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EPSA Newsletter

Bringing Pharmacy Knowledge and Students together.

Volume 25 | Edition 2 | March 2018 www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

Liaison Secretaries Day First touch of LS love!

Advocacy How are our member associations working on local level?

EU Health Award How did it happen?

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41st EPSA

Annual Congress Topic

“Pharmacoeconomics & the Registrations 1st Period

Dec 1 - Jan 31

€325

2nd Period

Feb 1 - Mar 31

€375

the Netherlands April 23rd - 29th 2018 Baarlo -

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www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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Table of contents 4

Presidential Words 2nd EPSA Team Meeting 2017:

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From an observer perspective

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From a Team member perspective

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Liaison Secretary Day

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First touch of LS Love

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Visiting Members Fund 14th EPSA Autumn Assembly:

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From an RC perspective!

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From a participant perspective!

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EPSA Annual Reception 2018

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Training New Trainers (TNT)

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LLeaP - The platform for the future of Lifelong Learning

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Public Health Campaigns

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The Individual Mobility Project

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Humanitarian activities

23

External Representations

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3rd Place Union Health Award

28

How does advocacy work at your local association?

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Professional development opportunities with EPSA

34

7th World Healthcare Students’ Symposium

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Map of Europe

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EPSA Executive contacts

Editor’s words Dear reader, It’s crazy to think that 5 months have passed since the last Newsletter was delivered, but we can now situate ourselves in the “middle” of our mandate, and great things have been taking place! Not just from our members, but also from the EPSA Team.

It’s then my great pleasure to present you the second edition of the Newsletter for the 2017/2018 mandate. In this edition of the Newsletter, we tried to focus on our association’s outcomes from the past months. Within these pages, you will find articles in the field of education with testimonials from Public Health Campaigns taking place all over Europe, a new revamped project called LLeaP, articles on our external representations, bringing EPSA and members closer.

As always, we dedicate this Newsletter to EPSA’s and its connection to the professional sphere, and so articles on our Individual Mobility Project, Annual Reception topic and a new perspective on advocacy through the eyes of our members, is also featured.

I highly recommend reading the article about our EPSA Autumn Assembly by a participant, for a light and highly amusing read and the article regarding our 3rd Place Union Health Award for NGOs in the field of vaccination, for you to be aware how long a project like this may take, and to prove that when EPSA and its members work together, we can achieve anything.

Exactly like this Newsletter! My sincere thanks to all contributors to this edition of the newsletter; EPSA Team, LSs, external authors and my dear Editorial Board, for their arduous efforts.

I wish you all a fruitful reading!

Yours in EPSA,

Special thanks to: Leon Rižner (Design and Editing) Editorial Board: Elona A. Xhemaili, Carina Salsas, Sean Quay

Cláudia Ferreira EPSA Vice President of Public Relations 2017-20018

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Dear reader, Dear EPSA enthusiast, A lively period has passed. At the time of writing these Presidential words, I forgot that I already wrote them for the first Newsletter, issued five months ago, at the 14th Autumn Assembly in Brno, Czech Republic. The mandate is running along nicely and the Team is working smoothly. We have faced our first barriers, but we hopped over them almost effortlessly and are ready to face more.

This edition of the Newsletter is dedicated to our main policy event, the Annual Reception. Here, in the European Parliament, the interns who are working for EPSA are getting their ideas for policy topics of the association, which they are presenting to the Member Association, ideas for improving the work and impact of our association on the biggest healthcare problems of today, and a chance to represent the opinion of pharmaceutical students all over Europe when given the floor to speak in various discussions with important stakeholders that take place here.

In the European Parliament, EPSA is looking for opportunities for collaboration with other organisations which are facing similar struggles and are pushing for similar changes that we, European pharmaceutical students want to achieve. Through collaboration, it is easier to make our voices heard and consequently, it is easier for us to make a difference on the European level. With this, we can make the future for European pharmaceutical students brighter.

You have a unique opportunity to address various stakeholders, EPSA’s partners, and other health-related NGOs at this event. You have an opportunity to see why we are investing so much effort to find common positions of pharmaceutical students, and how much impact we can make. We are offering many activities through which you can get involved at this level and get to know the Brussels world.

Mobility, the topic of this event, is one of the essential ideas EPSA stands for, and one of the main reasons why, in 1978, the students decided to establish our association. It is one of the four freedoms of the European Union – one of the major benefits of being a member of it. Exchange of experience and knowledge, getting to know different cultures, and experiencing them, are the core ideas behind our association. This is your chance to familiarise yourself with them and make your impact on the development of the mobility of pharmacists.

Črtomir Fleisinger EPSA President 2017-2018

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

2nd EPSA Team Meeting 2017 Brno, Czech Republic From an observer perspective Saturday, 28th of October. It was after a long day of travelling when I finally arrived to Brno, the beautiful city where another EPSA Autumn Assembly was about to take place. The next 9 days were going to be full of immense work, almost non-stop General Assemblies, workshops, trainings, symposiums, few hours of sleep, but full of memories, new experiences, networking, making friends and, also, parties!

By being able to arrive a couple days earlier, I could join the 2nd EPSA Team Meeting, reconvene with old friends, meet other EPSA Team members and looking forward to new friendships. Since I arrived at 10pm, it was time for some drinks and dancing, after all, we cannot be serious all the time!

Having already attended the 1st Team Meeting that took place in Lisbon, I knew that having the chance to observe another one was an opportunity I could not miss.

As a Liaison Secretary, you have to know about EPSA itself, its mission, opinions and every single project that EPSA is involved in. Attending a Team Meeting is the best way to gain this knowledge. Throughout 3 days you go through every departments’ work, every project, discuss the next steps and evaluate the work done so far.

In the end, the insight gained is immensely useful, especially for the General Assembly that takes place a couple days later.

The Team Meeting was held in the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Brno, the same one where the Meet me Fair, workshops and training sessions of the Educational Programme took place during the 14th EPSA Autumn Assembly.

Since I was only able to join in for the 3rd day of the Team Meeting, quite a few topics and departments had already been discussed both on Friday and Saturday.

In these two days, some departments

already had the chance to share their updates and the development of their topics and projects, such as the restructure of LLP, now called LLeaP, all public health campaigns, Twinnet outcomes, the development of the Mentoring Project.

The next day was the last day of the Team Meeting. Together with other Official Delegates, Alumni, National IMP Coordinators and Reception Committee members, we were able to participate and get more involved in EPSA matters. From the topic of the next Annual Reception, past and future EPSA events, EPSA’s online shop, Monthly Dose, to Social Media, important matters were discussed, opinions heard and feedback given.

The Team also wanted the Observers to give input and their opinions regarding communication and the relationship and availability of the Team towards each one of us.

After several hours of discussion, updates,

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online inputs and comments, the Team Meeting reached its end. It was time to choose the location for the 3rd Team Meeting and evaluate how everything went with this one.

The following day, I took part in the Liaison Secretaries Day and on the 31st of October, the first day of the amazing week that followed, the 14th EPSA Autumn Assembly, has started!

Mariana Vaz de Medeiros Liaison Secretary for AEFFUL, Portugal

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From a Team member perspective In the morning of the 27th of October, I was getting ready in the hostel. This was it. It was going to happen...

Soon. My very first EPSA Team Meeting! I was excited to meet the Team Members in person, while on the other hand, my anxious part was nervous and freaking out about presenting my report and actively participating in discussions.

After I opened the main door to the hostel, I saw three freezing and sleepy (they had been traveling for the whole night) Portuguese – yay, I finally met the portuguese part of the Educational Department! I felt much better after all three of them hugged (squeezed) me, and was ready for the agenda of the first day.

The Team Meeting was held at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Brno, in the same building where trainings and workshops were being held during the 14th Autumn Assembly.

During the meeting, all Team Members presented updates on their reports, their work was discussed and quite some feedback was given. I believe all the discussions were fruitful, as different points of view and opinions were exchanged. This was a very nice way for all the Team Members present to prepare for the General Assembly that followed.

After a long day being focused on talking, listening and following discussions, we were more than pleased to sit down in a bar with good foods and drinks and talk about random things. This kind of evenings were the perfect opportunity to meet the Team Members in a whole new perspective and also to relax and prepare for another day.

Also, I bet many of you have heard something about an EPSA Dragon, right? This story begun on the first day of the meeting, when Eva Shannon, Vice President of Education, surprised the whole Educational Department with little stuffed dragons that she bought in Scotland.

Why dragons? Well, I have no idea, but the rest of the Department is talking about Game of Thrones…

What I’ve learnt from the 2nd Team Meeting? There is no wrong or right opinion, Team Members do not criticise – they provide feedback and it is okay if you do not agree – just state arguments, everyone gets tired and has other obligations – it is okay to take a rest, everyone is openminded and will accept you as you are.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming meetings – to work in a great atmosphere with people who make a great Team!

Anja Šribar EPSA Science Coordinator, 2017-2018

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Liaison Secretary Day “Exchanging good practices, learning, collaborating and having fun” On the 30th of October in Brno, Czech Republic, EPSA organised the 4th edition of the LS Day! This day is meant for every Liaison Secretary (Representatives of EPSA Member Associations) and aims to give them more information about EPSA, to exchange good practices between associations, to provide them moments of informal education and to build a sense of partnership among our members.

17 Liaison Secretaries from 14 different countries participated in this day.

But who are the Liaison Secretaries and what is their role? EPSA represents over 160 000 pharmacy students from all around Europe and its strength comes from bringing them together to share opinions, exchange practices, knowledge and friendships. LSs represent the bridge between EPSA and its members – they are the ones spreading the word, enthusiasm, inspiration and fun to our students.

Active Listening, Feedback and Group Dynamics to give LSs the tools to listen to each other throughout the day (and in General Assembly), to provide their opinion and to better understand which kind of people they are leading within a team. This training was delivered by our EPSA Training Coordinator, Bernardo Marinheiro and our EPSA Educational Affairs Coordinator, Diogo Capítulo. The outcomes of the training couldn’t have been better, as every LS understood the importance of these topics and found it very beneficial for their future life as a student, LS and a future professional.

After a small break in the morning, we had a session dedicated to Exchange of Good Practices. The goal of this session was to pick up on a problem that most associations are facing and together come up with possible solutions, like sharing an activity/project that is going extremely well at national/local level.

It was really inspiring to see how EPSA Members are dealing with their problems and how eager they were to explain and teach their fellow LSs how to overcome these difficulties.

LSs rarely get the opportunity to attend the educational programme at EPSA Congresses because of their duties as representatives of their associations at General Assemblies, so it’s imperative to give them moments as the ones explained below.

At the end of this session, Matthew Brown, LS for BPSA, United Kingdom shared with us how successful the survey BPSA carried out about changes to Pharmacy Curricula in the UK was and explained how it was carried and how they got so many people involved.

We started our day with a training on

The afternoon started with the most

challenging session of the day: Brainstorming on EPSA projects and activities. EPSA is always evolving and creating new projects and activities to cater to students’ needs. Since the best way to collect opinions and new ideas is to ask for it directly to the people, we found that the LS Day was the perfect opportunity to discuss the projects that we want to develop in the future.

During this session, we discussed Social Services Projects and EPSA Factsheets.

LSs got the opportunity to provide their feedback regarding those, and to ask for explanations on how to set the upcoming steps for it. Overall, everyone enjoyed getting closer to EPSA Projects and to share what they are doing at local/national level regarding these activities.

To finish the day, a bonding activity was organised for every LS and Team Member. We all went to trampolines and we bounced our energy off until we got super tired and starved for dinner!!

I’m very pleased with how the LS Day turned out. LSs got to learn, to exchange ideas, to provide feedback on EPSA projects, and they could feel a difference in the spirit, atmosphere, and collaboration between them and Team Members during the Congress that followed!

Leonor Soares EPSA Vice President of Internal Affairs, 2017-2018

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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First touch of LS Love I arrived in Brno early in the morning, at the beginning of LS day. Firstly, I took my luggage to the hostel where we were staying, and that was the first touch.

