Leadership Advice for the Front Lines: Interviews with Max Ray,Sara White,and Scott Knoer

Abstract

Pharmacy is striving to evolve from a technical profession in which pharmacists prepare and dispense medications to one in which they take responsibility for the development and execution of each patient's pharmacotherapeutic plan. This is being guided by pharmacy leaders and professional organizations, but they are not able to make the changes necessary to achieve their vision alone. In order to effectively implement change, pharmacists need to own their vision of pharmacy practice. The authors spoke to a number of established leaders in the pharmacy profession about what the individual pharmacist could do to change the culture and environment at the local level. The leaders' advice proved remarkably consistent and could be summarized into three categories: vision, socialization (relationships and networks), and self-development. Excerpts from three of these interviews were compiled into one report to be used as a guide to help pharmacists implement changes needed to achieve the vision of pharmacy practice.