For the Record

Zellmer: There’s a great deal of interest in pharmacy education in helping student pharmacists understand the broad array of career opportunities in our profession. There are many wonderful opportunities in the PHS commissioned corps, as these interviews document. There’s also a lot of interest in the academic community in developing leadership skills in student pharmacists. You can find many examples in these interviews of pharmacists with various leadership qualities who built on their pharmacy education to meet major leadership challenges in pharmacy practice and public health.

In what ways do you see this project being useful to pharmacy educators, and how might it be used in a classroom setting?

Church: We have colleagues who have spent portions of their careers in the PHS prior to taking on some form of academic or leadership experience later on. They have additional stories to share of their experiences and how the PHS helped in their careers as they now mentor students. The combination of stories from each of the past CPOs illustrated examples of the challenges that we’ve taken on over time and how they are related to pharmacy practice and the issues of the day.

Zellmer: This series of interviews can be valuable in helping pharmacy students understand important chapters in the profession’s history. For example, pharmacy used to be primarily a male profession, which sometimes made things difficult for women in the field. In the interview with former CPO Pamela Schweitzer, she talked candidly about the barriers she faced in advancing her career. For student pharmacists today who are thinking about non-traditional careers, working for the Food and Drug Administration might come to mind. If you look at Dick Bertin’s interview transcript, you’ll find that he spoke about the leadership role he had at the FDA—a great example for someone who is considering a career in a government agency. Another example: In Dick Church’s interview, he spoke about patient-counseling innovations in the 1960s by pharmacists in the Indian Health Service (IHS) and how that influenced the profession as a whole. During his career, Dick brought to the attention of the broader pharmacy community that the IHS had pioneered patient-counseling teaching techniques; those methods were then applied in helping the profession prepare for an expanded role in this area.

Do you think there is enough awareness about the PHS as a possible career path? How could it be better publicized?

Bertin: I think there’s never enough information out there for students about the PHS. We’re always interested in having excellent students, excellent pharmacists consider joining the PHS to deliver direct care in the IHS or the Bureau of Prisons or in a more administrative capacity (with agencies such as the FDA, CDC or NIH). We are always looking for ways to get that information out there. Officers used to be assigned to visit one of the pharmacy schools and talk to the dean or make some presentations to classes, but as far as we’re concerned there can always be more information. That’s one reason we are happy to call attention to it as a great career option through this article.

Church: I agree, there can never be enough information available. I’ve spent a great deal of time over my career visiting schools and organizations and the story was always new to the students since they turn over with each graduating class. There are still many people actively visiting schools but there are more schools today and there’s always a need for more personal contact. Whenever a PHS pharmacist comes from one of several agencies, they bring unique career experiences that always lead to great discussions. There are so many unique stories. They are able to share behind-the-scenes experiences…for instance, with COVID and some of the work with vaccines or efforts leading to a role for pharmacists prescribing follow-up medications. Another example is in the area of achieving reimbursement for professional services where PHS pharmacists have played key roles. Other PHS pharmacists have had significant involvement in international activities like dealing with Ebola in Africa. There are many stories to be shared through these oral histories.

Zellmer: In thinking about this article, I was reminded about how I first learned about the PHS as a student—it was through the written word. In a reference book—Remington’s—that all pharmacy students used, there was a section dealing with careers, which included an article about the PHS. That stimulated me to apply, and I was accepted. There is great power in the written word.

Bertin: A significant number of pharmacists started in the PHS. They got some good early practice experience and went on for more post-graduate education and many ended up as faculty members or deans. Those individuals are valuable as sources of information to students. I didn’t really know much about the PHS until I was doing graduate work and learned about it from an advisor who served in the PHS in Alaska. He’s the guy who recruited me.

How can pharmacy educators use the insights shared in these interviews to better prepare future pharmacists for practice?

Church: There are many pharmacists across the country in academic institutions who have spent some time in the PHS. They can leverage their own experience through these oral histories to share what pharmacists are capable of doing. Their challenge is to prepare graduates with a broad range of skills and experiences while in training so they are ready to tackle new challenges. Through this series of oral histories there are examples of how this group started with a substantially similar underlying core of pharmacy training, then added their own specialized skills along with a strong focus on the mission of healthcare delivery and service to make noteworthy contributions. The resources and tools available in pharmacy education today are so much more sophisticated than when we were in our training. Pharmacy educators are challenged to inspire student pharmacists to apply their own personal sense of mission in the direction of service to others.

When I was being interviewed, I tried hard to recall what was going on within our profession and the world at the time and to capture what I was thinking at the time. Each person we talked to had experiences they recalled that made them realize the significance of certain events to pharmacy practice. Perhaps our stories can serve as examples of how our careers started from similar training but took us in some remarkably different directions.

Bertin: Everyone who participated agreed that although these interviews were a lot of work—we had to dig deep in our memories—at the end we all really appreciated the opportunity to go through this process and research and relive many of the very important aspects of our personal and professional lives. It was a valuable experience.

Zellmer: Pharmacy history is severely undervalued today in pharmacy education and by most pharmacists. This collection of interviews can provide great lessons in how the PHS helped advance pharmacy practice. By pointing people to these interview transcriptions, we can help elevate appreciation for pharmacy history and stimulate discussions about how to draw lessons from that history that can be applied to contemporary challenges and opportunities.

Jane E. Rooney is managing editor of Academic Pharmacy Now.