IPSF Newsletter, Issue 98

IPSF Newsletter | October 2012

International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation

ISSUE

NO.

98

enlarging the

Pharmacy profession IPSF Newsletter Professional Development

PAGE 1

PAGE 2

Editorial Dear IPSFers, It is with great pleasure and delight that I write to you in this newsletter in this the third year as the Chairperson of Professional Development.

The Professional Development team is very busy this year as we have many great plans, some of which you will read in this newsletter. We hope that you will be excited about the projects and events we are working on as much as we are.

Eric So

Chairperson of Professional Development 2010-2013

To those not familiar on what Professional Development is about, Professional Development, as its name suggest, aims to improve the skills and knowledge of our profession. The oldest event is Patient Counselling Event (PCE), where we promote the importance and skills of counselling. Another event is Clinical Skills Event (CSE), as pharmacy is moving toward more clinical practice, this event aims to stimulate the problem solving skills and reinforce important clinical knowledge of our practice.

We also have Leaders In Training (LIT), which is to develop the leadership skills for those who want to move our federation forward. Furthermore, we also have Pharmacy Professional Awareness Campaign (PPAC), which introduces to the public the wide variety of skills and services that we, as future pharmacist, will provide to the general public.

I am also very pleased to announce that for this year, we will have a new event, Compounding Event, in the 59th IPSF World Congress in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

All in all, we hope you enjoy reading this newletter, Viva la Pharmacie!

content CSE Co-ordinator CSE World Congress Winner FIP/IPSF Patient Counselling Booklet PCE & CSE Past, Present and Future APPS CSE and PCE Advanced LIT Co-ordinator Five years of LIT Compounding Event Crazy Clinical Corner Member Highlights: Teddy Bear Hospital by K.N.P.S.V. Member Highlights: World Pharmacists Day by NZAPS-O

Design & Layout October 2012

5 6 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 18 19

publication team ISSUE

NO.

98

Alexandra Marques Proofread by Yuqian Liu Jason Hong Raja Barazi Neo E On Jennie Michelle Garner

publications@ipsf.org editor@ipsf.org

PAGE 3

CSE Clinical Skills Event

PAGE 4

Johanna Walz

Clinical Skills Event Co-ordinator

Hello everybody around the world!

My name is Johanna Walz and I am from Germany. I have just finished my studies and started my PhD this September.

Some of you might still know me in person, but since I have not been able to participate in the last two congresses, most of you probably know me only from several e-mails you have read from me.

In the last congress in which I have participated in Ljubljana Slovenia, I started my time to be a little more involved in IPSF than being just a “normal CP” – I have became the HIV and Aids Coordinator. Since I really liked the position and love to work within the IPSF family, I was the Healthy Living and Diabetes Coordinator last year (2011-12). After these two years being involved in the public health area, I have changed division and become the Clinical Skills Event Coordinator. After having participated in the CSE in Slovenia, I really loved the idea of it, and now I am working hard on getting more into it than I have been before.

by-Step booklet on how to organize a CSE. As soon as it is finished,I will send it out to you!

After that, I will try to send out examples of cases on a regular basis to show you what a CSE can be like and to show you that with my help, you can organize it rather easily!

So I really hope that this is going to be a very fruitful year and that after this year there will be at least 10 countries who organize their own CSE! In order to see which of you has been running a CSE I would really appreciate if you could send an activity report to me (clinicalskills@ipsf.org) once the event is finished. Of course don’t forget: I am here to help you! So if you ever need any advice in organizing your CSE don’t hesitate to ask me!

Vive la pharmacie!

Yours in IPSF, Johanna

One of the first things I did this year, was a survey in which I wanted to learn how many CPs know about CSE and how many have organized it before. These are the results: This survey showed me what is the most important thing which I want to achieve this year: I want you to interested in organizing your own CSE and of course, help you in organizing in your own country! Therefore, the subcommittee and I are working hard on writing a Step-

PAGE 5

Clinical Skills Event Winner

IPSF World Congress 2012 (Hurghada, Egypt)

The IPSF 58th World Congress in Hurghada, Egypt was my second IPSF Congress. Again, I enjoyed forging ties and meeting colleagues from around the world, which will hopefully remain long into our professional lives, while gaining a global perspective of the pharmacy profession. The practice of pharmacy differs greatly around the world (from a solely manufacture and supply role in some areas to comprehensive clinical pharmacy services targeting optimisation of pharmacotherapy in others); IPSF offers a fantastic opportunity to compare practice between countries and develop an understanding of the scope for the future of our profession.

