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Contents President’s Report - Bano Serhan Placement Poverty - Sebastian Harper PSA24 Branch Update - QPSA Full Scope Pharmacy Practice - Chemist Warehouse Guild Career Paths Report Pharmacy Connect Student Summit NAPSA Education - James Oh Medicines Management 2024 Branch Update - WAPSA SHPA Pharmacy Student of the Year The Gold Standard for Pharmacy PDL Membership PSA Upcoming Events

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President’s Report PRESIDENT

Dear NAPSA Members and Friends,

Bano Serhan

As I sit down to write this final report, I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude and nostalgia for the incredible journey we've embarked upon together over the past twelve months. Serving as your President has been not just a duty, but a privilege - one that has allowed me to witness firsthand the dedication and passion that defines our association.

Together, we have advanced countless opportunities for pharmacy students across Australia. Through innovative initiatives and unwavering commitment, we have strengthened our community and empowered each other to reach new heights in our academic and professional pursuits. The successful hosting of our annual National Congress in Hobart stands as a testament to our collective effort and teamwork. It was more than just an event; it was a celebration of our shared values and aspirations.

I am honored to have had the opportunity to connect with each and every one of you during my tenure. The friendships forged, the knowledge exchanged, and the challenges overcome have shaped not only my own experience but also the future of our association. The Charity Cup for Qendo, championing endometriosis awareness, and our influence on the global stage through Vampire Cup underscore our commitment to making a meaningful impact beyond our immediate community.

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As I prepare to pass the torch to the next generation of NAPSA leaders, I do so with absolute confidence in their abilities and vision. The passion and dedication I have witnessed among our members assure me that our association is in capable hands. I urge you all to extend your full support to the incoming leadership, as they navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead.

To my peers and colleagues, I want to express my deepest gratitude. The memories we have created together will forever hold a special place in my heart. From late-night planning sessions to celebratory milestones, each moment has reinforced my belief in the power of unity and collaboration.

I would like to particularly thank the editor of this esteemed publication, Mia Avram, for all of her hard work and dedication to ensuring that our magazine is carefully curated time and time again - your efforts have not gone unnoticed.

In closing, let us continue to uphold the values of NAPSA—integrity, inclusivity, and excellence—as we work together to shape the future of pharmacy education and practice in Australia. Thank you for allowing me to serve you, for challenging me to grow, and for inspiring me with your passion. Though my term as President may end, my commitment to our shared goals remains unwavering.

With warmest regards, Bano

Bano Serhan National President 2023/2024 president@napsa.org.au

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Placement Poverty Why we’re fighting for you

TREASURER

Sebastian Harper

Pharmacy wasn’t my first choice as a degree, and technically it wasn’t my second.

Making the leap from two humanities degrees centered around government and politics was not an easy choice, particularly for a student with no background in scientific subjects at high school. However, it was the right choice. When I was in my late teens, I experienced the deaths of multiple friends from drug overdose - both from illicit substances and prescription medicines they obtained legally through a pharmacy. It was this experience that drew me to studying medications, how they worked and how they could be so powerful in both improving and ruining lives.

When the growing issue of placement poverty became a key point of advocacy for NAPSA sometime last year, I was reminded of one of these friends. He was a queer man ostracised by his family. He was kicked out of home, and being under 22 government support payments were a hassle to secure. His goal was to study physiotherapy, but because of his financial situation there was no way he could afford mandatory placements. The lack of a clear path for him, combined with the impact of being left behind by family, led to a spiral and unfortunately we lost him too young.

I was reminded because this is why NAPSA continues to fight for you, since the introduction of the Commonwealth Prac Payment for nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students. Of course, not all the stories we hear are like his. But what we do know is that by entrenching the financial burden of placements in a cost-of-living crisis, we are losing valuable Australians from the workforce.

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Queer people kicked out of home and struggling to put food on the table, First Nations students who might be the first in their family to go to university, people living on disability support payments, and all those who would otherwise make the pharmacy and allied health workforce more diverse and equitable.