Some of other LSs were there, so I had a chance to meet their ”morning selves “. I could see that most of them were already tired (probably because of lack of sleep), but everyone was smiling at me. I was new there and I barely knew them, just from chatting and emails, so it felt weird to me, but they welcomed me with open arms! I felt accepted and had a familyfeeling in the evening, that same day! But not to miss anything, order-wise our day looked like this: We arrived at the University and had a little bit of food. You know, everything’s better with food around, so everyone was smiling and happy to be together. Then, our trainings and sessions started.

First, we learnt how to actively listen, in a training provided by EPSA trainers.

The next session was called Exchange of Good Practices. We all have a lot of successful projects and activities, but we usually don’t speak about our problems and how we can solve them. So, we

basically shared how to avoid the same mistakes other associations already made. After lunch, the brainstorming about EPSA projects began. We were divided into groups and had a few minutes to discuss how the project standed now, what we knew about them and what our vision for it was. This session also brought up some interesting findings. Throughout the day, we had a lot to do, but we finally found some conclusions and it was time spent usefully and fruitfully. It helped us to work better as LSs, to share with each other and not to be shy to express our own opinion or ideas.

We had a lot of fun during bonding activities and spontaneous talking, laughing and games. These moments improved our team-spirit, while we started to know each other informally. Before dinner, the main bonding activity was going to happen. None of us knew what are we going to do. We were just told to bring comfortable clothes and a towel because we were going to be sweaty. That was the last thing I wanted after the long day: to get destroyed. But the bonding activity was a pleasant surprise and we went to

a jump arena! Although we did destroy ourselves, nobody minded because it was super fun and relaxing. Once again, it brought us closer to each other, while we were sweaty, blushing and showing our ”sporty“ skills. We were all laughing and jumping like crazy 6-year olds.

Every day should end with a great dinner.

Some of us tasted the traditional Czech food, and beer, of course. We finished it all with endless talks and games all night long.

To conclude, what I was trying to explain was that LS day is the very first touch of what we really are. It is the moment when we have a chance to know each other well and to work as a team and bring some brilliant ideas to the table. Not just to be a group of LSs, but to become an LS Family.

To share good skills, love and happiness.

Laura Adamkovičová LS for Slovak Pharmaceutical Students‘ Association (SPSA), Slovakia

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Visiting Members Fund “Fulfilling the EPSA mission” What is it?

Visiting Members Fund exists to financially support EPSA Team Members in form of a direct reimbursement for visiting EPSA Member Associations.

How important is it?

The mission of EPSA is to bring Pharmacy, Knowledge and Students together. EPSA can only achieve that if we, as an Association, are close to our Members and work in synergy.

As we all know, the best way to spread a word, a concept, or an idea is by talking to people, to reach them and to convince them about what we believe in.

We represent over 160 000 students around Europe and we want to be sure that we are not only representing their voice, but that we also involve them in our activities and in every opportunity we provide to them.

By being able to travel to EPSA Member Associations’ Countries and being with students at specific events we can engage with every single one of them. Most of the times, we are present to provide additional information about EPSA, so we always do the EPSA Presentation and try to be involved in the Educational Programme. One really important aspect about attending these Events is that we make ourselves available for interaction at any time. We are there as the face of EPSA, so being friendly, open and engaging is one of the most important aspects of using Visiting Members Fund.

We go there to make a good impression of EPSA to students, as we want them to get involved! Even though we are working on so many levels and sometimes, we have to look professional, we are just students and when we visit an EPSA Members Association we have to transmit that.

We have to transmit that every single one of us is EPSA and that every single one of us can make an impact in the world.

A big percentage of students has their first contact with EPSA through this Fund, so it is one of the most important tools we have to bring them close to EPSA and its activities.

How many Members were visited since the start of this Fund?

EPSA represents 45 Member Associations from 37 different countries.

However, whenever a Member Association invites us to be present at their Event we try to balance the distribution of visits to Member Associations.

Between the last mandate and the current one we managed to be present at 15 different Events.

Last mandate we were present in Events from the following Members: CPSA Croatia, USF, Czech Republic; CzPSA, Czech Republic, HuPSA, Hungary; BPhD, Germany; K.N.P.S.V, the Netherlands; ANEPF, France; EMUPSS, Cyprus;, and NoPSA, Norway; APEF, Portugal; AEFFUL, Portugal; ASFRM, Moldova.

During this mandate, we managed to be present in the Events from the following Member Associations: ANEPF, France; APEF, Portugal; FEEF, Spain; BPhD, Germany; K.N.P.S.V, the Netherlands; CPSA, Croatia and SSSFD, Slovenia, but we already have more invitations and we will make sure to have an EPSA Member present there!

Are we making an impact?

Even though sometimes we are not able to send an EPSA Member to an invitation we receive from our Members, we do our best to at least have a virtual presence there.

I’m 100% confident that we are having a huge impact on our Member Associations and I can say that not only because I have used this fund and saw it through my own eyes, but also because every year, we receive more and more invitations to be part of our Members’ Events.

By going to the local level, a lot of people we meet there usually start attending our Events, attending our activities online, they start organising Twinnets, and that’s our ultimate goal.

To have our members involved!

I’m sure that, by reading our Members’ testimonials, you will be able to make your own conclusions!

How did Members perceive this Fund?

From the 13th until 15th of October, the nowadays already traditional CPSA's National Congress, accompanied by the yearly General Assembly, took place in Zagreb with the topic of „Personalized healthcare – arrival of tailored therapy“. Plenty of reputable speakers came to discuss the future of biomedicine with Croatian pharmacy and medical biochemistry students, setting up an atmosphere so productive that even the most popular media decided to notify the Croatian citizenship about it.

As of every year, EPSA representatives were present there, and this time we were very happy to welcome Črtomir Fleisinger (EPSA President) and Leon Rižner (EPSA Design Coordinator), who had decided to use the opportunity provided through Visiting Members Fund and came to the Croatian capital. During the whole Congress our EPSA colleagues managed to bring EPSA closer to the Croatian students, not only by holding an official promotional workshop called „EPSA – bringing pharmacy, knowledge, and students together“, but also by constant face-to-face interaction with a bunch of participants interested in EPSA's work, projects and overall mission. In addition, with the personalized patient treatment as the main focus of our educational programme, it was more than interesting to hear the foreign students' opinion on this concept, which will very likely affect every European healthcare system in the nearby future. Finally, the presence of the EPSA team at our General Assembly is always precious and leads to a higher quality of candidates' applications and presentations, but also provides an opportunity for the newly elected LS to interact with EPSA's boards from the earliest possible phases of the mandate.

To summarize, CPSA was extremely glad about the ability to host Črt and Leon at our Congress and due to great outcomes of their presence, we will definitely keep inviting EPSA representatives to our events.

We would also like to encourage all the other Member Associations to do the same!

Marin Tušinec, LS for CPSA, Croatia

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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ŠSSFD, the Slovenian member of EPSA, annually organises a special event for students which is called Motivational weekend. Last year it took place in Kočevje, Slovenia from the 17th to 19th of November 2017.

It was a weekend dedicated to getting detailed information about EPSA and ŠSSFD, their organisational structure, ways of functioning and goals. Apart from that, we had trainings where we improved our soft skills, met new people, exchanged experiences and information. It was a mixture of hard work and fun. We had morning and afternoon sessions with different EPSA trainers, one of them was Rúben Viegas, Public Health and Social Services Coordinator, from Portugal. Apart from his trainings, his main goal was to present EPSA to us and to try and motivate us to actively participate. He had a very informative presentation about its structure and different events that occur each year, which was very helpful to all the students that may not have known EPSA in detail at that time.

He also tried to motivate us to apply for EPSA Congresses and to participate in daily events that are posted on EPSA's Facebook page. I think it was a very beneficial presentation that gave us a lot of new information and of course, as the name of the event says, new motivation!

Maša Pavlič, Secretary General for ŠSSFD, Slovenia 2017/2018

AEFFUL has counted on EPSA Team members for several activities, such as our Mobility Day and our Soft-Skills Programme.

The Mobility Day is an activity in which students have the opportunity to get to know more about international associations like EPSA and their Mobility Programmes, like Twinnet and IMP. Last year we had members of the EPSA Team speaking about EPSA and IMP and it was very proficuous to our students - they learned about the history of the association and its ongoing projects.

On the AEFFUL Soft-Skills Programme we have several training sessions regarding various soft-skills, and we counted on the presence of EPSA trainers to deliver a high-quality learning time.

This activity benefits for our students personal and professional development, but it also introduces them to the well-known EPSA spirit.

We would really appreciate to have more EPSA Team members, from different nationalities, in this Programme and in other AEFFUL’s activities, therefore making the existence of the Visiting Members Fund highly valuable and continuing to make AEFFUL and EPSA grow closer to each other.

Leonor Soares EPSA Vice President of Internal Affairs, 2017-2018

Marcelino Oliveira, LS for AEFFUL, Portugal

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

14th EPSA Autumn Assembly From an RC perspective!

Dear EPSA friends,

sent, I saw some results.

When we first started talking about applying as hosts of the 14th EPSA Autumn Assembly (AA) 2017 as a Pharmaceutical Students´ Union, I just said: “Why not?” And signed up for a position of Sponsorship Officer. I saw a wonderful opportunity to help with such a big project as is the organisation of an international congress, but at that moment, I could not even imagine the magnitude of the whole thing and what organising such an event means .

A big moment for us was the 13th EPSA AA, in Romania, where the GA voted on the topic “Digital Revolution in Healthcare,” and then the preparations took shape and we all knew we could focus on it and that I could offer something more to the potential sponsors. From then, I realized that time started to run much faster and that we were already at the 40th EPSA AC in Slovenia, and it was actually a year since we started with the preparations and we had a lot of work done. I started to notice all the things and the work of the RC, which was great, and I realized that in 6 months, it would be us… So we did what we could to make our congress amazing too!

Then, the 39th EPSA Annual Congress (AC) in Finland came, which was my first congress and where the General Assembly (GA) officially approved the 14th EPSA AA 2017, in Brno, Czech Republic. After returning home, we started with the first meeting on how the congress should look like.

When I got a grip on all of this, the sending of hundreds of emails began and it felt like I had only been sending emails or making calls during the last year. After some time and searching for contacts from all possible sources, companies began to call back, either telling us they do not have enough money to offer, but they are giving us their best wishes, and also companies that would like to join and offer us material and financial support. In cooperation with them we started to write up contracts and finally, after all that time spent and all those emails

On the weekend before the congress, when the Pre-congress tour was in Prague, the EPSA Team had a meeting in Brno and the preparations had culminated. Then we moved to the hotel and we thought: ” Wow, in a few hours, this hotel will be full”! We could not believe that it was actually going to happen and that the participants would actually come, and we just could not imagine how we would handle the whole week. The first registrations were completed, all the work was getting real and the participants had actually been there!

At that moment, I didn’t even know how challenging and great a week was waiting

for us. Every day, we had to solve a lot of things that could not be predicted, but also thanks to the EPSA Executive who were always there when we needed advice. We managed to solve everything, together.

During this week, I slept for a maximum of two hours a day. Until now, I do not understand where the energy was coming from, it was an incredible feeling and I do not know if I will ever experience it again. It’s a huge piece of work and what drives you is the wish that everybody will enjoy the event.

Such a feeling probably cannot be described in words.

There have been a lot of things going on throughout the congress and our group has turned out to be a great bunch of people, as everyone did the maximum they could and we supported each other. There has been a lot of complications but also moments when we were all laughing. The time was running very fast and during Gala night, the finale of the whole event, we were standing on the stage completely exhausted but incredibly happy that we did it... and I started to cry there, overwhelmed by emotions (and I am usually not the type). The sadness came after that because it was all over and I think I embraced the “EPSA spirit” then like never before.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for this experience, because it was an opportunity to meet a lot of great people. I think we can be proud of ourselves to have organised such a huge international event as students.

It was my 5th EPSA congress, and I’m looking forward to another. I wish future RC’s a lot of energy, but at the same time that they enjoy it the same way we did. It’s an unreal experience and I never thought I would experience this during my studies.

I would like to thank our whole RC and Helping Team for their great job! Also, our alma mater Faculty of pharmacy VFU Brno, that supported us all the time. If one day you will have the chance to get involved in something similar, all I can say is: Go for it! It is really worth it, even though it is not easy, the experiences are invaluable!

