Weekly Reflection 9/15/19
This week we had Dr. Welch come in to speak with us and we had a presentation day. I felt that this presentation was very interesting compared to our first one. I liked that she was very blunt and practical when she spoke about professions and what they entail. Dr. Welch's approach to "lecturing" was interactive and discussion based. It was a way for every student to be able to relate their lives to the topics we were talking about or an open forum for questions. I felt like the students really drove the class and the learning because based on what we were saying, Dr. Welch then gave us information and personal experiences related to it. The reading that we had done was very plain and simple and to the point. It broke down the main professions in the healthcare industry and what their job was, the education that have to go through, and how much money they make. It then talked about other jobs in the industry that are just as important but more behind the scenes. On top of this the article mentioned ways the industry is trying to improve mostly in ways of patient care. There were many things I found interesting in this reading; how nurses have a more in depth training of patient care compared to all other professions, the number of specialties pharmacists can chose from, and the difference between multidisciplinary care and interdisciplinary care. In class Dr. Welch touched down on some of these topics which helped answer some underlying questions as well as inform me more about how the industry functions on a daily basis.
Dr. Welch spoke a lot about Pharmacists and gave me knowledge about their profession I never knew. She talked about how the education years has changed over time. Something that I found interesting was the idea that the education started as just an apprenticeship and now has moved to six full years of packed education. This started having me think about whether the number of schooling is only going to rise since the reason it rose in the first place was because the students were getting more in depth knowledge which would give them a step up in the future for a potential better job. Another aspect that goes into this is the fact that the number of jobs has reached its maximum and the only way pharmacists will be able to battle that barrier is more schooling, more residencies, and more specialties added to their back pocket. If this becomes the new norm then maybe they will raise the schooling years once again in order to make this new knowledge the base education. The lack of jobs roots back to past discussions we have had about the fact that more pharmacy technicians are being hired because they can do a lot of the same stuff a pharmacist can do, for less pay. So why pay multiple pharmacists when you can just pay for one of them and multiple pharm techs. On top of this, usually the pharmacists have to check the work of techs but now they have a "tech check tech" system where the pharmacists do not have to check their work, just the other techs have to. This limits pharmacists jobs and lets them do more of their important work. With a surplus of techs in this instance, you will not have to hire as many pharmacists. A way that the industry is trying to make more professions is putting pharmacists in doctors offices and allowing them to treat within scope of practice. I find this interesting because it is kind of a way to appeal to consumers wants and needs like any business would do. You want to make your consumers life easier so that it makes them happy and keeps them coming back. Having pharmacists in doctors offices avoids patients from having to go through the process of waiting for their prescription to be filled at a local pharmacy. It also helps the doctors office because with such a decrease in primary care physicians, the number of patients and appointments per day is increasing which can make patients unhappy with their care so making their journey a little but easier with having pharmacists in house to get them their medication, levels the playing field.
Another topic that I found interesting during this class was the idea of inter-professionalism. This topic relates to the interdisciplinary care that was talked about in the reading. Inter-professionalism is basically having all doctors from different areas that are helping a patient, work as a team together in order to increase the patients care. Interdisciplinary care is basically the same thing since is is when "many professionals work together for the patients good also communicate effectively among themselves and with the patient. The industry is trying to move in this direction in order to improve quality of care for patients so that it keeps them happy with their services which keeps them spending money. Dr. Welch talked about how educational services are being provided for professionals so that everyone can be on the same page. With this the industry also is moving from the "fee for service payment system" to the 'patient centered global payment system". The first system basically is when the patients sees multiple professionals that take care of them and each of those professionals collect a separate fee for their work. The new system goes hand in hand with inter-professionalism because in this system the whole team of professionals gets reimbursed based on the patient outcome. Basically they are a team and if one person slips up and effects the outcome, everyone gets penalized because they care for the patient together. I think this helps a lot with increasing communication among professionals which ultimately improves their job satisfaction, the patients safety, and decreases medical errors which are plaguing the industry. The over arching idea that was discussed is the fact that patient care needs to change and become more patient centered or else the industry will crumble. Someone needs to be held accountable and that is why professionals are now a team rather then every man for himself.
