Cold and Rain in Brantford...

What a gloomy day in Brantford! It was the type of cold that got into your bones and refuse to go away. It also does not help when quite a few people on the bus are tired and on the verge of getting sick. But for the profession's sake, we must persevere along...

We were also expecting similar cold treatment from some of Brantford’s newspapers, particularly the Brantford Expositor, as we heard that they had posted a one-sided, negative and inflammatory article about how we, as pharmacy students, were manipulated in this situation by the Coalition as part of an “increasingly nasty campaign to stop a ban on so-called professional allowances”. What slanderous and preposterous comments! (He must have not read my message from before to the media. Tsk tsk!) I give total credit to my classmate who handled them like a pro... But alas, here is my rant of the day...

http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2576307

Just to put it clear:

1) I, as a pharmacy student, know nothing about politics and I don’t want to do anything about politics. I’m here with the purest of intentions and the understanding that anything that I do will not change the government’s mind, regardless of what party it is. I’m here for my own conscience and passion.

2) We are NOT pawns – we are pharmacy students with actual brains who willingly decided to partake in the tour. (Try getting through our Med Chem course without brains.)

3) This is not a “nasty campaign”. It is purely spreading awareness and letting people know how great the pharmacy profession and the services that it provides for all Ontarians. Healthcare is a right, and we advocate for maximizing Ontarians' rights to have access to best possible patient care services. Is it nasty to want to advocate for a healthier population? Is it nasty to act for the good of the public?

4) We are here for ourselves because we love the profession and are worried for the future of the profession, as well as the quality of the healthcare system. It's not even about the jobs that we lost anymore. It's about the viability of the profession and healthcare system. That’s it. Seriously.

This is the second time that I’ve put this – I really do hate repeating myself (unless if it is for a patient who has forgotten it or needs to be reminded, then I’d gladly repeating a hundred and thousand times for the patient).

Before I close off this entry, I only want to remind people that I personally as a pharmacy student don’t treat this as a political campaign, as some of the presses or MPPs may have said. We are EDUCATING people about what could happen should these cuts be implemented (and will be done so on the 15th of May – this coming Saturday), the importance of pharmacy services and what pharmacists do. This is not propaganda that I’m speaking of. This is telling people about what my pharmacist mentors and I do in our respective practices. It’s not just about pouring pills from a big bottle into a smaller bottle. It’s about giving the patients the means, particularly non-drug advice and patient education, to live longer and more healthily with greater quality of life.

The public will forever be required to be reminded about what pharmacists do. I’ll be more than glad to be that reminding voice.