European Pharmaceutical Students' Association | www.epsa-online.org Bringing pharmacy knowledge and students together. Volume 24 | Edition 3 | April 2017
Get to know our boards Who are they?
EPSA's projects: How it all began?
CV & ML writing: Tips & Tricks
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Table of contents Editor’s words Presidential words
4
Internal EPSA Newsletter Evolution 6 #EPSAeverywhere 8 EPSA: a brief history 9 PR Subcommittee 10
Events Annual Reception Report
12
Education AC Speaker Preview Development of healthcare PHC in Small Steps Trainers' Board
15 16 18 20
Mobility European Solidarity Corps IMP
External
22 24
CV & ML writing Yo! Fest Internship at DIA External representation
25 27 28 29
Training foundation IMP foundation Alumni Advisory Board Map of Europe Events Calendar Exec contacts details
31 32 34 36 38 39
Dear reader, It is my pleasure to present the third and last Newsletter of the 2016-2017 mandate to you. People often say that time flies when you are having fun and I cannot believe how fast time flew by until the event of the year: EPSA’s 40th Annual Congress, here in Kranjska Gora – Slovenia. During this event, we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary of “bringing pharmacy, knowledge and students together”! Since the beginning as a European Subcommittee (ESC), the association has been evolving into what it is today – representing 160,000 pharmacy students across Europe in terms of education, mobility and advocacy. Who came up with the idea to start projects related to those topics and what was the aim? I would recommend that you read the different articles in this Newsletter regarding the launch of a selection of projects. As we are at the Annual Congress, elections of the EPSA Team will take place. However, EPSA has quite an extended hidden workforce supporting different EPSA Team Members and departments. I am thinking about all our Subcommittees and Boards! Have you already heard about all of them and what their tasks are within EPSA? If not, then I would encourage you to discover all these hidden treasures by browsing through this Newsletter. I would like to end by wishing the next EPSA generation a fruitful and successful mandate, but especially to have fun and take the most out of this learning opportunity. A sincere thank you goes to all contributors of this Newsletter edition, but especially to my PR department and PR subcommittee.
Charlotte Jacobs EPSA Vice President of Public Relations 2016-2017
Special thanks to: Gökberk Alp Yakar (Design), Cláudia Ferreira (Editing) Editorial Board: Nikola Lazarevski, David Kološic, Natalie James, Mia Šojat, Charlotte Jacobs www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
Presidential words 4
What is new?
A bit more than a month has passed since the European Parliament, in Brussels, hosted one of EPSA’s events of excellence, the Annual Reception 2017. The enriching presentations and noteworthy speakers contributed to the passionate debate about the role of the pharmacist in self-care. It was very gratifying to welcome so many interested students and professionals and to see, once again, EPSA overcoming expectations and affirming its growing platform in advocacy. You can get more information about this event and its side activities in the next pages. Today, we are in the mesmerising and breathtaking city of Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, and we are glad to welcome you at the high-quality event that the outstanding Reception Committee has worked so hard to prepare. This event would not be so special if it had not come along with such a remarkable feature: the 40th anniversary of EPSA. As the occasion requires, this Newsletter contains a lot of special articles to commemorate this anniversary. These include scientific developments from the last 40 years and a brief walkthrough of the history of the main publication of EPSA.
Stay tuned and enjoy all of the special 40th anniversary activities we have prepared to make this an unforgettable occasion! The EPSA Team has not only been working on these festivities! Our Team and Trainers have had the pleasure of participating in many of your local events, sharing the EPSA spirit and hopefully encouraging many of you to get more involved. In this edition, you will get to know more about the Trainers Board and how they are organising this rising project to deliver soft skills. It is also quite difficult to not notice the impressive achievements EPSA has had externally and we are pleased to share them with you in this edition, too. As we want to extend this improvement to as many members as possible, we will also share with you some crucial tips to write your CV and motivation letters! With the last edition of the EPSA Newsletter of my mandate as President, it is impossible not to look back and acknowledge what the EPSA Team 2016-2017 has successfully accomplished and, for that, I want to sincerely offer them my full gratitude. New elections will take place and I encourage you to take a step forward and be part of an experience that will, for sure, change your life.
Yours in EPSA,
Catarina Nobre EPSA President 2016-2017 president@epsa-online.org European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
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The EPSA Newsletter 6
How it all started
responsible for delivering their articles to the Public Relations (PR) department on time. The latter is then in charge of proofreading the articles and designing them into the nice publication you are holding in your hands at this moment. Working with deadlines that can be very tight and having articles with overlapping statuses, the PR department must be highly structured in order not to lose track of the big picture. Although this might seem a big job, we always Newsletter history enjoy – hopefully as much as you – having a good read and getting to know more about our The first EPSA Newsletter was written in 1979 by Team Members’, Associations’ external projects Anthony Amoureus, when EPSA was still known and activities before anyone else. as the European Sub-Committee (ESC). This was one year after the Association’s foundation Keep on reading to see how previous Vice and, at that time, the Newsletter consisted of Presidents of Public Relations experienced the only 2 pages. Through the years, this publication creation of the Newsletter. has got thicker and there are now three or four published each mandate. In March 1993, after the 16th EPSA Annual Congress, held in Tübingen, Germany, the Association known as ESC was officially named EPSA – European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association. This was when the EPSA Newsletter issues started being organised as: “EPSA Newsletter Volume x/Edition y” up to Volume 24 that we have reached now. Although EPSA is celebrating its 40th anniversary during this Annual Congress in Slovenia, I am only presenting Volume 24 of the EPSA Newsletter to you. Have you ever wondered why the numbering is not aligned? Or why the Newsletter only started so many years after the creation of EPSA? Or even, what did the Newsletters contain previously? Indeed, it is time for some EPSA Newsletter history!
Traditionally, the EPSA Newsletter contains information about the Association: articles about EPSA events and projects, events attended by the EPSA Team, articles from EPSA Members and more. The latest structure of the EPSA Newsletter divides the topics into six sections: internal, events, education, mobility, external and alumni. Obviously, the design of the EPSA Newsletter has changed over time, too. Personal experience Being in charge of the Newsletter is quite a responsibility and requires smooth interdepartmental collaboration. All departments are European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
Keep on reading to see how previous Vice Presidents of Public Relations experienced the creation of the Newsletter. “Preparing the EPSA Newsletters was one the most challenging activities in my mandate and I took so many important learning Mariana Fróis points from this experience! I remember meticulously planning every edition and still, each one of them was a rollercoaster Vice President of of emotions: from frustration to excitement and joy to despair! Public Relations Nonetheless, I was a proud Editor when I finalised my third 2010-2011 Newsletter edition as I could not only see a clear evolution of the quality of this publication through my mandate, but I also grew and am now able to tackle challenges and adversity in a much better way. Preparing the Newsletters also enabled me to get in touch with previous EPSA Executives, research into EPSA's history and interview Key Opinion Leaders. Ultimately, I felt honoured to be able to take part in one of the oldest and most developed EPSA projects.” "The years 2012 and 2013 were not the kindest for the Newsletter as the social media boom was coming to a head and it became Miloš Stojković widely recognised that print is losing its battle to digital. However, the institution of the Newsletter was not giving up its spotlight Vice President of easily, so several points were emphasised to both highlight the Public Relations current focus of the Association and bring the importance of this 2012-2013 publication in line with how media is consumed. A map of Europe and short updates from the Member Organisations was designed to draw people’s attention and proves continuously popular among readers. Experiments were made with recurring segments such as calendar of events and "blast from the past", which gave a contemporary view on traditional Newsletter articles. Overall, it was a year with many ups and downs for the Newsletter, where traditional struggles with printing and post offices were expanded to include the new reality of internet media." “A print publication may seem outdated in times of vanishing snaps and Instagram stories. But this is what makes both the charm and the importance of the EPSA Newsletter: its words can’t be changed and ink is unforgiving. This may be what makes it the first big challenge for every PR department, but also the whole EPSA Team together; and as challenges are, it is a point of collision, but also glue for a new Team, as everyone can contribute here personally, waiting for the result to literally end up in your hands.”
Stefan Rack Vice President of Public Relations 2013-2014
“The EPSA Newsletter was my biggest project as Vice President of Public Relations. We started the mandate by designing a Svenja Laarhuis new template. Meanwhile, at the department meeting, a table of content was created. After this, emails had to be sent to all Vice President of desired authors. The Editorial Board checked the grammar of Public Relations the articles and the design was applied. Feedback from the 2014-2015 whole team was received and the final version was sent to a print shop. Even during the final steps, the whole process was starting again. The Newsletter is what I call a project with team effort!” www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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8
#EPSAeverywhere
AEFFUL Mobility Day, Portugal
ANEPF General Assembly, Switzerland
Ball of Pharmacy Vienna, Austria
NOPSA Congress, Norway
Gelecegin E-hali, Turkey
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA) A Brief History This article presents a short EPSA history in honour of its 40th Anniversary. For avid readers, the additional information is available in the EPSA Compendium and the 40th Anniversary Booklet. In the spring of 1978, ANEPF France invited students from France, Italy, West Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland to their congress, held in Nancy. The students discussed the, at that time, forthcoming European Community Directives on the mutual recognition of pharmacy diplomas within the European Community and compared pharmacy studies in their countries. This was followed by the establishment of the European Sub-Committee (ESC) at the IPSF congress held in 1978 in Edinburgh. The ESC became an independent organisation in 1982, registered in France. At first, only one Board Member, the Chairperson, was included in the ESC structure. When the need for additional Board Members became apparent, the structure expanded. The Sub-Committee started organising annual events and in 1992, the Group Exchange Project was established in order to facilitate the exchange of contacts and information between European pharmacy students. The current EPSA name came into effect with the closure of the 16th ESC congress, held in 1993 in Tübingen, Germany. The first EPSA website was created in the 1995-1996 mandate. The Official EPSA Song was introduced in 1999. The first EPSA Permanent Office was established in Leiden, the Netherlands, in the 2000-2001 mandate. Major changes to the EPSA structure were introduced in 2004 with the main change being the introduction of Working Committees with representatives from member associations. EPSA moved to Brussels, Belgium, during the 2004-2005 mandate and the EPSA Headquarters are still located at the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) office. The EPSA Training Camps were launched in the 2005-2006 mandate and Individual Mobility Project (IMP), the first official EPSA project, was launched in 2005 as well. The first Annual Reception was organised in 2010 and the EduProf Platform was launched in the 2012-2013 mandate.