The Clinical Skills Workshop during IPSF 58th congress provided an opportunity for many participants to learn more about the practical application of clinical skills including identification of drug interactions, dose issues and formulation issues as well as contraindications to therapy and therapeutic drug monitoring along with many other things. This area of practice is unique to pharmacy and having expertise in this gives us a key role in the healthcare team and patient management process. The interactive sessions provided a great way to brush up on some aspects and learn new ways to assess and manage drug therapy, while also serving as preparation for the annual Clinical Skills Events.

This year, Australia again entered the Clinical Skills Team Event; our team included Kahlinda Mahoney, Lucy Holmes, Catherine Brown and myself. During this event, teams had to make an accurate assessment of the scenario in order to evaluate the patient’s current drug therapy, determine therapeutic goals, make recommendations for therapy, defend those recom-

PAGE 6

mendations and finally make a note of what parameters need to be monitored during therapy. I was very proud to say that at the Gala Night, for the second year in a row, Australia was announced as the winner of the competition! The runners-up were also a team from Australia thanks to the efforts of Scott Joseph, David Vien, Diana Sandulache and Kyall Homberg.

As a final year pharmacy student about to enter the pharmacy profession, it is great to see that Australia is leading the way in clinical skills education. Educational symposia in the past have discussed that pharmacy courses across the world have a strong focus on the essential foundation sciences (which are important for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic issues related to medication management) but the level of applied therapeutics seems to vary from one region to another. In Australia, our pharmacy schools have moved towards teaching patient-centered pharmaceutical management where we develop skills in communication, physical assessment and diagnostic tools as well as therapeutic planning and drug monitoring. We then advance these skills in a practical way during professional experience placements and applied clinical situations, which prepares us to be more involved with patients and stresses the importance of our counselling responsibilities. Pharmacy is cementing its place as a crucial element in the multidisciplinary healthcare team around the world. As pharmacists of the future, we need to continue to develop these fundamental clinical skills and boost our confidence to apply them.

Lee Ross

CSE 2012

PAGE 7

PCE Patient Counselling Event

PAGE 8

International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) | International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF)

The Second Edition of the

FIP/IPSF Patient Counselling Booklet Available Online The Patient Counselling Booklet, Counselling, Concordance and Communication – Innovative Education for Pharmacists, was first published as a joint publication of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and the International Pharmaceutical Students` Federation (IPSF) in 2005. The Booklet has been widely used and it has been translated into Chinese and Japanese. The Booklet has provided a useful educational tool to enhance communication skills and learn techniques based on dialogue, respect for patient autonomy, and mutual agreement. In current and future pharmacy practice, pharmacists need to have skills to communicate with their patients not only face‐to‐face, but also via the Internet and email. Additionally, there is an increasingly need for skills to meet special populations (e.g. elderly people and people from different cultures) and skills to support information literacy of their customers.

work that has been carried out as volunteer work by editors and chapter contributors. The format is made by taking into account that the Booklet is intended to be primarily disseminated as an online publication. The Booklet was edited by Dr. Marika Pohjanoksa‐Mäntylä, Dr. Inka Puumalainen and Prof.

Marja Airaksinen representing FIP/Pharmacy Information Section, and Ms. Shirley S.T. Yeung representing IPSF. If there are any comments or feedback, please feel free to email any of the editors directly.

The Patient Counselling booklet has been updated in order to reflect current needs, knowledge and best patient counselling practices. The new edition includes more practical examples and case studies. It takes into account different settings where pharmacists can contribute to patient care, special populations and different modes of communication (e.g., telephone and email counseling, use of drug information centers). The booklet covers the following main chapters: Learning Patient Counseling Skills; Organizing Patient Counseling Services in Different Contexts; Meeting Information Needs of Special Populations; National Coordination of Developing Patient Counseling Services. Authors are international experts on patient counselling and education representing both research and practice. The new version of the Booklet is available online via the IPSF website.

Sincerely,

The project for editing the Booklet’s new extended version was started in 2010. We highly appreciate all the support from FIP and IPSF for the long‐lasting and time‐consuming editing

Finally, we are grateful to all contributing authors for volunteering in this important project. We believe that this new edition of the Patient Counselling Booklet will be widely used among pharmacy students and instructors, as well as practicing pharmacists all over the world.

