The nontraditional pharmacy movement strengthens! Look for strong growth from TNP in 2018.
Video Transcript
Todd Eury: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Pharmacy Podcast Network. I am stoked. I am excited about tonight’s podcast because the future of what is the Pharmacy Podcast Network in 2018 is extremely relevant to this show. The reason is we have so many new segments coming out in 2018. The Medical PotCast will be coming out with Joe Friedman. We have the political podcast. We have the new compounding expertise show with Dr. Seth and Dr. Brian, it’s going to be concentrating on compounding pharmacy called the Pharmacy Inspection Podcast. There is a crew out there that has been doing video, or we could call them vlogs, with many of their own guests, which is The Nontraditional Pharmacist. And when I found out about these three rocketship superstars, I decided I had to have them become part of the network just because of their vision. What they’re doing out there with regards to nontraditional pharmacist roles, which is very relevant in today’s landscape of what is the pharmacy industry. I would like to welcome to the show in kicking off the very first of many many interesting interviews to come, The Nontraditional Pharmacist team. Dr. Nick Kirkpatrick, Dr. Matt Paterini, and Dr. Lynn Switaj. Welcome to the Pharmacy odcast Network.
TNP Team: [00:05:31] Thanks for having us. Thanks Todd. We’re very excited.
Todd Eury: [00:05:37] I’m excited as well, as you can tell. When I found out about what you guys are doing, I started reading through your blog and I was immediately a fan just because of the vision. We need this. We need pharmacists to realize that the old 20-30-40 year old pharmacist role, the community pharmacist behind the bench role, is not the future of pharmacy; although, it’s a very important component of community pharmacy and don’t think that I’m dissing community pharmacy because I’m not. That’s actually where I started and where my heart is from a technology perspective. However, with provider status coming and some other things taking place The Nontraditional Pharmacist from what you guys are doing is extremely relevant as I said at the beginning of this show. So I want to start off a question for Nick. Nick tell us a little bit about yourself but also tell our listeners what is The Nontraditional Pharmacist?
Nick: [00:06:31] Sure I can do that. So my name is Nick Kirkpatrick, graduated from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy in 2016. I currently work my day job as a pharmacist in the community setting as a pharmacy manager and focus a lot on the business operations aspect of everything. But in terms of what is The Nontraditional Pharmacist, we really wanted to create a resource that is a resource for all things nontraditional. Something like that didn’t exist previously. We saw a need for it and so we went to create it. And so we have three main parts to our resource. The first one is our blog section, where we interview different pharmacists who are in nontraditional pharmacy roles, which ranges from a whole bunch of different things as you’ll see on our website (www.thenontraditionalpharmacist.com), CDC public health pharmacy to herbal pharmacy to managed care to a lot of other things. So that first segment of our resource is the the blog section where we interview pharmacist and help people discover what kind of resources and other positions are out there. The next section is our pharmacy network, that’s step 2. That’s a social media platform for people to create a profile, talk a little about themselves, make connections, connect with our guests, connect with one another, and really share a lot of ideas with one another to help build your pharmacy network and grow and expand your career. The last section is our resources section where we have helpful resources for pharmacy students, for pharmacists, and everyone in between to really develop their career and things that we found useful along the way.
Todd Eury: [00:08:06] Dr. Lynn you, were born and raised right outside of Cleveland, Ohio. I’m a Steeler fan. Are you a Browns fan?
Lynn: [00:08:13] We actually just got a perfect season, haven’t gotten a when yet all season. So we actually have parades they’re going to have for that.
Todd Eury: [00:08:22] We start out a GoFundMe for you and you guys can have like a party and a parade or something. I literally think that that’s actually happening by the way, I think somebody starting a GoFundMe for a 0-16 parade or something like that because it’s really interesting.
Lynn: [00:08:38] I believe Excedrin that’s funding it partly funding it, funny enough.
Todd Eury: [00:08:41] That’s right. So tell us, what is nontraditional pharmacy? I mean, you’re The Nontraditional Pharmacist crew, but what’s your interpretation and definition of being in nontraditional pharmacy?
