Mr. Juha Mönkäre, IPSF Treasurer 2005-08 and HLM
PhD studies
“Both parties have their own justified views on the development of pharmacy education.” Pharmacy students are at the receiver compartment of the pharmacy education, but PhD students are at the to the donor compartment. Although PhD programs vary widely in different countries and universities, they contain some teaching and supervising components of undergraduate students. This offers not only new challenges but another perspective on pharmacy education. When we are students, we always wonder and question about methods and arrangements of teaching. That is naturally a positive aspect that facilitates the further development of the educational process. However, when we stand in the shoes of an educator, or even the coordinator of some courses, we get a new perspective on issues we previously have encountered from the other side. Maybe there are some good and logical reasons for strange course schedules or why the content is divided to certain blocks. Of course, it is also possible that we find some ugly truths behind the problems. One of them being the fact that teachers also have lots of other
pharmacy education
another view on pharmacy education
things to do than only that one course or thesis work the student is working on. While teaching or supervising someone’s bachelor or master thesis, the teacher might have other additional and relative important tasks. For example, performing important experiment at the lab, writing grant proposal or even being engaging in other teaching activities. Therefore, it might be that a student is not immediately receiving the feedback on the returned work or answer to their e-mail. Everyone who is teaching was once upon a time a student. It is always important to remember this so we treat our students the way we would have wanted to be treatment. However, during the years, those memories fade, and may become more selective. Thus, it is important that there is a working and open dialogue between students and teachers when developing pharmacy education. Both parties have their own justified views on the development of pharmacy education. Teachers need to remember to listen to students and try to pick working suggestions while students need to remember that we do not live in an ideal world. All good ideas do not necessarily work in reality but without suggesting any improvements, pharmacy education will stop to develop.
IPSF Newsletter
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