performing at the top of their license when they otherwise may not be and so maybe the lesson is that there is always someone to learn from and always new ideas to incorporate into your work. Yeah and you kind of touched on this a little bit is you know how that how professional associations such as ASHP and now TPS are contributing to influencing the policy and allowing technicians to know to work at the top of their license I think that that's really important. Is there anything else that that you have noticed has kind of contributed to that or kind of allowed those types of conversations to start happening? Yeah absolutely and I talk about this to anyone who will listen but it's been interesting to be able to peek behind the curtain and see the work ASHP does in the background to help advocate for pharmacists and technicians. A recent example I'm really happy about is the model legislation for technician product verification. It's a template so that advocates don't have to start from scratch and it really empowers people to be successful. Initiatives like this help form the building blocks for state level advocacy by not just ASHP state affiliates but anyone looking to advocate for change. I actually recently had a couple of colleagues reach out from other health systems in my area to start discussing what we can do using those ASHP resources as the building blocks but what we can do to expand on those and advocate in our own states for change so I've been really impressed with that. That's amazing that sounds great. Have you noticed that there are any common misconceptions about involvement in association that you'd like to address or point out here? Yeah there are definitely some misconceptions. I think maybe the biggest one is getting involved can be exciting and I think sometimes in that excitement people want a big change to happen quickly not dissimilar to other areas where you're advocating for change politics things like that but a lot of work that gets done only gets there by everyone making small contributions over time. If we go back to technician product verification it could be 10 years before it's the norm in every state and I believe we'll get there eventually but it only happens because of all the little details every conversation forum post article published etc. A lot of the work is accumulating momentum for change so I encourage people to be excited and get involved but also be prepared to start small and know that every contribution matters. The model legislation is a great step forward but it's one step of many that we need to get to where we want to be. Yeah that's a very good point I think that a lot of times you know you're looking for the big change to come immediately and that although lofty that's not realistic right so I don't have a problem with this but for those that may be introverted or shy right how can they effectively navigate and contribute to leadership roles and professional associations? It's a tough question and I wish I had maybe a more satisfying answer I know it's a cliche but practice really does make perfect. Putting yourself out there making mistakes and doing better the next time goes a really long way. You know for example you know people talk about networking but never really detail how it works or how to go about it especially for technicians you're often not in sort of this corporate or office setting where a lot of these things are established. At the end of the day it's about establishing personal and professional relationships with others. That can be more challenging if you're introverted but it's just an obstacle to overcome not an insurmountable one. Oftentimes I have some hesitation myself going into a room where I don't know anyone but at the end of these events I almost always look back on it as a positive experience. The build up is often way worse than the real thing when it comes to shyness or being introverted. Very well put. So what would you say would be if individuals are feeling nervous about taking on leadership roles but what advice would you give them for for overcoming that initial hesitation how would you have them approach that? It's similar advice but sometimes you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. There are some things you can do beforehand like education, practicing discrete skills like communication, presenting, navigating professional relationships and those can make you feel more comfortable but that first leadership role is really where you hone those skills and start putting them into practice in a way that goes beyond your individual role. Leadership can be a nerve-wracking idea at first. I think maybe it's supposed to be that way. It's a lot of responsibility and you want people who are going to take that seriously. So I absolutely encourage all of that pre-work that can be done to set yourself up for success in a leadership role but that first one that you have is always going to be a little nerve-wracking but I encourage people to try it anyway because it can be really rewarding. I love it. You mentioned that you know you kind of got to stumble sometimes through these things in order to get better at it and you know I just gave my first presentation last week at a state level and I got to tell you it's nerve-wracking is to say a least so it's good to get out there and start doing those things and I think the more that you do on the the better you get at them. So lastly is there anything else you want to share today with others that are thinking about potentially getting involved in professional associations such as ASHP or no the new TPS the Technician Society? Yeah I think in conclusion I would just say you know from my personal experience this is my fourth year participating in ASHP starting with the Educational Steering Committee all the way to now to chairing the forum's executive committee. I have had a great experience each and every year with the new pharmacy technician society there has never been a better time to get involved and start shaping the future of the pharmacy technician profession. So anyone listening if you're a technician I encourage you to get involved apply whether at the national or the state level and if you're a pharmacist who may be listening to this I would encourage your staff to participate in these things as well and make sure that they're aware of the opportunities and that you value them because I think that can go a long way towards encouraging people to put themselves out there as well. Yeah and that's a good point too is you know like you had mentioned before is you know we're looking to get technicians to the top of their license and what better way to do that than to to have the pharmacists and technicians kind of voicing that along the way and along the pathway so I think that that's great. So if you haven't heard before I do encourage you all to check out the pharmacy technician society a TPS a new membership home for pharmacy technicians. The pharmacy technician resources can be found at www.farmtechsociety.org. There's better exclusive offerings including advanced pharmacy technician toolkits resume and CV resources monthly technician newsletters as well as forums such as the TPS connect community where you can exchange ideas post questions talk with your other peers. Thanks again for tuning in for this episode of the technician topics and to be sure to subscribe to the ASHP official podcast for more episodes. 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