Somebody needs to do something!

[sas5814]

I have probably read "somebody needs to do something" or "The AAPA needs to fix this" or something similar 20 times this week about different things that are going on. My answer, almost universally, has been "what are you doing about it?"

Apathy in the profession has existed about as long as there has been a profession with a small number of people doing the bulk of the heavy lifting while everyone else went about their professional lives. From time to time something will happen and the hue and cry will begin and, often, the people doing the crying have done nothing to help themselves. This is very much a "it takes a village" kind of thing.

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of small issues that can effect us all on any given day. While we all need to pull together on big things there are many remedies to smaller issues that can be handled locally.

Pharmacy won't accept your prescription even though it meets all the state requirements? Have you called the pharmacy? Have to contacted their corporate office? Have you posted on their Facebook page (something I find gets a faster response than just about anything). A recent suggestion I really like... write "DO NOT FILL AT PHARMACY ABC" in big bold letters on every prescription until you get some satisfaction.

Found the dreaded apostrophe "s" someplace it doesn't belong like a hateful journal article? Post a comment on the article. Email the author and publisher. Take some action.

Found grossly incorrect information about the profession somewhere particularly in a journal or opinion piece? Send correct information and an explanation of why the information is wrong. Again let the author and publisher know. Sometimes the author is simply working with bad information or maybe they have an axe to grind. Publishers almost always care about publishing correct truthful information.

Do you feel like you are being squeezed in the job market by the NPs? Are you a member of AAPA? Your state society? Your specialty society? Have you given money to your PAC? When it is time to call regulators and legislators do you pick up the phone? Send an email? Do you participate in the solution or just complain about the problem?

When working for or advocating for the profession sometime we need to all heave-ho together to accomplish something. More often we are suffering the death by a thousand cuts and we can only remedy these things if each of us individually take some ownership and make some efforts on our own behalf and on behalf of our colleagues and profession. We all know what synergy is. Now we just need to develop some.

[lemurcatta]

I love this. I feel like it’s super important right now to become and stay a member of local and state PA academies. My state is planning on introducing OTP legislation early next year. We have to have the numbers and the money though. 

 

Edit: also send letters to your reps in state congress and governor!