Marika Pohjanoksa‐Mäntylä, PhD, MSc (Pharm) Senior Lecturer Division of Social Pharmacy University of Helsinki, Finland marika.pohjanoksa@helsinki.fi Inka Puumalainen, PhD, MSc (Pharm) Training and Research Manager University Pharmacy, Finland inka.puumalainen@ yliopistonapteekki.fi Marja Airaksinen, PhD, MSc (Pharm) Vice Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy Professor of Social Pharmacy University of Helsinki, Finland marjaairaksinen@gmail.com Shirley S. T. Yeung, BSc (Pharm), ACPR, RPh Academic Detailing Pharmacist Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services Fraser Health Authority Vancouver, Canada shirley@shirleystyeung.com

PAGE 9

Patient Counselling Event & Clinical Skills Event

Past, Present

and Future.

As we approach 64th year of IPSF’s founding, you might be surprised to know that Patient Counselling Event and Clinical Skills Event have only been around not too long.

Patient Counselling Event was first started within IPSF in 1989 during the 40th anniversary of IPSF located in our 35th World Congress in Philadelphia, the United States of America. Since then, it has become an annual tradition in all of IPSF’s World Congress and Regional Symposia. In 2012th, Patient Counselling Event was held in the 58th World Congress in Hurghada, Egypt, the 1st African Pharmaceutical Symposium (AfPS), in Algiers, Algeria, the 3rd Eastern Mediterranean Pharmaceutical Symposium (EMPS) in Khartoum, Sudan, and the 11th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). Patient Counselling Event has already been a very popular event in IPSF’s Congress and Regional Symposia, as it is a very fun way for students to gain practice in a very essential pharmacy skill, and also the bragging rights to say that you are the champion of the world.

Clinical Skills Event has a more recent history; it was first established as an event in 56th IPSF World Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia. When it was first started, it consists of a workshop and also six written cases and one oral clinical case in which each only lasted for seven minutes. In the 58th IPSF World Congress, we have expanded it to include team clinical cases as well, which were modeled on real life examples from hospital settings with patient actor interview, laboratory data, and doctor actor interview as well.

This year we are again working very hard in bringing PCE and CSE to all our Regional Symposia, in the 2nd AfPS, Dar Es Sa-

PAGE 10

laam, Tanzania, 12th APPS, Tokyo, Japan, 4th EMPS, Alexandra, Egypt, and the 59th World Congress. To add up of what you have read in this newsletter, FIP and IPSF are to release their new collaboration of the renewed Patient Counselling Booklet. This will also be the year when IPSF will be releasing our Clinical Skills Event Booklet, and Actor’s Guideline as well. So all in all, there will be a lot of aid and guidelines coming out.

Finally, to give you a sneak peak preview of CSE, PCE, and our new Compounding Event, let me say that there will be one unifying clinical case that will tie them altogether. If you want to know more, well then you will have to wait until the World Congress.

Viva la Pharmacie!

Eric. H. L. So Chairperson of Professional Development 2010-2013

Asia-Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium, Taiwan, 2012

Clinical Skills Event and Patient Counselling Event Advanced In July this year, we were fortunate enough to be able to attend the Asia-Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium in Taiwan.

This was both our first time attending an IPSF event let alone APPS, so it truly was an unforgettable experience. The weeklong symposium was an eye opener, where we could meet people from all around the world with a common interest – pharmacy. It was interesting to see how the pharmacy profession differs between countries and the evolution of pharmacy from doctors dispensing in their private surgeries to pharmacy as an individual health professional in a multidisciplinary team. It was also exciting to see our international collegues’ strong enthusiasm and passion in the field along, and share ideas on the future of the profession. But no matter what rate pharmacy is evolving around the world, all pharmacists must be able to apply sound clinical and patient counselling skills in their practice as our duty of care.

Both the Clinical Skills Workshop and Patient Counselling Workshop were led by Eric So (IPSF Chairperson of Professional Development) and it was a good surprise when we were told it was being filmed to be used as teaching material in Africa!

Both these workshops provided practical skills and examples on how to apply our clinical and counselling knowledge in real life applications. It was a chance for some to acquire new skills and others to reinforce what they have already learnt. Both these workshops help prepared us for the individual events and taught us new techniques which we have now adopted in our daily practice.

