I commend to your reading a piece in Drug Topics by APhA member Michael J. Schuh, PharmD, MBA—a clinical MTM pharmacist and assistant professor of pharmacy at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. Dr. Schuh’s June 10 editorial, “APhA: The view from 35,000 feet,” captured the excitement of our Annual Meetings and what he called the “feeling of movement” and momentum in our profession.

I responded right away to Dr. Schuh with the following message (edited slightly for my blog):

Hi Dr. Schuh,

Thanks for your editorial in Drug Topics today. And thanks for the work you do every day when you practice. Your analogy of the various levels of perspective gained in flight was an excellent one. We are sometimes criticized for not doing enough, or for being on the wrong issues, yet APhA has a staff of 120 folks and leadership and volunteers in the thousands who throw themselves into advancing our profession to i­­mprove patient health. Our perspectives are not insensitive to the daily insults pharmacists bear from not being fully appreciated or valued. On the contrary, by working on policy, advocacy (literally hundreds of issues), and education, we strive to make a difference, just as you do in your practice every day. I describe our work as “promoting consumer access and coverage for pharmacists’ quality patient care services.” And we keep striving to work on behalf of every pharmacist, informed by the richness of every practice setting, to increase access to pharmacists’ services and the value of their contribution to society.

The experiences you described at our Annual Meeting in Orlando are precisely what we hope participants take away. Your observations about our quest for unity in the pursuit of recognition of pharmacists in our health care system were welcome as well! We expend a great deal of energy as an organization keeping the communication lines open among the many state and national pharmacy organizations. We have great respect for their individual missions and look for ways to be stronger together. The quest for increased access to our services in H.R. 4190 is one of those ways. It would seem that the public media are writing about pharmacists’ value more all the time as well. So, I’m more confident than ever that if we can stay united, we will be successful. Your good words to all pharmacists in your editorial about the need to step up and lead were important. We should all be grateful for the thousands of pharmacists who DO step up and lead in our organization, as well as in so many others. And we call on those who don’t have time or resources to lead to at least join our organizations to show their support in tangible ways.

On my office wall, I have a quote about “The Man in the Arena” from Theodore Roosevelt (Paris, 1910) that often motivates me.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Thanks for your enthusiasm in the arena!

Best regards,

Tom