Jolene Bostwick, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP
The Professional Affairs Committee has been intentionally thinking about how our activities can positively impact our students and trainees. Practice profiles and infographics developed provide insights into trends and opportunities in the field of psychiatric pharmacy. Our goal is that student chapters and their leadership, including pharmacist advisors, can utilize these resources to further disseminate the impact and value of psychiatric pharmacists as well as promote our specialty. Further, as we continue to make efforts to disseminate our value, this leads to new exciting opportunities for students and residents to participate in research projects highlighting the impact of psychiatric pharmacy services. To assist trainees in dissemination of results from these projects, CPNP can offer additional support and mentorship for publication of student research, poster presentations at the Annual Meeting, and other scholarly output.
In addition to these resources, the Professional Affairs Task Force has developed a PowerPoint slide set that can be utilized by CPNP student chapters or other student organizations highlighting the role of psychiatric pharmacists, the educational path to become a psychiatric pharmacist, and the variety of settings psychiatric pharmacists can practice in. By choosing psychiatric pharmacy, pharmacy students and residents have the opportunity to develop and participate in innovative practice models to meet the growing demand for mental health services. Over the past eight years, the number of PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency programs has tripled from 31 to 97 slots, with growth in these programs keeping pace with the demand. To see more about how the Professional Affairs Task Force is showcasing psychiatric pharmacists' clinical practices in a practice-advancement effort to demonstrate the value of psychiatric pharmacists in team-based healthcare, students can visit https://aapp.org/psychpharm. Students can learn more about the profession of psychiatric pharmacy and how to set yourself on the path to achieve these goals, see https://aapp.org/career. In addition to the variety of benefits students can receive from CPNP highlighted here, the Professional Affairs Committee is seeking ways to further disseminate the opportunities available and benefits of pursuing our profession. Students can keep up to date by liking the CPNP Student Members Facebook page and keeping abreast of additional opportunities for students through CPNP including the grant opportunities and student-specific programming at the CPNP 2020 Annual Meeting.