Timothy Jacisin, PharmD, a senior pharmacist at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., has been selected to join a national taskforce commissioned by the group responsible for accrediting pharmacy residents. He will help expand standards that protect pharmacists who identify as LGBTQ+.
His selection for the taskforce was not made via traditional pathways, but came after the accrediting organization, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists published updated residency standards in 2022 that, for the first time, incorporated guidelines on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Dr. Jacisin noticed the revisions made no mention of LGBTQ+ pharmacists or residents, and along with a colleague, penned a letter to the editor of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy calling for it to be addressed.
"As a gay man myself, one of the things I was nervous about with residency was the fact that I could go anywhere in the country, and I wasn't sure what standards or protections there were," Dr. Jacisin stated in a May 30 blog post. "I wanted to be able to identify that I had a boyfriend (who is now my husband) and that we would be moving together wherever I matched."
The October 2023 letter called for "additional outreach opportunities to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual-centered applicant outreach as a similar core metric of residency standards."
"While a previous publication identified key questions and topics LGBT pharmacy residency candidates may want to consider during the residency application process, the new residency standards do not address needs related to LGBTQ+ individuals," the letter states.
After writing the letter, Dr. Jacisin and his colleague received a reply from the ASHP inviting the two to participate on its taskforce for accreditation of pharmacy residents and work with them to update the guidelines — which is ongoing.