Pharmacist Gains Functional Medicine Education and Advocacy Tools to Improve Patient Longevity

I discovered functional medicine through a little bit of digging and trying to find a different way to help patients. That really got me started on the, oh, we can actually, as pharmacists, be involved in this functional medicine realm so that we can help people actually see health benefits versus just kind of covering up the issue and masking the symptoms. functional medicine is the future of healthcare and pharmacy because ultimately, it's keeping us healthy, helping us live longer lives without all the side effects that come along with actually prescribing medications. So by using functional medicine and diving into what what's really causing the issue and helping resolve that or balance that we're really staying healthy for that longer future that I think everybody wants to look forward to and that abled body future that we can actually do the things that we want to do as we age as well. I discovered FMPhA through honestly following Lauren on social media. So I popped onto the website and started what all she had to offer and decided that it was a great way get involved in functional medicine as a pharmacist, as beings that's geared very much towards the pharmacist realm, that was a great avenue for me. It's important to me to be a part of the membership program because it provides so much information, it provides education, it provides that avenue that pharmacists have been fighting for in all the realms of being a pharmacist. And Fmpha is a great front to really help us as a group come together, advocate for ourselves and to get into that functional medicine space and actually be viewed as part of the team of players in that functional medicine care. If there was anything that would have made me hesitate to join the FMPhA membership, it may have been cost related. But honestly, I'm not aware of a lot of other opportunities that are out there for the Pharmacist, that really, actually wasn't a huge factor for me either. I definitely thought about it, but once I was like, no, the education is there, the advocation Is there. It was not hard for me to decide that this is what I was going to do and try to be a part of. The inclusion of the bootcamp course was actually not a factor for me to join MPhA because I joined before Lauren put the program together or put the course together. It was after I had joined as a member, like a yearly member, but it was offered as part of the lifetime membership last year and that was a great bonus for me that I actually was really interested in partaking in. So from that perspective to have joined in the lifetime membership, it play a little bit of a factor there, but it was a great course and a great springboard. My bootcamp course experience was very beneficial. I had done a lot of digging into different roads for Functional medicine for quite a while before that, but it was really nice to have Lauren put everything together and sum it up into groups of things like platforms to use, different sources to find information, different avenues to pursue to try to get out there as a functional medicine pharmacist. So even though I had learned a lot of the information ahead of time, I still found all kinds of new things in the course that I learned that were able to kind of help me put more pieces into place. And I think my favorite part was being able to do the live sessions with the other members of the cohorts. As you start to work with other people and kind of get tidbits here and there from what they're doing, that kind of puts the icing on the cake, if you will. the most valuable part of the member shipped to FMPhA to me is the discounts on some of the different opportunities. especially the FxMedCE because They are great CEs, really focused on functional medicine and I have learned so much from partaking in those CEs in the last couple of years. I have used the discount for A4M, which is amazing too, you get to see so many different things and hear so many different speakers. So that was a great opportunity as well that came from FMPhA. now that I'm in the FMPhA membership, I practice differently in that I really try to have those lifestyle conversations with patients. What can we do outside of that medication to also improve your symptoms to potentially not need the medication? It's important to be part of the FMPhA membership to advocate for our profession and to better the health of the people of our country, to provide longevity for all of us. Lauren and what she's done with FMPhA is such a great trailblazing path for pharmacists. And if you're looking to get started in functional medicine, the bootcamp is an awesome jumpstart with all the basics kind of wrapped up into one little package to really have that base foundation of where to start and where to go. I'm Danielle Nelson. I am a Functional Medicine Pharmacist from Fargo, North Dakota.