Dominika Studená University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno President of Pharmaceutical Students´Union

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

Events

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From a participant perspective!

Previously, me and Jere Niemi participated in the EPSA Annual Congress, 2017 in Slovenia. We loved it and therefore, attendance in the next EPSA event was a must! What was the next event? The EPSA Autumn Assembly in Brno, Czech Republic. We gathered an awesome group of people and headed to the event riding a rented minivan! We drove from Estonia to Czech Republic and back. A road full of laughter, sleep and bumping your head against the ceiling.

Nevertheless, some of us considered it more comfortable than a cheap airline.

It’s time to meet our international gang.

We had one brave Latvian (Raivis), one intelligent Finn (Nera) and six enthusiastic Estonians (me, Jere, Reelika, Taavo, Maris and Ksenia). Having all survived the ride, it was time to discover the wonders of EPSA Annual Assembly.

We quickly understood that we don’t need as much sleep as we do back home. This was all thanks to the exciting programme and social events that kept us going.

So, let’s talk about the programme first!

It consisted of symposiums, workshops and trainings. From the educational programme, I mostly enjoyed the workshops. I liked working in groups because people were interested in the topic. From workshops, I loved “TEDeps”.

It was a workshop where anyone had a chance to tell a story of their personal interest. At first, I was a bit sceptical about the quality of the workshop... Come on, its us students after all - but no, these students were way above their level! It felt like I was watching a category of most viewed speeches from TED.com. Two others I really enjoyed were “Pharmacist on a mission” and “How to start-up in healthcare?”. After a day full of motivating programmes, it was time to party! For this article sake, I’ll refer to it as a social program. All these events were themed differently – crazy Czech night, colourful international night, fabulous gala dinner and so on. Our group made it to all of those – we are strong! It was great to see familiar faces again and meet new ones.

Most of the people in EPSA are very open to conversation and so there was never a moment of “Uh… what am I doing here?”.

I could say the social programme part united us more as a group and it was a

huge step towards the other students in Europe.

After living through a week of educational and social events with as little sleep as necessary, we were glad to be apart of Autumn Assembly. I’ll tell you a trick on how you could be even happier than others. Basically, we all get: Motivating educational programme, exciting social events, new friends, accommodation and meals, a memory for a lifetime and leave happier than we came.

This is the same for all of us. But if you want to be even more satisfied, a -50% discount for the whole event is just one motivational letter away. So, if you want to get all of this, go back home and not starve for the rest of the month, because of all the money you spent, and consider applying for the Support Fund!

Kaspar Kaju 4th year of Pharmacy Studies, TÜRS, Estonia

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Education

European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

EPSA Annual Reception 2018 This article is about the EPSA Annual Reception, the event you probably received this Newsletter at. It is EPSA´s event of excellence, held in Brussels, at the European Parliament. This is the seventeenth (first one in 2001) time we are doing it!

I am not sure how many other student associations have events of this kind but we are super proud of it and we invite important current partners, potential partners, European stakeholders and, of course, our students. We want to impress people, present our work and our association. It is my favourite event, to be honest. Not because it’s the one I’m in charge of (well, not just because of that ;-) ). It’s because it shows me clearly what we are - We are a European students´ association. We bring students and pharmacy together. But with this event, we also bring our students closer to Europe and Europe closer to them.

I attended my first Annual Reception in 2016.

It was my first time in Brussels and I was super excited to see my EPSA friends again.

I really enjoyed the event, the discussions and everything around it. But there also was something else: this feeling of connection, of belonging. Of understanding and being able to actually touch that European idea.

But most importantly, I realised one thing: this is something that concerns me. It is not some far-away, faceless institution producing printed paper. This is something where people decide on our future, so we have to be there and be involved.

EPSA gets involved on several ways. We have the EPSA house where, currently, three EPSA Executive members live.

Črtomir, our EPSA President, Patrick, Vice President of External Relations and myself, Dorothea, Vice President of European Affairs. We all have internships in Brussels, go to all kinds of events and are doing our best to represent European pharmaceutical students and their opinions.

What do we do there? And how do we make that happen?

We asked for a Member of the European Parliament to host us. This year, we are kindly hosted by Lieve Wierinck, member of the ALDE Group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe). She has a special connection to EPSA because she is the only pharmacist in the European Parliament. Mrs Wierinck also hosted the Annual Reception 2017, which was a big success and so, we are thrilled that she’s welcoming us again!

After we have a host, the hunt for a topic starts. There are so many subjects I would love to discuss, so many important issues that concern us and that we should raise our voices on. But there is also the harsh reality of a two hour event. Last year, we discussed the role of the pharmacist in self-care. In 2016, we discussed if reducing the prices of medicines could help ensure sustainability of healthcare systems in Europe. Three years ago, we talked about the Healthcare Workforce. All great topics that evolved into great discussions and so, I had big shoes to fill. I thought of several topics, discussed a few with the EPSA Executive but nothing felt right. Then we had our Autumn Assembly and in it, an advocacy session at the General Assembly. We asked our members what kind of mobility opportunities they have at their University, what do they wish for and what are the obstacles, how can we

help, what else do they need and what does mobility actually mean to them.

At that moment it became clear what to do. Take something from the heart of our association, from our General Assembly, from our members and bring it to Brussels.

Mobility is one of our core advocacy topics.

I thought to myself, great. Topic is decided on. But, oh behold. I narrowed it down to something only to realise what it actually contained. When we talk about pharmacy students’ mobility in today’s Europe, we talk about European education. We talk about European values. We talk about recognition of diplomas, language learning, cultural heritage but also about how it feels like when you don’t have access to all of this.

About brain drain. About financial obstacles that are so high that they prevent every form of movement.

The Erasmus programme celebrated its 30st birthday last year and the European Commission is working on a European Education Area by 2025. We chose a good time to talk about this!

And I am now working on condensing this in a two hour event. It feels a little bit impossible but it will work because it has to! We have to focus, we will narrow it down. We cannot fight all the fights at the same time. We have to set priorities and, luckily, our members already did most of that work for us. We do not know yet what will be discussed exactly, because at the time of writing this article, we do not know who will sit on the panel. But anyway, what exactly will come out of this event we can only know after it.

We will have a panel discussion, a discussion with the audience, time for comments and questions. Even with the best preparation, there will be surprises and unpredictability to some extent. That is the whole point of such an event, otherwise, we could just collect written statements and publish them.

I can’t wait for it to happen! I hope you enjoy it and when you go home, you still think about it. I truly wish we manage to bring EPSA closer to Europe, Europe closer to EPSA and we don’t lose each other on the way. Let’s develop the future of pharmacy and Europe together!

Dorothea Dalig EPSA Vice President of European Affairs 2017-2018

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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Training New Trainers (TNT) Training New Trainers (TNT), is the EPSA event which focuses on expanding our pool of Trainers by having more experienced ones sharing their knowledge with very motivated and eager to learn participants.

Last December, EPSA organised a TNT in Zagreb, Croatia, with the help of IVSA (International Veterinary Students Association), hosted by our amazing EPSA national member association CPSA, Croatia, to whom we owe a big thank you!

With these three parties working together for months, we managed to welcome 5 Trainers (Bernardo Marinheiro; Diogo Capítulo; Mija Kavcic; Sara Torgal from EPSA and Isaac Corderroure from IVSA) and 11 participants (9 from EPSA and 2 from IVSA) in Zagreb, on the 8th of December 2017 for the beginning of an unforgettable journey both for participants and Trainers.

During the event, Trainers were preparing the participants for the world of Trainings for nine long and hard working days through sessions such as Training Design, Activity management and Training Delivery.

With around 8 hours of Trainings a day, the Trainers had the opportunity to share all the knowledge one needs to be able to stand in front of 20 participants and facilitate their learning on any topic!

When preparing the event, we could never forget the need of a social programme and CPSA took very well care of it. After the sessions, participants and Trainers had plenty of time to get to know each other and to participate in some social activities prepared by our hosts. This included iceskating in the city center at night, and, at the end of the event, an international night with pharmacy and veterinary students together.

Almost at the end of the event and with the help of a co-trainer, participants had the chance to prepare and deliver their own training for the first time! With Trainers supervising the whole process, they applied all the skills and information they gained through the whole event and prepared a session for students gathered

by CPSA. In this event, we had 6 training sessions delivered by participants and a good feedback session to help them improve. This not only comes from the students but specially from other TNT participants and Trainers.

Writing as one of the EPSA Trainers present at the event: It was amazing to be able to share all my knowledge and experiences with such a group of participants. In a Trainers life, we learn immensely, we prepare and plan a lot of Trainings, we experience an enormous variety of situations and we live, not just for us, but also to be able to share all this with anyone, anytime. This event was just the perfect place for us five to transmit our message and to pass it on to the newest generation.

Although I was there as a Trainer, it doesn’t mean I wasn’t there to learn. It is good to be able to take the most out of every situation and a TNT is a “situation” from which you can take a lot from. Looking back on the event, I can gladly say that by listening to both participants and Trainers, I managed to develop myself and to take a bit of them with me. Learning is a two way path, one can always learn when they teach.

We started the event with 9 EPSA participants and ended it with 9 new very motivated and promising EPSA Trainers, ready to share their knowledge with whomever is willing to listen to them. Once again I would like to welcome them to the EPSA Trainers pool!

Bernardo Marinheiro EPSA Training Coordinator, 2017-2018

I always knew I wanted to attend the TNT (Training new Trainers) and this year, I finally felt it is was the right time to apply, for the 12th TNT event in Zagreb, a city just an hour away from my hometown. The first trainings were a nice introduction, basic topics to get us back on board, to learn what skills a trainer should have. Easy first day I thought to myself. Then, all of a sudden, it began, spiralling out of control.

The perception of myself as a trainer and knowing what a training was, just disappeared. I was put in my place; a rookie who has a lot to learn! Days flew by in and out with four sessions a day, small group discussions in the evenings and a lot of hanging out into later hours, since we had a club on our doorstep!

Of course, the D-Day came. Our own training to present, supervised by the mentors that guided us the whole week. It was stressful at first, but after the training was delivered, we understood what being a trainer is all about. It is about giving knowledge, guiding others and helping them develop in their own way!

Now I think I know who I am, but that is never definite.We are slowly shaped by the experiences we collect ourselves and the experiences, you participants, give us as well. Acknowledging this, it is the most fulfilling feeling ever for me!

May Žitnik

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

LLeaP - The platform for the future of Lifelong Learning

LleaP submission form The name, age and the year of studies;

Activity and why did the participant go to that activity?

What did you do in the activity and what was taught and learnt in it?

Why do you think it was good and how can you apply it on your professional and/ or personal life?

What do you think can be the next step and why?

How do you plan to do it?

Dear students, healthcare professionals and every reader of this amazing magazine, Everything about the LLeaP will be detailed in here. Every process, every concept. I could write each one of those as a text, but since this is a story that became true, I’m going to tell this to you as one.

First of all, it’s important for us to know what Lifelong Learning is (as you will see, it’s a crucial expression in the story). Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. And why, you ask, is this important in our area? Well, as we all know, science and technology are fast evolving areas, where it is very important to be at the edge of the curve. As pharmacists in the healthcare system, it is important for us to be aware of what surrounds us and what we can do to help others.

Some years ago, EPSA had a project called LLC, which stood for Lifelong Learning Certificate, that would certificate students that participated in educational activities in National events and EPSA Congresses after they filled a submission form for those specific activities. That project had huge results and the idea for the next step was born.

That idea was inspired by the notion of a different perspective towards education that would connect our learning experience with everything else that surrounds us. As you all know, one of the main educational sources that we have in our life is school, whether it is primary school or faculty.

We also have structures associated with the academic world that provide us with opportunities to learn. But that is just a small part of education.

We get education from our parents, from our friends and from everyone around us. So basically, we can learn from everything and everyone! With that in mind, EPSA started working on the concept that would later become LLP, which stood for Lifelong Learning Programme.