Lynn: [00:08:57] I think the easiest way to define nontraditional pharmacy is to define what is traditional pharmacy. When you think of a pharmacist, you think of walking into a community pharmacy or a retail chain, and you think of a pharmacist dispensing prescriptions. Pharmacy is now evolving into the hospital roles, there are a lot of hospital pharmacists out there. And Todd, we actually looked up the definition of “nontraditional,” just plain word nontraditional. It’s defined as “new and different from the established norm or custom.” I think that’s a great way to actually define nontraditional pharmacy. It’s a vague definition that put together, but it’s pharmacy outside of the community and the hospital roles. We started to read these articles, they were kind of doom and gloom articles about how the job market for primacy is declining and how there’s not many job opportunities out there, especially with the growth of these pharmacy schools that are popping up, but we’re viewing that as a good thing. This is great because there’s other roles that we can now get into, and just as Nick was explaining before with with all the blogs that we have out there, it’s actually a really exciting time for pharmacy and we’re really excited to see where it’s going to go in the future.
Todd Eury: [00:10:16] Well something that drew me to The Nontraditional Pharmacist, if you’re listening the show, you might be driving on your commute, obviously don’t be typing this into your smartphone or something, but if you are at a desktop, type in www.thenontraditionalpharmacist.com. What really got me is, you come across with so much passion to really transform the outlook of the pharmacist and what their role is in the space and in healthcare. And I picked up very quickly from many interviews that I listened to, including one with our very own Dr. Tony Guerra, who leaves our Pharmacy Leaders Podcast, which transformed from the Pharmacy Future Leaders Podcast. And I’ll tell you what, the need to think outside the box is so important. If you are a pharmacy student, you’re listening to this show, you’re a resident, you’re a brand new pharmacist, you’ve just got a job with a national chain or an independent, I want you to think about your side hustle in pharmacy. Whether you become an author, whether you become a speaker, whether you can get into Pharmacogenomics, whether you get into medical marijuana, whether you get into some technology avenue of pharmacy, the new capsules that dissolve in your stomach to give information to your smartphone to tell you when you’ve taken that medication and how fast that medication is absorbing into your system. We need pharmacists to rise above what is the nontraditional or what is the traditional pharmacist space. So the next question is for Matt. Matt, how did the nontraditional pharmacist start?
Matt: [00:12:06] Well that was a great segue into that Todd, I like that you mentioned our passion, and we are passionate about it. And that’s really where The Nontraditional Pharmacist started. Through passion in the end of our P4 year in pharmacy school together; although, it did start well before that. Going through pharmacy school, we learned about a lot of different roles and a lot of different practice settings for pharmacists. But it was really through our own research. And so as we were going through our rotations in our final year and seeing those different roles first hand, and learning even more outside of what we call the traditional field of pharmacy, we began to say well, “boy we’ve learned of all these different things throughout our four years in pharmacy school, but it’s been kind of a challenge!” We’ve look at different resources, kind of disparate resources, and it was really our own research. There wasn’t really much being taught by the way of nontraditional pharmacy through our program. So we took it upon ourselves to do all of that research. And so we said, let’s make a central platform, a central go-to resource for all things nontraditional, so that everyone can learn themselves and really use it as a springboard for their education and to learn where they fit best in the field of pharmacy. And so that’s kind of the goal that we’ve set for it. And in putting it all into one spot, are really hopeful that we’re able to bring people to more careers that they’re passionate about, find where they fit into the field, and take it from there.
