My name is Michelle Mangan and I am a 2011 graduate of the Ohio Northern University Raabe College of Pharmacy. I currently work at the University of Toledo (UT) College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences as a clinical assistant professor. I completed the PGY1 community residency program at UT/Kroger Pharmacy in 2012 and now serve as the program director for the outpatient diabetes education program at UT. I am also a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE). In addition to my clinical responsibilities, I teach students about community and ambulatory care topics. I am also involved in experiential teaching for student pharmacists and pharmacy residents. One important thing that I learned throughout my residency and my first years as a new practitioner is the impact that professional development can have on your career and job satisfaction.

There are many ways to facilitate development within your professional career. In addition to attending CE sessions, you can participate in educational meetings, earn certificates in topics you are interested in such as medication therapy management or patient advocacy, and obtain board certification. At the start of my residency year, I honestly thought I would never have to take another test again after the NAPLEX and state law exams for the pharmacy boards. Well, I was wrong. I soon found myself studying for the tests for Board Certification in Ambulatory Care Pharmacy (BC-ACP) and to become a CDE.

In part, I have my employer to thank for encouraging me to pursue these endeavors and I am grateful for their support throughout the process. Studying required dedication and effort, but I considered it a personal real-life example of life-long learning that I could share with my students. The hard work paid off and I now proudly add some more letters to my professional signature. Obtaining this recognition shows the patients, physicians, and student pharmacists that I work with that I am an expert in these areas and that I am committed to advancing my career.

So how do you know where you are professionally and where you want to go? I try to follow the process of self-reflection, planning, acting, and evaluating. The first step is taking the time to be able to self-reflect. Set aside some time where you can think about what is going well and what you would like to do better over the coming year. Planning may come in the form of setting goals, which is an important practice that I learned from leadership training during residency. As residents, we were asked to set personal goals for our residency year and were held accountable for them by the co-residents and residency preceptors. Setting small goals is a good way to make sure that you can accomplish them within the year. Make sure to include a few lofty goals to challenge yourself.

Then it’s time to put your plan into action. Keep your goals where you can see them and check things off when you complete them. It is helpful to have mentors who check in on my progress. Consider sharing your goals with another new practitioner or co-worker so you can encourage each other along the way. Setting goals is something that has become a yearly habit for me; every August I review my goals from the past year, check to see if I accomplished them, evaluate why some goals were not met, and establish goals for the upcoming year.

Hopefully this post has given you some inspiration and encouragement to further your professional development in whatever career path you choose. You certainly do not have to follow my exact plan, but make sure that whatever you do, you are always moving forward and not standing still.

Please feel free to leave discussion comments or questions below! To start our discussion, share your answer to the following question: What are some things that have helped you in your journey through professional development?