The LLP was the extension of the

previous project - the LLC. It wanted to go further and expand the limits of what EPSA could do for the education of its members. Despite the great idea and the vision behind it, the Lifelong Learning Programme never became more than a concept. Several attempts were made to develop this project: a structure was thought through, with an investigation about similar projects and how we could make this a reality for everyone, and a pilot version was launched. In the LLP pilot, we discovered that the application forms were too long and that the structure itself wasn’t very appealing for students to participate in and to interact with.

With time, the credibility of the project dropped and it had lost the interest of the students.

With a new mandate and the conclusions drawn from the previous project, a decision was made: we had to revamp the project from the beginning.

The main things necessary to improve and reinvent it were: making the structure of the project more appealing to students, making the submission forms easier and trying to regain the hope and trust that everyone had had in this project.

Bearing these ideas in mind, we started working. We based our work on some papers and guidelines from all around the world about educational projects like this one and the development and implementation of Lifelong Learning in students. After all this research, some months of a lot of work with the Educational Department and the rest of EPSA Team, another project was born: LLeaP, which stands for Lifelong Learning Platform.

Starting by the name, the project kept the idea of Lifelong Learning from the previous projects, focusing on skills that can be developed throughout our entire lives and that enrich us in some way, and we adopted the idea of a platform.

This change was based on the pursuit of a more interactive project and a platform that could be the base for it.

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online This platform will be online, enabling people to find different educational opportunities around Europe to which they can apply and participate.

These opportunities will also be put on a schedule so that everyone can see when they are happening and schedule properly the activities they are interested in. The information available will be related to specific skills from some of the fields of knowledge of a pharmacist. For example, there will be a set of skills more directed to community pharmacists, others to hospital pharmacists, and so on. Then there will also be skills that are common for our role as a pharmacist in the society (for example CPR that is a very important skill for every healthcare professional).

The platform will also have a tool for the participants to track their educational development in their own personalized profile. In other words, after the submission forms are delivered, the Educational Affairs Coordinator will give them a token or a badge to acknowledge their development, and they will have that recorded in their profile. With that, they can compare their progress with other students and see everyone’s development. This is aimed at motivating students to connect and to share their knowledge path.

For the participants to obtain these awards, they have to fill the submission forms. The submission forms were changed from the complex and detailed format that characterized the previous project to a more open and reflective form in which the students, in a 1-page long form, reflect on their experience and the knowledge they acquired from that event. The Educational Affairs Coordinator will then see the form and the evaluation will serve to certify that the students thought about their learning process, are aware of the things they have learnt in that activity and if they are aware of their next step.

Another role would be to advise, if asked, about what to do next. This way, the Educational Affairs Coordinator will give some guidance and support to the students that participate in the project.

Connecting this with the final part of the LLeaP structure, come the certificates. There will be certificates that will certificate the participation of the students in the LLeaP and their subsequent reflection on their learning experience. This certificate will specific

Education to the activities they submit to the Educational Affairs Coordinator and it will be emitted at the end of the year.

However, if anyone needs the certificate before, it will be provided at that time.

Now comes a different part of the project, that is as important as the previous one: the marketing. The LLeaP will have its own logo, and with a rebranding, the image of the project is revamped. Now, what is left are the steps needed to make the project successful again! To do this, the logo will be shared in EPSA events’ posters, booklets and there will be a request for the logo to be shared by our members in the activities they want to submit to the LLeaP. This way, it will be visible to everyone and the activities from the members will also gain more popularity.

There will be workshops about this topic to introduce LLeaP to the largest number of people possible.

One very important thing to know about LLeaP is the development of the project and platform itself. In order to keep ourselves updated, we need something that is always pursuing perfection and improving itself. For that, the job of supervisor will be accomplished by the Educational Affairs Coordinator.

It will be fundamental to determine how the project is going, using the feedback given by the students so that we can keep working to have a project that fits the student’s needs. It will also need a continuous innovation of the mechanisms through which the platform works, including new methods to motivate participants and new online tools that can make students’ experience in the platform more interactive and fun, all the while motivating them to learn.

Now the idea is designed and the project will be soon set to go. The main challenges for the future will be the participation of the students in the platform and the educational opportunities it can get for EPSA and its members. For that, we will need your participation and commitment.

Are you up for the challenge?

Diogo Capítulo EPSA Educational Affairs Coordinator, 2017-2018

Plan

Act/Learn

Evaluate

Reflect

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Education

European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Public Health Campaigns EPSA’s Public Health portfolio includes special days and several topics that we celebrate and explore during the year, in order to raise awareness in the general public and among pharmacy students regarding the main World Health Days (mandated by the World Health Assembly). Some examples were the Colon Cancer Awareness campaign, the Mental Health in the Workplace campaign, the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, the AIDS campaign and the Teddy Bear Hospital. We had some developments in the field of vaccination and the Immunization Week is still to come this year.

Join us on this journey through the campaigns and take a look at what we have been doing and what is still to come!

Rúben Viegas EPSA Public Health and Social Services Coordinator 2017-2018

Mental Health From the 9th to the 15th of October, in 2017, the European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA) and the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Associations (EPSA) joined forces in support of the Mental Health Awareness Day to discuss the topic ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’.

The Mental Health Foundation found that nearly two-thirds of individuals have experienced mental disorders at some point in their lifetime, and that just 13% of us are living with high levels of positive mental health. Therefore, throughout this week-long social media campaign, EFPSA and EPSA used their respective knowledge to educate each other, students and the general public on positive mental health, particularly focusing on mental health at the workplace and university.

This was achieved through the dissemination of various facts, tips and guidelines via attractive infographics posted on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), and by promoting and encouraging discussions amongst individuals in order to decrease the stigma associated with mental disorders. Students were also encouraged to take part in the campaign via picture activities at the local level.

The campaign was a great success, as individuals were involved on both a local and European level and it was an absolute pleasure to work together with EPSA on this. The collaboration was very smooth, the communication was always very clear and we were always very enthusiastic about our project!

Although mental health awareness day is behind us, it is important to keep raising awareness and sharing knowledge about mental health and mental health in the workplace. EFPSA and EPSA wish to keep engaging in dialogue and various campaigns and collaborations in order to show the importance of mental health in our daily lives and encourage you to educate yourselves on the topic and share your knowledge with your peers in order to promote good mental health throughout our lifetime!

Clara Chetcuti, EFPSA President, 2017-2018

EAAD This year was the first for Estonia in organising the Antibiotics Awareness Week.

It was also the first time that the Pharmaceutical Society of the University of Tartu (TÜRS) took part in an EPSA Public Health Campaign.

Because of this being a first time event and having limited resources, we decided to concentrate our efforts towards the younger audience. It came to our realization that the best group to have an impact on would be high school students. We focused our campaign this year in the city of Tartu and involved most of the high schools in the area (about 10).

Our main idea was not only to give the students general information about antibiotics, but was also to give them guidelines on how to act in certain cases involving antibacterial drugs. Basic knowledge about bacteria and microorganisms is already taught at the end of middle school and therefore, it is a good starting point for us to give additional information about antibiotics to the students.

The main difficulties of organising the event were getting everyone on the same level of knowledge about antibiotics and making the presentations interesting

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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enough to school students, so they wouldn’t just sit through the presentation.

To begin with, we had to find the appealing material we wanted to present to the public and verify it is scientifically true. This was quite time consuming, but very informing and it actually led us to many new topics that could be used in the campaigns to come.

For example the usage of antimicrobial drugs in animals, which produces a part of the microbial resistance, is a problem most people hardly ever think about.

Secondly, the presentations. Before going to the schools, we practiced our performances amongst ourselves. This gave an opportunity for all of us to share the information we had gathered.

We were also able to get a better understanding of the topic in hand by having a discussion after every presentation.

After the campaign was over, we got good feedback from all of the schools. Most of the teachers who contacted us afterwards wanted to know if we would be doing this event again and asked us to revisit them for another lecture.

There were also many new ideas which were formed during the campaign this year. The topic of antibiotics used in animals brought us the idea of integrating veterinary specialists in our next years’ campaign, which would give the audience a deeper insight to antimicrobial drugs used in our food (meat, fish, etc.). Another thought was to hand out leaflets with information about antibiotic awareness to people. There was also the idea to broaden the campaign to cover all the major cities in Estonia, but for this we would need more volunteers and new sponsors.

To conclude, The Antibiotic Awareness Week in Estonia can be considered a success. This result would not have been possible without a great team of volunteers from the Pharmaceutical Society of the University of Tartu!

Andres Allik, Public Health Coordinator for TÜRS, Estonia

AIDS Being from Zimbabwe, HIV/AIDS is a very much talked about topic that garners seminars and talks all throughout the year. It’s a disease the effects of which I’ve both seen and felt first hand and one I am very passionate about.

When AIDS Day popped up on our awareness calendar it had quite the big asterisk for me and it was one of the major projects I really felt I needed to bring awareness about, especially because Eastern Mediterranean University is one of the most diverse universities in the world, being a hub for people from different countries who bring with them different experiences and viewpoints.

HIV/AIDS is not a commonly discussed topic in many parts of our globe because of the negative connotation serving as a pungent ‘do not touch’ sign on the mere thought of discussing it.

As an organisation, we wanted to find a way to break that barrier and shed light on the topic by taking the boldest of all steps needed in the road against stigma and discrimination, which is being well informed.

EMUPSS wanted to do this in a way that raised awareness and because World AIDS Day comes just after mid-terms in our

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

school, brought a bit of relaxation and fun as well.

We came up with the idea of a movie night as the central activity to support and mold our plan to this campaign and it was all just a matter of looking for ways to infuse the educational aspect into our night. We decided that the best way to do this was with interactive games that would serve to both enlighten the mind and the mood of the public as well as a movie that entertained using the subject matter. We added some prizes as an added bonus to our night and as a way of thanking the students who joined us to participate.

The only thing that was left was getting people to come and we did this by having a “RANDOM SELFIE CHALLENGE”. Basically we would grab anyone we saw and get them to take a selfie with us while holding our large AIDS ribbon and hashtags and then invite them for the movie. We also distributed condoms on the night while giving facts that people didn’t know, as a way to do what we can to insure that people are well protected mentally and physically.

The turnout for the event was great and we had snacks and tea as well to help fend off the cold and create a nice homely environment. It was amazing to see how well people responded to the activities and how deeply touched they were by the movie.

The mood and the atmosphere of the whole night was magical and we managed to get people to think deeply about this global problem and help find solutions to grab it right by the throat. I feel that’s what you’d call an overwhelming success!

Chawapiwa Masanga, Public Health Coordinator 2017/2018, EMUPSS Teddy Bear Hospital The Teddy Bear Hospital, in Lisbon, is a project organised by the Students’ Association of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon (AEFML) in collaboration with several Students’ Associations of the Health Area, including the Students’ Association of the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon (AEFFUL).

This project aims to reduce the fear that children feel when faced with the need to seek care from a healthcare professional. It is aimed at children from 3 to 7 years old and has received over 2300 children per edition over the past years.

During the activity, children are received in a Waiting Room, where some games and activities are done for them to feel comfortable and excited for the activities. The patients are not the children, but the dolls and the toys they carry throughout the course. As in a trip to the hospital, the course begins in the Screening Room where the diseases of all the toys you can imagine are evaluated. The Consultation, Clinical Analysis, Imagiology, Operating Room, Treatment Room, Pharmacy, Dentist and Nutrition follow. In each of these stations, the children participate in the process of treating their toys with the help of the healthcare students of this hospital. All students that volunteer for a day contribute to create the wonderland that is in the mind of the little ones!

This is just one more project that AEFFUL does in collaboration with other associations and it is, without a doubt, one of the most rewarding ones. Seeing the white lab coat fear in the children’s eyes disappear because of the way we treat them, with kindness and tenderness, makes our job as students feel like it is the most meaningful and important job in the world. We have the power of creating an image of the healthcare professionals in these children’s minds that will have a deep impact in the future, when they have a simple consultation or if unfortunately they need some kind of medical intervention.

Be you, be kind, be a pharmacist!

Ariana Oliveira & Mário André Bergano, AEFFUL Public Health Coordinators 2016-2017

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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The Individual Mobility Project Careers made possible.

One of EPSA’s main goals is to assure the sustained development of pharmacy students and young pharmacy professionals and that their experience is in accordance with the existing global standards. For over nine years, EPSA Members from all over Europe have had the chance to apply for different internship placements in various organisations, and this has been made possible through the Individual Mobility Project (IMP).

