If I Betray These Words Book Club - Student Pharmacist Perspective

Authored by: Monika Baranek, PharmD Candidate Class of 2025

The concept of moral injury was new to me two weeks ago. Of course, I, like most other healthcare providers, am acutely aware of burnout and how it affects me. However, moral injury goes deeper than burnout. To me, it reflects the loss of a person’s deeply held core beliefs; the longer we are in an environment that compromises them, the easier it becomes for us to forsake them. This phenomenon is subconscious, we often don’t recognize the depth of our moral injury and how it projects into our world. Dr. Wendy Dean’s book If I Betray These Words describes how moral injury is the result of years of working in a broken healthcare system, of administrative values that don’t align with those of their healthcare providers. As several of the stories shared in the book affirm, moral injury feels isolating, and it can be terrifying to speak up for fear of being unsupported by one’s healthcare system.

After reading If I Betray These Words, I had the opportunity to attend The Spark Index’s book club with Dr. Wendy Dean. To hear her commentary on her book, on the severity of moral injury, and her ideas for the future, I feel empowered to speak up. Moral injury affects all levels of healthcare, administrators to providers to patients. By understanding moral injury as a student pharmacist, I will be able to enter into my career as a clinician armed with a more comprehensive perspective of healthcare. I think attending these monthly book clubs is an invaluable experience for all students; being able to learn from healthcare leaders at the beginning of our careers is such a unique and impactful experience. 

Our goal as healthcare providers should be the same: to provide the best possible care for our patients. By understanding more of the systems in which we will work and how to navigate and advocate for change, we can only become better clinicians. As Dr. Wendy Dean said, “the way we reach a better healthcare system is by supporting each other”. 

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About Monika Baranek, PharmD Candidate 2025

Meet Monika Baranek - Doctor of Pharmacy Student at Roseman University of Health Sciences

Biography

Monika is a final-year student pharmacist based in Utah. She has been involved in student leadership, research, and pharmacy advocacy since her first year of pharmacy school. Her experiences have developed her passions for policy and advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels, mental health, and furthering the profession of pharmacy through research, support, and education. She has presented research at Utah’s Pharmacy Legislative Day on Capitol Hill, Roseman University’s Research Symposium, and the APhA Annual Meeting & Expo in Orlando, Florida.

She is also a fierce advocate for patient education on-site in the community pharmacy and hospital settings. She hopes to combine her love of infectious disease and interdisciplinary collaborative patient-focused healthcare to make healthcare safer for providers and patients. 

Favorite Quote

“Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of someone else” 
Judy Garland