At the Board, we are cognisant of the fact that statements are meaningful but action is what gets results. Since the end of last year, we have personally spoken with Members of Parliament and Senators about the importance of eliminating placement poverty. When the Prac Payment was announced, NAPSA acted swiftly alongside our valued stakeholders to get the message out there for our members. In one of the biggest-scale acts of advocacy in recent NAPSA memory, our 19 branches across the country personally sent letters to their relevant Members of Parliament on the government benches calling for an extension of the Payment to pharmacy and allied health.

Already we have seen support in Parliament. Members are sympathetic to our cause, and have advocated on our behalf to the Minister. But until our members get real results to ease the burden of mandatory placements, NAPSA will not stop fighting for you. If your friends and classmates aren’t yet members of their local NAPSA branch, let them know this is what membership gets you. A community of thousands of pharmacy students across Australia, has an Association only with their best interests at heart.

If you want to learn more about our campaign or all of our other work in advocacy, reach out to me at treasurer@napsa.org.au, or our Policy and Advocacy Director at policyadvocacy@napsa.org.au.

Yours faithfully, Sebastian Harper NAPSA Treasurer 2023/2024 Chair of the Campaign Committee

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Branch Update Queensland Pharmacy Students’ Association (QPSA) Oh my, 2024 what a year! It is with great pleasure that I get to reflect on the past few months and highlight the achievements of QPSA thus far.

The University of Queensland Market Day was our first official event of 2024 and was a remarkable success. As a foundational NAPSA Branch, our connections have afforded us an incredible reduction in membership fees, from $15 down to $2, greatly reducing previous barriers of entry to students.

We were also honored to find out we are now NAPSA’s largest branch!

Our merchandise team had a wonderful start to the year, with new Placement Polo shirts being a massive success, as well as the roll out of our summer merch line. We completely sold out of stock in record time! We also hosted 2024's first International Student mixer, a wonderful afternoon meeting and sharing stories with UQ Pharmacy students from across the world. Our educational team have also been hard at work, putting on five events so far, with themes ranging from diabetes to asthma.

While we do take our studies seriously over here in Queensland, what is university without the chance for a good boogie! Thanks to our wonderful social team, and the incredible work of 9 interdisciplinary UQ Health clubs, we were able to welcome over 1000 students to our annual scrub crawl!

Finally, QPSA have the joy of being the 2025 host of NAPSA Congress, and after many meetings, registration is now officially open! We can’t wait to welcome you from January 12th 2025!

Keira Higgins 2024 QPSA President

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NAPSA Education My name is James, and I am the NAPSA Education Chair for 2023/2024. I recently graduated from James Cook University and am currently completing my internship at Live Life Pharmacy in Bowen. In addition to this, I tutor once a week in Mackay, assisting in the delivery of coursework, specifically clinical dispensing. I am also currently enrolled in the third cohort for the Queensland Full Scope of Practice pilot.

EDUCATION CHAIR

James Oh

Stepping into the newly created position of Education Chair within NAPSA, I had a lot of flexibility to shape the position to what I felt would benefit pharmacy students the most. I decided to use the opportunity to address areas of education that aren’t heavily focused on at university to help fill these gaps.

To identify these topics, I distributed a survey to gauge what students wanted to learn. From those results, my team and I have created, developed, and delivered a series of educational webinars targeting expanding and upcoming areas not explicitly covered in our degrees.

These topics included transgender healthcare, the therapeutic use of cannabis and its role in therapy, mental health in community pharmacy, pharmacists’ expanded scope of practice, and, hopefully, sun, skin, and spots, and domestic violence presentations to the community.

So far, the webinars that have already happened have had great interest, with a wide range of attendees - spanning from first-year students to intern pharmacists, and even some lecturers!

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To ensure the quality of these webinars, we have collaborated with many talented pharmacists and health professionals to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information we can.

So far, we’ve had some amazing guests like Dr. Swapna Chaudhary, an early-career pharmacist in 2023 and a recent Ph.D. graduate who helped us outline some valuable points and practical tips on giving the best care to our transgender patients presenting within community pharmacies.