IMP is one of EPSA’s long term projects which focuses on bridging the gap between two different environments – the academic and the professional one. The project provides paid opportunities to students and recent graduates (maximum 24 months after graduation) to gain working experience in a new environment and acquire, through a direct contact with different cultures, a broader image of various types of work, different from the ones in their home country. Moreover, IMP focuses on initiating international careers, leading to the exchange of international experiences and improved pharmaceutical services in Europe.

During the past year, EPSA collaborated with various organisations – NGOs, academia, hospitals, small and large pharmaceutical companies, in order to deliver high quality placements to its members.

The internship should not be considered as holiday work but as a real job. IMP offers not only paid traineeship by the partner company, but also adequate professional guidance, real-life work experience in a foreign environment and direct contact with different cultures and customs.

Having 11 IMP offers in 2017 presented the opportunity for a promising international experience to candidates from over 20 country members, leading to a total number of 180 applicants.

The high number of applications for some of the placements confirmed the great interest of students in the pharmaceutical industry.

Among all of the positions, placements in academic research, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance and policy seemed to be the most attractive to EPSA

Members, both students and recent graduates. Many interns continued their professional path in the same company where they completed their IMP internship, a proof that EPSA provides great young talent to its partners!

As IMP is exclusive for EPSA Members, and in order to grant access to the project for all of them, the position of the National IMP Coordinator (NIMP) has been established. The NIMP is an EPSA Official who belongs to a National or Local Association Member of EPSA. The position has several important responsibilities. One of them is to explore new opportunities for IMP placements in their home country, collecting information about organisations willing to partner with the project. In addition, the NIMP is responsible for the promotion of the vacant placements to students or recent graduates on a local or national level. That is why the National IMP Coordinator is always approachable for questions or requests by the members willing to apply for IMP and full contact information of all the National and Local IMP Coordinators can be found on the EPSA Website.

The way to an IMP Placement starts with building an excellent application.

Some of the key qualities a candidate has to demonstrate when applying for a job in the early days of their career are determination, persistence, flexibility and of course eagerness to learn more every single day. Nowadays, many pharmaceutical companies are operating worldwide and the value of international experience in a professional environment is and will continue to increase in the following years. The internship placements provided by the Individual Mobility Project are for enthusiastic future and young pharmacy professionals who are looking for that little something to enrich their experience and add special value to the pharmacy profession.

Victoria Becheva, EPSA Central IMP Coordinator, 2017-2018

IMP Mylan Internship This IMP Placement has been an excellent opportunity to put into practice my experience in Health Policy related topics, developed throughout my Associative experience in NEF/AAC and APEF, Portugal which is, unfortunately, a very undeveloped topic in the MSc In Pharmaceutical Sciences in Portugal. This project is of great added value for any recent graduate, because it connects the young pharmacist and the employer (which sometimes is a difficult bridge to make), while allowing flexibility in the negotiations between the recent graduate and the company/institution.

My advice for all students and recent graduates is: definitely keep this project, and others like it, in mind.

Get involved and get to know which opportunities are available to you, the right turn can change your life forever!

Paulo Mendes

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Mobilty

European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Humanitarian activities Humanitarianism is the active belief in the value of human life, based on a view that all humans deserve respect and dignity impartially, regardless of people`s age, gender, nationality, skin colour or religion.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist and clergyman

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist and civil rights leader

“To say that on a daily basis you can make a difference, well, you can.

One act of kindness a day can do it.”

Betty Williams, Community of Peace People

“The destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a decent standard of living for all mankind.”

Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution

Humanitarian activities are provided in different frequency throughout Europe, as the result of different economic and labour situation in each country.

So what is hidden under the term “humanitarian aid”? Is it something which we ought to do for people in despair, or does it describe a voluntary act and charity? Humanitarian aid is typically a response in the form of material/logistical assistance or it represents help in the type of education, shelter, healthcare or protection.

Humanitarian aid is usually provided for people in need, among which are homeless, refugees or victims of humanitarian crises including natural disasters, wars or famines. The funds invested in providing humanitarian aid are provided by donations from individuals, corporations, governments and other organisations.

The European Union has been providing humanitarian aid since 1992, in over 140 countries and it helps 120 million people every year!

Pharmacists play an important role for humanitarian aid, as the landscape of pharmacy has drastically changed in the past few years and it has become a field which is more patient oriented. During disasters, pharmacists manage the drug supply cycle within an NGO, educating people in need about healthcare and making sure that the best and right medicine is prescribed to people, in order to ensure good health. However, they also give moral support, motivate citizens and build trusting relationships, which offer a strong basis for the psychological and social support needed by people in disaster zones.

All in all, we, as pharmacists, should keep an eye on the humanity pharmacy as pharmacy is one of the fields where we interact with people from the whole world.

In addition, each individual can take an action and help to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals ratified by United Nations. Even the small things, such as saving electricity, taking short showers, eating less meat, using public transport or raising your voice against discrimination can make a huge impact on climate change, poverty or injustice.

The aim of EPSA is to raise awareness about humanitarian related activities by leading discussions together in collaboration with NGOs during educational programme of EPSA events. Through webinars and workshops, students are encouraged to perform volunteering acts abroad, which lead to endorsing mobility, intercultural awareness and teaches them how to accept responsibility.

We strongly believe that EPSA humanitarian activities will be developed further in order to fulfil students` expectations.

NGOs could use pharmacists to create a platform providing training programmes for pharmacists who are interested in humanitarian situations or for those who live in areas which have a high risk for natural disasters. The idea is to also create a list with pharmacy contacts in countries identified as high risk areas, so that in disaster the medicine sponsors can liaise with local services to ensure that the medicines supplied are appropriate, and handled and stored safely.

Adriana Slaná EPSA Mobility Coordinator 2017-2018

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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External Representations 11th DIA Forum for Qualified Persons in Pharmacovigilance The 4th and 5th of October were great days to be in London and attend the Drug Information Association (DIA) forum. This event is developed for Qualified Persons in PharmacoVigilance (QPPVs). Being organised every year, it now counts with its 11th edition!

It serves as a network for the QPPVs to discuss the main hot topics regarding pharmacovigilance.

This year’s forum objectives were built on past successes and focused on the impact of Brexit on regulatory authorities and industries.

The first day of the event brought keynote lectures in the morning sessions, from the organisers, followed by short presentations on hot topics. These presentations focused firstly in the QQPV’s points of view and the overview of the present situation and, secondly, on the regulatory aspect and how professionals in this area are dealing with the changes in the field.

In the afternoon, the discussion focused on Brexit and how the associated changes would affect the pharmacovigilance sector. The day ended with a networking dinner, where I had the chance to learn more about the professional perspective, how the work of a qualified person in pharmacovigilance is like, and what are the main difficulties these professionals face nowadays.

The second day changed the discussion to other important topics such as audit and quality systems, the requirements and legislation around the QQPV through Europe, and pharmacovigilance systems. All the topics were followed by fruitful discussions and a lot of questions that would keep the discussions going for hour if possible.

As pharmacy students, professional events can serve as a bridge to other professional associations, industries or regulatory agencies, opening a broad range of opportunities to learn, expand our network and maybe start an internship in a company. With all the political changes occurring in Europe,pharmacy students should be aware of the main problems affecting these areas of interest for our profession. It is true that there seems to be a secret language between QQPVs, but don’t let that intimidate you! If you like pharmacovigilance, keep an eye out for events like this one where we can learn a lot, that’s for sure.

Rúben Viegas, EPSA Public Health and Social Services Coordinator, 2017-2018

SSSFD MW The SSSFD Motivational Weekend is one event that brings Slovenian students together to raise awareness to the work done inside the association and promotes motivation in the participants through soft-skills training and group activities during one weekend.

On the first day, we arrived at the location of the event, a dorm house for all the participants, in Kocevje, located in the southeast of Slovenia. After dinner there were some ice breaking games conducted by the organisers. Together with the other present trainers, Neza Trpin (Slovenia) and Bruno Racki (Croatia), we took the opportunity to prepare the trainings for the following day, while the social part of the event took place.

The second day of the event consisted in four training sessions delivered in parallel, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. In the morning, Mija Kavcic (Slovenia) joined us to deliver a session about Time Management to the participants, while me and Bruno delivered one about Group Dynamics. In the afternoon, Bruno delivered a session about Public Speaking, while me and Neza delivered a very fresh and new session regarding Design Thinking. The long day of trainings ended with another evening of an amazing social program!

The third and last day of the event started with the collection of the outcomes from the previous days, followed by a presentation about EPSA. In this presentation, the aim was to inform local students about EPSA’s main events and the basic structure of the team. After this, there was also an internal discussion on how to promote and improve the association’s projects. Before lunch, there was still time to do a short walk to a lake nearby. After lunch there was the returning to Ljubliana and with this the end of the event.

Rúben Viegas, EPSA Public Health and Social Services Coordinator, 2017-2018

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VI FEEF Interfarma Between the 29th of November and the 1st of December 2017, the VI FEEF Interfarma took place in Albacete, Spain.

Interfarma is a biannual Event that gives the chance to Spanish students to take part in a rich Educational Programme and Social Programme. There’s symposium in the mornings, workshops in various fields, other type of sessions in the afternoon, and social activities in the night.

On the 1st Day , in the morning we had lectures about the Organisation system of Pharmacy in Spain, about the present and future of Pharmacy, national Chamber and, lastly, Alejandro Parejo García-Saavedra (previous LS for FEEF Spain and President for FEEF Spain at the time) gave a presentation about being an active student in the Associative World. During the afternoon, participants had the chance to participate in workshops. At night we had a chilled time in a bar close to the Hotel where we were accommodated.

On the 2nd Day, we had lectures about Pharmacists in the Military System, the Role of the Pharmacist in Sanitary Emergencies, Homeopathy: the Big Lie and how can we guarantee the security of food without harming the food Industry, during the morning.

In the afternoon, after la siesta, there were workshops about miscellaneous topics and some social activities, again. In the evening, there was a special party for all attendees of Interfarma, where everyone got to bond a bit with each other and have some fun!

On the 3rd Day, in the morning I delivered an EPSA Presentation, where I focused more on Events, Online Activities, Twinnet and how can students get involved in EPSA. There were lectures on Interprofessional Collaboration, Professional experiences in Pharmaceutical services at community pharmacy and using animals at experiments. After la siesta, participants had free time and prepared themselves for Gala Night. At the same time, FEEF General Assembly had begun and FEEF Members could provide their inputs about the work of the current Team.

Gala Night was in an amazing venue and we had really nice and traditional Spanish food. After Gala, of course, there was a party and once again it was amazing!

Spanish students are super friendly and being able to attend this Event was not only a good opportunity to practice my Spanish, to learn to be closer to Members and be available for any inquiries.

FEEF and the Organising Committee from Interfarma did an extraordinary job! You could feel how everyone was enjoying the Event so much and, most importantly, how participants went back home richer, not only in knowledge, but also in friendships.

Muchas Gracias Hermanos!!

Leonor Soares, EPSA Vice President of Internal Affairs, 2017-2018

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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123rd General Assembly of BPhD, Germany Between the 17th and 19th of November, EPSA was present at the 123rd General Assembly (GA) of BPhD, Germany. EPSA was represented by Nejc Klopčič (Events Coordinator) and Marta Simões (Professional Affairs Coordinator). Pharmacy students from all over Germany, plus a Slovenian and a Portuguese EPSA Team Member, were all brought together to the southern part of Germany, to Munich, in Bavaria.

The first day we received a warm welcome from the BPhD President, Max Willie Georgi, after a lecture on cytostatic drugs was delivered by prof. Dr Franz Bracher of Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich. Later on, we met with BPhD Officials, other external representatives and the rest of the participants, which enabled us to get an insight of how they see EPSA. After the informal networking session, we attended the sightseeing tour of the city, organised by local Pharmacy students.

The second day was filled with workshops, reports and elections.

The BPhD Team welcomed several new members, among them was also Nora Guigas, the new EPSA Liaison Secretary. Her passion for EPSA showed us that she is going to do a good job in helping us reach students from the entire Germany!

