IPSF News Bulletin INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS ’ F EDERATION
December 2005, Issue 35 Print ISSN: 1024-00 268 Online ISSN: 1728-22 926
Table of Contents IPSF
News and Views
President's Corner
3
Publications' Corner
4
Executives 2005-2006
5
English
10
Arabic
11
French
12
Spanish
13
Congresses and Symposiums 51st IPSF Congress
14
52nd IPSF Congress
17
4th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium
18
65th Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)
20
BioVision Alexandria 2006
21
Student Exchange Programme New IPSF Members
23
Members' Activities
24
31
Regions and Allied Organisations
IPSF Executives 2005-2006 Contacts Katja Hakkarainen President president@ipsf.org
Mohanad Nader Abbas Fors Chairperson of Publications publications@ipsf.org
Georgina Gál Secretary General and Vice President secgen@ipsf.org
Ellen Diedrichsen Chairperson of Pharmacy Education education@ipsf.org
Juha Mönkäre Treasurer treasurer@ipsf.org
Yoko Gocho Chairperson of Public Health publichealth@ipsf.org
Axel Thomas Chairperson of Public Relation pr@ipsf.org
Yasmine Salah Koraiem Chairperson of Professional Development pd@ipsf.org
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IPSF Headquarters: IPSF Secretariat P.O.Box 84200 2508 AE Den Haag The Netherlands Tel.:+31-70-302-1992 Fax: +31-70-302-1999 E-m mail: ipsf@ipsf.org
Irena Šubová Chairperson of Student Exchange sep@ipsf.org
Webpage: http://www.ipsf.org Design & Layout: Mohanad Nader Abbas Fors Copyright ©2006 by IPSF All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrival system or transcribed in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without written permission of IPSF. Printed by Telenga in The Netherlands
IPSF supported by: IPSF is supported by the European Community budget, line "Support for international non-governmental youth organisations". The opinions expressed by IPSF do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Community, nor does it involve any responsibility on its parts. w w w . f i p . o r g
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President’s Corner Dear IPSFers, The first months of my term as IPSF President have been extremely exciting, motivating and inspiring. Activities at the beginning the term have included developing action plans for the year, participating in many meetings and learning to work as a new Executive team. The Executive has started working with the sub-committees and our members with great enthusiasm to achieve our goals. In recent years IPSF has collaborated with professional organisations to increase the range of activities in the portfolios of Public Health, Pharmacy Education and Professional Development. This executive is committed to building on past achievements, to consolidating these achievements, and offering additional activities to a greater number of pharmacy students. Effective communication plays a big role in bringing IPSF activities closer to our members. With this in mind, the Executive has recently developed an IPSF News e-group though which a greater number of pharmacy students can be reached. The IPSF Website and the Members Area are under development, as well as a new text message service to bring IPSF News directly to our members' mobile phones! During the first few months after the 51st IPSF Congress in Bonn, Germany, IPSF has actively participated in numerous events, including the 65th Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) in Cairo, Egypt, the 33rd General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, the Autumn Assembly of the European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and many other events. You can read more about the outcomes of these events in this issue of the News Bulletin. In the next few months we look forward to hearing about our members' Healthy Living and Diabetes Campaigns on the World Diabetes Day on 14th November and beyond, as well as HIV/AIDS Campaigns on the World AIDS Day on 1st December. In the lead up to the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board meeting in January, the Executive and the Public Health Sub-committee will promote further opportunities for IPSFers to work in the field of public health. The Student Exchange Programme is continuing to operate smoothly through the online platform. In the portfolio of Pharmacy Education the Moving On Research Projects are running successfully and our collaboration with UNESCO has been formalised. The "Train the Trainers" workshops are being developed to be run in conjunction with IPSF events. In the portfolio of Professional Development the booklet Counselling Concordance and Communication - Innovative Education for Pharmacists is being translated into multiple languages. Nationally and locally organised IPSF Patient Counselling Events (PCE) and Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaigns (PPAC) are being promoted, and a systematic way of reporting about these events and campaigns is being developed. Getting involved in IPSF is a wonderful opportunity for pharmacy students to take part in developing the profession and learning about international pharmacy - our mission is to facilitate participation in IPSF activities for as many pharmacy students as possible. I look forward with great enthusiasm and excitement to collaborating with you all throughout the year! Yours in IPSF,