We also did presentation this week for our industries. I think that doing so helped me have a better idea of what career I want to do for our next project. I liked hearing how intertwined our industries are. My industry is Clinical Trial Data Management Systems and through all the presentations I found that Contract Pharmaceutical Research Services and the Medical Device Manufacturers overlapped a lot with my industry in terms of them using CTMS as well as professions. I think that it is important to recognize these over laps because it helps me understand how broad the industries are and how much one relies on another for success.
Dr. Welch spoke a lot about Pharmacists and gave me knowledge about their profession I never knew. She talked about how the education years has changed over time. Something that I found interesting was the idea that the education started as just an apprenticeship and now has moved to six full years of packed education. This started having me think about whether the number of schooling is only going to rise since the reason it rose in the first place was because the students were getting more in depth knowledge which would give them a step up in the future for a potential better job. Another aspect that goes into this is the fact that the number of jobs has reached its maximum and the only way pharmacists will be able to battle that barrier is more schooling, more residencies, and more specialties added to their back pocket. If this becomes the new norm then maybe they will raise the schooling years once again in order to make this new knowledge the base education. The lack of jobs roots back to past discussions we have had about the fact that more pharmacy technicians are being hired because they can do a lot of the same stuff a pharmacist can do, for less pay. So why pay multiple pharmacists when you can just pay for one of them and multiple pharm techs. On top of this, usually the pharmacists have to check the work of techs but now they have a "tech check tech" system where the pharmacists do not have to check their work, just the other techs have to. This limits pharmacists jobs and lets them do more of their important work. With a surplus of techs in this instance, you will not have to hire as many pharmacists. A way that the industry is trying to make more professions is putting pharmacists in doctors offices and allowing them to treat within scope of practice. I find this interesting because it is kind of a way to appeal to consumers wants and needs like any business would do. You want to make your consumers life easier so that it makes them happy and keeps them coming back. Having pharmacists in doctors offices avoids patients from having to go through the process of waiting for their prescription to be filled at a local pharmacy. It also helps the doctors office because with such a decrease in primary care physicians, the number of patients and appointments per day is increasing which can make patients unhappy with their care so making their journey a little but easier with having pharmacists in house to get them their medication, levels the playing field.
Another topic that I found interesting during this class was the idea of inter-professionalism. This topic relates to the interdisciplinary care that was talked about in the reading. Inter-professionalism is basically having all doctors from different areas that are helping a patient, work as a team together in order to increase the patients care. Interdisciplinary care is basically the same thing since is is when "many professionals work together for the patients good also communicate effectively among themselves and with the patient. The industry is trying to move in this direction in order to improve quality of care for patients so that it keeps them happy with their services which keeps them spending money. Dr. Welch talked about how educational services are being provided for professionals so that everyone can be on the same page. With this the industry also is moving from the "fee for service payment system" to the 'patient centered global payment system". The first system basically is when the patients sees multiple professionals that take care of them and each of those professionals collect a separate fee for their work. The new system goes hand in hand with inter-professionalism because in this system the whole team of professionals gets reimbursed based on the patient outcome. Basically they are a team and if one person slips up and effects the outcome, everyone gets penalized because they care for the patient together. I think this helps a lot with increasing communication among professionals which ultimately improves their job satisfaction, the patients safety, and decreases medical errors which are plaguing the industry. The over arching idea that was discussed is the fact that patient care needs to change and become more patient centered or else the industry will crumble. Someone needs to be held accountable and that is why professionals are now a team rather then every man for himself.
We also did presentation this week for our industries. I think that doing so helped me have a better idea of what career I want to do for our next project. I liked hearing how intertwined our industries are. My industry is Clinical Trial Data Management Systems and through all the presentations I found that Contract Pharmaceutical Research Services and the Medical Device Manufacturers overlapped a lot with my industry in terms of them using CTMS as well as professions. I think that it is important to recognize these over laps because it helps me understand how broad the industries are and how much one relies on another for success.
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