The Clinical Skills Event (CSE) comprised of seven stations, each with a different case and a set time limit. Depending on the case, there was reference material provided if required.

The cases covered a wide range of areas and truly test our clinical knowledge. It ranged from drug interactions to counselling points to appropriate therapy for a patient. The seven different cases really tested drug specific knowledge, drug interactions, dosages, formulations, contraindications along with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic knowledge that pharmacists are experts in. I would like to congratulate all participants for participating in such a challenging event.

Although the application of such clinical skills does vary across countries, it is the foundation to which the pharmacy profession stands on. We must not forget we are drug experts and

we know more about medications than anyone else in a multidisciplinary healthcare team. It is our duty to apply this knowledge in our practice – be it in industry, hospital or community to ensure optimal patient outcomes and improve patient safety. We should never be too shy or hesitant to rectify medication issues regardless of who the prescriber is for at the end of the day we are all dealing with our patient’s lives.

The Patient Counselling Event (PCE) not only tested the pharmacy student’s clinical knowledge, but application in terms of how you communicate this knowledge to your patients. When we deal with people’s health, we have to be considerate of patient privacy, patient health literacy, patient perception and patient emotion. Giving medicine information thoroughly, logically and tactfully is ever so important in the pharmacist’s day-to-day duties, because this is what the job of the pharmacist is all about!

We were given 24 hours to review a basic case study, which detailed a patient’s basic profile, medication/non-prescription product(s), and some background information regarding the patient. We had to identify the problems and research counselling points and recommendations to give to the patient, whether it be about pharmacological or non-pharmacological treatment. During the event, we were allowed to counsel for up to 10 minutes, including key points such as asking for the patient’s time, ensuring them of confidentiality, telling them what medication was being given, going through the dose and side effects and suggest other lifestyle changes. Planning a succinct and helpful answer is a useful strategy for a pharmacist to have, and PCE gives one the opportunity to finetune these skills in a pressured environment.

Both the CSE and PCE were fun and challenging experiences, and we encourage everyone who goes to an IPSF event to have a go. If fear is a barrier, don’t be afraid! It’s better to make mistakes you can learn from in this environment than in real life working situation. It broadens your experiences and opens opportunities on an international platform. Well worth a try for anyone who wants to be the best pharmacist they can be.

Amanda Wee (PCE) and Dickson Fung (CSE), Sydney Australia

PAGE 11

LIT Leaders in Training

PAGE 12

Lyna Fichouche Leaders in Training Co-ordinator

LIT! What can I say about it other than except that it was probably one of the best life experiences that I’ve ever had. I wish to continue its legacy by serving as the IPSF Leaders In Training (LIT) Co-ordinator for the year of 2012-2013.

Soon after, I was appointed LIT coordinator for the first African Pharmaceutical Symposium in Algiers. Then I asked myself, what’s next? What would be the next step for me? Here I am, the IPSF LIT Co-ordinator for the year of 2012-2013.

It all started last year when I attended the EMPS held in Qatar. While filling out the registration form, the words “LIT” came into view, and back then I didn’t even know what it was. To learn more about it, I attended LIT for three days.

This was my first IPSF event, and I didn’t know what to expect. Even though I was told that it was going to be fun, I was clueless about what to expect in the first place. in fact, it was more than fun, it was unforgettable.

What is my objective for this year? The answer is quite simple: to make a difference and bring something new to the LIT program; to spread the LIT spirit. Therefore, every IPSFer could have the chance to taste the great feeling of being part of LIT.

After three days of training, I felt the LIT was more than fun; it was unforgettable indeed!

Hence, I was infected with the IPSF spirit and with the LIT spirit in particular, I wanted to be more involved in IPSF. I would like to apply what I’ve learned from those three days. Most important, to share this wonderful experience with my association members, I regulated on

Cheers from Algeria : )

So IPSFers, wait no more, be the leaders of tomorrow! Join LIT!

Lyna Fichouche

the position of LIT coordinator, a position that had never exist before in my association, as soon as I came back to my country, Algeria.

PAGE 13

Five years of Leadership in Training

And what comes

NEXT?

What is Leaders In Training?

What does LIT mean to IPSF?