As you can see, EPSA has reached many exciting milestones during the past 40 years. Throughout the years, the structure of the organisation changed based on the needs of the European pharmaceutical students and new, exciting projects were introduced, in addition to the early advocacy work. In the end, we can all agree that the most important change EPSA is constantly experiencing is the inclusion of new EPSA members. Each EPSA member has brought new experiences and ideas to the structure and we are all looking forward to meeting pharmacy students from countries that are yet to come.
“If you have lots of energy and you don’t want to waste it for free come and join us, give us a hand Let’s show everybody for what we stand E for Education P for Practical Projects S for Super Congresses and A, Hey open your eyes and see: This is EPSA, EPSA the future of Pharmacy!” Eva Shannon Schiffrer EPSA Secretary General 2016-2017 www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
9
The Public Relations Subcommittee 10
Why you should join next year!
Have you ever wondered how we design so many materials at once? Or how we guarantee our articles are written so amazingly well? All this wouldn't be possible without the Public Relations Department and the Public Relations Subcommittee, but who are these people and what do they do? The Public Relations Department is responsible for the image of the Association. Everything that goes public has been created or checked by the PR Department. Given the huge amount of requests that we are receiving from other departments, we definitely need some extra support. This support is given to us by our Public Relations Subcommittee, consisting of both an Editorial and a Design Board.Both of these Boards are of enormous additional value to us and make up the PR Department. On one hand, we have our Editorial Board, consisting of four members, who proofread our publications, such as the Newsletter and the blog posts. They are our very personal grammar police and have already saved us from some bloopers! On the other hand, we have our Design Board, which was newly introduced to EPSA at the beginning of this mandate. It consists of two members who are in charge of relieving the Design Coordinator of many requests. I am quite sure you have already encountered more than one of their designs on social media. Impressive, right? To conclude, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my lovely PR Subcommittee members for the help and support we have got from them up to now. Secondly, I would like to encourage you all to take this opportunity, to apply for the PR Subcommittee next mandate and who knows where it will bring you next within EPSA?
Charlotte Jacobs EPSA Vice President of Public Relations 2016-2017
Hi, my name is Nikola and I am from Macedonia. My first contact with EPSA was the Annual Congress in Catania in 2013, where I was amazed by the EPSA spirit and couldn’t imagine missing any of the following events (I have attended 11 so far)! After being LS for my association and part of the EPSA Executive 2015-2016, I knew I didn’t want to stop contributing to the association, but at the same time wanted to have a more relaxed role. By being in the Editorial Board, I kept myself informed about all the EPSA activities and developed my English language skills at the same time. I would recommend it to everyone as a starting position in the association, especially to the ones planning to become part of the next PR Department. My name is Mia and I am a pharmacy student from Zagreb, Croatia. I first came in contact with EPSA through my home association – Croatian Pharmacy and Medical Biochemistry Students’ Association (CPSA) – when I was in the first year of my studies. Prior to applying for a position in EPSA, I held the position of the Editor in Chief of the official CPSA annual Publication “Recipe”. As my mandate at this position neared its end, I looked for an opportunity to move up to the international level and this position seemed like a logical next step. Working in Editorial Board has been a great experience as with every new article I also got to further improve my own English skills.
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
Nikola Lazarevski
Mia Šojat
My name is Natalie and I am a fourth-year student at the University of Nottingham. I was an International Representative for the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association for two years and, as part of this role, I had the opportunity to attend the Natalie 38th EPSA Annual Congress in Toulouse, France, as an Official Delegate. I met James people from all over Europe and decided to get involved in EPSA again in the future. A friend was on the Editorial Board previously and suggested I apply. This has been a great experience and has developed my analytical skills. I feel this enhanced my CV and has been a good stepping stone into EPSA. It has also been very interesting to read all of the articles before they even come out!
I am David, I was born in Slovenia and studied pharmacy in the UK. I then moved back to Slovenia after graduating to work in the pharmaceutical industry, but didn’t stay long. Opportunity came, so I moved to Barcelona, Spain where I now work as a Regulatory Affairs Consultant. It’s brilliant! My first contact with EPSA was in 2012 – Autumn Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since then I volunteered in EPSA Team for two mandates. EPSA has given me a lot in the past years, so it was time to start giving back. Today, I serve as a PR Subcommittee member, IMP Advisory Board member and Mentor! It’s such a great feeling when you see your work resulting in something that positively affects many students in one way or another. My advice? Grab any opportunity you get and commit to it! You will be amazed where it brings you few years down the line.
I’m Vlad Cîrcu and I live in Romania. I started to really get to know EPSA right after I agreed to be part of the Reception Committee for the 13th EPSA Autumn Assembly that took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, last year. In time, I became more and more curious about everything happening “up there”, as I liked to say. I decided to get more involved and became part of the Design Board, which gave me the opportunity to work with the Team and also contribute to the enrichment of the EPSA image and visibility. Now I am extremely glad that I kept being curious and made this decision as I gained a lot of experience and a better perspective on what the word “teamwork” really means.
David Kološić
Vlad Cîrcu
Although I have never been involved in an association’s work before, I have always been intrigued by EPSA and the numerous opportunities it offers to its members. After experiencing the EPSA spirit at the 12th Autumn Assembly in Malta, I felt Nikolina the connection and realised I wanted to be part of it. That is why I took one step Biškić further and decided to apply, although I had doubts, knowing I did not have that much experience. My decision turned this opportunity into something so much more than I had expected. It has filled me with various types of experiences and for that I am indeed thankful, so I do advise everyone to apply and have their own taste of EPSA.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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Annual Reception 12
Self-care: Empowering pharmacists for enhanced access, quality and safety On 8th March 2017, EPSA was again ready to host its Annual Reception in the European Parliament in Brussels, to showcase the work that has been done in the past year and discuss the role of pharmacists in self-care across Europe. With a full room and mixed audience of pharmacy students and professionals, the event started with everything needed for an afternoon of interesting presentations and discussions.
Statement of Opinion on Self-care to open the discussion on self-care. The panel consisted of representatives from different stakeholders, who presented their views on the central topic ‘Self-care: Empowering pharmacists for enhanced access, quality and safety’.
Rajesh Patel, President of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, opened the panel by asking the question to audience: is self-care no care, or know care? He highlighted that pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals for patients and that they are often people's first and last port of call concerning medicines. Mr. Patel highlighted some interesting and effective initiatives from community pharmacists across Europe in facilitating self-care for patients, proving that the role of pharmacists related to self-care can be The hosting Member of the European Parliament expanded in countries across Europe. (MEP), Ms. Lieve Wierinck from the ALDE Group - and a practising pharmacist herself for almost The second speaker, Ms. Aneela Ahmed, 30 years - opened the event with welcoming President of the European Patients' Youth Forum words for the participants. She stressed that Group (EPF Youth) brought a young patient’s the topic of self-care is now of more relevance perspective on self-care during her presentation. than ever before, for two primary reasons: an She spoke about innovative ways which have ageing population and the rise of technology been employed to make younger people more in healthcare. She said that in this ongoing involved in the healthcare process and stated development, the role of the pharmacist is that for younger people, the promotion of mobile more crucial than ever, they must be trained to phone apps should be more widespread to inform patients about preventative matters, give engage them more in their healthcare process. patients more advice on medical information, be She finished by saying that technology could a necessary screening power to patients who also help when it comes to adherence to taking are falling prey to counterfeit medicines and be medication. a source of honest information, disproving false information that can be found on the internet. Ms. Maud Perrudin from the Association of the European Self-medication Industry (AESGP) EPSA President Catarina Nobre took over by continued with her presentation on the regulatory presenting EPSA’s aims, structure, projects and and legal aspects where self-care and self-medmost important achievements of the past year, ication is concerned. In terms of self-care, she concluding with the presentation of the EPSA noted that there were three primary categories European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
13 of tools available to patients: non-prescription medicines, self-care medical devices and food supplements. Ms. Perrudin called for better implementation of the current legislation with a broader pragmatic approach to regulation, and not for new legislation to be introduced. When it comes to non-prescription medicines, she remarked that these should contain clear information for patients: the key in this instance is user-understanding, which could be supported by several e-tools.
