As a regent of ACCP, what is your role and why are you passionate about ACCP? What opportunities does ACCP provide for students?

I have several roles as regent. One of the most important roles of regents is as a conduit between the members, other officers, and administrators of ACCP to ensure everyone’s voice is heard – to make sure communication is relayed from members to leadership and vice versa. This involves not only ACCP members, but students who are members of SCCP as well. Also, as regent, I oversee a lot of ACCP procedures, policies, and activities by helping to guide its vision and strategic planning. I am also on the Education Committee, which involves overseeing the annual Programming Committee and making sure everything goes smoothly throughout the year. ACCP provides students with many opportunities, including ways to get involved through leadership positions and through national committees as a student representative and the Student Committee itself, which is made up entirely of students. ACCP also provides students with the resources to receive feedback and assistance on their CV and letter of intent. Improving research skills and innovation are also available to students through ACCP. One of the things really great about ACCP compared with other organizations is that it is very easy to network because ACCP facilitates a lot of small groups. By networking and gaining mentors through ACCP channels, students have the opportunity to advance their career and become exposed to different paths in the pharmacy career field.

What led you to become a clinical pharmacist, and what duties do you perform at your practice site?

My practice site is at the University of South Alabama Children’s & Women’s Hospital in the pediatric ICU (PICU) in Mobile, Alabama. The hospital’s PICU is a 20-bed unit. The duties I perform include daily rounding with an interdisciplinary team involving attendees, residents, physician assistants, students, nurses, and social workers. Through rounding, we review the patients’ charts, medications, and laboratory tests, thereby making recommendations to ensure optimal patient care. Our goal is to be comprehensive with respect to patients’ medication therapy management, educating the team and avoiding adverse effects. My role as a pharmacist is very important because we are the medication experts; therefore, at times, I have to remind physicians and other team members about renal or hepatic dose adjustments and drug-drug interactions because that is often not their priority. What led me to become a clinical pharmacist was discovering the clinical side of pharmacy during pharmacy school by becoming more intertwined and being involved with patients. I really enjoy asking questions, having a more intimate role with patients, and making decisions.

What has influenced your career the most, and which accomplishments have you been most proud of, or have influenced you the most professionally?

I have been in academia and conducting research throughout my career, so what has influenced me the most is seeing what happens to the students – for example, seeing the success of the students I have taught, precepted, or mentored and what they have accomplished in their careers. On top of that, I enjoy the research aspect because I like being able to answer questions and develop an answer to figure things out! What has influenced me the most professionally are definitely the mentors I have had, especially through ACCP. One thing I didn’t mention before is that I am also passionate about ACCP because of the mentors who inspire me to do better professionally and learn. Auburn’s atmosphere is also like that; with support from my colleagues, I am constantly striving to grow and be better. The mentors I have had in ACCP in the past have opened doors for me and brought opportunities to my attention that I otherwise would not have known existed. I realized I wanted to do academia during my PGY1 residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center, where I was exposed to academia and realized that I enjoyed working with students and was interested in research. Through academia, I mentor students and conduct research.

What is the biggest piece of advice you can give to a student pharmacist seeking a career in clinical pharmacy?

Never stop asking “why”! This question motivates me and should motivate students as well because it always keeps them wondering about questions to find answers to. When I say “ask why,” I mean with respect to everything, from career path to why use this drug to the purpose of your actions. I think almost all pharmacy schools now are actually training students to be clinical pharmacists and to think critically and clinically so that they are more intimately involved with helping their patients. I feel that every person who graduates from pharmacy school can be a clinical pharmacist in whatever career path they take; it’s whether they use that knowledge. It doesn’t matter what practice site you’re in, it just matters whether you are going to use that knowledge. Always ask questions, even if you are afraid of pushback from physicians or others. The most important thing is helping your patient. Constantly strive to improve and develop yourself by reading the guidelines and keeping up to date on the latest literature and medication or disease states. Residencies are very competitive, so I believe that if students wish to obtain a residency, they need to go above and beyond by being involved in not only school organizations, but also national organizations to get their name out there – also, by holding leadership positions, doing research, getting published, and learning those skills. All of these things show that you can multitask.

As a pioneer for many research projects, why do you find research important, not only for improving patient outcomes but also for students to get involved in?

I believe research is important because it not only looks good on your CV, but also helps you ask questions and learn why it’s important to ask those questions. Research in general is so important in medicine because so many things are still unknown. It’s one of the things that drew me to pediatrics because there are even more unknowns in pediatrics, and I really like trying to figure out answers and understand things to try and answer those “why” questions. I have been involved in a few research projects; recently, we looked at iron and the drug interaction between giving oral iron and antacids. A lot of times, it has been thought that iron needs an acidic environment to be absorbed; however, we found that even with antacids creating a more alkaline environment, the iron can still be absorbed in the pediatric population when concurrently administered with antacids. I have also looked at tPA and how to more efficiently package it to make it more usable and cheaper; right now, we are looking at vitamin D to see if we can achieve therapeutic benefit faster by administering larger doses and using melatonin in the PICU and whether these things help with patients’ sedation and avoiding delirium.

What made you decide to become a pediatric clinical pharmacist?

As I said earlier, because there are so many unknowns in pediatrics, it is a lot more interesting to me and more challenging, with a lot more problem solving. Also, just the atmosphere in pediatrics is always more positive, optimistic, and happy. I really like that atmosphere and the people you work with. Finally, of course, pediatric patients are just happier to be around because they are usually much more uplifting, and most pediatric patients are just adorable!