Nick Dorich Elected APhA ASP Member at Large The 2010 American Pharmacists Association yearly conference made two significant inaugurations this past St. Patrick‟s Day weekend. The first was the opening of the new site for the APhA national headquarters, built on pharmacist-owned land in the nation‟s capital. Fundraising for the construction of this building began in the late 1990s, back when the URI College of Pharmacy‟s own Ronald P. Jordan served as president of the APhA. The second inaugural event introduced a vision realized by student pharmacists across the nation for both pharmacy and healthcare, championed by URI‟s Nick Dorich, a P3 in the College of Pharmacy and the newly elected National Member-at-Large for the APhA Academy of Student Pharmacists. “His whole vision is centered on where the profession is going, and that is collaborative healthcare,” said Andrew Bundeff, fellow P3 and campaign manager for Nick. “He says that if we want to advance as a profession, we have to begin working with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Part of our oath as pharmacists is to improve patient care; how are we going to improve patient care unless we‟re able to better work with doctors?” Andrew began working on Nick‟s campaign with other URI students this February. Preparations were made for the trip and shirts were ordered, each bearing the campaign slogan, “Pick Nick!” As the winter snow turned to rain, Andrew had only one regret: “Had we known about the weather in advance, we would have put the slogan on umbrellas!” Nick was one of about 25 students from the College who attended the conference representing URI. Roughly 2500 pharmacy students gathered at the conference from 109 schools across the nation. All campaigning was done during that weekend in D.C., but the attention Nick garnered was no surprise to Andrew.
“Seeing how much Nick loves the profession—it’s infectious.” (continued)
Full Text of Nick’s Election Speech Henry Ford, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this country, once said: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Having been to multiple meetings for APhA I can see that we‟ve come together, I know I‟ve kept up with my many friends and that we still work together. So can we call APhA successful? Sure. I however, want to look at the bigger picture. We have a health care system in shambles, and the baby boomer generation is about to hit the age of 65. Are we successful then? Going back to what Henry Ford said, maybe we need to readdress who it is we work with.
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Nick is a native to Narragansett, where he is employed as a student pharmacist at a local Rite Aid. His involvement ranges from his work as a student representative to the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association (RIPA) to his position as president of the URI chapter of the APhA ASP. Asked what inspires him to remain politically active, Nick replies: “I know that rules and laws involving my profession are being enacted constantly. It's up to me to have an influence, and to quote former APhA-ASP President Brent Reed, „Be the agent of change.‟ That message has inspired me for over 2 years now and it's something that I live by, especially in my professional development.” Chad Lamoureux, Pharmacy Class of 2015
More From APhA 2010
More than 40 URxI students attended.
Our APhA ASP Chapter placed first in Operation Diabetes
Ashley Pincins served as the APhA/ASP Delegate
Molly MacDonnell represented URI in the National Patient Counseling Competition
Nicole Gerosa was the Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Society Delegate
Rho Chi Honor Society Delegate was Andrew Benson
Podium Presentation: Dr. Kerry LaPlante presented “Battling a Superbug: CommunityAssociated MRSA,” co-author Dr. Jason Gallagher, Temple University.
Poster: Dr. K. Kelly Orr, “Availability and Accuracy of Information of Nonprescription Emergency Contraception in Rhode Island Pharmacies,” poster presentation #188, co-author Dr. Margaret Opydo.
Poster: Dr. Celia MacDonnell, “Active Learning of Self Care Through Yahoo! Health,” poster presentation #178, co-author Dr. Kelly Orr. The University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy Kingston, RI 02881 401-874-2761 uri.edu/pharmacy
As student pharmacists, we are the future of our profession. Therefore the question I ask you is this, “are you happy with the current state of healthcare?” When we look at healthcare reform we see there is a problem, yet some still resist changes to the system. When I tell people I‟m a student pharmacist, I generally get two responses: “wow, that‟s really great for you,” and “why do you go to school for 6 years to count pills?” This is just a microcosm of the problem facing pharmacy currently. The general public doesn‟t understand our education and training, other healthcare providers are unwilling to potentially lose some stake in the healthcare field, and even the government doesn‟t fully recognize our degree and the capabilities of it. Now I know that we have all been working to promote health care reform but it should not stop there. What we really need to do is promote the profession of pharmacy. We need to continue to push for legislative efforts that recognize pharmacists as healthcare providers, that stress the importance of medication therapy management, and we need to stress to patients the importance of their medication and their relationship with their pharmacist. This is not an issue just about being reimbursed for our efforts, or being recognized as the medication experts-rather this is an issue that helps promote patient care-the staple of our profession. As members of APhA-ASP we each have our own strength-patient counseling, leadership, policy or maybe just passion for helping others. As we talk about healthcare reform, we ask you to write your senators and congressmen. Maybe it‟s not enough to do this as one organization. For many of us, collaborative practice across the board would be a dream come true. I suggest we work with other medical professions and associations to help reach our goal. I‟ve worked with nursing students at blood pressure clinics, and at URI we‟ve run labs with medical students from Brown University. By getting other healthcare students involved in what we do, I feel we can shape our future. In a few years we will no longer be students, nor will the medical students, or nursing students. They will be our colleagues in the medical field. In order to operate as a medical team, you must understand and respect the expertise held by each member. What better time to do this than when you are a student, when you are actively learning in the field or in class? Currently no medical profession requires training about teamwork or leadership. In the medical community, how can we expect to advance patient care if we cannot advance past the old system of medicine, where the doctor prescribes, pharmacist dispenses and nurse administers? We know we can do more than that. The doctors and nurses will say the same things about themselves. In order to advance patient care, we the students must start operating as a team in order to see the change that we have envisioned. Seven-time NBA champion Pat Riley had this to say about teamwork: “Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.” I now ask each and everyone here to make APhA 2010 the moment in which they define their careers. Regardless of how I leave this meeting, and regardless of what you come away with, I hope that your efforts now will push the boundaries of current healthcare. American Pharmacists Association holds the slogan: Improving Medication Use. Advancing Patient Care. This slogan is not exclusive to our profession-so why should we contain it? I hope to see APhA not as an organization itself, but as part of a healthcare team consisting of many organizations and professions that strives for better health outcomes. Let us promote patient care, push for affordable and accessible health care, and get others to join us in this journey. I know I will never forget my experiences here at APhA 2010 and where it is going to lead me in the future. My real dream however, is that APhA 2010 will be the start of something that forever changes how we practice pharmacy. Thank you and Pick Nick.
Nick Dorich, Pharmacy Class of 2015