It’s been awhile since I’ve been here…..I sat down today and thought about what had changed and why I haven’t been writing.

I guess I have just been tired… It has been an overwhelming couple of months with many changes.   Changes that have taken the pharmacy practice I love into the scary place of perhaps not being sustainable.  Government decisions, which have been short sighted and without consultation with the front line health professionals who are affected, have been devastating.  Even as the government back pedals in an attempt at damage control, the changes will continue and have a vast impact on the health of Albertans’ and the sustainability of pharmacy.

The emotional roller-coaster of connecting with hundreds of other pharmacists across Alberta who are in the same position has been both inspiring and enhausting.  I have met so many professionals who are utterly committed to their patients; but it is heartbreaking to hear of some colleagues, near retirement, who may lose the value of their practices they spent years building.

I am many years from retirement and am hopeful this will not be the case for me, but there have been days I have walked into the place I love and found it difficult.  Wondering if decisions, which are in government’s hands, would take away what I have been building.

Then yesterday I received a letter from the College of Pharmacists that I have been anxiously waiting for.  For over a year I’ve been putting together my case to apply for prescribing rights.  I finally completed the process and sent it off.

While I have had limited prescribing rights for years, there have been many times when caring for patients that I have felt like I had my hands tied when I couldn’t prescribe what I knew they needed.

My son handed me the letter from the College, and when I opened it he asked me why I was grinning.

I had received my prescribing authority; and it was more than the expanded ability to serve my patients that had me grinning.  It was hope.  I could see that I had been losing my joy…the reason I was building my practice in the first place.  This affirmation caused me to take a step back and realized that I am exactly where I always wanted to be.  I practice with colleagues whom I highly value and continue to learn from and I am in my own pharmacy able to care for my patient’s exactly as I want.  Definitely worth it.