At the beginning of the school year I had the opportunity to attend the 2019 ICHP Annual Meeting in Oakbrook. This was my first time going to a professional meeting and I was excited to experience it first-hand. I attended two days of the conference, and those two days provided insight into my profession and showed me that pharmacy really is a small world.

On my first day, I attended a networking lunch and a seminar on the opioid crisis. During the lunch, I was able to talk to a couple of pharmacists who were working in Medication Safety. They were welcoming and openly shared their experiences with me. One of the pharmacists talked about how she solved a safety problem at her hospital. She had to investigate multiple aspects of the healthcare process and collaborate with other healthcare professionals in order to solve the problem. It was interesting to see how a pharmacist handles a problem like this and the steps involved in fixing it. Another pharmacist I talked to at the table told me about the innovations he was implementing at his hospital. He talked about how he was implementing automation and technology into the workflow process in order to reduce medication errors and how this is the direction pharmacy is heading. He had a lot to say about the future of pharmacy and it was amazing to see how one person can take an idea and make something out of it. It would not be until the last day of the conference that I would realize the weight that his words carried.  

Following the lunch was the seminar on the opioid crisis and how we as pharmacists can have an impact on it. I thought it was a smart idea to have two of the three presentations be from people outside of the pharmacy profession. One presentation was from a surgeon and the other was from a member of the DEA. Having different professions at the event helped put the opioid crisis in a new perspective and it was interesting to see what other professions thought pharmacists could do to help make an impact on opioids. 

On the last day of the conference, I attended a residency panel. At the panel I was surprised to see that two of my professors from my school were presenting. Their presentations, along with the other presenters, were incredibly helpful in providing insight into the residency application process and orienting my goals for the future of my career. It was seeing my two professors there that gave me a feeling that pharmacy really is a small world.  However, the biggest example of that was yet to come at the award luncheon.

When I sat down for the award luncheon, I did not expect it to be anything different than a normal lunch, but that quickly changed when the pharmacist that I had talked to on my first day at the conference was awarded the Pharmacist of the Year Award! He was given the award because of the innovations and improvements he was making in the field - the same innovations and improvements that he told me about during the networking lunch the day before. I never thought I would experience such a classic example of the phrase “pharmacy is a small world”! 

It is now clear to me that conferences like the ICHP Annual Meeting are important for students and pharmacists to attend. The seminars help teach valuable and updated information about our profession and the lunches have a multitude of networking opportunities. You never know who you will meet and what they will have to say, but my piece of advice is this - “pharmacy is a small world!”