A lively discussion with the panellists and the audience, composed of approximately 130 pharmacy students, stakeholders in the pharmacy field and European institutions, followed. EPSA’s Vice President of Education, Raluca Radu, also joined the panel to include the view of the European pharmacy students in the discussion. In the panel discussion many different aspects of self-care were touched upon. Topics such as availability of non-prescription medicines outside the pharmacy, the safety of health information on the internet and the role of pharmacy education in empowering pharmacists in self-care were being intensively discussed. The event ended with final words from MEP Wierinck, concluding that pharmacies will have a key role to play in self-care going forward. As such, Member States will need to include self-care in their overall healthcare policies, which could decrease costs for healthcare systems. She ended by saying there was much work ahead, before finally thanking both the panelists and attendees for their participation.
The representative from the European Commission, Mr. AurÊlien Perez, concluded the panel presentations with a speech on the European Commission’s role, vision and efforts in the area of self-care. He opened by stating that self-care is becoming crucial for society and that it can significantly reduce the costs in health systems across Europe. He continued by presenting two pilot projects of the European Commission on self-care: one on self-care for minor-ailments (PISCE) and one on self-care for chronic diseases (Pro-Step). He finished by highlighting the different roles pharmacists can play in self-care, ensuring better adherence to treatment and enhanced access to healthcare for patients, dispensing information and advice to patients, promoting prevention and healthy living behaviours and ensuring good collaboration with other healthcare professionals.
Overall, it was again a very successful event with an interesting and intense discussion on self-care. I personally would like to thank all participants for their attendance and contributions to the discussion. I was very proud to see that the voices of pharmacy students all across Europe bring highly added-value to these discussions on the European level. Pharmacy students are, as the pharmacy workforce of tomorrow, key stakeholders in discussing the future of healthcare in Europe.
Jan De Belie EPSA Vice President of European Affairs 2016-2017
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
active ingredient 1st Registration Period: 8TH may - 8THjune European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
2nd Registration Period: 9TH june - 9TH july
Community Pharmacy
Challenges and Opportunities for the Future 1. Tell us a bit more about your background occurrence. However, this is also an opportunity and what you do. for the profession to increasingly develop and provide innovative pharmacy services to improve I qualified as a pharmacist in 2011 in the UK and patient care. For example, in many countries practiced in a number of settings in community across Europe community pharmacists provide pharmacy, including two pharmacies which were medication reviews or services to improve located within health centres. This allowed me to adherence when starting a new medication. develop strong relationships with the local general practitioners, nurses and other allied healthcare 4. What can students do to help community professionals, ultimately improving the services pharmacy evolve? for our patients. I also had the opportunity to work as a Teacher Practitioner at a School of Forging bonds with future peers and colleagues Pharmacy, which allowed me to pass on my from other health professions will certainly practical experience to pharmacy undergradu- improve interprofessional/multiprofessional ates in training. working in practice. This serves several purposes, Following several years of practice, I moved to for example, ensuring that each professional Brussels to work for the Pharmaceutical Group understands the contribution they can make to of the European Union (PGEU), which is the patient care and what their strengths and expertise association representing 400,000 community are, for example, pharmacists are the experts in pharmacists from 32 European countries. In this medicines and supporting self-care. role I work to gain recognition for community Another practical element which will help pharmacists as key players within European community pharmacy evolve is the collection and health systems. dissemination of “real-world evidence�. Facing increasing financial pressures and an ageing 2. What are you preparing for our symposium? population, European health systems are using Could you give us a little preview? evidence more and more to inform their health policies. The pharmacy profession can play a During my presentation, I will describe some key role in designing evaluation systems and of the emerging roles and services community data collection initiatives to provide the evidence pharmacists are providing across Europe and needed to justify a new or innovative service. link them with the challenges European health Moreover, embracing new opportunities to systems face in the near future. develop the role of the community pharmacy Following this, there will be a workshop where needs to come from within the profession. As participants will have the opportunity to share their such, the future evolution is very much in future ideas for new roles for community pharmacists in pharmacists’ hands to shape. the future. 3. What are the biggest threats and opportunities that you foresee for community pharmacy? Funding cuts are occurring throughout European health systems and, unfortunately, community pharmacy cannot escape this widespread
Jamie Wilkinson Speaker at the 40th Annual Congress
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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40 years of pharmaceutical sciences 16
From simple formulation to cutting edge research and innovation Professor Douwe D. Breimer is a Professor of Pharmacology at the Leiden University in the Netherlands. He was Rector Magnificus of this university from 2001 till 2007. He is one of the founders of the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) and the League of European Research Universities (LERU). He was the Scientific Secretary of FIP from 1978 till 1989. At the time that EPSA was founded in 1977, I was in my second year as professor of pharmacology at the Subfaculty of Pharmacy at Leiden University, the Netherlands. I studied pharmacy at the University of Groningen and obtained my PhD in pharmacology at the University of Nijmegen in 1974. So, I have personally witnessed more than 40 years of progress in the pharmaceutical sciences, a formidable and inspiring experience. During my studies, by far most attention was paid to the pharmaceutical product, rather than its application. The pharmaceutical product Disciplines like pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacognosy, analytical chemistry and galenics (preparing drug formulations) were the cornerstones of education and research. The quality of the drug product, its identity, purity, qualitative and quantitative constitution, including its formulations, were major subjects of investigation with pharmacopoeias as guiding textbooks. Final examinations to qualify as licensed pharmacist included practical experiments for almost an entire week. Relatively little attention was paid to the application of drug substances i.e. to therapeutics. In those days new areas of research, like biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism, were still in their infancy for reasons of lack of sufficiently sensitive analytical methodologies to measure drugs and metabolites in body fluids. Only after considerable advancements in gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (HPLC) and combined techniques like GC and LC-mass spectrometry, these new areas developed rapidly and received priority interest among the pharmaceutical sciences. European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
The emergence of pharmacokinetics, biopharmaceutics and drug metabolism I personally did my PhD on the “pharmacokinetics of hypnotic drugs” like barbiturates and chloral hydrate and found that most of the sleeping medications in those days had a relatively long half-life with potentially too long duration of action. The type of drug formulation (biopharmaceutics) appeared to be very important for rapid onset of action. In patients with liver disease, the elimination rate was much slower due to reduced liver metabolism (lower enzyme activity). Hospital pharmacists in several countries embraced “therapeutic drug monitoring” to support medication in individual patients with drugs with narrow therapeutic window (like antiepileptics, certain antibiotics, etc.) and laid the ground for the development of “clinical pharmacy” in later years, also called “pharmaceutical care”. Pharmacy curricula were adjusted in line with these new developments: pharmacology, toxicology, biopharmaceutics and pharmacotherapy became essential components of the curriculum. In academia it is an important principle that up-to-date teaching requires input from latest research, so the “new” pharmaceutical sciences included these new disciplines. When for example in 1983 we had to give up the training of pharmacists at Leiden University and transform into a Center for BioPharmaceutical Sciences, seven areas of research were implemented: medicinal chemistry, biopharmaceutics, analytical biosciences, pharmaceutical technology, pharmacology, toxicology and plant cell biotechnology. Except for the latter, these areas of research are still recognisable today, but they have been reorganised into interdisciplinary research themes like BioTherapeutics, Drug & Target Discovery and Systems Pharmacology (read more on: www.lacdr.nl). The study of “biopharmaceutical sciences” at Leiden University is currently the largest among all science curricula, indicating enormous interest among young students for pharmaceutical research and development.
17 Precision medicine The research contributions of my own group at Leiden University included assessment of drug metabolizing enzyme activity in individual subjects and in patients using probe drugs. We were the first to genetically phenotype differences in cytochrome P450 enzyme activity in the Netherlands. This is one of the cornerstones of “precision medicine” taking major interindividual differences in drug metabolising enzyme activity into account. Another major development was a better mechanistic understanding of the fate of drugs in the body. Initially, pharmacokinetics was very empirical using mathematical models to describe, for example, plasma level profiles of drugs and derive important parameters that could be used for predictive purposes. Mechanisms of drug metabolism, excretion and transport were only partially understood and with the development of relevant in vitro techniques more insight was obtained into the underlying mechanisms. For example, we developed an in vitro blood brain barrier (BBB), to study why certain drugs do not reach the brain whereas others do. Active drug transport (influx and efflux) plays an important role at the level of the BBB; crucial to know during the development of new drugs meant to act at the CNS. PKPD and therapeutics
systems
pharmacology
and
The relevance of measuring drug concentrations is, of course, that there must be a relationship between the concentration at the target (effect) site and the drug effects. Studying the relationship between pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PKPD), has become a major orientation of the pharmaceutical sciences in Leiden. This relationship is often relatively complex and requires advanced modelling in order to be used for predictive purposes. It is extremely important that drug effects are measured in vivo, both in experimental animals and in humans. In vitro approaches alone do not take into account the complexity of a living organism and are therefore insufficient to assess efficacy and safety in humans.
State of the art facilities, both for laboratory animals and for human subjects, are essential to do topnotch research in this branch of the pharmaceutical sciences. In Leiden we have established the Center for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in 1987, which has developed into one of the most innovative research organisations for studies in humans (www. chdr.nl). These include first-in-man studies, as well as studies in specific patient populations. I have become fascinated by “systems biology” and the therapeutic implications of a better understanding of how a “living system” operates. It is relatively naive to assume that one drug hitting one specific target could cure or alleviate a complex disease, because several mechanisms (targets) will have an influence on the ultimate drug effect. I foresee that in the future, drug therapy will comprise of more rational drug combinations, such as those for hypertension, HIV, diabetes, where different drugs act at different targets to affect the disease simultaneously. PKPD modelling will be an essential experimental tool to identify optimal drug combinations. Conclusion Pharmaceutical sciences remain full of exciting challenges and pharmacy students should be exposed to such developments during their studies. This will contribute to their motivation and active contribution towards better pharmaceutical care and innovation in drug research in the future.