Katja Hakkarainen IPSF President 2005-2006 president@ipsf.org
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Publications’ Corner Dear IPSFers, This year the publications team will try to add a "Professional Touch" to IPSF materials. This development will apply to all of our publications. For the IPSF website, we have improved the search engine and started designing the PARO website, updated the design and arrangement of the pages of the website, and changed our server to provide bigger space and better service. The SMS service, "IPSF 2 GO", for our members will start very soon. We will begin with the Contact Persons of member organisations, which may be followed by an increase in the service to the other members. With this service, members will receive SMS from IPSF regarding announcements, latest news and reminders. For the News Bulletin, you will notice in this issue, the difference in the design of the internal page and the cover as we continue to improve the professional touch and make it easier to read and follow the articles. More members were added to the Editorial Board and the Internet Working Group which will start working on the design of the Pan American Regional Office (PARO) website and the design of other IPSF materials. In this issue, we have also tried to include new ideas for the articles to provide you with the latest information related to the pharmacy world including other organisations such as the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and World Health Organization (WHO). We have also included some advertisements for our events and other non-IPSF events. I hope you find all the articles interesting and if you have any comments do not hesitate to contact me.
Mohanad Nader Fors Chairperson of Publications 2004-2006 publications@ipsf.org Now I want to introduce the team who worked hard to bring for us this issue. Editors:
Tana Wuliji
Scott Dalgliesh Christie Robinson
Gehan Abd El Rahman Translators French
Spanish
Jacinthe Lamoureux Mehdi Zeghal Cairo Toledano
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Anja Lampret
Helena Jagodic
Camellia Pay
Amy Lai
Arabic
Leidi Paez
Mohamed Abd El al Ahmed Farghaly Sara Salman
New IPSF Executives
New IPSF B oard In 2005-06 the IPSF Executive Committee consists of nine enthusiastic students from seven different countries. Although young at age, the executive has great experience within the federation, three of the committee members holding a position in the executive board for the second time.
President
around the world!
Hello all friends in IPSF,
Yours in Pharmacy,
Warm greetings from Helsinki, Finland, my dear home city in cold Northern Europe! As much as I love the nature, snow, sauna, and peaceful life in Finland, I am excited and enthusiastic about moving to The Hague, the Netherlands, to serve the Federation at the IPSF Secretariat.
Katja Hakkarainen President 2005-2006
After first starting in IPSF as the Finnish Student Exchange Officer in 2003, IPSF soon became a part of my everyday life, my favourite hobby and a great passion. I was elected the IPSF Chairperson of Student Exchange 2003-04 and I also worked in The Hague as the Permanent Officer in 2003-04. After my first IPSF executive year, I continued as the Patient Counselling Booklet Co-ordinator, at the same time holding the position of President of the Finnish Pharmaceutical Students' Association (FiPSA). At the 51st IPSF Congress in Bonn, Germany, I was honoured to be elected IPSF President 2005-06.
Secretary General and Vice President Hello IPSFers, It is my pleasure to greet you for the second time as a new executive member. I am a 22 year old student from the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. Last year I was fortunate enough to serve the federation as the Chairperson of Student Exchange and this year, I have been elected to be your Secretary General for the upcoming two years. My portfolio involves ensuring the administrative stability of IPSF and advising the executive committee and our members on such matters. As the Vice President, my job is also to help and support the President in her duties.