Leaders In Training (LIT) is an interactive programme that primarily aims to train pharmacy students who are interested in taking up leadership roles at the local, national or international levels to become better leaders and imbues them with certain standards of leadership, stewardship skills and knowledge year after year.

Speaking as a past LIT’er and as a LIT trainer now, I would like to share with you a personal story of why I felt so motivated to work for IPSF and particularly for LIT. During one of IPSF’s executive committee meetings at our accommodation, we, as a team, were working late into the night. During our discussion, we veered into the subject of leadership style, most specifically “servant leadership”, which you might guess is one of the concepts we learned during LIT. It was wonderful to hear from my fellow teammates, who were past LIT’ers themselves, saying that the purpose as executives is to work hard for our members; this is the essence of LIT. In the last five years, IPSF Executive Committee members have drawn heavily from LIT graduates. In my opinion, introducing LIT has made IPSF stronger and stronger.

History of LIT Five years ago, the leaders of IPSF looked at how to nurture quality leadership teams year after year and how to carry over the hardworking spirit that is needed to maintain such a large organisation like IPSF. The idea for LIT was inspired by other external student organisations, who adopted training programmes to develop their leadership teams. The first inaugural LIT was held in 2008 at the 54th IPSF World Congress in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Since then it has been held every year prior to IPSF World Congresses and Regional Symposia around the world.

How does LIT work?

Each year, we select around 20 candidates who submit applications detailing their motivations as to why they want to attend LIT, and their interest in taking on leadership roles in IPSF in the future. The candidates then come together in an intimate setting that last for about 3-4 days where they share, listen, participate, and discuss leadership topics during daytime workshops, but also enjoy social activities at night. After these 3 to 4 days of workshops, the participants will get to put the theories they learned into practice by organising their own projects and workshops during the congress/symposia.

“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.”

They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

Peter Drucker

PAGE 14

What does LIT mean to you?

If you aspire to lead and be a servant leader, LIT is a good programme for you to gain the “hardware” (organisational and technical skills) and also the “software” (social skills and understanding of the working culture of IPSF). Overall, it was a fun and rewarding experience for me, and I hope that it will be the same for you.

Application for LIT The application and dates for LIT will be finalized early 2013, we will keep you all updated via our webpage, www.ipsf.org, our blog, blog.ipsf.org, and also our facebook page.

Viva la Pharmacie!

Eric H. L. So Chairperson of Professional Development 2010-13

NEW EVENT

Compounding Event No matter what it is known by around the world, be it compounding, formulation, or galenics, we as pharmacist have an important role to play in the formulation of drugs. In this 59th IPSF World Congress, we have been working hard on creating a workshop and a competition event for compounding.

Often, pharmacists in the community and hospital settings are required to prepare alternative preparations with different drug delivery pathway that are not commercially available. In industry setting, pharmacists are instrumental in the quality control and the research aspect drug delivery systems.

For the very first compounding event in IPSF’s history, we are aiming to have a workshop that highlights the concepts of compounding. Furthermore, we aim to create fun and interactive event where teams can come and compete to create a compounded mixture. The final product and the steps that each team took to create it will be scrutinized.

The team that has the best asceptic technique, accurancy in calculation and formulation, will be crowned the first winner of IPSF’s Compounding Event.

Sample Case Little girl, Gretel Schokolade, an 8 years old is diagnosed with amebiasis infection. She has no known drug allergy, and weights about 30kg. She is prescribed metronidazole 350mg three times per day for 10 days. Unfortunately, metronidazole is only available as 250mg tablets and 500 mg capsules at your locations. Little Gretel cannot swallow tablets, what can you do?

What are the commercially liquid reconstitution and suspension agent in your country?

What are the calculations involved? What is the final concentration of the liquid suspension?

Is it stable as a liquid, and for how long? Any storage considerations (refrigeration)? Metronidazole taste horrible, what flavoring mask its bitterness the best (hint: the answer has already been mentioned cryptically)?

This is a simple and common case you might encounter in your pharmacy practice. The cases in our competition event will be a little harder. Hope you will join the competition in the Netherlands!

PAGE 15

CRAZY CLINICAL CORNER Foul Play You are a detective and this is a case about “foul play” amongst beauty queen pageant contestants.

Contestant Miss V has noticed that her rival Miss O has been taking a “pill” with her every meal, when Miss V confronts Miss O about that, Miss O states that it is a only a “supplement”, and refuses to tell more to Miss V, which made her angry and suspicious.