Douwe D. Breimer Professor of Pharmacology, Leiden
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
Public Health Campaigns awaSelfren ess
Fe e d bac k
What can you gain from a Public Health Campaign (PHC)?
n atio nic mu ls Com skil
Exp e of h rience app ow to r pati oach ents
n lls i Ski nising t a org n even a
dge wle ut o n K abo care lth hea
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From sketch to awareness
Why are campaigns necessary? There are countries where governments allocate funds and create programmes to increase the impact of campaigns, but there are many European countries that still need professional help to deliver a reachable message to people related to public health. That is why students can volunteer in order to help others overcome bad health habits or just inform the general public about the different aspects of a disease
Aim
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Every project, regardless of its nature, has a specific aim, a reason why it has been created. The same rule applies to a public health campaign. In general, the aim is to prevent spread of disease or to inform the general public about a healthcare topic.
Target Group
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Each campaign needs to reach a specific group of people through its activities, to allow the campaign to be designed accordingly with age-specific age activities. For example, if we are talking about hygiene, it is recommended to mainly approach children. If we are talking about cardiovascular diseases, we can target people over the age of 35.
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Topic The topic of a PHC needs to be related to the health issues you want to raise awareness of. There is no rule about how you should choose a topic, but, in general, it is recommended to refer to a subject that is of public interest. Moreover, if you want to spread the news about an innovation in the health system, you can also do this through public health campaigns.
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SMART Goals In order to hold a campaign with impact and know how to evaluate it, it is crucial to set some goals before launching it. One of the most specific ways to do that is through the SMART goals. This means that your objectives need to be: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based. It is reasonable to have at least 3 main objectives for each campaign.
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Planning part
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After setting the aim and objectives, the most extensive part is the planning of a PHC, because you need to think about which activities to include, how many volunteers will be needed and what materials to distribute. Planning a campaign gives you an opportunity to be creative and innovative.
Human resources
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Each activity will require a number of volunteers to deliver it. Before carrying out the campaign, you have to evaluate how many people will be needed to create the materials and to share them. After making a list with the number of volunteers for each activity you plan to organise, you can arrange a meeting with volunteers in order to share your vision of the campaign and give them specific tasks.
Act
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This is the part where everything becomes real and all of the efforts you have put into the project will have a result. Some changes might happen, but just try to be flexible and remember that everything can be solved with patience and calmness.
Continuous
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After measuring the impact of the campaign, you can improve the PHC by organising a new one and by applying the skills that you have gained the feedback and the motivation you have received from your previous PHC. Just don’t forget: campaigning for something that matters is not hard as long as you have the motivation to make a positive change to people’s well-being.
Elena Popa EPSA Social Services and Public Health Coordinator 2015-2017
Activities A successful campaign must include specific activities linked to the topic and it is suggested to include many dynamic activities to involve the general public. An interesting way to attract people to your table is to give apples or other materials to them, whilst kindly asking them to visit the information part of the campaign. If you do not plan to have a static campaign, then you have to give all of the information yourself.
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Materials When it comes to materials, it is best to have as many kinds as possible, because this way, people will receive a bigger insight into the campaign topic. From leaflets, posters and stickers to fruits, balloons and questionnaires - these are all good ways of increasing the impact of a campaign
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Fundraising The cost of some materials can be covered by sponsorships and after making a list of activities and materials, or even before, you can try to approach pharmaceutical companies or other associations that can support your cause. Sometimes, you can also ask them to join the campaign and in this way you can bring a valuable image to the campaign by encouraging the collaboration between professionals and students or between different types
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Evaluation Feedback and reporting are ways to evaluate the impact of the campaign. There is no point in carrying out a PHC if there is no outcome or result. The easiest way to check the evolution of the project is to compare the statistical results at the end of the campaign with your SMART goals
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EPSA Trainers Board 20
It’s all about soft skills Diogo Piedade
Dear EPSA friends, I am Diogo Piedade, the EPSA Training Coordinator and I would like to introduce you to the EPSA Trainers Board. We are four dedicated trainers that took on the challenge to engage more actively with the EPSA Training Project. This year’s board is made of Rúben, Teresa and Vojta, but I will let them introduce themselves, and instead take this opportunity to explain what this board is about. The EPSA Trainers Board was first assembled in 2014 and is quite an important group in the Training Project. Together, we discuss all the practical issues of the project and every member of the board has specific responsibilities. Their help is invaluable and the expansion of the EPSA Training Project during the previous years is much due to all of the trainers that volunteer as part of the board. They dedicate their time and energy to bring soft skills training to more and more students. So I will take the chance here to thank all of them for their amazing work, especially this year’s board. As EPSA Training Coordinator, I am one of the members of the EPSA Trainers Board and my main aim is to ensure that everything runs smoothly within it. I am in charge of the communication between the EPSA Team and the board and of the management of the tasks and responsibilities of all three of my extraordinary trainers. All of their hard work contributes to the management and expansion of the EPSA Training Project, so if you are curious, go ahead and read what they do!
Rúben Viegas Hello! My name is Rúben Viegas and I have been an EPSA Trainer since 2016. My graduation was at the Youth Trainers Academy (YTA) 2015, in Vilnius, Lithuania, and since then I’ve been working to deliver as many trainings as possible. I’m Portuguese and currently living in Lisbon. During this mandate, my job as Training Events Member involves helping the training coordinator at the EPSA events, namely the EPSA Congresses, the Training Week and the Trainers on Tour. Training Week raises awareness of the importance of soft skills for pharmacy students and how EPSA training sessions can help you improve for the future and contribute to your personal and professional development. Trainers on Tour is an activity that helps students across Europe by providing access to training sessions, so everybody can have a better chance of getting an insight into different topics related to soft skills. If you’ve never attended a training session before, you may be wondering how you could get to know where the closest EPSA Trainers are or how you could have a session right in your hometown, right? Well, that’s easy. You just need to take a look at the EPSA website, contact your Liaison Secretary or the EPSA Training Coordinator directly and find out how a session can be arranged according to the needs of the participants, the topic you want to hear about and all of the logistical details that come with it. You might have a trainer just next door without even knowing it, so contact us!
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Teresa Dominguez My name is Teresa Dominguez and I am the Communications and Mentoring Member of the Trainers Board 2016-2017. I graduated as a trainer in 2013 and I have been a part of the Trainers Board before, during the 2014-2015 mandate. My position can be summed up in three questions, explained below. How do trainers keep up with the Training Project development? As my designation implies, I am in charge of keeping a smooth communication flow among the EPSA Trainers. To make sure everyone is up-to-date with all the relevant information concerning the “Trainers’ World”, I write monthly updates containing a summary of open calls, Trainers Board meetings and other useful information. These are posted in our EPSA Trainers’ Facebook group. I also organise online hangouts, where trainers informally share experiences and discuss important issues for the project. Where do trainers get their knowledge from? I am also responsible for the EPSA Training Library, which consists of an online database where the EPSA trainers can get the resources they need to prepare and deliver training on all sorts of topics. The library has undergone major restructuring recently, but my responsibility usually consists of keeping it updated and organised. Who takes care of the younglings? The EPSA Training Project has implemented a mentoring programme, to help young trainers – the Trainer Candidates – during their first steps as trainers, and it is my responsibility to ensure it runs well. A mentor serves as a “guide” for his mentee, making sure he goes on his path without problems.
Vojtěch Ondra My full name is Vojtěch Ondra, but if you meet me just call me Vojta. I come from Brno in the Czech Republic and I graduated TNT in 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, as part of 8th EPSA “What’s next?” generation. My position on the Trainers Board is called Internal Capacity Building Member. This means that I am here to help Diogo with Training new Trainers (TNT) and Train the Trainer (TtT) events. TNTs are the most sacred events, during which participants gain knowledge of how to prepare trainings and deliver them. I would highly encourage anyone who likes to help, encourage people and inspire them to consider becoming an EPSA Trainer. If you ever wondered about the requirements, I think that Trainers must be responsible, talkative, hard-working, open-minded and in a way must enjoy learning, because this process will never stop for you as a Trainer. You must be able to listen to what others have to say and then try to make the best of it for your growth. By becoming a Trainer, you can become more involved in EPSA even if you don’t fancy a position in the Team, or you don’t dream about becoming a Liaison Secretary. For a lot of people becoming a Trainer is, in a way, a life achievement and a way to contribute to others’ development. TtTs are events that help us educate our trainers more, thus ensuring that higher quality trainings are delivered by EPSA Trainers. During these events, experienced trainers can share their experience with the less experienced ones, contributing to the development of all EPSA Trainers.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
European Solidarity Corps 22
Make a difference!