I am a fifth year student at the University of Helsinki. Throughout my studies I have worked part time in a community pharmacy. I recently celebrated my 24th birthday during our first Executive Meeting in The Hague. (Thank you all for the surprise party!) I have postponed my final year research project at the University of Sydney, Australia, to be able to focus on IPSF during my term as President.
The Constitutional Working Party, the little group I am working with this year on revising the official documents of the federation consists of enthusiastic and experienced members, Jenny Carlsson (Sweden), Kerstin Neumann (Germany) and Neveen Abdelghani (USA). Katja Hakkarainen (Finland), Joseph Whitehouse (Australia) and Scott Dalgliesh (United Kingdom) will act as advisors to the committee.
I have a bad habit of eating lots of French cheese and drinking WAY too much Coca-Cola速 to maximise the hours working for IPSF! (I share these addictions with Axel!). With or without cheese and Coke, the Executive team and I are extremely committed to developing IPSF and deliver ing more exciting opportunities for pharmacy students
I am very happy and honoured to still be actively involved in the work of this prospering Federation and after a very exciting start to the year that includes travelling to Cairo for the FIP Congress, to The Hague for our first executive meeting and participating in WorldMaPS, the first ever symposium organised jointly by medical and pharmacy
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New IPSF Executives students, I am very much looking forward to the rest of the year and hope that we can continue the successful work of our predecessors.
Chairperson of Public Relations
Best regards,
My name is Axel Thomas and I have been elected in the 51st IPSF Congress in Bonn as the new IPSF Chairperson of Public Relations!
Georgina Gál Secretary General and Vice President 2005-2006
Treasurer Greetings IPSFers! My name is Juha Mönkäre and I was elected as the IPSF Treasurer for a one year term. I am currently in my fourth year at Kuopio University in Finland. Before this year, I was the treasurer of the Finnish Pharmaceutical Students' Association in 2004 and the IPSF Contact Person in 2005. Member associations who attended the congress in Bonn received their invoices for membership fees and student exchange fees from the Immediate past Treasurer, Jelte Meulenaar. For members who did not attend the congress or lost their invoices, I will send the invoices to them. If you have lost your invoice or are facing any problems regarding invoices, please contact me. When you are making payments, please include details of the association with the payment. All fees are due to be paid by the first of January 2006. It is essential that every member pays their membership fee and debt because that money keeps IPSF working. If a member does not make their payment on time, they will be excluded from the IPSF Student Exchange Program (SEP) and lose their voting rights in the General Assembly. A member will lose its membership after being in debt for two years. This means that if a member has not paid the 2004-2005 invoice received in 2004, the member is not able to participate in SEP and if in addition the member does not pay this year's invoice, it will then lose its membership. IPSF is continuously looking for sponsorship. This year IPSF will be applying for the European Union (EU) Grant and investigating possibilities for other grants, for example the a grant of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) 2006. Naturally, FIP will be our important partner again this year, which also financially supports the federation in many ways, for instance offering the office facilities in The Hague.
So how did I come to that? Well it is the logical following of my curriculum, the curriculum that I will detail to you if you ask for it. Do you? Great! I am 27, I am French, and I live in the nice city of Reims, 150 km east of Paris, a world-known city and capital of the drink, Champagne. I am currently in the sixth year of pharmacy. However, instead of doing the regular sixth year in the industry section, I am in a Reims Management School where I follow a programme called "International MBA", to get more competencies in the management and business fields. Before that I studied in my lovely faculty of Pharmacy of Reims, where I had (and am still having) good times. It is also in the faculty that I began my involvement in the organisational level. Two years ago, I was the secretary general of my local association, the Reims Pharmacy Students Association (AEPR) and the liaison officer working with ANEPF, the French Pharmacy Students Association. A year later in October 2004, I was elected in the ANEPF executive committee as the vice-president for international relations and I started to serve as the IPSF Contact Person (CP). So thanks to the IPSF execuctive in 20042005, I started to work hard for the federation! My enthusiasm and my dedication never decreased, so that lead to a big step to cross; I ran for an IPSF executive position! I chose to run for the Chairperson of Public Relations, because I am experienced in that domain. Being the Chairperson of Public Relations is for me a breakthrough into the international level of my previous tasks which include keeping contact with members, communicating about our projects and our works to them, representing them and promoting their activities to professional and institutional bodies.
