Helina Blogs

When I was the CEO for the SC Pharmacy Association, I would visit about 20 pharmacies a week. As I was waiting to meet with the team at each pharmacy, I watched each member of the community pharmacy team run from one end of the pharmacy to the next to answer the phones that did not stop ringing with calls from patients as well as providers, service the drive through customers, arrange for minute clinics as well as patient counseling, and take care of dozens of patients waiting in line for COVID-19 vaccines and/or testing.  Just like other healthcare providers, pharmacists and their team members are under an immense amount of stress, pressure, and demand to serve the needs of their patients. I watched them work selflessly to meet the needs of their patients.  Throughout the pandemic, overrun hospitals were often referred to a combat zones, and healthcare workers as frontline soldiers. Research shows that those comparisons were probably warranted. As they faced fatigue, death...

MUSC College of Pharmacy Graduation 2022 Good afternoon!  Dear Faculty, families, loved ones, and GRADUATES . Thank you for inviting me to join you on this very important milestone in your life. You did it and I am proud of YOU! Congratulations.  Dean Hall asked me to share with you my pharmacy journey. Instead, I would like to talk to you about the life journey of a seven-year-old refugee girl. This young Iraqi girl found a hand grenade in the rubble of her hometown in Iraqi Kurdistan and was desperate to trade it for a bag of candy from a United States Marine deployed in her homeland. This seven-year-old girl and her family sought refuge in the United States hoping for a second chance in the land of unlimited opportunity. In 1996, this young girl, now ten years old, landed in America.  Even though living and growing up in the safety of a free country, the next three decades had numerous challenges for her. At ten she had to learn to think and communicate in English, her...