IPSF NEWSLETTERStudent Exchange Programme

Internat ional Pharmaceut ica l Students ’ Federat ion

Issue N°90

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Internat ional Pharmaceut ica l Students ’ Federat ion

Student Exchange Programme

IPSF Student Exchange EditionSEP newsletter

Summary

Hello all IPSFers,

Welcome to the special 2nd edition of the SEP Newsletter!! In this edition, I am delighted to present to you SEP experienc-es from ALL regions of IPSF. This edition serves up a snap-shot of South America, Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe! This edition is sure to entice you to think outside of the box and stimulate you to challenge yourself to experience a new country completely!

In addition to that, we have a special section about the Phar-maceutical Japan Tour. I hope this article will inspire new and upcoming associations to run something similar to en-tice more students to their country! I also hope that this will certainly BOOST Japan’s status in SEP for the next upcoming years!

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Community Pharmacy Sec-tion (CPS) in this Newsletter. CPS has been an invaluable partner to IPSF and for SEP this past year, through their inter-est and assistance in spreading the word about SEP through their membership base.

Enjoy!!

Viva la pharmacie!

Regards,

Melissa TEO

Chairperson of Student Exchange

2010 – 2011

2SEP in COSTA RICA

4SEP in EGYPT

6SEP in TAIWAN

8SEP in PORTUGAL

10SEP in GHANA

12Japan Phar-maceutical Tour

14Community pharmacies

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SEP inCOSTA RICA

Last summer I went on a pharmacy exchange to Costa Rica for the month of July. Surprisingly the people there who were offering rides to hotels and taxis were very friendly and lent me their cell phones so I could call the SEO of Costa Rica. She told me she was caught in traffic behind an accident and her friend

ended up having to come and get me. When her friend arrived

she was very kind and kissed me on the cheek, a common greeting in Costa Rica among family and friends. I was then driven to meet the pharmacy student I would stay with and her two sisters. They took me to a local concert and in a restaurant. It was fun and the food was good. Oldies English music such as the Bee gees and the Beatles played on a large screen when the band was on breaks. Next we went to my home-stay family’s home. It was a small house but it was nice and clean. I was immediately welcomed into their family although they would never let me help with cooking or house work for the entire month.

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PAROPan American

Regional Office

Learning to use the till in the pharmacy

SEP inCOSTA RICA

The pharmacy part of my exchange did not begin until 5 days after my arrival, but finally I went to my first day. It was intriguing to be able to compare a pharmacy in another country to the one I had been working at in Canada. There were many technicians but only one pharmacist and he was the only one who could speak English. I do not know very much Spanish so I could not speak to the patients and I found it difficult to contribute to the pharmacy. However during my visit, I learnt about giving injections for pain, allergies and immunizations, how to take a blood pressure manually, and I learnt how to use the till. Giving injections was common in the pharmacy and they had a special room for doing this at the back of the pharmacy. Only the pharmacist and pharmacy students are allowed to give injections. This was exciting to see as Canada is currently transitioning into pharmacists giving immunizations.

Some other interesting differences I noticed between the pharmacies in Costa Rica and Canada include that patients are able to purchase most drugs with the exception of

narcotics and antibiotics without a prescription. Patients do not have to pay a dispensing fee. Most patients choose to buy only a few pills, one or two, at a time, as they do not have much money and few have drug plans. The patients are able to negotiate the price of the drugs by buying larger quantities. Pharmacy technicians have no training and if there is no pharmacist working, the technician can phone the pharmacist to get permission to fill a prescription. The drugs in the pharmacy are usually in blister packs, thus very few are in pill bottles. Drug information sheets are not given with the prescription. Only medications are sold at a pharmacy. All herbal and natural products are sold at a separate store. The pharmacist wage is approximately 1500 American dollars per month, working 9 hours per day for 5 days a week.

While outside of the pharmacy I traveled around the country with a pharmacy student from Slovakia and one from Spain. Both of these students had their exchange at the same pharmacy as me but lived in different home

stays. During my travels I saw volcanoes, oceans, rainforests, monkeys, humming birds, butterflies and much more. I also tried some new foods and learnt a little bit of Spanish. Costa Rica was amazing with both educational aspects and many exciting adventures.

