Author: Chad Harvey, PharmD, BCPS
The Greater Cincinnati Society of Health-System Pharmacists (GCSHP) has had a busy year so far and there are no signs of that letting up. This is by design of course! The chapter has focused a lot of energy on drumming up participation from pharmacists while also expanding programming to be more inclusive of technicians, residents, and pharmacy students. While overall participation improvements have been modest, they have still been noticeable.
The biggest event of the year for the chapter is our annual “GCSHP CE Day” which successfully completed its 3rd year in September. This event provides 4 hours of ACPE-accredited CE (including 1 hour of medication safety) and provides CE for pharmacy technicians. Registration is free for members and students (small charge for non-members) and all attendees are provided a catered meal. CE presentations are provided by clinical pharmacists, pharmacy administration, and pharmacy technicians, among others, which allows participants to learn from a variety of leaders in the field of pharmacy. New to the event is the involvement of pharmacy students through collaboration with the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy’s CoCA programming. This year’s event had about 30 attendees, which unfortunately was a steep decline from previous years. Many factors for this decline have been identified and will be considered in the future as plans to continue growing the event have already begun.
In each November and December, the chapter will have sponsored drug dinners for members. The November dinner was an extra event to allow participating GCSHP members to learn from a renowned speaker. The December dinner will be our annual “holiday dinner” to aid in increasing membership, as well as collect toy donations for a family in need. The latter has historically been well attended and we expect a great turnout again this year.
In the spring we will host two more events. The first event is our annual Ohio Law CE. This event has a large turnout each year and provides pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with 1 hour of ACPE-accredited law CE. This event has a catered dinner and a presentation, which is provided by an Ohio Board of Pharmacy representative. The second spring event is our annual Best Practices and Research Symposium, which allows pharmacy students, residents, and practicing pharmacists, an opportunity to present their research. This interactive symposium uses electronic posters and small groups to provide a unique presentation setting and creates the chance to view many presentations in a short time frame.
The year will wrap-up in late spring/early summer with officer elections and transitions, along with our annual GCSHP social event, and finally the yearly planning event. So far, this has been a successful year for GCSHP and we look to continue growing our chapter through this year and into the future.
Thank you,
Chad Harvey, PharmD, BCPS. President - Greater Cincinnati Society of Health-System Pharmacists