In December 2016, the European Commission launched its new project – the European Solidarity Corps. This project creates opportunities for young people to show solidarity with European citizens who are less fortunate. If you want to work for a good cause, it can be difficult to find the right project and that is why the European Solidarity Corps has been initiated. It brings together humanitarian organisations searching for helpers with young people who want to work in projects where their help really makes a difference. Have a read what the European Solidarity Corps offers you and how to get involved! WHY? Through getting involved in the European Solidarity Corps, you will receive the opportunity to not just help others, but also to receive training, improve your skills and gain invaluable human experience. WHO? The project is looking for motivated and socially-minded young people aged between 17 and 30. You should be a legal resident of an EU member country or Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey or Macedonia. WHAT? The ESC offers two strands of involvement, the volunteering strand and the occupational strand. The volunteering strand aims to build up on the European Voluntary Service, whereas the occupational strand offers traineeships, apprenticeships or jobs. WHEN? The first participants will start working in June 2017. All opportunities offered through ESC are for the duration of 2 to 12 months. You can state your preferred period of deployment. WHERE? You can choose the countries you prefer to be placed in. It can be your home country or any of the EU member countries including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey or Macedonia. You will work for an organisation involved in solidarity activities. Examples of your working profile could be helping rebuild European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
a school or community center that has been devastated following an earthquake, providing support to newly arrived asylum seekers, clearing vegetation from forests to help prevent wildfires, or working with disabled people in a community centre. HOW MUCH? The amount of money you will receive for your work is dependent on your choice of the volunteering or the occupational strand of the project. As a volunteer, you will not receive payment for the work you do, but you will receive other support depending on the EU programme funding the placement, such as travel to and from the project, accommodation, meals, medical insurance and a small amount of spending money to cover your day-to-day living expenses. When accepting a job, you will have an employment contract and will be paid for the job you do in accordance with the respective national wage laws and collective agreements that are in force. If you become an apprentice or a trainee, you will also have an employment contract, and normally a subsistence allowance is paid. HOW? To take part in the European Solidarity Corps, you need to register and create your profile online (https:// europa.eu/youth/solidarity). Basically, you need to build up your CV in the online platform. You will provide your basic contact details, skills and previous experiences. Additionally, you can specify the countries you would like to be placed in, whether you want a volunteering or occupational experience and when you would be available to start your adventure. The organisations taking part in the European Solidarity Corps are searching in the database for young people who fit their volunteering or job offers and you will be contacted directly from the organisations and asked to participate in their projects. See this video for an explanation of the registration process: http:// europa.eu/!hU67rU.
Viktoria Jungreithmayr EPSA Mobility Coordinator 2016-2017
Words from the European Commission
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The European Solidarity Corps offers new opportunities for young people like you: students or fresh graduates who want to make a meaningful contribution to society and show solidarity. To quote Commission President Juncker: “It is not the Treaties or industrial or economic interests that bind us together, but our values.” Those who work as volunteers – at home or in another European country – are living the European values each and every day.
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Thanks to this renewed and extended volunteering and occupational scheme, (future) young health professionals like you can gather experiences, acquire knowledge and develop skills, while also showing social engagement and passionate altruism. Moreover, you will contribute to the societal challenges which Europe is currently facing: the ageing society and the need for intergenerational solidarity, the rising economic inequalities – including in health, the assistance to the increasing number of migrants and refugees who arrive sometimes in precarious conditions. You will also gain insights into the health challenges and health systems of other countries and be in contact with health professionals with other backgrounds. You will make a meaningful contribution to the lives of persons in need and see the value of your work. In the last two months, more than 21,000 young people have already registered with the European Solidarity Corps. We hope that the health sector will be actively involved in this initiative. I have spoken to several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), professional associations and other organisations in the health sector and their feedback is very encouraging. This is an opportunity for health activities to become a key part of European Solidarity. The objective is to have 100,000 young people joining the European Solidarity Corps by the end of 2020. I am sure that young healthcare workers like you will play a very prominent role in this ambitious European project.
Martin Seychell Deputy Director-General for Health, European Commission
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Fresenius Kabi IMP 24
Taking chances
You can do what is generally expected of you or you can exceed your own expectations. Having developed in a traditional pharmaceutical academic environment, my classmates and I were mostly directed into work in a community or hospital pharmacy. However, the industrial sector also contributes to the pharmaceutical field and requires pharmaceutical expertise. Working in the pharmaceutical industry has always been my goal. Knowing that you can contribute to a medicinal product’s development and being of use in different fields appeals to the scientific background of my pharmacy studies. Additionally, you should never forget that the drug is only mediating the contact between you and a patient who you direct your working effort into. If you are curious about the working day of an intern in the pharma industry, do not expect to hear that there are important tasks entrusted to you which you discuss over coffee breaks. As with any internship, you get your first real-life work experience and learn about areas beyond the pharmaceutical field.
learning how to self-reflect (how did I contribute today to the task’s progress and the department that stands behind it?). As the internship gives you a lot the company also looks for young talent to bring new ideas and an international perspective to topics. If the needs at both sides are met, there is the possibility that your student contract will develop into a full time one. “Maybe the future is like rowing for shore. Your only choice is to try or give up. Now I know it was definitely worth trying”. IMP is a great example of cooperation between established and soon-to-be professionals. Fresenius Kabi, a global healthcare company that specialises in lifesaving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition. Fresenius Kabi accept interns on a regular basis and EPSA has already delivered its fourth intern since 2015. According to an internal discussion regarding upcoming projects, the cooperation between EPSA and Fresenius Kabi may deepen in the near future.
The following points create the preconditions of a student’s successful application, but they finally make more sense when in use. Multitasking (there are three tasks on your table expected to be finished by the end of the day – what is the priority?), multicultural awareness (not about speaking about the national food of your foreign colleague, but an ability to listen to him/her and cooperate) and last but not least,
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Take that chance, learn through osmosis and opportunity, seek for people willing to mentor you and let yourself become a better pharmacist.
Barbora Bártová Fresenius Kabi IMP Intern
CVs and Motivation Letters
Tips & Tricks to better translate yourself to paper Knowing how to write a CV and Motivation letter can be a crucial step on multiple life occasions: running for that internship you always wanted, getting your first job or even running to your Association’s team! When it comes to the actual writing process, it can look a bit like a painful journey at first, but it’s really a matter of finding the best way to translate who YOU are into a sheet of paper. Most times this is the first contact an employer has with you, so a great first impression is always welcomed!
Curriculum Vitae or CV is the written resume of your experience and past experiences. The easiest way to create a blank canvas that will help you every time you have to apply to something is making sure you have a full CV always ready and updated. Then, when the opportunity comes, you just have to tailor it to perfection! To do this, there are a couple of things you should take in consideration right away: from all my experiences (including education, professional experience, association and volunteer work, sports, etc.), which will be relevant as background for this particular position? What competences did I acquire or perfected through them that will show that I am the perfect candidate with the A, B and C characteristics (like creativity, resilience, etc)? And then erase all the rest, making sure that in the end you don’t have more than two pages (one would be even better)! Laszlo Bock, a well-known author and People Operations at Google, states at his LinkedIn profile the importance of highlighting our achievements on the CV, either by briefly describing some of your responsibilities or by clearly presenting the results obtained:
Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]. E.g. “Selected as one of the 100 participants nationwide for this 18-month professional development programme based on leadership potential, ability to contribute to this cohort and relevant extra-academic experience” looks far more astonishing than “Selected to Leaders of Tomorrow programme”. As you can see, this method will significantly increase the impact of the descriptions in your CV, as it will enhance and clarify your achievement. Before or after this process, it is very important that you try to find a layout that represents you as faithfully as possible and helps to make the great first impression you are working hard to achieve. The first question people usually ask is: but how do I choose or even get inspired to create my a layout? A great tip is to travel around google and search for CV pictures or layouts, and then scroll, scroll, and scroll a bit more, until you find parts of CVs that really appeal to you. Afterwards, the fun begins! Try to harmoniously combine all the elements that you have liked into one document that you can keep editing and updating. By the end of it, you will have created a personalised CV that represents exactly what you want to portrait, while being also clean and approachable. In the end of the process, it’s review time! Printing your CV and reading it top to bottom usually helps
to increase your focus in each line, and getting an honest impression from a good friend always comes handy.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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26 Here is a brief checklist to help you: - Make sure there are no typos, and the subject and the verb always match up; - Make sure the CV looks clean and legible, while being appealing and representing YOU; - Make sure your CV is not way too long and doesn’t contain any irrelevant information. Laszlo Bock also mentions that right after typos, format and length, the biggest mistake one can make in a CV is lying. And believe it or not, he says that it is quite common but, of course, never ever worth it! The same goes down for Motivation Letters. Some of the most common mistakes seen by HR professionals include typos (especially in what concerns building sentences), not aligning the text with the margins (also known as justifying the text), making it way too big and lying or increasing “accidently” some data. So, remember: keeping it clean and sharp can pay off in the end!
The second part can sometimes be the trickiest, but there are some simple questions you can have in mind: Which are my main personal features that will allow me to be a strong worker and a great fit for this position? What past experiences allowed me to get the D, E and F competences that will help me to overcome obstacles and bring an extremely important added value to this specific company? This should be part of the main content and shouldn’t be devalued at all, as not only you show a great self-knowledge, but also some knowledge of the company. If you are applying to a position that requires a lot of pro-activeness, ownership, and taking a step forward on something (like applying to an Association’s team or to a leadership role that implies new strong ideas), sharing some of those ideas might come as a plus, so try to investigate that before submitting your application. Again, last comes the time to perfect everything! Make sure to place the date on the top and sign the letter before submitting it.As you can tell at this point, writing a CV and a Motivation Letter and nailing it is mostly a matter of practise, knowing who you are, what you want, and learning how to translate it the best way possible! So keep going and remember: knowing who you are is halfway to get the job.
