Newsletter 45 - News

Design by Mohanad Nader

Issue 45

9th June 2007

IPSF Publications

This issue of the IPSF Newsletter focuses on our members’ activities and situation – congratulations on all campaigns and projects that have been carried out and all plans that have been made!

Students’ Scientific Symposium Anca Pop, President FASFR Romania Ioana Dumitru, 2nd year, Students’ Scientific Symposium Coordinator The Students’ Scientific Symposium is the most important scientific two-day event organized each year by all the Faculties of Pharmacy in Romania and as well as at our National Congress.

This is the perfect moment for those who have showed a special interest in research to present the projects they have been working on in collaboration with a teacher. As a rule their paper must contain both a theoretical and a practical component. The jury, composed of the heads of departments, had the role of rewarding the best work with prizes that consist of money, books or subscriptions to an important medicalpharmaceutical magazine.

This event also included two contests: Patient Counselling Event and Clinical Skills.

In the Patient Counselling Event the participant plays the role of the pharmacist and another student plays the role of the patient. The dialogue between them is filmed on tape and takes place in a separate room to avoid any distractions.

The Clinical Skills contest was strictly targeted at the students in the final years of study. The participants had to work in pairs, with each pair comprising of a 4th year student and a 5th year one. They were given a case and they had to to present their version of treatment for those diseases.

While the first contest tests the communication skills of the students and the capacity of applying their knowledge, the second one puts the accent on the quality of the information the students have gained.

The Students’ Scientific Symposium, in its essence, tries to set a connection between our practical experience and our theoretical one, both of them so important for our future profession as pharmacists.

CPSA Clinical Skills Event - Drug Interactions Maja Kovacevic, Contact Person for CPSA Croatia The intention of organising this event was to inform our students about all risks of drug interactions: interactions drug-drug, drug-food, drug-herbal remedies, drug-alcohol, drug- tobacco smoke…

The idea was to organise workshop so our students could learn how to control and revise prescriptions.

Dr.Vesna Vrca, specialist of clinical pharmacy, gave a lecture about every possible way of drug interactions, also which drugs mostly take effect in interactions and how to prevent harm to patients. At the end of a lecture there was a workshop part where students were given some prescriptions with several drugs and they had to revise prescription with discussion how to overcome interactions.

All participants found this event valuable experience.

They said it was interesting, intelligible and instructive!

Swedish students and Pharmaciens Sans Frontières fighting ignorance together Magnus Ekstrom, Contact Person for SNAPS Sweden 2007 The pharmacy student association in Uppsala, Sweden has teamed up with the local Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres branch, to spread knowledge and interest in the humanitarian field of pharmacy.

“The world and us”

It all started around April 2006 when a few of us in the international committee realized that we shared an interest in how pharmacy is practiced in low income countries. We contacted the Swedish branch of Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres. From the beginning they were very positive about collaboration, and we thought about the best way of collaborating.

Eventually we came up with an idea about night time lectures. They would be given by enthusiastic lecturers at our student association, and afterwards we’d all go down to the students pub and discuss

these issues over some food and a beer.

The first lecture was a big hit by Swedish standards. The speaker, Lena Idman, who had been working with the ministry of health in Mozambique talked about how pharmacy can be impaired by factors we don’t even think of in Sweden. How bad infrastructure, low literacy numbers and corruption can stop people from getting health care and proper drugs.

Since we’re a small student association, we’ve only had one lecture per month but they have been very appreciated. We have been lucky to find very good speakers who have been involved in various projects in Africa and India.

We tried to reach out to other groups of students, like other health professional students and social science students.

So I would warmly recommend to anyone who anyone who is passionate about pharmacy in low income countries and emergency pharmacy, to contact a non governmental organization such as the Pharmaciens sans frontieres (PSF) and suggest some form collaboration. Of course one motive for PSF has been to attract new members among us students. But since it’s a nonprofit and nonpolitical organization we haven’t seen any problem with that. I think in the end that both our student association and the PSF have gained something from this cooperation. And the visitors have gained knowledge in a field that is poorly covered in our five year education.

In our associations study council we have raised the issue of incorporating a humanitarian theme in every course where it would be viable (trying to find humanitarian aspects of analytical chemistry is a bit tricky).

However, the council said that even though it’s a good idea, we should incorporate many other things (like more focus on the pharmaceutical industry, management skills etc.) to make everybody happy.

SNAPS has also arranged a motivation weekend focusing on leadership and the future of Swedish pharmacists. Since 1971 all Swedish pharmacies have been owned by the government. But after a shift of political power the privatization of this sector is now on its way.

And last but not least, Sweden is now a member of SEP again.

Pharmacy: Scenario in Nepal Uttam Budhathoki, FoP Nepal The main scope for pharmacy in Nepal is the pharmaceutical industry, then educational institutes and governmental institutions. Very few pharmacists are engaged in hospital practice and less than 10% of the total number of pharmacists is engaged in community practice.

The pharmaceutical industry has been established in Nepal for around 36 years. Pharmaceutical production started in 1968 by the Royal Drug Research Laboratory (RDRL), a central governmental lab. The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) is the national drug regulatory body and the country has implemented a Drug Act (1978) as well as drug and health policies. Today, there are 40 Nepalese pharmaceutical companies which provide 35% of the national drug demand. In addition, 201 foreign pharmaceutical companies are permitted to market their products in the country.

Pharmacy education and practice is regulated by the Nepal Pharmacy Council (NPC). 21 colleges offer the Diploma in Pharmacy and four universities (Kathmandu, Pokhara, Purvanchal and Tribhuvan) offer pharmacy degrees. The Intermediate in Pharmacy (IPharm) was started in 1972 by Tribhuvan University, while the Bachelor in Pharmacy (BPharm) was started by Kathmandu University in 1994. At present, all four universities offer the BPharm programme. Kathmandu University was also the pioneer to offer the Master in Pharmacy (MPharm) programme in 2000 and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in pharmacy degree in 2004. Pokhara University also offers the MPharm programme.

Up till February 2006, there are 347 (344 Nepalese and 3 foreign) pharmacists registered with the NPC, as well as 13818 pharmacy outlets (1878 wholesalers and 11940 retailers). The expected consumption and quantification of modern drugs for human use per annum at present is eight billion Nepalese Rupees (US$ 11,267,606). Hospitals can be categorized as specialized, central, regional, zonal, district, charitable or private. Only a few hospitals have drug and therapeutic committees, hospital formularies or their own pharmacy. Although governmental legislature requires each regional hospital to have at least one pharmacist under its employment, this has not been fully practiced yet.

There are not official demographic figures of the country’s pharmacists but a study by the Kathmandu University Alumni Association (KUAA) showed that out of 188 BPharm graduates, 45 (about 24%) are abroad. Amongst them, two-thirds are pursuing postgraduate studies and the remainder preparing for the licensing exam of the respective countries they are in. A number of pharmacists who were working in the governmental or industrial sectors have migrated to developed countries like Canada, USA and Australia.

There is no doubt that there is a good scope of pharmacists in Nepal but many still want to migrate to other countries due to more lucrative salaries when developed countries call for residential or citizenship applications.. Sometimes, students who went abroad for higher studies and were offered jobs eventually got citizenship later. Some have also migrated due to marital reasons.

As the country itself is in critical need of pharmacy professionals, there is no doubt that the migration of pharmacists has a negative impact on the Nepalese healthcare system. However, should these individuals come back to work in Nepal, the country will benefit in a long run in terms of finance and technology.