In celebration of Pharmacy Week, the CSHP Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee partnered with Junior Achievement USA and the UCONN School of Pharmacy to inspire the next generation of pharmacy professionals. On October 17, Dr. Nathaniel Rickles and Dr. Vera Malkhasyan visited Ansonia High School, delivering an interactive presentation to students exploring pharmacy as a career. 

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee are partnering with the Education Committee to create on an on-going Cultural Competence Series based on positive feedback from our last CE event.

Click the link or scan the QE code below or click here to share your ideas on cultural traditions or practices you or your patients participate in that we could highlight for our membership and if you would be interested in presenting or nominating a colleague to share.

Opening our eyes and minds to all differences makes a difference to how we care for our patients and each other. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

SHARE YOUR IDEAS

Implicit bias is an unconscious attitude, stereotype, or prejudice toward a group of people.¹ Our unconscious associations influence our decision-making, behaviors, and relationships. As healthcare professionals, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians meet patients from various backgrounds. To prevent our biases from negatively affecting patient care, we should identity the biases we possess.²

Project Implicit, is a non-profit organization, with a mission to educate the public about unconscious bias. Project Implicit provides a series of Implicit Association Tests (IAT) to help participants identify and measure their level of positive or negative associations in multiple categories such as: race, gender, sexual orientation, weight, etc.³

If you are interested in learning about your unconscious beliefs, check out the IAT here: Project Implicit - Harvard Implicit Association Tests

References

We are pleased to share CSHP is partnering with the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy (UCONN SOP) Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee to help support our some of our goals. This includes ensuring all patient populations of community have equal opportunities to access pharmaceutical care, provide advancement for all pharmacy professionals in every stage of education, career development, and offer mentorship to diverse groups in the pharmacy community.

CSHP members are invited to participate in several opportunities with UCONN SOP DEI. Some examples are listed below:  

• Precepting students conducting outreach activities (eg, health fairs, student presentations)
• Serve as a guest speaker (eg, Lunch & Learn, Students of Color Mentorship, Professional Development lecture series, etc)
• Mentor a student member of the UCONN SOP DEI

Here is the link for a general sign up to select the various ways in which you would like to support our DEI Committee’s initiatives with UCONN SOP: https://forms.gle/hmZdeUDecWcXpbpf9

To become involved in once monthly meetings to help achieve our DEI goals for CSHP, please sign up via our website Connecticut Society of Health System Pharmacists - Get Involved (cshponline.org). For any questions, please contact Teresa Papstein at Teresa.Papstein@bpthosp.org.

The U.S. population is more racially and ethnically diverse today than it was 20 years ago. Pharmacy profession diversity follows the same trend.

We created the CSHP DEI committee to advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion in pharmacy professional work environment as well as to support underserved community and advocate to improve patient access to pharmacist care.

One of our focus areas is advocating for and supporting internationally trained pharmacists based upon our membership feedback. The process of foreign pharmacy degree evaluation and licensure in the US is quite a challenging experience. It takes on average from 3 to 5 years to accomplish and include multiple exams and about a year of full-time internship (here you can reference the Foreign Pharmacist Path. PDF). Foreign trained pharmacists often come with a diverse background and different levels of experience where they can bring new perspectives and innovation in organizations’ practice. Inclusivity in health systems encourages their employees to bring their whole selves to work to drive happier, more engaged employees, which in turn contributes to organizational success.

As a result of this and membership feedback, we created resources and mentorship opportunities to support this professional minority group. 

CSHP DEI task force identified the following goals to support foreign-trained pharmacists:

• Advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion for internationally trained pharmacists by ensuring access, opportunity, and advancement for all pharmacists in every stage of education and career development.
• Provide guidance on the degree transfer process and US licensure for internationally trained pharmacy professionals.
• Mentorship to internationally trained pharmacy professionals pursuing heath system career opportunities

Resources for Foreign Pharmacists

• PharmD Programs for International Graduates
• PharmD for US-licensed foreign graduates