CONNECTORx CORNERx: 032 - 2024-12-20

CONNECTORx CORNERx Pharmacy Strategy & Career Development Newsletter: Ambulatory Patient Access, Career Portfolio, Gift Experiences

PHARMACY STRATEGY: Ambulatory Patient Access

There is a real and increasing patient access gap that is negatively impacting patient care and is a top concern for health system leaders.

Despite the gap there is an underutilization of ambulatory pharmacy services.

Part of the reason for this gap is due to lack of awareness of ambulatory service models and ways to justify resources.

Per the ASHP Practice Advancement Initiative (PAI) Focused Initiative: Improve patient access to pharmacist services in ambulatory care clinics.

The Objective: By the end of 2024, increase the number of pharmacists in ambulatory care clinics by 20%.

 What are you doing to increase ambulatory patient access?

CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Career Portfolio

Do you have a career portfolio and are you updating it? It's a worthwhile part of your career development.

What Is It?
A career portfolio is a personalized collection of materials that is designed to document professional experiences, evaluations, reflections, and accomplishments. It can help document what you've learned throughout various processes.

I've heard it said, “A resume gets you the interview and the portfolio gets you the job.”

Two Types
- You can have a Master Portfolio to keep all references of your work.
- Alternatively, you could try a Target Portfolio, which is more focused on one individual job application, complete with specific examples

Benefits of Having a Career Portfolio
- You can share it with your prospective employer
- It can help you with your personal preparations for a job interview
- It's a tangible reflection on your success

Format Options
- A physical book or binder
- A slideshow presentation
- Hosted in an online pace such as a website

Unlike with a CV, there are not required or standard sections, However, you may consider including professional goals, work samples by skill areas, community service, professional membership activities, performance review highlights, and self-assessment tools.

Do you have a career portfolio? How do you think it could, or how has it, helped you in your career?

FUN & JOY: Gift Experiences

Giving a gift of an experience is my favorite type of gift. Instead of giving an item to someone that they may or may not use, you can give them the gift of an experience they can participate in. Maybe you can relate and have planned your own experiences.

Here are a couple I've planned in the past:
- For my son's 12th birthday, my family went to our local NFL team's game - the Bengals
- For Christmas, we have bought our family (17 of us) tickets to see the Rockettes and have dinner in Manhattan.

Experience gifts are meaningful to our family because they create lasting memories of quality time spent together.

What kind of gifts do you like to give? Have you tried gifting experiences rather than things?

SUPPORT AND RESOURCES: 

I am here to support you in your journey to advance pharmacy and accelerate your joyful engaging career. 

Do you want a gift card?  I am looking for your feedback as I revamp my membership program. Email me back and I will send you a survey or we can schedule a call to chat.  

Check out these additional resources or schedule time for us to connect.