Although sometimes it can look like it, writing a Motivation Letter has no particular “magic formula”. Again, this is all about translating who YOU are. The Motivation Letter is where you can take the extra step to get the job by creating a “relationship” between you, your experiences and personal features, and the actual company and position. There are some general points you can follow to make a structured, appealing Motivation Letter. First, it is important to state “who am I and what am I applying to”, to secondly explain why you are applying and how do your competences and aspirations relate to the position and the company, and to then finish with a why am I the one? paragraph, explaining your added value. European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
“A good CV should
be competitive, nicely structured, adapted to the position, truthful and have no typos” Sara Torgal EPSA Parliamentarian 2016-2017
Yo! Fest
A place to discuss antimicrobial resistance Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) presents one of the most serious threats to health, both now and in the future of mankind. It is defined as the inability of antimicrobial drugs to treat infections which were previously susceptible to them, contributing to the rise of infection-related deaths all over the world. We, as future healthcare professionals, can help promote the issue and raise awareness both among other healthcare students and policy makers.
The importance of this topic among youth is undeniable, because they will be the ones most seriously affected by it in the future. This is why we decided to implement antimicrobial resistance as one of our topics at the YO! Fest, taking place in Maastricht on the 7th of February 2017. YO! Fest presents a platform for youth to discuss relevant topics and empower them with knowledge in order to take a stand among their peers and communities. YO! Fest is envisioned as a place to raise the voice of youth, hence we wanted to make it a place to discuss Antimicrobial Resistance with policy makers, as well as student organisations who are active in the field. The decision about how to approach this topic was hard, since we do not think a lot of youth understand the basic issues of the problem. So, we decided to make a panel discussion, in order for youth to gain knowledge on basic terms and mechanisms, as well as to be free to take part in a discussion. Our panel consisted of Mr. Charles Price, a representative of the European Commission, Mr. Jan De Belie, Vice President for European Affairs from the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA), Ms. Caroline Bulstra, a representative of the International Veterinary Students’ Association
(IVSA) and Ms. Kim van Daalen, a representative of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA). The panel started with a short introduction by all the panelists, including their efforts in this field and how various healthcare professions should be joining together in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. We continued with questions on the efforts of the European Commision, the inclusion of youth in the process and how representatives of civil society can contribute to these efforts. We introduced the One Health approach, with special focus on the roles of student organisations working in different healthcare fields, developing their initiatives, projects and campaigns to raise awareness of the public and advocating in their learning institutions for more focus on antimicrobial resistance. The discussion was focused on differences between countries and the need for a more systematic approach, sharing best practices and guidelines on antimicrobial use.
We consider our panel a great success, not only because we shared knowledge on antimicrobial resistance, but also because it strengthened the collaboration between student organisations, civil society and decision makers - things we should all strive for.t.
Hana Lučev IFMSA General Assistant for Europe
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Drug Information Association 28
Aiming to improve communication and collaboration in drug development worldwide Drug Information Association (DIA) is a member-driven, scientific and educational society for professionals and students to stay up-to-date with developments within the sector, participate in discussions with other stakeholders and foster collaboration across different sectors. My DIA journey started in 2015 and I have gradually progressed with taking on more responsibilities and then being promoted to the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) leadership team in late 2016, to head the content team with a report line of programme development managers and assistants. DIA has expanded for the last 30 years globally and the future prospects include to leverage better the knowledge leadership DIA’s members and volunteers generate. To achieve this milestone, DIA believes in encouraging students with a passion for extracurricular activities to join the team and get more of an insight of DIA as an association.
Given the importance of creating opportunities for emerging professionals, we chose to offer two internships, one for the EPSA Team and one for the Individual Mobility Project (IMP), in our office in Basel. IMP proved to be a tremendous source of talented and ambitious applicants. I was very impressed by the state-of-art process with video interviews - it really made the pre-selection process smooth. In today’s busy environment, it is very difficult to reserve time for many interviews. I was looking at hiring interns with a certain level of maturity due to exposure to senior
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
leaders in the industry and regulators that the job entails, a good level of English and, most importantly, a good attitude to working with people from different backgrounds. These skills could be developed by participating in EPSA events and by getting involved in student associations. The level of the applicants was really impressive. The decision was made based on questions about selfleadership when the job gets boring (happens in every job!) and project management abilities. Our office is very dynamic with a number of very different tasks from writing marketing messages to inviting officials from Ministries of Health to speak. I wanted to have independent people that get the job done timely and bring fresh input to the team. DIA interns will gain various skills that will support them later in their career anywhere they go. Such skills are often lacking in the university education. They have specific tasks in various educational projects (trainings, conferences and thought leadership initiatives) and access to a large database of scientific articles and guidelines that can keep them motivated and connected to the scientific world. Additionally, we will build a learning plan for each intern according to their own wishes (featuring DIA trainings and meetings, e-Learning, a research project with the DIA publications team and mentoring). I hope our interns will look back at their year at DIA and think “This truly gave my career a jump”, just as I look back at my own IMP placement 5 years ago.
Inkatuuli Heikkinen DIA Senior Scientist
External Representation
EPSA at professional events across Europe IFISO is an Informal Forum for International Students’ Organisations and serves the purpose of networking while discussing possible collaboration between the present organisations. IFISO consists of 28 student non-governmental organisations who meet twice per year to discuss different topics that can help the development of the organisations. The IFISO Meeting took place in Lisbon, Portugal between the 17th and 20th of November and the next IFISO Meeting will be hosted by ISHA (International Students of History Association) and EGEA (European Geography Organisation) in Graz, Austria in spring 2017. During the first day of IFISO, the representatives of each organisation got to know each other. The second day of IFISO allowed the representatives to present their organisation’s structures and projects and afterwards parallel sessions covering topics of interest for all organisations took place. During these sessions, the organisations shared their opinions and good practices on different topics such as alumni network, dissemination strategy, alliances, financial structure and growth of the organisations. The outcomes from these sessions were not only beneficial for all the organisations in sense of gaining an external input on their own projects, but also in getting to know fellow organisations and even exploring potential for collaboration.
Aside from the knowledge sharing sessions, there were workshops on grants, more specifically on how to successfully apply for European grants.
Another very interesting initiative that took place in IFISO was the presence of a European Commission representative who joined the event to talk about the “The New Narrative for Europe”, a project designed to give voice to young people, making their voice heard and giving them a chance to influence how Europe will look like in the future. After this presentation, the organisations present shared their opinions about their members’ engagement in European policies and how they train them to learn more about European related topics.
EUPATI stands for European Patients’ Academy. Their conference “All Aboard to a Better Health Future” took place in Brussels on the 14th December. The EUPATI website offers tools to learn and teach on medicines development. Patient experts in the medicines research and development process also graduated from the EUPATI Patient Expert Training Course in December, another one of EUPATI’s major milestones, which coincided with the conference. The sessions reflected the progress made in patient education and involvement as well as preparation for future initiatives. The participants discussed how patients, academia and industry can continue to work together and further support each other.The EUPATI community took this opportunity, almost 5 years after the start of their project, not only to reflect on their accomplishments, but to prepare for future growth. The EUPATI initiative is implemented
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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External Representation 30
EPSA at professional events across Europe in 18 countries. In EUPATI, it is believed that patient involvement in medicines research and development is a major driving force for transformational change in healthcare and the development of innovative medicines. During the conference, many influential speakers participated in the panel, including representatives from EPF (European Patients Forum), IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiative), EMA (European Medicines Agency) and pharmaceutical companies were present. It was discussed that patient education is basic and needs to be implemented throughout research and development of medicines. Furthermore, from the industry perspective, they understand the win-win situation of getting patients more involved and how patients could be more involved in the research and development process was discussed. The involvement of academia was also brought up during the discussion and the UK presented good examples of how patients are involved in every step. It was pointed out that in pharmaceutical research and development, the most agreed and difficult to implement strategy is collaboration between the major partners of the process (industry, academia and patients). --------------------------------------------------------From 17th to 19th of February, the third edition of the European Healthcare Students’ Association Summit took place in the headquarters of the European Federation of Psychology Associations (EFPA) in Brussels, Belgium. Present at the meeting were representatives from the European Dental Students’ Association (EDSA), European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA), European Medical Students’ Association (EMSA) and of course the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA), representing over 675,000 European students in total.
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
The European Healthcare Students’ Associations Summit was established in 2014, with the main objective of bringing together healthcare students from across Europe to work collectively on improving the quality of education offered to students. The Summit began by focusing on the importance of interprofessional collaboration in order to ensure patient safety and continuity of care from all healthcare providers. During this Summit, representatives from the four associations discussed the future strategy and joint campaigns following the recently released Joint Policy Paper on Interprofessional Education. New topics such as Patient Empowerment and One Health (in collaboration with the International Veterinary Students’ Association – IVSA) were also discussed as topics for future joint projects. The four associations have also determined a new structure and vision for this collaborative effort based on the vision, mission and values of this initiative. From EPSA’s side, we were very happy with the meeting, as we see a lot of opportunities for this initiative to grow as a precursor towards interprofessional collaboration!
Ana Marcelino EPSA Vice President of External Relations 2016-2017
The EPSA Training project
The power of training sessions, peer learning, and soft skills Exactly 10 years ago, I encountered the EPSA spirit for the first time. The energy, passion and immense capabilities of the people and the organisation swept my feet away, but only to give me a much more solid ground to stand on. Not least due to what became my main focus for several years - the EPSA Training Project.
At the beginning, we didn’t have any Trainers of our own, and therefore collaborated with other organisations. For example, the first Training New Trainers event was delivered by trainers from the organisations BEST and AEGEE. The fact that there is still collaboration with other organisations is very positive.