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Leila Clayton (Canada)

My home-stay family, me and my fiance

SEP inEGYPT

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EMROEastern

Mediterannean Regional Office

The First of August seemed to be a regular day just like any other, until I got to my room’s window and looked outside. Downtown Cairo was at my feet! A few meters away, the Egyptian Museum was standing imposingly while Tahrir square and the adjacent boulevards seemed so busy. Luckily, everything was so quiet up here! Most of us were already having breakfast in the small lobby of our hostel and the first day of our adventure was about to start.

The idea came when a few months ago I received an email regarding Student Exchange Programme of IPSF. Egypt seemed to have the most interesting offer as their programme included training at the 3rd largest Children’s Cancer Hospital worldwide and and the first one in Africa. We had visits to the GlaxoSmithKline factory facilities as well as in the local Delta Pharma and to the largest pharmacy chain in Egypt, Al Ezzaby.

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Zoe -Maria Glarou (Greece)

My application was approved and the trip began alongside 12 students from all over the world and accompanied by the most helpful and enthusiastic team from EPSF. The month passed so quickly, full of adventures, challenges and lots of fun among some of the nicest places in the country! 2 Croatian, 1 Canadian, 3 Polish, 2 Malaysian, 2 Spanish and finally 2 Greeks (including me) filled our hearts and cameras with the nicest memories of Aswan, Luxor, Alexandria, Hurgada, Mountain Sinai, cruise on the Nile, camping under the veil of the sky, swimming in the oasis springs, relaxing on Red Sea beaches and even playing hide and seek with white foxes in the White desert or dancing with the Bedouins. Of course, history lessons could not have been skipped.

Definitely, Egypt and its people will stay in my memory leaving me the best impressions. Their passion for Pharmacy made them achieve a great educational, professional, historical, hospitable and joyful mixture of students’ training.

SEP inTAIWAN

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APROAsia Pacific

Regional Office

I had my exchange program--experience in both community and hospital pharmacies--in Taipei.

I spent the first 2 weeks in Din Tai Pharmacy, a community pharmacy. I really had fun along with 3 other pharmacy students from Taipei doing their attachment. For the 1st week, we learnt how to read prescriptions and to pack and dispense medication. It was really difficult for me at first because I am used to reading prescriptions in

English rather than in Chinese, but I eventually got use to it. The validity of the prescription is different from that in Singapore. In Taiwan, medications must be collected within the stipulated dates (usually within 3 days) in the prescription. For chronic disease continuous prescription is valid for three months starting from the issuing day and chronic patients can be given thirty days medications each time according to the severity of their diseases. There must at least be a minimum period of 1 week before the

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Alvin Chua (Singapore)

repeat

collection can be made. In Singapore, all prescriptions are valid for 1 year from the date that the prescription is written. We also went through health supplements and over-the-counter (OTC) items. It was fun discussing these topics because it was like a refresher course for me, except that it was all in Chinese.

The next 2 weeks were spent in Shuang-Ho Hospital, where I had a chance to experience what a Taiwanese hospital pharmacist does every day. Some of the things I did included going on infectious disease ward rounds, with the head clinical pharmacist and an infectious disease doctor, observing aseptic preparation of total parenteral nutrition and chemotherapy products in their clean room, as well as evaluate new drugs that are potential candidates to be included into the hospital formulary. The clean room was interesting because in Singapore, most of the hospitals outsource their aseptic preparations to external companies and few of us rarely get a chance to enter a clean room. As for drug evaluation, I had to compare variables such as strength, appearance, FDA approved indication, cost and dosages between 2 non-ergoline dopamine agonist. I learnt how to source for primary literature efficiently and find relevant articles to help me with the evaluation of the

drugs.

I was always looking forward to joining the activities after work as there were always friendly Taiwanese students who brought us around Taipei for dinner and sight-seeing. Every night was

filled with activities such as visiting night markets and tourist attractions around Taipei. We even went for foot massage at 2am in the morning! Weekends were especially fun because we get to travel out of Taipei to other parts of Taiwan, such as Hualien, Kaohsiung and Taichung. During these trips we get to meet and interact with other exchange students from other countries, who were assigned to other parts of Taiwan.

I felt that this exchange program has been really enriching in terms of knowledge and social events. I learnt a lot of new things and seen differences between how pharmacists work in Taiwan and in Singapore. During the trip, I also made many friends including exchange students from other countries such as the USA, Poland, Hong Kong, Canada, and of course, including many of our hosts in Taiwan.

