National Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Week

The Clinical Pharmacist’s Role in Improving Patient Safety

A Letter from the TAMHSC-SSHP Chapter President

The Texas A&M Health Science Center Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy Student Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TAMHSC-SSHP) celebrates National Hospital & Health-System Pharmacy Week, Oct. 16-22, 2011, to recognize the vital roles clinical pharmacists now play in patient care. The scope of a pharmacist has evolved beyond compounding and dispensing medications to serving as integral members of multidisciplinary patient-care teams.

The practice of health-system pharmacy includes hospitals, ambulatory care clinics, academic health centers, governmental health facilities, and home and long-term care facilities. Within each field, the health-system pharmacist is involved in direct patient care and participates in collaborative medication management. Specifically, the pharmacist recommends safe and effective therapy, advises physicians and health care providers, aids in the prevention of medication errors, and counsels patients on proper medication use, along with a variety of other duties.

Pharmacists are kindly referred to as the “medication experts,” and rightly so. Today, health-system pharmacists complete a minimum of six years of education focused on medication therapy and often continue to receive post-graduate residency training. Residencies allow health-system pharmacists to specialize in one of the 19 practice specialties. Examples include infectious disease, psychiatry, cardiology and emergency medicine. Pharmacists become experts on the numerous medications available, the mechanism through which each one works, and how to use them safely and effectively.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) is a national organization focused on supporting and advocating on behalf of clinical pharmacists. Currently, ASHP consists of more than 35,000 members including pharmacists, pharmacy students and pharmacy technicians. Its mission is to “advance and support the professional practice of pharmacists in hospitals and health-systems and serve as their collective voice on issues related to medication use and public health.”

Below the national level, ASHP is subdivided into individual state chapters. The Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TSHP) provides continuing education and innovative programming to Texas health-system pharmacists in addition to advocating the advancement of Texas pharmacy through legislation and regulation. TSHP is further subdivided into Texas pharmacy school student chapters. TAMHSC-SSHP serves as the TAMHSC-Rangel College of Pharmacy student chapter, encouraging pharmacy students to seek challenging and fulfilling careers in clinical pharmacy.

As this is our role on campus, TAMHSC-SSHP will use National Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Week to promote interest in this expanding field and to educate the community about how clinical pharmacists can help them achieve the greatest benefit from their medicine.

This week, the Texas A&M Health Science Center’s chapter of SSHP would like to recognize Cris Hogue, Pharm.D., for her contributions to the society and to the TAMHSC-Rangel College of Pharmacy. Dr. Hogue is a Texas Tech graduate and currently serves as the clinical manager at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi.

In addition to being a preceptor for fourth-year students on rotations, Dr. Hogue helped arrange for SSHP members to provide more than 1,500 flu vaccinations to hospital employees and their families. She has served as a judge in SSHP’s local Clinical Skills Competition and is a regular pharmacokinetics guest lecturer for the school. She positively contributes to the training of future pharmacists at TAMHSC, and this recognition is well-merited.

Please join TAMHSC-SSHP in acknowledging the dedicated work and unquestionable value of Dr. Hogue and other health-system pharmacists throughout the week of Oct. 16-22, 2011.

Nola Fry

Texas A&M Health Science Center

Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy

Pharm.D. Candidate 2013

TAMHSC-SSHP President