During Saturday’s GA, we also presented our association to the participants. We explained the structure of the EPSA Team, aims, and mission, and topped it with our events, projects and advocacy efforts. We devoted most of our focus to events and projects, topics which are most interesting to students, as this is a perfect way for them to get closer to EPSA. Marta and I kindly invited them to our main events happening live in 2018 and to our numerous online activities which are organised throughout the academic year.

The second day was also the day for traditional Bavarian cuisine, white sausage, pretzel and a bottle of beer served for lunch, which we all know, is the best way to show your tradition and customs - through food.

At this point, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone making our stay as pleasant and amazing as it was!

Nejc Klopčič, EPSA Events Coordinator, 2017-2018

CNEF During the month of December, it was time for the EPSA’s Portuguese Ordinary Member, APEF, to end its mandate.

With a year full of highlights, the end could not be better and EPSA was there to witness it all.

Just a week before its last General Assembly, where the 20162017 team would be discharged, APEF surprised its students with one last, but not least, activity – the CNEF, in English, the National Congress of Pharmacy Students held in sunny Lisbon.

This year, APEF successfully tried a new approach and, contrary to what is usually expected, the Congress did not focus on one very specific topic. This time, for two days, the Portuguese students were granted sessions on e-health, humanitarian activity, sexual education and soft skills trainings. This combination of topics may seem a little random but, if we take a closer look, it is not. In fact, these topics all have one common ground: the challenges for pharmaceutical professionals today and tomorrow.

As we all know, a high quality educational program is important but a social program must never be excluded from a good Congress. And, since achievements must be celebrated, at the end of the first day, in the evening, APEF held its yearly solidarity gala. Solidarity, because all its revenue was donated for solidarity causes, and gala because it was time to dress up and enjoy a show where individuals and local members were awarded for their achievements.

However, all good things must come to an end. So, a week later, APEF’s board and members rode North, to beautiful Porto, and for two very long days the last General Assembly of the mandate was carried. Once more, EPSA could not miss it and, during the first day, we could be a part of all of the discussions regarding every project and every matter of the almost finished mandate.

But the second day was the D day for many people. During the whole day (and some hours of the night), APEF’s elections were carried and a new board was elected, ready to take over.

Straight after two intensive days of General Assembly, it was time for the Office Entry ceremony. This was a smooth and gentle event, full of emotions and joy from those who have ended their journey in the APEF’s board, joined by those who would start theirs, especially, our newly welcomed in EPSA LS, Matilde Machado and the new Executive board.

At last, none of this would be possible without APEF’s invitation so, I would like to thank them for their hospitality and congratulate them for their past mandate as well as to congratulate the incoming board and wish them the best of luck for this new adventure!

Marta Simões, EPSA Professional Affairs Coordinator, 2017-2018

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3rd Place Union Health Award On the 27th of November 2017, EPSA proudly received the 3rd prize of the EU Health Award for NGOs 2017 promoting vaccination. With this reward, we are confident that the association is headed in the right way; educating and helping not only pharmaceutical students, but also the public, and with this contributing to better healthcare. EPSA received the reward because of the effort of many EPSA Teams, many member associations, and many students, working to highlight our beliefs and suggestions to improve Europe for future generations. This reward stands for what European pharmaceutical students are capable of if they step together and work relentlessly towards the same goal.

In this case, our goal is: “European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA) believes that as future healthcare professionals, we should strive to increase the immunisation rate in Europe. We are in favour of the participation of pharmacists in vaccination for the maintenance of the public health, as this is in accordance with various European recommendations and guidelines. Our main goal is to increase the immunisation coverage and access to vaccination.”

(Quote from the 2015 position paper on vaccination) The idea to bring an increase in immunization coverage and pharmacistdelivered vaccination to the forefront of EPSA’s policy activity gained a big momentum in the autumn of 2014, when concrete discussions began on pharmacist-delivered vaccination and its relation to immunization coverage.

The promoter of the discussion was the debate happening in France at the time about the Health Law, where pharmacists’ inclusion in vaccination was considered.

During the exchange of opinions between Member Associations representatives, a consensus was becoming apparent – a bigger immunisation coverage is needed, and pharmacists should be utilized in delivering vaccinations for that to happen.

With that in place, the idea to draft a Position Paper on Pharmacist-delivered Vaccination arose. A short survey was created for the member associations in the 2014/2015 mandate, the responses to which were the basis of the Position Paper. It was drafted mid-April 2015, with the final draft being ready in the end of May 2015. The final draft was voted

on and the Position Paper was officially accepted by our Member Associations on the 24th of June, 2015.

In the Position Paper, the research conducted on the effects of pharmacistsdelivered vaccination on the influenza vaccination coverage was used to demonstrate a positive case in the UK, which introduced pharmacists-delivered vaccination in 2002, and Ireland, which did so in 2011. You can read more in the Position Paper itself, published on the EPSA website. In those two countries, 20% (UK) and 23% (Ireland) of the patients receiving influenza vaccination received the vaccination for the first time, by a pharmacist.

The Position Paper used data obtained by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to identify the gap between the recommendations for seasonal influenza vaccination made by the European Commission, and the actual situation, determined in 2014. The gap was obvious, and with the reports coming in on vaccination coverage dropping all over Europe, EPSA carried out a campaign on vaccination awareness, focusing on promoting vaccination at every possible level, inform the entire population about it, and emphasise pharmacists’ role in vaccination.

The campaign was carried out from the 17th till the 24th of October, 2016. It reached 57445 people on Facebook, with 586 engagements, had 10989

impressions on Twitter, with 308 engagements, and the promotional video had 440 views on YouTube. The Blog article received an extra 628 impressions and 20 engagements. The campaign was disseminated through our member associations as well, reaching the local level. Workshops and joint lectures were organised, with national and local associations engaging in our campaign, and approaching the public to deliver leaflets and talk about vaccination.

Together with that, VaccinesToday, the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the European Commission, and the Erasmus+ programme helped us to bring the campaign to even more people. We were very happy with the reach of the campaign, and would again like to thank all the members who participated and all the partners for their help in the campaign!

When we found out that our campaign fulfilled the conditions for the Health Award for NGOs 2017, we applied.

With the efforts from Jan De Belie, EPSA Vice President of European Affairs 2016/2017, Diederik Enschedé, EPSA Grant Coordinator 2016/2017, Cláudia Ferreira, EPSA Publications Coordinator 2016/2017, and Elena Popa, EPSA Public Health and Social Services Coordinator 2016/2017, the application was sent to the European Commission.

On the 6th of October, 2017, we found out that EPSA had been shortlisted for the

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online award, meaning we were among the top 10 applicants, out of a total of 22 eligible applications. This news alone brought a lot of happiness to us, and we could not wait to attend the European Health Policy Platform annual meeting, which was scheduled for the 27th of November and where the final announcements would be made.

The day came very quickly and Patrick Jongeleen, EPSA Vice President of External Relations 2017/2018 and I crossed the road from the EPSA House to the building where the meeting took place. In the morning session, the key policy activities of the European Commission were reviewed, followed by the presentation of joint statements of thematic networks under the EU Health Policy Platform, among which was also the policy statement of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) on AMR, which EPSA recently endorsed. After that, reports from AIDS Action Europe, European Cancer Leagues (ECL), and European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention were explained. The morning session was concluded with a presentation by the European Health Parliament.

The awards were handed out in the beginning of the afternoon session of the meeting. First, the seven associations who were shortlisted were called out. EPSA was not among them, and an immense wave of joy came over us, knowing we would be in the top three. We received the reward from the Commissioner for Health, Vytenis Andriukaitis, with joy in our hearts and thoughts about a bright future in our minds. The meeting concluded with discussions on health and sustainable development, State of Health in the EU, communication on the digital single market, and the European pillar of social rights and its health dimensions.

Together, we can make sure that vaccination coverage in Europe increases and that stakeholders recognise the role of sufficiently trained and educated pharmacists in helping that become a reality.

I am vaccinated. What is your superpower?

ÄŒrtomir Fleisinger, EPSA President, 2017-2018

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How does advocacy work at your local association?

EPSA represents 160 000 students from 37 different countries.

Organised as an umbrella association of national and local associations, we bring pharmacy, knowledge and students together. Knowledge exchange and learning from one another always play a big and crucial role. Some of our core advocacy topics are: improving pharmaceutical education, the development of the pharmacists’ position itself, students´ mobility and many other issues that we come across. The Eduprof Platform (Educational and Professional Affairs Advocacy Platform) is EPSA’s advocacy body. Each member association has two representatives that participate in the discussions and represent the opinion of their association. But they do not work only at an European level; most member associations do advocacy work on the national or local level. According to EPSA’s vision, we all

work to “represent, reach and engage every single pharmacy student in Europe to collaborate on the development of the future of pharmacy and healthcare together.” That leaves much room for initiatives, ideas and innovations. What do EPSA ember Associations do? How do they represent their students and strive for better education and healthcare? See for yourself:

Dorothea Dalig EPSA Vice President of European Affairs 2017-2018

BPhD, Germany: Hey, my name is Constantin Hauser. I am a third-year student at the University of Heidelberg in the southwest of Germany. I am also part of the Executive Committee of BPhD Germany, in charge of health policy and advocacy work in my association.

I am striving to give pharmacy students a voice in health policy since it is our very own future being discussed there. Therefore, I try to educate the students about the politics and to raise awareness about ongoing debates, because only those who know what is going on can make up their own opinion and take part in the discussion.

The appointment I am holding at BPhD is quite new. We created it in May of 2017. Therefore, I am mainly focused on building the structures required for good advocacy work. This includes the re-establishment of the “advocacy working group” of BPhD. Meanwhile, the group includes around 15 active members but it’s growing quickly.

In the group, we discuss current political debates and how to educate our fellow students in terms of health politics and policy. In the near future, we want to start working on a regular political newsletter for students and on our first position paper.

Constantin Hauser, Health Policy and Advocacy, BPhD Germany

FASFR, Romania: This is the first year that our organisation, Federation of Pharmacy Students’ Associations in Romania, started to be more aware of the importance of advocacy.

We have been present at 7 public debates and we sent 3 public statements to the Minister of Health and the Chamber of Deputies.

One of the main topics of our discussions was the residency exam, for which we suggested that there was a single textbook for the exam in which all bibliography would be gathered in order to make the process of learning easier for students.

Another important subject that we stand for is the Vaccination Law. We advocated for the vaccination of children and for education about vaccination in the Faculties of Pharmacy in Romania.

We advocated for the Anti-Tobacco Law, which doesn’t allow you to smoke in public places because it is very important for us, healthcare professionals, to look after the general health.

The last intervention in the advocacy field was the public debate with Health and Food Safety Commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, and with the Minister of Health from Romania. We talked about the list of essential medicines which has been taken out from romanian legislation.

Our conclusion is that it is very important for pharmacy students to be involved in advocacy, because they will be stakeholders in the healthcare system.

Bianca Ștefania Băluță, President of FASFR, Romania

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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ANEPF, France: ANEPF (French National Pharmaceutical Students’ Association) is very active in the field of advocacy. It has many relations directly within the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Health. Every year, ANEPF publishes a white paper to present the philosophy of the French pharmacy students. This year, the white paper is about 44 pages long, and covers several topics, such as the structure of our studies. ANEPF supports a better orientation, the Integration of training in vaccination for all students, the development of an internship status for the students who choose community pharmacy in the 6th year of their studies, and the promotion of new assignments for them. Regarding the industry branch, ANEPF supports the expansion of knowledge based on new developments in the industry (medical devices, biotechnology, digital...). As for internships, ANEPF is prone to a better reorganisation of the internships and we asked our faculties to encourage students to do internships in other fields of pharmacy (and not just in the community pharmacy) and also to increase internships’ salary. Finally, regarding education, ANEPF supports a better teaching of English and supports the evaluation of knowledge and skills, through continuous monitoring. At the same time, ANEPF supports the introduction of innovative pedagogies through dematerialization, simulation, serious games, distance learning and peer education, in order to make students the actors during the lessons, which means having more interactions and basically, less lecture time in exchange for more practice. Feel free to visit anepf.org to get more information about the projects undertaken by ANEPF. Sid Ahmed AMEZIANE, Vice-Président en charge des Relations Internationales de l'ANEPF, France

SPSA, Slovakia: After the liberalization of the Slovak Community Pharmacy's system and the accession of Chain Pharmacy corporation to the market, the general perception of the pharmacist’s role as the most approachable healthcare providers has rapidly changed.