SEP inPORTUGAL

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EUEurope

I arrived in Portugal on the 1st of August and left it behind at the very end of the month. I wanted to visit Lisbon since I saw pictures of it a couple of years ago and I was not disappointed at all. It was the most fulfilling experience I have ever had in every aspect possible: educational, social, and cultural.

When I first arrived I was in total amazement due to the fact that my position to work in research at the university was no longer available. This situation did not last long because the girls in charge of the programme were very quick to find me a place to do my practice in the Algarve Pharmacy. I was very lucky to do my practice there, as all the staff was extremely helpful. I did learn many things while working there. I learned how to take the inventory, take care of a pharmacy, receive the medicine, and even how to interact with the patients. I found it odd that there were some differences regarding the health system between my country (Romania) and Portugal like: on our prescriptions the patient’s diagnosis is written as well as the type of patient (student, chronic disease) which I consider to be very helpful for

the pharmacist. I made good friends at the pharmacy that I am still in contact with.

During my stay at the student’s residence I made many friends from all over the world, and it was really fun, especially when it came to the traditional food. I went to Lisbon with another colleague so for the first days we visited the city by ourselves, but after we made friends also from the SEP and other internships (like medicine and

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Cristina Mot (Romania)

biology) we visited in groups. We took a map and started to mark places we needed to see. Pretty soon we learned that we had to see all of Lisbon and some places more than once. My personal favorites during the day was a great garden in Belem on top of the Cultural Center that I fell in love with immediately, and during the night the busy Bairro Alto where we would go and sing along with a guy playing guitar. Here I met a lot of interesting people, and I discovered they were mainly tourists. I heard about the place and we tried to find it for several days, but what we did not know was that we circled the place many times. Another place that was very dear to me was Alfama. The electric bus left us near the most beautiful terrace that I have every seen,

with a great view of the river. That place with the Fado music gave me a feeling like I was in a Shakespeare play.

Besides Lisbon I had the chance to visit Sintra, which I particularly loved. To my shame I did not love it for the castles, though they were magnificent, but for the Toys Museum. I like to collect toys as a hobby, and the collection they had made mine insignificant ☺. At this museum I had the privilege to meet the owner of all the toys, and he was so kind as to tell me how he managed to collect this many, and which ones were his childhood toys.

To sum it up, I will surely come back as I already miss the Pasteis de Belem (a delicious cookie) and most of all, the people I met there. I had the time of my life during August: I learned just how great it is to work in a relaxed environment, with people that can actually teach you something. I also had the chance to practically live in Lisbon, and see how life is there even if only for a month.

SEP inGHANA

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AfROAfrican

Regional Office

I have mixed feelings when I think back on my time in Ghana. I applied for a four-week internship in a hospital pharmacy and that is what I was promised to get. Once in Ghana, I was told there were bureaucratic problems so I couldn’t start working there yet. The contact student who was in charge of me offered an alternative: I could work in a community pharmacy. I thought this could be a good experience too, so I agreed. After I worked in the community pharmacy for three whole weeks, during which I annoyed my contact student nearly every day of the third week with the same question (when can I start working in the hospital pharmacy?), I was finally allowed to work at the KNUST University Hospital. It was much more interesting to work there. They had a laboratory (in contrast to the community pharmacy) and I could see how they manufacture drugs there. They also allowed me to walk through the different hospital areas and see everything. Indeed I have to say that the hygiene

standards take getting used to, especially for a hospital. The work in the community pharmacy was very monotonous and it was strange to see how the costumers are treated there. Unless they are friends with the staff, they have to wait for a very long time. They have to be very patient. Despite all this, I also experienced very positive things! The colleagues at both pharmacies I

worked in were very kind and if I had any questions they tried to make things clear. I learned much about the common diseases, malaria and HIV. One day a friend took me to a church service so I could experience the beliefs of the people. It was fun to sing and dance with all of them. The only confusing thing was that the priest (like every Ghanaian) always changed languages from English to Twi (the language of the Ashanti), which made it hard for me to follow the service. About 80% of the Kumasi population is Christian and

Internship in a Ghanaian community pharmacy and in the

KNUST university hospital.

