Overcoming Past Perceptions and a Profession-Wide Identity Crisis to Reflect Pharmacy's Future

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy practice and professional identity.
• Healthcare professional development.
• Psychology in professional settings.

Background:

• The pharmacy profession has evolved with multiple identities, including apothecary, dispenser, merchandiser, expert advisor, and healthcare provider.
• Current responsibilities and scope of practice in the United States have not kept pace with the profession's goals or pharmacists' educational levels.
• The coexistence of product-centric and patient-centric roles obscures the true professional identity, potentially contributing to the impostor phenomenon.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the impact of evolving professional identities on the scope of practice in pharmacy.
• To investigate the link between professional identity ambiguity and the impostor phenomenon among pharmacists.
• To propose a unified definition for the pharmacy profession to address current challenges.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of historical and current pharmacy roles.
• Examination of the relationship between professional identity, scope of practice, and psychological phenomena.
• Literature review on pharmacy education and practice models.

Main Results:

• The diverse and sometimes conflicting identities within pharmacy lead to an unclear professional identity.
• This identity ambiguity is associated with the impostor phenomenon, affecting pharmacists.
• Current practice models and educational standards do not adequately support a unified professional identity.

Conclusions:

• A unified definition for the pharmacy profession is essential for future advancement.
• This requires either relinquishing past identities or clearly delineating them.
• Substantial changes in educational standards and practice models are necessary to resolve these persistent professional challenges.