Todd Eury: [00:13:49] Well, you are now part of a brand new family, The Pharmacy Podcast Network. I had a vision back in 2009 when it was just me talking to myself and the only people that were listening to my show was my brother and my mother. And that was about it. And it took me quite some time to position the network to taking the voice, literally the voice of the pharmacist, and be able to expand upon their creative ideas. The innovation of what a pharmacist can do, how a pharmacist can accelerate recovery, can accelerate therapy based on the coupling and the partnership with other people in the health continuum. So you guys are the future. I mean there’s young blood that needs to be part of this network. But when you go to a www.PharmacyPodcast.com/cohost, you’ll see The Nontraditional Pharmacist team there. I am so proud to have you guys part of the network. I’m so excited about 2018 and what’s coming and what you guys are going to bring to the table, the ideas that you have, the discussions that you’re going to develop, and then the cross-reference of what this is going to become. So my next question is actually for Nick, and I’m wondering what have you guys done so far? What are some of the highlights you can share with our Pharmacy Podcast Network listeners to just give us some highlights of The Nontraditional Pharmacist.
Nick: [00:15:16] We’ve come a long ways from where we started off. When it was first an idea, we had no idea how to build a website, we had no idea what we were going to do, but we had heard about a blog. Then we spent a lot of countless hours, weeks and weeks and months, Google searching and YouTube searching “how to build a website.” And we had some rough times early on, that were very frustrating trying to do something that seems so simple. 2017 has been a really good year for us. We’ve met some amazing people in our interviews. I mean, you can look back through the pages that we have so far, and we’ve just met some amazing guests throughout the time, like Tony Guerra that you mentioned earlier, who actually help introduce us here to you and The Pharmacy Podcast. We had some pharmacists in herbal pharmacy, public health pharmacy, managed care pharmacy, some working for the FDA. One of the big highlights is the people that we’ve met and seeing some of the connections they’ve made with our guests and helping some of our guests find a new pathway in their career. But working together and building this resource with Matt and Lynn has been an awesome time. We’ve learned a lot about nontraditional pharmacy and we’re starting to see now a lot of interest pouring into it. A lot of ideas from people who say, “I know of a pharmacist in this area. Would you guys be interested in interviewing them?” Joining The Pharmacy Podcast is obviously the most recent thing that’s happened and we are extremely excited about that. So I think just going from scratch, taking an idea and learning how to take something that didn’t exist before, and creating something tangible that people can utilize and impact their lives in a positive way, and maybe reshape the healthcare industry to help get pharmacists into new roles that they didn’t know exist, and deliver healthcare to a large population of people in a new way.
Todd Eury: [00:17:07] Absolutely. There’s too much doom and gloom out there. There’s too many naysayers out there saying that the market’s flooded with pharmacists and we have people graduating and now there’s not going to be enough jobs and I say that’s not true. If you are listening to the show and you are passionate about what you’re doing and that’s important. And what I mean by that is, you might start off in a chain. You might start off with an independent. You might start off in a hospital pharmacy, maybe compounding, maybe you are going to be in research, maybe you’ll become an actual business development representative for a pharmaceutical manufacturer in delivering education to physicians. Regardless, you have to, in this day and age, you have got to think outside the box. You have got to come back to The Nontraditional Pharmacist, read their blogs, listen to their interviews, listen to what the future and pharmacy is going to be delivering. Talk about technology. How is technology being leveraged in pharmacy? How’s it setting apart the clock punching pharmacist who has no motivation to do anything else but what they’re doing, versus the more dynamic pharmacist who’s really trying to think of the cutting edge. And I think that there’s a balance there. You don’t have to be as hyper as I am to get things done, but you certainly shouldn’t just walk up, punch the clock, and expect that that’s all you’re going to ever do as a pharmacist. I think that there is an opportunity to redefine what pharmacy is. And I think being a nontraditional pharmacist is part of the formula of what it is to transform the industry of pharmacy. So with that, setting the table, not to pressure you Lynn, but I want to hear, what’s the future direction of The Nontraditional Pharmacist.
Lynn: [00:19:11] Well, that’s a great question Todd. In terms of the future directions, we want to build our reach, build our network, and help people connect, once they find something interesting through the website (www.thenontraditionalpharmacist.com) or a role that they find interesting that they didn’t know about before. We want to help them connect to those people. It doesn’t have to be a commitment, just go to get information. We’d like to ultimately generate some more resources that we put together, whether it’s helping a pharmacy student get through pharmacy school, and it doesn’t matter what role they are specifically trying to get into, but just help them help them at least get the most out of pharmacy school while they’re there. In terms of helping students connect, we are currently working with a pharmacy student right now who has offered to have us come to her school and actually put on a workshop. So we’re very excited to get that started. And we’re going to help students with the basics of networking and put that together for them.
