News from our Members

Pharmaceutical services, education and interprofessional advocacy regarding socio-economic fairness

The second position paper calls for new conditions during the practical year/pharmaceutical internship. It underlines the importance of dedicated studying time, adequate payment and some renewals concerning the time frame of classes and final examination

With the third position paper the BPhD advocates equal rights for everyone who wants to apply for a study program in the healthcare field in Germany. In the present state, a qualification test is required in order to be offered a place in a medicinal program. The bvmd (medicine students´ association), bdzm (dentistry students´ association), bvvd (veterinary medicine students´ association) and the BPhD request, as a collective, a fair chance for every applicant to pass the qualification test, therefore the incurred costs for taking the test to be covered by the federal states, and a possibility to repeat the

during the practical year.

test as well.

Marie-Madeleine Fürbeth (EPSA LS)

Pharmaceutical Students' Internship Normative

APEF is working on carrying out a normative statement with the aim to ensure that all Portuguese pharmaceutical students have a better experience with their curricular internships. With the help of its member organisations, APEF intends to create guidelines and norms to be implemented by pharmacies that will be receiving students as interns. This will give them the best learning elements whilst promoting the greatest success in their internship experience. Therefore, this norm aims to ensure that all the essential skills for pharmaceutical intervention will be covered and developed during curricular internships, allowing students to become future professionals of excellence. APEF has already collected inputs from several organisations of the Portuguese pharmaceutical sector, including the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society (OF), the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF), and the Portuguese Association of Young Pharmacists

The BPhD e. V. is currently working on three new policy papers. With the first policy paper, the BPhD is positioning itself regarding new German legislation about additional services at pharmacies (Vor-Ort-Apothekenstärkungsgesetz VOASG). The quality of the pharmaceutical services and to what extent those should be practiced is discussed in the position paper. Some of the suggested pharmaceutical services are vaccine administration, mini diagnostics and assisting measures for better adherence. In addition, updates to the pharmaceutical curriculum have been proposed to ensure the quality of the suggested services. (APJF), which also envision the optimization of curricula opportunities. Furthermore, APEF will be responsible not only for creating this norm but also for its monitoring, and ensuring that it is being implemented across the country. Helena Pires

Thus, through its Endowment Fund, the idea of the creation of punctual emergency aids to financially support the students in distress was born. The purpose of these grants is to help pharmacy students to follow their university course with access to primary necessities despite the financial difficulties that may disrupt it. It can therefore help to finance food, hygiene products, digital tools, accommodation, etc. Until today, 357 pharmacy students have received this aid. A total of

ANEPF facing the Mental Health Issues

50,100 euros has been gathered by partners, such as by the national college of pharmacists.

François DIB, VP European Affairs; Théo FAVARD, VP International Affairs

In 2019, ANEPF conducted its first study on the well-being of french pharmacy students, of which the findings were clear: 75 % of them suffer from mental health issues linked

Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic has made it worse as isolation and school dropout appeared. Therefore it was important to assess the impact of the Covid-19 health crisis on pharmacy students, in order to set up concrete actions. ANEPF has therefore set up a second survey on the well-being of students, in collaboration with the universities’ student elects, and their local associations, which was conducted from January 17th to February 9th,

Questions about mental health, studies, insecurity, access to care and internships have been asked to 2978 students, and the answers were

The findings are alarming: 71,7 % of pharmacy students find their studies to become a source of stress. To help pharmacy students, ANEPF proposed the development of more efficient e-learning tools, the

assessment in order to reduce the stress linked to exams and to provide more support, for example via tutoring, or through perpetuation of €1

Faced with the alarming results of the student precariousness shown by ANEPF’s previous surveys in 2014 and 2018, as well as its amplification by the current crisis, ANEPF decided t o a c t .

to their studies.

#DAMSAOCKOVAT (#LET'S GET VACCINATED)

The 26th of December was the day when the vaccination against COVID-19 has officially started in

Slovakia. Since then, the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic has started the Vaccination Campaign „The Vaccina is Freedom“, with the aim to increase public trust in COVID-19 vaccination and to fight against misinformation on social

2021.

worse than expected.

development of continuous media. As future health care professionals, we felt the need to help motivate people to get vaccinated. Within propagation of the vaccination, SPSA created a profile picture frame on Facebook which states #damsaockovat (#let'sgetvaccinated). The initiative has been very successful and the frame has already been used by 1,500 users of Facebook so far. Besides the frame, we created a video campaign focused on supporting students of our faculty to get vaccinated. The main goal of the campaign was to start the student's life without any restrictions like it was before the pandemics as soon as possible.

Michaela Čellárová | LS, Sarah Andrusová

meals for all students.