Reflections for a Year of Caring and Understanding

As we start 2017 after a most interesting 2016,1 hope you will grant me the liberty to take a few minutes of your time to read a viewpoint that is philosophical in nature. As faculty members and/or administrators, we continue to solve existing and new challenges as we strive for excellence in the education of our undergraduate students, doctor of pharmacy students, graduate students, residents, and post-doctoral fellows. We also continue to work to promote the success of our fellow academicians and their work in advancing the biomedical, pharmaceutical, clinical, and social administrative sciences necessary for promoting and enhancing pharmacy practice. Perhaps you have a different perspective, but I find it discouraging watching the increasing rhetoric and too many events demonstrating the lack of or unwillingness to value what each individual brings to his or her community. I reflect in these situations on what small things we can do as educators to demonstrate to those in our colleges and schools of pharmacy that we value each individual for their unique backgrounds, perspectives, beliefs, and talents and truly care for their individual successes and the collective successes of our institution. I respectfully propose we can make small changes by refocusing our thinking, thus providing the foundation for enhancing our understanding and caring for others. Understanding and care require deep listening, which can only occur if we are really present in our interactions with others. I would encourage us to have more personal interactions with our colleagues that don't involve computers or mobile devices, whether it is for one-on-one interactions, meetings or seminars. If we truly focus on listening to one another and what is happening in a meeting or seminar rather than a new e-mail or other work, then we will be able to better observe the non-verbal cues of others around us. Turning off or not bringing a personal electronic device is unlikely to change the course of any given day or project. Furthermore, all of us have experienced what we perceived to be a lack of caring or understanding when talking with another when they are focused more on their own phone or other mobile device. What potential new relationships could we develop or what new knowledge or perspective could we acquire if we were just to be in the present with those around us? I challenge each of you to start by having just one meeting per week where phones and other electronic devices are not allowed. Use that time to focus on what you can learn or better understand. Understanding and caring require us to think about our words and to move by leaving our desk and talking with others outside our offices, classrooms, laboratories, and clinics. Words and how they are spoken matter particularly in a time of stress and anxiety in our colleges and schools of pharmacy. We all can remember a time when something spoken caused us to become disengaged and discouraged. The other individual may not have even known the impact of these words, but these can have long-lasting repercussions in our relationships with others. Yet, perhaps these instances can be minimized if we take the time to get to know our colleagues outside of any e-mail trails, meetings or teaching activities. How many of us take the time to go for coffee or to lunch with our colleagues? I would think that most of us would agree that the most important relationships that we have developed have resulted by spending time together when we can share and learn from each other in an open and positive environment. I have always found it compelling during a memorial service when faculty colleagues share touching stories about a colleague who recently passed and the time they spent together at lunch, in a faculty lounge or other settings outside their offices and classrooms. They rarely reminisce about the times together while in meetings or in classrooms. What has caused us to be too busy to find time for a cup of coffee or lunch with a colleague? …