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Robert Wackenhut (Germany)

the huge and palatial do not really fit in the area they are built in, surrounded by all this poverty. It also took some time to become familiar with all the languages spoken in Ghana. Every region has its own unofficial language and although they are taught English in school, most children (and adults) speak better Twi than English. There are many illiterate people and people who do not speak English, especially in

the rural areas, making understanding each other quite hard. The tourism in Kumasi is sparse. There are not many foreigners so I attracted people’s attention wherever I went, so it was not surprising that everyone wanted to talk to me. Some friendly, some more intrusive. Children ran by just to feel how the “Bronnie’s” white skin feels like (Bronni means white man). It can be said that foreigners are treated differently here in Ghana, where they tend to pay a higher price for everything.Despite Ghana being a beautiful country, it is sad to witness the pollution that occurs daily, with trash being a common occurrence everywhere I turn.The hostel where I stayed was okay but a little expensive (20 € per day) for a single room in which electricity and water cuts are normal business to be dealt with. I did this internship outside the normal exchange period (which would be in summer). The students were in the

middle of their semester. The disadvantage of this was that no one had time for me, so I often walked around the city on my own. The advantage was that I had the opportunity to see normal student life. I visited the faculties and also joined a normal Ghanaian class. Before I left for Germany I stayed one night in Accra (the capital city of Ghana). Here I could experience normal Ghanaian life. I shared my room with family friends of my contact student and ate with them out of a huge bowl with just our hands. We did some sightseeing and partied. All in all I would say tat this internship was a great experience to see an authentic Ghana with many disadvantages and advantages.

Japan- visiting this country was always my dream. You can imagine my enthusiasm when I learned about the Pharmaceutical Japan Tour (PJT)! I completed the applications, sent my motivation letter and I waited impatiently for the PJT staff’s decision. There were many other students around the world who did the same thing at the same time. When I got the e-mail saying I was elected, I shouted, “yes, yes, yes!” and ran around our flat. There were many other students around the world doing the same thing at the same time- seven more from the Czech Republic, six Australians, five Canadians, four Taiwanese, three from Indonesia, one Malaysian, one Romanian and one from Singapore. About a month later, we started out (for most of us very long) journey to Japan.

When we flew through the night to the land of the rising

sun, I knew that this was going to be an unforgettable experience. Nevertheless, my expectations were more than exceeded.

Flickering billboards, colorful lights, moving advertisements on big screens of high skyscrapers and people, people, people- this is Tokyo. Big quiet parks with peaceful lakes and small temples, with paeonias and sakuras just before blooming- this is Tokyo as well! Trains coming and leaving at absolutely exact times, people wearing absolutely crazy outfits as well as completely traditional kimonos- guess where you can find it! Tokyo is a fascinating city of many faces. It was only the background of what was happening on the PJT. The most important activity and our mission was to meet international students and explore Japanese pharmacy.

Special EditionPharmaceutical Japan Tour

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So this is Japan? Wow!

I admired the organizational abilities of the PJT staff. Everything was arranged almost perfectly- but Japanese students were not satisfied with it- they wanted to make everything absolutely perfect! Every evening after the long day they had meetings and discussed the details of the program for the next day! The program was an enriching experience. We visited many laboratories of Musashino University and we could talk to each of the professors. We had lectures and discussions at the famous Japanese pharmaceutical company. We were divided into small groups for some parts of the program – each group visited different pharmacies and hospitals (and shopping centers!)- so every evening we could discuss it with the others. However, for some other parts of the program – such as dinners- we were all together. Here I must mention that I fell in love with Japanese cuisine (OK, not only the cuisine). Well, I had some difficulty at the beginning- like when we ate ramen noodles and I was the only one who was not very familiar with chopsticks- and I got the biggest portion! From the first dinner (with tofu, many kinds of noodles, different mushrooms, seaweeds of all colors and shapes, and many other, for me, unidentifiable dishes) through miso soup, udon, sushi, soba, curries, rice, tempura, red bean paste, sake… I was curious what new tastes Japan could offer- and I was surprised every day. Japanese people are so polite, but warm at the same time. In the evenings we had long conversations about the differences of our cultures and similarities of all the people around the world. Yoshiyuki Saito, the organizer and the man in whose head the idea of PJT originated, thought that Japanese people are too close and not used to meeting people from other cultures, because they do not travel a lot. This is why he organized this tour. However, we found Japanese students so

friendly and they were always ready to help us with anything and we had so much fun together! Thank you to every single member of the PJT staff! We hope to meet you again!