Do you know the feeling of frustration when you are not able to perform as well as you would like, but you can’t see how you can handle things differently? I was frustrated as a student, because I always fell asleep in lectures. As an extraverted and kinesthetic learner, I needed more interaction, so EPSA called my attention.
As time passed, we “generated” enough trainers to have a team of EPSA Trainers, who travelled around to deliver sessions in local, national, and international events. The power of training sessions, peer learning, and soft skills together was soon realised by many, the project became popular and our sessions were often full.
After being LS for a year, I was elected as EPSA Vice President of Education in 2008. I represented EPSA in an initiative call the Leadership Summerschool. It was hosted by an assembly of organisations like EPSA, with students from many different professions, and once again I was blown away. The event consisted of training sessions where other students facilitated a programme filled with inspiring exercises and theories. Most importantly, THE WAY we learned fitted my learning style perfectly: a lot more visual and kinesthetic than a lecture in the faculty. Not just hearing and watching, but listening, seeing, feeling, expressing, trying, and doing.
We could have held 10 times more trainings in the first years, if we had compromised with our standards. But the main priority of the project was always “quality over quantity”. I think that our focus on creating a strong foundation for the Training Project is one of the reasons that it is still successful today. I am very proud of what we started, and endlessly thankful to EVERYONE who contributed over the years! It has made a huge difference in many lives.
As I returned, I had no doubt: like these other organisations, EPSA had to provide such amazing learning opportunities to our members. So in the Executive we drafted a plan to implement the new structure, beginning with establishing a new position: the Training Officer. Hence, from the Autumn Assembly 2008, the project became a reality.
Not least in my own: I am who and where I am today thanks the network, skills, and personal insights I got through EPSA.
Louise Winnecke Jensen Founder of the EPSA Training project
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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EPSA Individual Mobility Project 32
A mobility project enabling international work experience My name is Boštjan Čeh. I obtained my Masters from Faculty of Pharmacy, at University of Ljubljana and was involved in EPSA, ever since my first year at University in 2004. It was at a local level, during my mandate as EPSA Liaison Secretary between May 2005 and May 2007, that I found out how little understanding pharmacy students had about different international vocational and career opportunities that existed out in professional world. Even for the best students it would have been difficult to attain those opportunities, when competing with hundreds or even thousands of other students with different backgrounds that may be suitable for the job as well. This in itself presented an unmet need for a new concept and EPSA was a perfect platform to implement it internationally. From April 2007 to April 2008, I was elected EPSA Student Mobility Officer, member of EPSA Executive and this is when I took on the foundation and initiation of the EPSA Individual Mobility Project (IMP), and defined it as a European-wide project aimed at enabling students of pharmacy and recent graduates of pharmacy to undertake research or work-based practice in companies and public institutions abroad for the period between 3-12 months. Ideas about the concepts of mobility programmes that would enable individual students of pharmacy to attend vocational exchange programmes, existed in EPSA before my time, but were never really taken off the ground. In my opinion, the issue was in the concept and approach, but predominantly lack of resource available to launch something like the IMP. Setting up IMP was the core focus of my mandate and I couldn’t have done it without full support of my fellow friends and members of the EPSA team at the time. Principles were simple: IMP placements had to offer a solid European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
enough professional experience for a pharmacy student to invest time away from their faculty to go abroad and it had to eliminate any concerns around lack of financial compensation during their IMP exchange abroad. From perspective of the association, a project like IMP also had to be financially sustainable, whereby effort put behind finding partners, setting up IMP placements, enrolling and selecting pharmacy students for the IMP partner companies/institutions should come at no additional cost burden, but should instead be helping EPSA. All in all, IMP had to be differentiated from a variety of international exchange vocational opportunities available through different students’ organisations. There simply wouldn’t be much added value in offering something that already existed out there. At the EPSA Autumn Assembly in 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey, I first presented IMP to EPSA General Assembly (GA) and at the Annual Congress in Novi Sad, Serbia in April 2008, the GA approved the concept and structure of the IMP as an official EPSA Project. This is when Central IMP Coordinator, a role fully devoted to establishment and running of IMP, had first been introduced to EPSA. In order to build the structure, launch the first IMP placements and establish the Local/National IMP Coordinator roles, I decided to run for the role and was elected Central IMP Coordinator between 2008 and 2009. This marked the very beginning of my efforts and those of the entire EPSA Team to invest our time and energy to setting up the project. With the help of the rest of the EPSA Exec, we managed to sign a first contract of collaboration with GSK Consumer Healthcare Headquartered in London, UK which marked the actual launch of IMP and its first placement at GSK in London. Soon after, we also established collaboration with AstraZeneca in the UK and later on in Göteborg, Sweden.
Once we secured first IMP partnerships, it became very obvious, that the project needed clear structure, governance and rules, if it was to grow and expand. I felt responsible for making sure that continuity and growth of the project were enabled and started writing the IMP Handbook, where rules, governance, idea, motivation, IMP selection process, criteria for selection of participants and vision for the future of the project are thoroughly described. It’s been an honour to see the project expand with new placements, even though its expansion was rather slow. IMP has a solid platform and is extremely well positioned to grow faster and bigger, but its growth is largely dependent on the contribution of Local/ National IMP Coordinators, as they are not only responsible for coordination of the application process at local level, but must work together to make sure new placements are being secured in collaboration with potential IMP partners. IMP should NOT be a free-ofcharge service to institutions or companies that operate for profit. Recruitment firms charge fees to run recruitments processes and find talented employees for companies. In analogy, IMP should be advertised as EPSA’s service in providing the most talented and motivated young graduates to companies/ institutions. To cater for expansion and to ensure continuous quality and transparency in selection process, we have in the past worked hard on development and launch of IMP web-portal that would facilitate full array of activities from execution, processing and evaluation of IMP training applications from students to monitoring of recruitment progress by IMP Partners and also promotion of IMP to students of pharmacy and potential IMP Partners. I do hope that something similar is planned for the future.
Based on past experience, I am convinced that companies will be willing to financially support such process and contribute to its financial sustainability. Most importantly, I always envisioned that EPSA Alumni, with some of us now working across different European countries, would become the ambassadors of IMP in our own working environments. We are today in a privileged position, able to promote IMP within our networks and make sure vocational opportunities and internships are open to EPSA students through IMP. As written in the Handbook,
“
It is without a doubt that this project shall continue to grow and develop in the future and that learning from experience and listening to the needs of the fellow European students of pharmacy, its structure and consequently also structure of EPSA shall evolve further. Best of luck and live long and prosper, EPSA!
Boštjan Čeh Founder of the EPSA IMP project
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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The Alumni Advisory Board 34
Who are they and how did EPSA influence their future? After being president of a national Association and getting to know EPSA as an Official Delegate, I became part of EPSA Team in 2014 as Audit Committee member. Around the same time, I joined EPSA Trainers. Later, I held the position of EPSA Vice President of External Affairs 2015-2016 and now I am the Alumni Coordinator, meaning I am in charge of managing Alumni Advisory Board. EPSA charmed me from my first EPSA event. It made me realise how diverse the world of pharmacy is. Being part of the EPSA Team provided a very valuable learning opportunity. I gained insight into the pharmaceutical world and learnt to work in an international team. EPSA changes your attitude towards the world around you and creates lifelong friendships. I started my EPSA involvement in mid-2008 as the Portuguese member of the Humanitarian Affairs Working Committee and Autumn Assembly 2008 in Dubrovnik was the first event I attended. In EPSA, I was Humanitarian Affairs Working Committee Director 2009-2010, Treasurer 2010-2011, President 2011-2012, Immediate Past President 2012-2013, Vice President of External Affairs 2012-2013.
Maja Šerčić, Slovenia
Guilherme Monteiro Ferreira, Portugal
My EPSA experience was essential to my personal and professional growth. It broadened my horizons to a multi-cultural environment. It also increased my tolerance and awareness of other people's views, my leadership skills and my soft-skills. The External and EU Affairs knowledge gained in EPSA greatly shaped my current career. I got involved because of champagne actually. This was the ultimate reason I joined the Annual Congress in Reims in 2009. Little did I know it would change my life. I was inspired by some projects, namely IMP, that I helped to launch in Finland following the conference in Reims. In EPSA, I held positions as Local IMP Coordinator 2009-2010, Training Coordinator 2010-2011, Autumn Assembly Chairperson 2010, Educational and Professional Affairs Coordinator 2011-2012, Trainer since 2010.
Inkatuuli Heikkinen, Finland
EPSA has had a massive influence on my career. I believe the EPSA Team is the most productive and ambitious team I ever worked in; I believe it’s because of the intrinsic motivation people have. I have worked and lived in 5 different countries over the past 6 years, working in various organisations. I currently work at DIA and had the pleasure of recruiting my first two EPSA interns after being promoted to the regional leadership team. I believe my promotion had much to do with the fact that the EPSA experience allows me to understand what is a member association, what’s interesting and what’s important. I was hired because of my EPSA background and network and I’m hoping to be able to give back to this great association. I have been active in EPSA since Summer University 2008 in Manchester, UK. Throughout the years I have been at various events as an Official Delegate. As well as being part of organising the Autumn Assembly in Birmingham. Through my enjoyment from the congresses it gave me passion to join the team which I did in the Parliamentary Council, which then led on to being the Alumni Coordinator.