Yours in IPSF,
My task in IPSF will be to communicate with the IPSF members, to promote the activities of the federation by mailing documents, making reports, talking and by traveling to events organised by them. I had the extreme pleasure to travel to Tokyo to attend the 4th APPS organised by APROand APS-Japan! My job is also to represent the members and the pharmacy students (you!) in front of public or private institutions. Katja and I traveled to Paris, France, and attended the 33rd General Conference of the UNESCO, where we got new contacts, new ideas, and new opportunities! New projects will appear in various domains such as HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, Capacity Building, and CrossBorder Higher Education. I will keep you in touch of the forthcoming projects related to these topics!
Juha Mönkäre Treasurer 2005-2006
Until then, do not forget the friendship and the collaboration between pharmacy students from all over the world!
I am looking forward to working with the Financial Sub committee, Development Fund Sub committee and with all members. If you have anything on your mind about monetary issues please contact me at treasurer@ipsf.org.
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Hi to all the IPSFers!
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Issue 35 December 2005
New IPSF Executives Keep yourself full of the IPSF spirit and let us work together for the pharmacy students and the federation! Axel Thomas Chairperson of Public Relations 2005-2006
Chairperson of Student Exchange Dear friends in IPSF, Greetings from the country right in the heart of Europe - the Czech Republic. I´m 24 years old, and I graduated from pharmacy faculty, Hradec Králové, at Charles University in Prague this June 2005. In September I start one year of internship in industrial pharmaceutical company Zentiva in Prague. I have been involved in IPSF since 2OO2, when I attended my first IPSF congress in Budapest. I was the IPSF Student Exchange Officer (SEO) and the IPSF Contact Person (CP) of the Czech Pharmacy Students' Association (CPSA), Czech Republic for two years and last year I was a member of student exchange committee. I also had great opportunity to experience the SEP from the other side. In July 2003 I spent one wonderful month at exchange in South Africa. I will never forget those wonderful days and great people I met there. These made me certain that SEP is just a great thing. Once you are caught by the IPSF spirit it is nearly impossible to run away or to be standing apart. That happened to me and now I am glad to be your new Chairperson of Student Exchange and looking forward to working with you. At last but not at least I want to introduce my Sub Committee and great team: Gina Gál (past Chairperson of Student Exchange and Secretary General 2005-2007), Cristiana Areias (past SEO of APEF, Portugal), Nataša Nikolic (SEO of NAPSer, Serbia and Montenegro), Anna Szekeres (past SEO of HuPSA, Hungary) and Marko Niketic (CP of NAPSer, Serbia and Montenegro). Yours in IPSF, Irena Šubová Chairperson of Student Exchange 2005-2006
Chairperson of Publications Dear IPSFers, I am so excited to have the chance to write again in this part in the News Bulletin, and now i want to reintroduce myself for you, I am Mohanad Nader 5th year of pharmacy, Alexandria University in Egypt. I worked in my local Association the Alexandria Scientific and Pharmaceutical Students Association (ASPSA) two years as Chairperson of publications before my election in Halifax congress as the IPSF Chairperson of Publications; I was also responsible for ASPSA
joining IPSF as a Member in Association (MiA) in the same congress. My Re-election this year is a big challenge for me as I have to get new ideas and improve the publications, and I am really proud to have the chance to serve the federation one more year. I consider myself lucky to work with two wonderful teams during the past year and this year the past executives helped me a lot in many situations and learnt me a lot of things too, and I am happy too work with the new executives and I feel we will make a lot of new things for the federation. After our congress in Bonn I was chosen as Local Staff Coordinator in the FIP congress in Cairo, it was a very successful congress and I was really lucky to be chosen in that position. Mohanad Nader Fors Chairperson of Publications 2004-2006