Naturally, this situation has made SPSA think: how can the students influence their future profession, when the professionals are not able to act? That was the main point for starting an enormous national project - “Who is the pharmacist?”. The project was launched with the support of the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacist, the Faculty of Pharmacy in Bratislava and Košice and with the cooperation of SPSA’s generous partners. The whole project was planned for the span of 3 years and in 3 phases: the first year was aimed at improving/raising awareness of the profession of pharmacists among the general public, the second at pharmacists in community pharmacies and the last year at changing the legislation in the operation of public pharmacies, which is about to happen: the main draft document was sent to the Ministry of Health and it is ready for further proceedings.

The first phase of the project was successfully launched in the last academic year. The public campaign has had a mainly digital character through a simple animated web portal (ktojetofarmaceut.sk – Who is the pharmacist?), which provides the most important Q&A about the profession, through Facebook promoted posts and finally through personal contact in community pharmacies. This phase caught the attention of local media and even several portals, that wrote articles about this project in Czech Republic, and that was when SPSA received an offer to expand this project. Hopefully, the project will be this successful in the other planned phases as well and the main mission - to highlight the unique role of pharmacists in the health care system - will be accomplished. Fingers crossed for us!

Katarína Gatialová and Adam Kováčik, EduProf Platform Representatives of SPSA, Slovakia

CzPSA, Czech Republic Czech Pharmaceutical Students‘ Association has been here for the students since 1990. Through these years, a lot has changed, but the aim remains: to enhance pharmaceutical studies and to be their voice among other pharmaceutical stakeholders.

The association cooperates on both the national and international level. In collaboration with EPSA and EAHP, we send students around Europe for both students’ and professional events like Congresses or internships, in hospitals and pharmacies. As an IPSF member, we highly support and evaluate their biggest project: SEP. More than 50 Czech students every year discover pharmaceutical fields all around the world and bring the knowledge from abroad back to our association and our advocacy work.

The Internal Affairs department of the association represents the opinion of our members, as well as the opinion of the students of the whole faculty, to national decision-making body members. We actively cooperate with the Czech Chamber of Pharmacists and participate in their advocacy work. To provide a connection between our studies and future careers, the association organises a series of discussions called “Ways of Pharmacy”, where students discuss current topics with professionals.

As healthcare students, we are aware of the importance of public health awareness. We participate in projects that strive to educate the general public about the importance of vaccination, antibacterial resistance or HIV stigma.

Anna Baťková, Vice-president of External Affairs, CzPSA, Czech Republic

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BPSA, United Kingdom: In 2017, the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) has performed a number of advocacy activities on behalf of its members. Three key pieces of work this year have been: The ‘Aspirations and Expectations of Pharmacy Students’ discussion paper, which sought out students’ views on the future of their career in pharmacy. This has been a driver for national policymakers to begin discussing the education and training of undergraduates.

The BPSA’s Registration Assessment feedback and report, a biannual activity to collate the feedback of entrants to the registration assessment, which is subsequently reported to the regulator who hosts the examination: the General Pharmaceutical Council. They then respond and make changes to future exams accordingly.

The Oriel feedback report was a key piece of work for 2017, as pre-registration entry in England is undergoing a wholesale change to a new system that was previously the standard for medics and dentists. The BPSA highlighted a number of issues with the system in order to deliver feedback to the organisation in control of this system, so that they can improve the process for future applicants. It was important for the BPSA to maintain a presence in the planning meetings leading up to this process to ensure students’ concerns were heard and acted on.

In addition to these 3 key pieces of advocacy, the BPSA has represented pharmacy students and pre-registration trainees with national bodies and policymakers such as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the General Pharmaceutical Council, Health Education England, the Pharmacists Defence Association and the National Pharmacy Association, amongst others.

Stephen Messham, President of BPSA, United Kingdom

K.N.P.S.V., the Netherlands: As the K.N.P.S.V., the Royal Dutch Pharmacy Students Association, we represent 2700 students in the Netherlands from 3 different cities. One of our main purposes is to be the voice of those 2700 students. The main partner for our advocacy is the KNMP, de Koninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij ter bevordering der Pharmacie, in English: the Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association.

The KNMP is the professional association for all pharmacists that represents hospital, industrial and community pharmacists. The association is mainly involved in decisions made by the government, insurances and other important parties that may influence the role of pharmacists. As the K.N.P.S.V., we attend all the general assemblies of the KNMP. Also, we are welcome to discuss at the invitationonly Meeting that the KNMP organises once a year. At this meeting, the future of pharmacists is discussed and new ideas are presented. We are invited to attend this meeting to ask critical questions and think together with the 100 most active pharmacists in the field. We support campaigns the KNMP organises as well.

We are involved in discussions and decisions that influence the curriculum, and in meetings with the KNMP we discuss what we as students feel that has to be adjusted, such as areas that may need more attention during our studies or areas that are not as relevant anymore and the changes that can be made in the future so that we can become the pharmacists the future needs!

Fleur van Gelder, President of K.N.P.S.V. 2017-2018, the Netherlands

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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Professional development opportunities with EPSA Nowadays, when it comes to professional development, I would say it is not because of lack of opportunities that we do not get involved or do not develop.

Despite being young and still a student, after some years on the road with EPSA, I want to share some of the main aspects that I have learned and truly believe to be crucial for continuous professional development.

Although these two words combined – Professional Development - may seem

quite formal and serious, if we take a while and reflect about their inherent concept, we easily understand that the main aspect in this expression is actually “development”. Whether it is personal or professional, every “development type” starts and progresses according to these 5 steps that I mentioned above.

But what do they have in common? Well, I would say that all these actions are only possible if you are willing to do them.

As I previously stated, these days, if we do not develop it’s not due to

lack of opportunities. With the amazing communication network that we have, we just need the willingness to look for those opportunities; to ask what needs to be asked (asking for more searching options and more opportunities also counts); to listen actively; to go on and search for more, ask and listen again; and then, to DO. So, after the theoretical part on continuous professional development and its stages, let’s see some opportunities that EPSA may offer you!

EPSA CHATS WITH PROFESSIONALS The Chats with Professionals (CwP), as the name suggests are an opportunity for you to ask and listen.

There are two types of Chats with Professionals: the live and online CwP. The live Chats with Professionals (CwP) is one of the educational sessions in our EPSA Congresses. In this session, you have professionals from various fields in a room waiting for you, to chat about what their professional paths and their daily challenges were.

Usually, this activity becomes a speed dating session in which small groups of students are able to have a conversation to one or two professionals at a time and then, after a couple of minutes, they switch to chat with the next professional in line.

But with so many sessions in a congress, why choose this one specifically?

Well Elena Popa, one of the professionals present, and Marco, one of the students attending, can tell you why.

This session is a MUST have in the educational programme for an EPSA event.

Why? Because it gives the opportunity to students to connect with EPSA Alumni who are already working in a specific pharmaceutical field and can provide them with insights and learning lessons.

This was my first CwP and I mostly enjoyed the students’ energy and interest in actively engaging with Alumni. Their curiosity and enthusiasm, but also the openness to learn from the good practices shared from professionals, reminded me about the main purpose of EPSA and why it is so important to get involved in EPSA activities. It was an added value to communicate with students, but also with other young professionals that were present at this session. I believe that CwP live is a great opportunity to learn from your peers, but also to inspire the new generations.

Thank you, EPSA, for inviting me!

Everyone knows that EPSA is carefully listening and afterwards working for the good of students and pharmacy, but this time at the 14th Autumn Assembly held in Brno they outdid themselves with a workshop called "Chat with Professionals".

I really liked the idea that students got a wide variety of options to listen about jobs and experiences from successful pharmacists all over Europe.

I mean, where could we possibly get this in the world? Offered information and all kinds of questions on one plate, in one room, for a bunch of curious minds. Mind-blowing for sure.

I came out of this workshop with some insight about not only companies and its business work, but PhD studies and scientific researches as well. I can surely say that this meeting helped every single participant, because feedback was nothing less but awesome.

Thank you again EPSA!

Elena Popa, Junior Scientist (Intern) at DIA Global

Marko Ocokoljić, EPSA 14th EPSA AA Participant

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Chat with Professionals: Since, unfortunately, we can not fit all European students in one room, we have the Online Chats with Professionals!

The online Chats with Professionals (CwP), are a more informal type of webinar which usually covers one topic. During these sessions, the invited professional presents their field of work, their daily challenges and their professional path until they gets to their current position and then students may ask any question they might have on the topic and usually, some of the questions turn into very interesting and dynamic debates!

So, if you do not have the chance to attend the next EPSA Congress, here it is your opportunity! All you have to do is follow our social media and register for the next CwP!

“Thanks to the EAHP-EPSA platform, I found my placement in a hospital pharmacy in the biggest hospital in Tuscany, representing 5.303 healthcare professionals and employees- Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria- Careggi Florence, where I carried out 3 months of the compulsory pharmaceutical practice. I was provided with the ultimate opportunity to be part of an experienced team, which consisted of professional pharmacists whom I could learn every day from.

I definitely recommend this internship to all pharmaceutical students and recent graduates who want to explore the healthcare system in another country and broaden their horizons!”

Adriana Slaná, EAHP-EPSA Internship Platform participant

EAHP-EPSA Internship Platform Just like IMP (we have a whole article dedicated to this project on our Newsletter), here is another good example of an opportunity to get along with the “doing” step as well as the searching, asking and listening.

For some years now, EPSA has had quite a fruitful collaboration with the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) which has resulted in an interesting project: The EAHP-EPSA Internship Platform.

Through this platform, undergraduate students may find a placement in a hospital in another European country and have a traineeship for up to 3 months. Once again, this is not only an exchange program but also a internship program in which you will be able to put in practice your clinical skills but also develop yourself by adapting to a new working place and new country which will certainly make you ask quite many things as well as listen.

Not enlightening enough? Well, here it is the testimonial of Adriana Slaná that made her exchange hospital traineeship through the EAHP-EPSA Internship Platform!

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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EPSA Mentoring Project The Mentoring Project is an example of searching, but mostly asking and listening.

This project aims to establish a bond between current professionals and students to provide them with career guidance. In order to do so, every year, students apply and choose a mentor from the desired field, whom they keep in contact with for six months.

As a mentoring and not a coaching project, the search comes from you. You shall be the one searching and doing your homework and coming up with all the questions you may have to your mentor. Then, of course, you shall ask them and after, listen to what they have to tell you. Most probably, they will advise you with new sources which you may use to look for more things. This repeated process will allow you to develop a good communication with your mentor and create a good bond with them, and after some months, to actually know more about a subject.

If this description was not enlightening enough, I dare you to skip to the do part and try it!

Anyway, here is Paul’s testimonial to raise your curiosity and willingness to apply!

MENTORING

PROJECT

Last March, I officially began the EPSA Mentoring Project by meeting my mentor for the first time, João Duarte. During several months, my mentor was always available to answer my (many) questions, either through email or during Skype meetings. All these discussions were very valuable, as they contributed by giving me a better and more thorough understanding of Regulatory Affairs (RA). Indeed, in the meantime I was doing an internship in RA, therefore talking with João helped me to both answer some questions and raise some others, and overall, I was able to make the most of this professional experience. To conclude, I would like to highly recommend this program, as it’s a very great and easy way to help you define your future professional path.

Paul Bolot, EPSA Mentee, 2016-2017

Participation in professional events Participating in professional events, may seem intimidating but it is actually a good way to get o know how professionals work and behave.

Of course, as a student, do not expect to be the headlight of the event but sometimes, the background is not as bad as it seems. Attending professional events gives you the opportunity to observe and understand a real-life working culture of the people present at the event as well as

the opportunity to listen and understand what are the hot topics that are shaking the world at the moment!