Tim Robinson, UK
Since then I have still been involved at various EPSA and external events providing experience and skills I have learnt from my profession as a community pharmacist in the UK. I am currently managing a community pharmacy for one of the largest independent multiples in the country. European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
35 Following participation in a competition with the BPSA in 2007, I had the chance to attend Autumn Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey in October of the same year. A week Jamie later, I was co-opted to the position of Sec Gen for the remainder of the mandate and re-elected for 2008-2009. I subsequently held positions as NIMP for the UK Wilkinson, and Reception Committee member for the 8th Autumn Assembly in Birmingham in UK 2011. I qualified the same year then practiced in the community pharmacy sector for several years, before taking up a role in health policy and advocacy in Brussels as Director of Professional Affairs with the PGEU. If I had not been involved in EPSA, I would not have learnt the skills or made the necessary contacts to make the move to my role at the PGEU. In the past 10 years, I have seen many people involved with the association achieve great things and I wish you all the best in your careers following EPSA!
I began my experience in EPSA back in 2008 as a member of the Public Health Working Committee. This immediately turned out to be a unique adventure that made me start participating in EPSA events and then be an active part of the organisation, first as Director of the Working Committee, then Vice President for Education and finally as Alumni Coordinator.
João Duarte, Portugal
I work in regulatory intelligence and policy in a pharmaceutical company and EPSA was fundamental for me to understand who are the key stakeholders that allow us to effectively develop and provide treatment access to patients. Knowing that early allowed me to have a much better understanding of patient care and the importance of drug development.
My journey in EPSA started through the Training Project, which originally sparked my curiosity to find out more about the organisation.
Tiia Official roles I have held in EPSA include Liaison Secretary for Finland, Training Co- Metiäinen, ordinator, Vice President of Education, President and Immediate Past President. Finland I work in regulatory policy at the European level and I strongly believe EPSA provided the best possible preparation for the work that I do now. Learning to work with multiple nationalities and cultural backgrounds, understanding different stakeholder groups and their interests or even the basics of healthcare policy – these are all elements one is exposed to through EPSA. The beauty of working in a student association is that you have great freedom, to experiment and experience, in a way that may otherwise be only possible much later in your career (like having the opportunity to lead an international team of over 25 people based all around Europe). Having to deliver speeches or presentations to audiences of over 400 people, experiencing stressful situations - like when the Hungarian fire department announced just days before our congress in Hungary, that due to their regulations we were not able to use the facilities we had planned to use and suddenly we had to figure out with the local Reception Committee where to place hundreds of students – those kinds of experiences shape you and force you to develop many skills! So, if there is one recommendation I would give to virtually any pharmacy student, that is to get involved in student association work.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
Map of Europe 36
1 AFÖP, Austria “The first weekend of March was the perfect opportunity for 20 Austrian and Slovenian pharmacy students to finish this year’s winter season with a skiing weekend at Turracher Höhe in the south of Austria, organised by AFÖP and ŠSSFD. Getting to know new people, socialising, networking and racing down the beautiful slopes together definitely created some new friendships!”
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CPSA, Croatia
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“Between 4th and 9th of March, the second part of the CPSA-NAPSer Twinnet project took part in the city of Zagreb. Croatian and Serbian students had a great time together in a positive intercultural atmosphere, with the official educational twinnet project of “Pharmaceutical technology”. Even though this Twinnet project is now finished, it will definitely stay a good memory among CPSA students and we are all looking forward to seeing each other in the near future!”
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ANEPF, France “ANEPF successfully launched a huge consultation called “Grand Entretien 2.0” on Sunday 5th of February. The goal of this investigation is to “paint a picture” of the situation of pharmacy students in France in various fields such as social situation, quality of life, studies. So far we received more than 2000 answers. These results will be presented to the French ministry of Higher Education & Health at the end of 2017!”
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APEF, Portugal “In the last week of February, AEFFUL organised "Suporte Básico de Estágio", the main goal of which was to allow final year students to develop different skills needed for their internship. It consisted of several workshops and lectures such as communication, diverse pharmacy computer programmes, OTC medicines and others to put in practice, both in community and hospital pharmacy. Hope you have a great week!”
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
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AEFFUL, Portugal “From the 4th to 5th of March APEF held the Educational Forum, at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto. The event was dedicated to the discussion and debate of many topics related to the new challenges pharmacy professionals are facing, including ways to develop a pharmaceutical career. Bringing together both students, professionals and stakeholders from all around the country, the Forum resulted on a joint opinion that will be used to produce an official Statement of Opinion. The debate focused on several important issues, such as pharmacists working abroad, new ways to include pharmacies in the National Health Care System, the future of the Pharmacy Career, pharmacists acting on social issues and many others topics that proved to be relevant for our profession.
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MUPSA, Turkey “The MUPSA Public Health Team has created a new video challenge on the Cancer Awareness Week to draw the attention of the public. Our Members have joined us through social media to inform public on important facts.Thanks to the video series, we have got lots of positive feedback on our campaign.”
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“Throughout the whole March and April ŠS SFD hosted numerous health campaigns aimed at youngsters in various high schools in Slovenia. Pupils were informed about interactions that can happen when consuming medications and alcohol simultaneously and the consequences. A presentation, leaflets, stickers and an adorable sketch were made as promotional material for the cause.”
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ŠS SFD, Slovenia
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FASFR, Romania “During the period between 27th of February and 12th of March FASFR held a national Public Health Campaign about Self-medication and Antibiotic Awareness. With the motto "STOP self-medication! STOP antibiotics!", the Public Health Campaign's main goal was to promote the rational use of medication and antibiotics. All of our local associations got involved, which made the campaign a huge success. Apart from activities like handing out leaflets, stickers, informative materials and holding presentations in schools, the Public Health Campaign had a big impact in the online community. Infographics, videos and twibbons were shared online. The big pluses of the campaign consisted of a press release, a survey on self-medication in Romania and a Webinar with the same topic as the campaign.”
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SSFB, Romania “From 1st to 5th of March, SSFB carried out a TWINNET with AHUPS Turkey with the theme: ”Tomorrow’s pharmacist, a multilayered approach”. Nine turkish students travelled to Romania, where they participated in educational sessions and also experienced a bit of the romanian life. The social programme included not only visiting Bucharest, but also Brasov, a touristic city close to the mountains.” “From 5th to 9th of April, SSFBucharest will be hosting the National Congress of Pharmacy Students, a major FASFR event. A number of 300 participants will engage in educational workshops and trainings on both personal and professional development. The social programme is also not to be missed, as it includes various themed parties, from ”The Mad Scientist” to ”The Gods of Olympu.” www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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Events Calendar Stay tuned!
22nd EAFP Annual Conference When: 17th-19th May, 2017 Where: Helsinki, Finland What:Under the major topic of “Interdisciplinary Pharmacy Education”, with a pre-conference meeting under a topic “Biopharmaceutical" the EAFP Annual Conference will take place in the University of Helsinki Main Building in the Helsinki City Centre, while the pre-conference takes place in the Faculty of Pharmacy in the Viikki Campus. More Info: http://eafponline.eu/eafp_ conferences /next-annual-conference/
21st IPSC When: 11th-16th of July, 2017 Where: Kostel, Slovenia What: International Pharmaceutical Summer Camp (IPSC) in a traditional summer event organised by ŠS SFD (Slovenia). It brings together pharmacy students from all across Europe in a week full of relaxed lectures, interesting workshops and themed parties. IPSC is the perfect opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. More Info: https://www.facebook.com/IPSCSlovenia
2017
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FIP PSWC When: 21st-24th May, 2017 Where: Stockholm, Sweden What: Future Medicines For One World - Systems approaches to drug discovery, development and clinical usage. Join leading pharmaceutical scientists from around the world to discuss cutting-edge research and promising developments Stockholm. An exciting venue where the leading pharmaceutical scientists from across the globe will meet to discuss the medicines of the future. What will be the breakthroughs and the pitfalls? How can we meet the biggest challenges? More Info: http://pswc2017.fip.org/
19th EPSA Summer University When: 23rd-29th July, 2017 Where: Covilhã, Portugal What: European Summer Holidays in the sunny Portugal with Soft Skill Trainings, a Public Health Campaign, enjoyable social program and lots of fun of course!
WHSS When: 23rd-27th November, 2017 Where: Kigali, Rwanda What: The World Healthcare Students’ Symposium (WHSS) is an event that takes place every two years and brings together medicine,pharmacy and allied health students in an international forum to generate discussion and understanding between the professions, develop skills and awareness of concepts in multidisciplinary working, and be advocates for a cooperative multidisciplinary approach to patient-centred care to optimise health outcomes.
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
Get to know more about these events via the Event Calendar on www.epsa-online.org. Would you like for your event to appear here? Let us know! events@epsa-online.org
EPSA Executive contacts Don't hesitate to contact us President
Catarina Nobre president@epsa-online.org
VP of Internal Affairs
ÄŒrtomir Fleisinger vp.ia@epsa-online.org
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VP of Education
Raluca Radu vp.education@epsa-online.org
VP of Public Relations Charlotte Jacobs vp.pr@epsa-online.org
Secretary General
Eva Shannon Schiffrer secgen@epsa-online.org
VP of External Relations Ana Marcelino vp.er@epsa-online.org
Treasurer
VP of European Affairs
Patrick Jongeleen treasurer@epsa-online.org
Jan De Belie vp.ea@epsa-online.org
EPSA Office
Rue du Luxembourg 19 bte. 6 B-1000 Brussels, Belgium www.epsa-online.org This newsletter is produced by EPSA and is distributed to all EPSA members, national pharmaceutical student organisations, faculties, official bodies and partners.
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