Then, we had the clinical pharmacist and Tasmanian early career pharmacist of the year for 2024, Monique Licht, present about the therapeutic use of medicinal cannabis and how a pharmacist can help our patients safely use this medication. Additionally, we gained a better understanding of the endocannabinoid system and all other questions revolving around cannabis.

In May, we had the intern pharmacist of the year for 2022 and social media pharm-fluencer, Shaylee Mills, help us better understand and take care of mental health presentations in community pharmacy and, just as importantly, how to look after our own mental health as we progress through our careers.

Keep your eyes peeled on the NAPSA social media pages for upcoming events and webinars being hosted soon. And if you have any ideas for future webinars, please do not hesitate to contact the NAPSA Education team via education.chair@napsa.org.au.

I hope to see you at the next webinar!

James Oh NAPSA Education Chair 2023/2024

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Branch Update Western Australian Pharmacy Students’ Association (WAPSA) What a semester!!

As exams are over, and most of our students are on their much deserved uni break, now is a great time to sit down and reflect on the absolute blast that this year has been so far.

Starting off strong in January, 9 of our students headed all the way over to Hobart, Tasmania for the annual NAPSA Congress. Our branch was on the smaller side, but oh my, we were mighty! An incredible array of educational and social events, we all had such a great time.

Next on the calendar was orientation, which was a massive success! Our member counts are higher than ever, and I genuinely have not seen a more engaged group of first years in my time here. I’m confident that our branch will be left in good hands in the years to come. Shoutout to all the committee members that put in the hard yards, from making up over 100 compounding kits, to coming up with all the games for the day.

In March, we had a movie night with UWAMPS, sponsored by the lovely TerryWhite Chemmart. Accompanied by buckets of popcorn, we watched the newest Kung Fu Panda, a fan favourite amongst our attendees.

Not long after, we had an education session from La Roche Posay and CeraVe, where we all became skincare experts. We were also lucky enough to have the team from Activated Probiotics fly from across the country to give us the run-down of all things probiotics - I think most of us agree that we learnt a lot from these sessions.

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Now how could I forget, the first merchandise WAPSA has seen in a good few years – our WAPSA Frank Green coffee cups! Endorsed by the one and only Fei Sim, these were a hit amongst our cohorts. Our merchandise chairs worked very hard to get these out, and what a success it was.

Our Pharmacy Awareness chairs worked hard this semester with their stalls and sausage sizzles for QENDO, and nailed it with the ‘Guess the lollies in the jar’ stall they held in the library. Who knew overworked uni students would be so keen on a jar of lollies?

More recently, we had a lovely Afternoon Tea with Pharmacy 777, where internships were the highlight of the conversation. With some great presentations, followed by some even better networking, everyone in that room learnt something new that day.

And of course, our event of the semester, the Annual Cocktail night was held the weekend after exams had finished. Sponsored by Chemist Warehouse, we went all out - a photo booth, a drink tab, and more than enough food to go around! A fantastic night where we finally got to relax, socialise, and most importantly, dance. It topped off a great semester absolutely perfectly.

With a very lively semester all said and done, it's time for our members to relax and prepare for the upcoming semester. If you thought this semester was hectic, wait till you see us next sem!

A hug and a kiss from these West Coast pharmacists, Caspar Townsend WAPSA Secretary 2024

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PSA Upcoming Events For more information on any of the PSA’s Upcoming Events, check out their website - https://www.psa.org.au/networking-events/all-events/ July 2024 Wednesday 17th July - MMR credentials & ACOP Program rules briefing Webinar Tuesday 30th July - PSA & SAPSA Networked-At-First-Sight - University of South Australia August 2024 Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th August - PSA24 National Conference - Sydney Tuesday 20th August - Insomnia in Aged Care Services - Online Workshop

Edited by Mia Avram NAPSA Publications Chair 2023/2024 Email: publications@napsa.org.au

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