As a practicing pharmacist in an outpatient setting, always try to allow real-life experience in health-care. Most days our feets are planted firmly behind (or in front of) the counter. We work in what we like to think of as the “front lines” of pharmaceutical services: checking prescriptions and counseling patients on using their medications safely and effectively.
I believe in setting goals for yourself. As motivational speaker and entrepreneur Jim Rohn once said, “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
In fact, studies have shown people are far more effective when they set their own goals versus when goals are handed down to them from above. Some businesses understand this and encourage their employees to chart their own course for success.
Other companies miss this opportunity and prefer a more controlled culture where goals are developed by management alone and then imposed on employees with a heavy hand. That’s a shame.
No one can’t set your goals for you as a pharmacist. In fact, no one want to. But we can encourage you to set your own goals and reach for great things in 2022. Here we share with you some Professional goals template for this year as a way of holding oneself accountable and encouraging others to do the same.
1. Personal development. Earn a specific, relevant certification or similar educational accomplishment. I don’t believe that a certification makes you a de facto better pharmacist. However, I do think a focused curriculum, program or series of lectures on a topic is a great way to expand your knowledge, which can be used to serve others.
2. Service development. Expand services to transitioning patients. working in a unique setting where we have the opportunity to meet the specific needs of patients transitioning out of a hospital to their homes. This is a critical juncture where extra care is needed to make this transfer successful. We want patients to go home and continue to recover, not return to the hospital due to a poorly managed discharge.
3. Staff development. We will have the privilege of working with a remarkable team of talented pharmacists, technicians and interns. Try to learn from them all the time. But also return the favor by sharing with them some of the unique things you have learned and offer them the opportunity to practice new skills and grow their careers.
4. Business development. Aim to give the best for to your company and clients. They have unique goals and plans that You need to help them accomplish. No company is perfect, and if there was, we are sure no one would want to join it and ruin the record. But I think we all have the opportunity to look beyond our day-to-day tasks and contribute something to the greater good of the businesses we work within. On this front, we should developed some specific financial and service goals I believe are both achievable and valuable.
5. Pharmacist development. On a personal note:
I love my patients, but I also have a passion and love for my fellow pharmacists. Many have written me with kind encouragements over the years, and I greatly appreciate that. Teaching soon-to-be pharmacists is something I’ve enjoyed for a long time. This year, I plan on developing some specific resources to help my fellow pharmacists manage their careers and finding the next step in their professional development.
There you have it. Those are some of my 2022 professional goals we can all work towards. We don’t know what this year will hold. But we should plan to make the most of it, whatever may come, Happy New Year!
References:
https://meridian.allenpress.com/jcphp/article/66/2/11/430588/The-Importance-of-Goal-Setting-Why-Every