This is clearly a good example of searching, in this case, searching for students’ packages or students’ entrance at professional events and mostly ask and listen to what other people more experienced than you have to say.

Check out our Educational and Events

calendar, on our website to see which events you could attend!

Marta Simões EPSA Professional Affairs, 2017-2018

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

7th World Healthcare Students’ Symposium “Towards the SDGs agenda 2030: the role of a multidisciplinary approach in healthcare” World Healthcare Students’ Symposium, WHSS, is the world’s biggest healthcare students’ conference. It is held biannually and brings hundreds of healthcare students from many different countries to one place, with the primary goal of promoting cooperation between different healthcare professionals, to share knowledge for the benefit of all patients worldwide, as well as to improve healthcare through a multidisciplinary approach in patient care and healthcare outcomes optimisation.

The history of WHSS dates back to 2004, when the idea to bring pharmacy, medicine and allied healthcare students together in an international symposium was raised, leading to the organisation of the first World Medical and Pharmacy Students’ Symposium (World MaPS) in 2005, which is considered to be its first edition. Today, eight associations are involved in the organisation of the WHSS - the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF), the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA), the European Medical Students’ Association (EMSA), the European Confederation for Physical Therapy Students (ECPTS), the European Dental Students’ Association (EDSA), the International Association of Dental Students (IADS) and the International Veterinary Students’ Association (IVSA).

Following a line of successful students’ symposiums held in Malta, Portugal, Egypt, Czech Republic and Switzerland, the 7th edition of the WHSS was held from the 23rd to the 27th November 2017, in Kigali, Rwanda. The hosting association was the Rwanda Pharmaceutical Students Association (RPSA), and over 1200 students from five different continents and from all different health backgrounds attended it.

The topic of the educational programme of the event was “Towards the SDGs agenda 2030: the role of a multidisciplinary approach in healthcare” and aimed to create a global platform for the discussion and common understanding of shared values and responsibilities for future healthcare professionals.

In the morning, a symposium took place where topics such as the following were discussed: The role of multidisciplinary healthcare in SDGs Agenda 2030, Technology in Healthcare, Research and Development in Healthcare, Universal Health Coverage, Education System vs Healthcare System, One Health and Antimicrobial Resistance, allowing the audience to reach important and relevant conclusions.

As an addition to the very interesting discussions in the morning, workshops were delivered by professionals in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and veterinary medicine during the afternoon.

Also, short courses took place on Global Health, One Health, Trauma treatment and Neonatal care while a Hackathon session took place.Adding to the abovementioned sessions there was also an exhibition where students got the chance to share their poster abstracts.

In addition to the high quality educational programme, the participants got to engage in the social programme. Every night, there was a party planned. At the Cultural Night everyone had the opportunity to meet each other’s culture.

There were two Networking Nights where participants got to dance at the Hotel Club and the last night was the Gala, where everyone dressed up, celebrated the work developed in the last days and listened to the kind words of the Rwandan Minister of Health, Diane Gashumba.

On the last day, sightseeing took place and participants got the opportunity to explore the cleanest city in Africa, Kigali.

High praise definitely goes to the Kigali

Genocide Memorial Centre, where we got to know Rwandan history, understand the recent events in the country and comprehend how Rwandans raised their country from ashes.

Most importantly, every participant had the chance to meet and bond with people from all over the world, making this a truly rich experience!

Behind the scenes, there was a group of over 60 people working to make this symposium happen, in collaboration with representatives from every Partner Organisation, and as you imagine lots of meetings took place during these days to appraise the symposium and set the next steps for the 8th WHSS. I could keep writing about many experiences, but by now you have probably realised that WHSS is much more than a simple symposium - it is where interprofessional cooperation starts and where students and young professionals have the unique chance to see it working live!

The next edition of the WHSS will take place in 2019. My advice? Take the chance and participate, because it is more than just an event - it is an experience for a lifetime!

Leonor Soares EPSA Vice President of Internal Affairs, 2017-2018

www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

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MapInternal of Europe

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On the 11th of November 2017, ŠSSFD hosted its 3rd Symposium: Importance of nutrition in Healthcare, aimed at educating about this topic, that is very overlooked in the slovene curriculum.

The event was composed of five lectures and a panel discussion, hosting professionals from Slovenia and abroad. The symposium was attended by around 250 slovene pharmacy students.

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Katja Veber, LS for ŠSSFD, Slovenia

In the weekend of the 18th of October we had our first part of the TWINNET with Freiburg. The weekend consisted of a symposium about medicinal cannabis and CBD, a tour of Groningen and the faculty, dinners, a party and a night out to the bars. In march Dutch students will be traveling to Freiburg, concluding the TWINNET.

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James Nyirenda LS for K.N.P.S.V., the Netherlands

“Transform” The aim of this project was to provide the possibility to spend a different weekend, at an association that receives disabled people.

We did activities with the residents and rehabilitated a wall. This allowed us to make a piece of someone’s life better.

We believe that adapting ourselves to the needs at hand was really educational to our lives.

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association During the 2nd week of November we had our 1st big Public Health Campaign, about “Women and Diabetes”. The campaign consisted of three days of lectures followed by street and school campaigns where we managed to share information about diabetes and to test glycaemia, blood glucose and blood pressure. Our campaign reached more than 1350 people.

IUPSA-INT held a local congress for turkish students, based on the importance of personal development of pharmacists and the fields that pharmaceutical students can work in. Various fields of our major were introduced by professionals and colleagues. The aim of this congress was to help shape students’ career plans and to develop our duty’s awareness and responsibilities.

Crişan-Lucian Cîmpeanu, LS for SSFB, Romania

Zahara, LS for IUPSA-INT, Turkey

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From the 1st to the 2nd of December, APEF held the National Congress of Pharmacy Students, in Lisbon. The topic of this event was “A New Health Generation”.

There were also some workshops on soft skills, mental health and sexual health. As a social program, a solidarity gala was held, and the money raised was donated to the foundation “Maratona da Saúde”.

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Matilde Machado, LS for APEF, Portugal MUPSA was awarded with Golden Mortar, one of the most prestigious awards on the pharmacy profession in Turkey, for the 2nd time in a row in the field of ‘’Social Responsibility’’ with Medicine Cabinet project. We are very proud of this progressive work which is constantly growing and being organised for several times, every year. Check www. mupsaonline.com for more details.

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Zafer Çolak, LS for MUPSA, Turkey

Marcelino Oliveira, LS for AEFFUL, Portugal

In May, Team of Medical Biochemists in NAPSer Serbia, organized first ever Congress „When I grow up I want to become…

Medical Biochemist!“. The event was absolute success with 120 participants and included series of lectures and workshops. The main goal of this Congress was to share experience, inform students on various work opportunities after finishing college and giving them proper „tools“ to get them where they want to be professionally.

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By NAPSer, Serbia

Last November, UBIPharma, the Pharmaceutical Students’ Association of the University of Beira Interior, organised the Third Annual Congress - “Pharma Goes Digital”. In this edition, the main topic was technology and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector and e-health.

The event took place at the Faculty of Health Sciences and was attended by 150 participants from several institutions and notable speakers.

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Matilde Baptista, LS for UBIPharma, Portugal

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FASFR’s greatest event this year, FASFR Academy, was held in Timișoare between the 23rd and the 26th of November.

We invited true mentors to speak with, to learn from and to motivate us for the future, including former Health Ministers. Our workshops will prepare every student to become a great volunteer today as well as the best pharmacist tomorrow!

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Patricia Adams, LS for FASFR, Romania The first Public Health Volunteer Weekend was held in Belgrade, last October. The aim was to connect the most active volunteers from all local associations, exchange experiences, learn, socialise and have fun. Education on the topic “Antibiotic Resistance” was organised as an introduction to future Public Health campaigns, with the support of the Serbian Pharmaceutical Chamber and the Ministry of Health.

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Mina Grguri, LS for NAPSer, Serbia With 5 incredible student conferences held on a wide variety of topics, from mental health to alternative careers and another 5 to go, the BPSA is going full steam ahead for its flagship event: the Annual Conference, this coming March!

Look out for further updates soon!

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Matthew Brown, LS for BPSA, United Kingdom

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Events Calendar

March

23rd Congress of the EAHP 21st - 23rd March, 2018 Gothenburg, Sweden With the topic “Hospital pharmacists – Show us what you can do!” EAHP is inviting us all to Sweden, to the beautiful town of Gothenburg. With the event being the largest for hospital pharmacy in Europe and attended by pharmacists from all over the world, it provides us with an amazing opportunity to network, see the developments in the field and get the much needed inspiration for our future path. Registrations are open, so do not hesitate and apply!

BPSA Annual Conference 25th Marrch - 1st April Keele University, Newcastle, United Kingdom It’s time for the Annual Conference!

The next annual conference is going to be celebrating 76 years of the BPSA held at Keele University, 25th of March until 1st April 2018. The BPSA invites pharmacy students from across the country to the week-long event that should not be missed!

The annual conference is packed full of interesting debates, informative talks, workshops and exciting evening events, including the Annual BPSA Ball. It’s time to start joining us in the excitement, and keep tabs on the planning! #BPSA76AC

April

30th DIA Europe Annual Conference 2018 17th - 19th April 2018 Basel, Switzerland DIA Europe 2018 is unique in presenting the entire health care value chain ranging from policy and regulations to R&D, marketing and access. During an intense and stimulating three days, you will learn, debate and grow. There are 9 Programme topics available, each with an expert on the chosen field. You will be able to learn a lot more on Clinical Trials in Europe, Drug Development, Big Data, Pharmacovigilance, Regulations and Innovations.

41st EPSA Annual Congress 23rd - 29th April, 2018 Baarlo, the Netherlands Join more than 300 students from all over Europe, to discuss the topic “Pharmacoeconomics & the affordability of healthcare”, at EPSA’s biggest and most important Event.

Be an active part of the symposium, workshops, trainings, Science Day and networking with your peers. You will get an amazing opportunity to meet new people, broaden your horizons and even attend the King’s Day celebration in the Netherlands!

May

July

EAFP Annual Conference 2018 16th - 18th May 2018 Parma, Italy The European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy is hosting its Annual Conference 2018 in beautiful Parma, Italy.

If you are interested in how our education is being shaped, do not fail to attend!

20th EPSA Summer University 23rd - 29th July Izmir, Turkey Experience the 20th EPSA Summer University by the beach in Izmir, Turkey! With the topic being “Communication barriers between pharmacists and patients” participants will be able to talk about this issue while developing themselves on many soft skills trainings provided by EPSA trainers! Join us in sunny Izmir!

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www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online

EPSA Executive contacts Don’t hesitate to contact us President Črtomir Fleisinger president@epsa-online.org VP Internal Affairs Leonor Soares vp.ia@epsa-online.org Secretary General Leonor Pereira secgen@epsa-online.org Treasurer Diederik Enschedé treasurer@epsa-online.org VP Education Eva Shannon Schiffrer vp.education@epsa-online.org VP Public Relations Cláudia Ferreira vp.pr@epsa-online.org VP External Relations Patrick Jongeleen vp.er@epsa-online.org VP European Affairs Dorothea Dalig vp.ea@epsa-online.org EPSA Office Rue du Luxembourg 19 bte.6 B- 1000 Brussels, Belgium www.epsa-online.org European Pharmaceutical Students' Association | www.epsa-online.org Bringing pharmacy knowledge and students together.

Volume 24 | Edition 2 | March 2017

Did you enjoy reading this Newsletter?

Don’t miss the future editions of this publication by becoming an Individual Member in EPSA. How? Go to www.epsa-online.org, “Members” and check out the page about the Individual Membership.

Fill in the application form and send it to the EPSA VP of Internal Affairs (vp.ia@epsa-online.org).

Board of Trustees: Their experience with EPSA

Soft skills: Yes, please!

The European Union: How does it work?

European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

European Pharmaceutical Students' Association | www.epsa-online.org Bringing pharmacy knowledge and students together.

This newsletter is produced by EPSA and is distributed to all EPSA members, national pharmaceutical student organisations, faculties, official bodies and partners.

Volume 24 | Edition 3 | April 2017

Get to know our boards Who are they?

European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

EPSA's projects: How it all began?

CV & ML writing: Tips & Tricks

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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

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