Todd Eury: [00:20:21] That’s the way we change things. We get the pharmacist students, the P3, P4, the resident, excited about the future, giving them ideas about stepping outside the box of what they think is a traditional pharmacist role and really realizing that what the future holds is nothing but opportunity. Opportunity is limited by your desire to do more. I’ll say that again. Opportunity is limited by your desire to do more. So if you’re sitting at home tonight and you’re thinking, boy I have some ideas, jot them down on paper. Something that you experienced in your community pharmacy, something that you experienced in your hospital health system pharmacy, something that you experienced with pharmacogenomics or something that you experienced in an outcome that you listened to with conversations with the physician or the nurse. There is so much that can be done based on little bits and in an ability to take data and expand upon it. Don’t ever stop learning. Don’t ever stop reading. Don’t ever stop listening to podcasts about the passion of pharmacy and the business of pharmacy. I tell you what, Matt, you’re the first of The Nontraditional Pharmacist crew that I talk to and the very first conversation that we had, I’ll never forget it. I was jazzed up. I hung up the phone and I said to my wife, “I gotta have this kid (because you’re a kid to me because I’m a little bit older than you.) I’ve got to have him on The Pharmacy Podcast Network and I pursued it.” So when I think of listening to this podcast, I want people to know something and in the end of this recording, I want you guys to know, “what can you get out of The Nontraditional Pharmacist?” So answer that question for our listeners right now, they’re headed to work, they’re jogging, they’re working out, they’re listening on a break. What can people get most out of The Nontraditional Pharmacist?
Matt: [00:22:28] Yeah, great great question Todd and thanks for the compliment, appreciate that. I would add one more thing to your list as you jot down ideas, make sure to sign up for The Nontraditional Pharmacist email newsletter. That’s another very important things people need to do to be successful. All kidding aside, the biggest thing with The Nontraditional Pharmacist and to really get the most out of it, is to be interactive. We designed the website to be a networking platform to connect people who are interested in different fields, different roles in pharmacy. So you have to be interactive to get the most out of it. In all seriousness, subscribe to the e-mail list. We only e-mail as we’re pushing out new content and stuff that will connect new viewers. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on our YouTube channel. Sign up for a profile on The Pharmacy Network and connect with people in interesting roles that you might have never heard of before. Be sure to contact us as well. We’re very accessible. Happy to interview anyone in a nontraditional role who is enthusiastic and passionate about what they do. And we’re also interested in interviewing people that they know might be nontraditional roles and interested in sharing their stories. So interaction, connections, and networking. That is the goal of The Nontraditional Pharmacist.
Todd Eury: [00:24:02] Lynn, Matt, Nick. Welcome to The Pharmacy Podcast Network. I am so excited to be the guy behind the curtain to try to support you and market your Nontraditional Pharmacist. I’m going to do everything that I can to get your messaging out there to other pharmacists, to other pharmacy students, to residents, to people looking at their career saying, “what can I do next?” I’m excited about the enthusiasm and the creativity. Matt, you actually have a little bit of a technology background too, so I expect to definitely hear some technology interviews. But I am thrilled to have you part of the network. I’m so proud of the three of you for doing what you’re doing, very entrepreneurial and I just thank you for joining The Pharmacy Podcast Network.
TNP Team: [00:24:49] Thank you so much Todd. Happy to be aboard. And many more to come.
Todd Eury: [00:24:55] You are listening to The Pharmacy Podcast Network. We have partnered with The Nontraditional Pharmacist. You can find them www.thenontraditionalpharmacist.com or just Google “Nontraditional Pharmacist” it comes right up. And we thank you for listening to The Pharmacy Podcast.