As you can imagine, beauty pageants are very competitive, so Miss V suspects that Miss O is using this for dieting purposes to keep stay here in in her top form for the pageant. So one night, Miss V snuck into Miss O’s place, and took some of Miss O’s “supplements”. However, instead of making her thin, Miss V began horrible bouts of very foul smelling diarrhea, flatulence, and increase bowel movements that made Miss V miss some events in the pageant.

Now Miss V, ever so indignant, is alleging that Miss O purposely switch the “pills” so to sabotage her chance. So what is the whole truth to this? Think you are a smart, pharmacist detective?

Did Miss O purposely sabotage Miss V’s chance?

What is this “supplement”?

Think you got it? See if you are right!

For answers check out IPSF’s blog (blog.ipsf.org).

PAGE 16

PAGE 17

MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS K.N.P.S.V. , the Netherlands

Teddy Bear Hospital

Spring 2012

Title of report: Teddy Bear Hospital in Utrecht & Groningen Date(s) and time of the activity: Spring 2012 Country: The Netherlands Organising Association: K.N.P.S.V. Related IPSF portfolio: Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaign Chairperson of Activity and her/his e-mail address: marjoleinkroonen@hotmail.com Location(s) of the activity: University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen & Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, Utrecht Number and type of target audience: primary school children and hospitalised children (~250) Number of students taking part in the activity: 40 in both cities Other organisations or parties (including professors or advisors) involved in the activity: IFMSA-NL

Aims: The aim of the Teddy Bear Hospital project is to help children conquer their fear for white coats and to let them experience the hospital in a playful manner. We hope that by doing this children will find it less stressful when they have to go to the hospital.

Results: There was much positive feedback from children, parents and teachers. We even made the national press.

Organisation of the activity: Timeline of organising the activity: IFMSA organises the hospital part in all Medical Faculties and 2 members of the K.N.P.S.V. help in setting up the pharmacy in Groningen and Utrecht Number of students involved in organising: 6 medical students and 1 pharmacy student per city

Advertisement of the activity: Budget and the financial supporters: There was not budget and no financial supporters for our association. All materials were supplied by IFMSA partners and the hosting hospitals.

PAGE 18

MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS NZAPS-O Celebrates

World Pharmacists Day 25th Sep 2012

Students at the University of Otago, School of Pharmacy were really enthusiastic about this day. This was the day to recognize where we, as pharmacy students would be heading in the near future. Various methods were used to create awareness of the pharmacy profession.

First of all, we got all the students to wear their pharmacy t-shirts they received at the orientation camp every student goes on before beginning their study. This allowed the rest of the university to see an abundance of students walking around with pharmacy-related clothing on, causing them to question what was going on.

The members of the NZAPS-O executive committee were responsible for telling their classmates what the day was about. We wanted to focus on using word-of-mouth to spread the pharmacy spirit around as the 2nd and 3rd year students both had tests on this day. Students were instructed to talk about their future careers with their friends and flatmates. The exec gave students ideas such as showing how pharmacists are not only drug experts, but actually know a lot about primary health care and can be approached by anyone for free health advice, avoiding costly doctors fees.

Social media played a big part in this spreading of the pharmacy spirit.

First of all, we had to motivate all the students by writing inspirational messages in the various class-study Facebook groups. Then, let nature took its course as these students would discuss what they had read about the pharmacy profession to their friends, who in turn told their friends, allowing our great pharmacy spirit to reach the maximum number of people possible for the one special day.

An example of the messages we wanted to spread was that we need to gain the public’s trust in coming to us for health advice; pharmacy is our future career so we need to promote it responsibly. I had also created a wee logo of a globe with a mortar and pestle in front of it, which I got all the NZAPS-O students to put as their Facebook profile pictures. So for one day, Facebook was engulfed with mortar and pestle pictures that could be seen by hundreds if not thousands of people. This was sure to make people aware of our future pharmacy profession.

Brendon McIntosh, NZAPS-O Liaison and CP for IPSF

PAGE 19

PAGE 20

PAGE 21

International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation PO BOX 84200 2508 AE Den Haag The Netherlands Tel: +31 70 302 1992 Fax: +31 70 302 1999 Email: ipsf@ipsf.org Website: www.ipsf.org

PAGE 22