Now I am sitting in my room, writing this article, watching the news about Fukushima

and the numbers of people affected by the tsunami and I cannot get rid of the sadness and helplessness of watching so beautiful country experiencing this disaster.

May many Japanese students come to the IPSF World Congress in Thailand! The other people must get to know them! They must meet more and more international students!

Special EditionPharmaceutical Japan Tour

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Karolina Vesela (Czech Republic)

Community pharmacists: more value required!

There is an envisioned future for pharmacy where its importance is largely acknowledged for the added value it brings to health care in general and medicines use in particular. In this future, the pharmacist delivers patient-centred services in cooperation with other healthcare professionals; the pharmacy team optimises patient outcomes and is key to the effective, rational and safe use of medicines; pharmacies act as a gateway to the healthcare system and are central to its sustainability. Community pharmacists are often both the first and the last healthcare professional a patient contacts when undergoing his/her journey through the healthcare system. In many countries, the Community Pharmacist is the most accessible primary healthcare provider and we must leverage this accessibility to greater utilise the clinical skills of Pharmacists.

That future is now. In fact, it has started already. Community pharmacies have been embracing this new paradigm, where the pharmacist has evolved and adapted to emerging patient and societal needs while taking into account an ever-increasing tighter budget for healthcare expenses.

Community pharmacists are fully aware that there will be many significant challenges to overcome, within and without the profession. We will have to embrace threats as opportunities in order to advance our practice, and incorporate new tasks into our daily activities to guarantee a viable business model - hence attaining our common vision for pharmacy.

National and international organisations have often been the motors of such change, with the International Pharmaceutical Federation assuming a major role.

Founded in 1912, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is the global federation of national associations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists and is in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO). Through its 124 Member Organisations, FIP represents and serves more than two million practitioners and scientists around the world.

FIP has adopted as one of its’ three main Strategic Objectives to advance pharmacy practice in all settings. This ambitious goal is done through the work of nine Pharmacy Practice Sections, which develop projects and initiatives to aid FIP and its Member Organisations to truly advance pharmacy practice on a global level.

The Community Pharmacy Section (CPS) is the largest of the FIP sections. The number of members of the Community Pharmacy Section per 1 February 2010 was 2,377 members.

The CPS mission is to assist pharmacists, wherever they live and practise, in the delivering of medicines, health products and services that will improve medicine use and advance patient care.

Our vision for the Section is threefold:

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Community pharmacists: more value required!

(1) to develop strong relationships with our individual members and our member pharmaceutical associations that have a focus on community pharmacists and other pharmacists with primary care functions and services;

(2) to support pharmacists to fulfil their responsibilities towards society and provide their services at a high professional level; and

(3) to be a “meeting point” for pharmacists so that CPS can facilitate further development of pharmacy practice within the primary health care sector in countries all over the world.

To achieve our mission and vision, the Section develops a number of activities, which include organising a specific programme for community pharmacists at the annual FIP World Congress, and running specific projects that contribute to the advancement of pharmacy practice, such as the implementation of Good Pharmacy Practice guidelines.

The Section also edits two electronic newsletters: ZOOM, a members-only newsletter that reports on the Sections’ activities and other activities relevant to the profession; and Professional News, a newsletter which disseminates published articles and reports relevant to pharmacy parctitioners.

Since 2010, CPS has made available through its member-only website a 19 hour education program with the theme ‘OTC Advisor’. This program, developed by the

American Pharmacists Association, educates pharmacists on various non-prescription medicines.

By becoming an individual member of FIP you will automatically become a member of the Section of your choice.

We invite and encourage you to interact with peers and colleagues with similar interests from all over the world, both virtually within online discussion forums on the FIP Website and in person at the annual FIP World Congress.

Further information about the Community Pharmacy Section of FIP is available at www.fip.org/community_pharmacy.

We look forward to welcoming you in the profession!

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Ema PaulinoVice-President 2010-12Community Pharmacy Section International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)

International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation

P.O BOX 842002508 AE Den HaagThe Netherlands

Tel: +31 70 302 1992Fax: +31 70 302 1999

Email: ipsf@ipsf.orgWebsite: www.ipsf.org