Six Tips for Earning Your APR: One Member’s Journey
Posted on Mar. 24, 2023 / Member News / Subscribe 0
By Phil Buck, APR
There were reasons to be optimistic heading into the summer of 2021. With the initial wave of COVID-19 in the rearview mirror it looked and felt like, just maybe, things were beginning to get back to normal. Working in the healthcare industry – specifically, working for the largest academic medical center on the west coast of Florida – my life had pretty much been all-pandemic, all the time for the last year or so.
After a 20-year career in journalism, I had accepted a position with Tampa General Hospital as a public relations specialist in March 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. To say that I had jumped from the frying pan into the fire was an understatement. Not only was I trying to learn a new profession (PR), and a new industry with its own complex nuances (healthcare), but I was also trying to learn my way around a massive organization in the middle of the biggest public health emergency of my lifetime. The best comparison I can make to my experience in broadcast journalism is that public relations in academic medicine during a pandemic is like hurricane coverage: stay on your toes, be nimble, stay safe, and get the job done no matter what. It had been an exhausting year both mentally and emotionally, but with infection rates and the number of COVID patients in our ICUs on the decline, I felt ready to give myself another challenge.
Some new colleagues of mine had suggested I consider pursuing my Accreditation in Public Relations, so I started doing some research. Earning my APR seemed like a perfect blend of personal goal setting and professional development, exactly what I was looking for. I was excited and jumped in with both feet, and a few weeks later I received an email saying my application to pursue APR had been approved, and that I had 12 months to sit for my panel presentation and pass the exam. The clock was already ticking.
Then came Delta. The Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in India in 2020. By mid-July 2021, it was raging across the United States and I was back in hurricane coverage. The Delta wave was followed by the Omicron wave a few months later, and by February 2022 I still hadn’t even started working on my panel presentation.
After having an honest conversation with myself, I knew there was no way I was going to get everything done by my May 31 deadline, so I paid PRSA for the six-month extension and got to work. My first move was contacting my local Tampa Bay PRSA chapter. This would serve as my most crucial resource over the coming months. My local PRSA chapter paired me up with a mentor, also a former broadcast journalist, who really understood my career journey. This turned out to be extremely helpful. I also bought a used copy of Cutlip and Center’s Effective Public Relations and started reading a little bit every day. Not having had any formal training in public relations, I felt like I was starting from scratch and needed to learn the fundamentals that more seasoned PR pros take for granted.
When summer came around, I re-enrolled in my local PRSA chapter’s APR study group. This was my second time through the seven-week course, my first was during the summer of 2021 – right in the middle of the Delta wave. This weekly study group featured presentations from guest speakers (other local APRs) on various areas of focus in the APR examination and interactive conversations about case studies, communication models and theories, ethics and more. This was, by far, my most important resource throughout my APR process. It wasn’t just having the weekly commitment to set aside two hours every Wednesday night to study the field of public relations, but having the other people in my cohort to have breakout sessions with and hold each other accountable made a huge difference in my study efforts.
By September, I was ready for my panel presentation. I’ll always remember it because I presented virtually and I wore a tie and jacket with basketball shorts (what the rest of the world started doing when the pandemic forced us all onto Zoom, I had been doing a decade earlier every night behind the anchor desk on the evening news), and even though my panelists were overwhelmingly kind and helpful, I completely sweated through my shirt because I was so nervous.
After that, I scheduled my exam for as close as possible to my deadline to give me the maximum amount of time to cram for the test. I had nine weeks, and I knew I needed to make the most of it. The sixth edition of the APR Study Guide from the Universal Accreditation Board would be my sacred text for those nine weeks. Back in my college days I was always a deadline student, which meant I got pretty good at cramming for tests at the last minute. I never thought of myself as having the discipline to be the type of student who studies a little bit every day – but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to cram everything into my head right before the exam this time. I forced myself to become the student who studies a little bit every day. There’s a whole other lesson baked in there about not letting your past or your thoughts limit yourself – but that’s a different blog article.
Finally, came the day of the exam. I knew I didn’t want to take it virtually, so I had booked an appointment at the closest Prometric office, which was about an hour away from my house. The night before the test, I stayed at my in-law’s house (not recommended for everyone, but it worked great for me). There I could have some peace and quiet, and it considerably cut down my drive to the testing center the following morning. I arrived early and found a nearby coffee shop where I reviewed some of the notes from my local APR study group over coffee and a croissant. When the time came, I was ready, and I passed.
The feeling of accomplishment as I drove home that day far surpassed what I was expecting. Earning my APR felt like much more than just earning a professional accreditation, it felt like I was stepping into a new phase of my professional life. The things I learned going through the APR process will serve me both personally and professionally wherever I go, and the feeling of accomplishment from earning my accreditation has given me a new sense of confidence that is helping me continue to grow and seek new challenges outside of my comfort zone.
So, with all of that said, here are a few tips from me for anyone on their own APR journey:
- DO – Get your timing right, first things first. I wish I would have waited until I had gone through my local PRSA chapter’s APR study group before applying to pursue accreditation. It took me less than six months to complete the panel presentation and the exam, but because I applied so early in the process and wasn’t ready, I had to pay for an extension on my deadline.
- DON’T – Overthink it. Half of my problem was that I built the panel presentation up in my mind to be something that it wasn’t. I was overwhelmed and became paralyzed by fear. Don’t let the big picture scare you off, you can do this. Just break it up into smaller steps, attack one task at a time, and you’ll get there.
- DO – Use your local PRSA chapter as a resource. If your local chapter doesn’t offer an APR prep course, find one that does or ask to be paired with a mentor.
- DO – Find your support network. Whether it’s people from your local PRSA chapter or other colleagues, having others to study with and hold each other accountable is tremendously helpful.
- DO – Use the correct study materials. The APR Study Guide from the Universal Accreditation Board is literally EVERYTHING you need to know for the exam. Read it from cover to cover, mark it up with notes, use it to create flashcards for the terms and dates that require memorization, and take time to think critically about the case studies.
- DON’T – Be close minded or negative. You can do this!! For so long I had told myself stories in my head about what kind of student I was, I didn’t think I could be the type of student that studies a little bit every day for weeks – or even months – but it turned out that I can be that type of student, all it took was the right mindset.
If you’ve made it this far and you’re still considering going after your APR, I encourage you to move forward. For me, the journey was more important than the destination, I got much more out of what I learned about the profession and about myself than I did in the feeling of accomplishment that I got from earning accreditation. It was who I became during the process that turned out to be my real reward.
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