 Some of our UNC student pharmacists celebrating American Pharmacists Month The role of a pharmacist is a unique one in the healthcare system. A pharmacist is the most well-informed health care professional on prescription and over-the-counter medications and is regarded by both patients and others in the healthcare field as a medication expert. The American Pharmacists Association (APhA), which is the largest association of pharmacists in the United States, named October as American Pharmacists Month to recognize the profession and their contributions to healthcare. This year, the slogan was Easy to Reach, Ready to Help. The goal was to let the public know that pharmacists are a readily accessible resource for them and that a simple conversation with the pharmacist can make a difference in their medication management. Pharmacists should take this chance to show patients the wide range of knowledge they have on not only drugs but also diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol management, and much more. There were various days to recognize the many team members in the pharmacy throughout the month. To kick it off, October 1st was APhM selfie day where pharmacists and their teams were encouraged to post selfies and pictures of their team with #APhMSelfieDay on their social media. Pharmacists were also encouraged to use #APhM2019 for any celebratory posts on social media during the month. National Women Pharmacist Day was on October 12th which was followed by Pharmacy Technicians Day on October 15th. At pharmacistmonth.com, APhA provided lists of activities that pharmacies could do as well as promotional items to use in their work space. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Governor Pat McCrory declared October as American Pharmacists Month in Chapel Hill and the state of North Carolina back in October 2014. For this year, the sixth American Pharmacist Month happened with many activities in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. According to Megan Byrne, a second-year PharmD candidate, the Carolina Association of Pharmacy Students (CAPS) led a series of activities to advocate the profession of pharmacy. They kicked off the celebration on the first day of the month with a tasty cake for all our staff and students in the pharmacy school. Later on, they got a photo booth on Family Day which is an annual event to introduce the profession to our students’ families. They also organized events to let student pharmacists talk with patients about our profession in an independent pharmacy. A feature on this was published in UNC’s student newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel! For more information, you can also read “Keeping the Dream Alive” which is an article about pharmacy identity and pharmacy history written by second-year pharmacy student Emily Meggs in celebration of American Pharmacists Month. Hopefully, we can expand these activities to other schools, communities, and hospitals in Chapel Hill in subsequent years to let more people around us be aware of the impact and value of pharmacists. We would also like to take this chance to thank everyone, every pharmacist, every pharmacy staff, and every student pharmacist, who do their best to promote change in our profession. Authors: Feiyun Ma and Allison Tsay
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