Chairperson of Public Health Hello IPSFers!!! Warm Greetings from an exciting city - Tokyo, Japan!!! My name is Yoko Gocho. I am a 22 year old third year pharmacy student studying at Meiji Pharmaceutical University, Japan. I would like to tell you more about myself in this issue of the IPSF News Bulletin. Ever since the 49th IPSF congress held in Singapore, I had been very involved in IPSF and the national pharmaceutical students' association in Japan. In my capacity as the president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Students' (APS)-Japan, I was happy to be able to encourage our national association to be an IPSF Member-In-Association in 2003. Within IPSF, I served as the IPSF Contact Person for Japan from 2003 to 2005. In 2004 and 2005, I was the Student Exchange Officer and a member of the IPSF Development Fund Sub Committee. For the past two years, I also served as a member of the Reception Committee of 4th IPSF-Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) that was recently held in August 2005 in Tokyo, Japan. I am deeply thankful that I was able to have so many great opportunities and many nice friends around the world through IPSF activities. So now, I am really very happy that I have a chance to serve you with passion, as the Chairperson of Public Health through the year 2005-2006!
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New IPSF Executives One of my areas of focus is to communicate with members and establish a system for members to share ideas amongst each other. I would like to continue the wonderful work that the past Chairperson of Public Health, Myriah Lesko, was doing and of course, to help IPSF set up new public health initiatives! With all my regards to the friends in IPSF, I would do all my best to bring you more opportunities. Please keep in your mind all the time that IPSF is here for you, to support your activities, and to establish a network for pharmacy students around the world. Public Health campaigns that will be taking place over the next year include: -Healthy Living and Diabetes World Diabetes Day 14th November -HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign World AIDS Day 1st December -Pharmacists and Pharmacy Students Fight Tuberculosis World TB Day. 24th March -World Health Day Campaign 7th April -Tobacco Alert Campaign World No Tobacco Day 31st May. Do consider the situation of public health in your country and community, and see how we can make a difference as pharmacy students! As the international organisation representing pharmacy students worldwide, we are able to understand public health issues from a global perspective and thus better prepared to implement them in our local communityies. So "Think Global. Act Local!" As pharmacy students and pharmacists-to-be, we are able to interact and relate well to the general public, hence it is important that we are providers of the right information.
Chairperson of Pharmacy Education Hello IPSFers! Greetings to all from Beantown! Boston, USA, that is. Boston has been my home for almost four months now. I graduated from pharmacy school at the University of Nebraska - Medical Center this past May. After taking some time to visit friends from my student exchange program the year before, I packed up my few belongings and moved from my parent's farm to an apartment in Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston, I am working as a pharmacy practice resident at a large teaching hospital. They say "variety is the spice of life" and I have to agree. Every month I am able to work in a different area of the hospital, to see different areas of practice and learn more ways for pharmacists to impact patient care. I also am involved in providing continuing education programs and facilitating journal clubs. When I am not busy with my residency, I am working as the Chairperson of Pharmacy Education. After the IPSF Congress in Bonn, my portfolio took off! After attending the Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) in September, we planned the FIP/IPSF Students' Day symposiums for FIP Congress in 2006! Well, moving along from there, we are still collecting information for the Moving On II project, chaired by Zhining Goh, Singapore. The preliminary results, presented at Bonn, were also presented at FIP Congress and generated some great discussion.
Yours in IPSF,
We are also looking forward to launching Moving On III, chaired by Tana Wujili and in conjunction with UNESCO, United Nations Education, Sciences and Culture Organization. Other cooperation with UNESCO will allow for the introduction of "Training the Trainers" to help build professional and leadership skills in students. We hope to unveil this opportunity at future congresses and regional meetings. Many other great opportunities will develop as the year goes by, such as writing your own article for Phuture!
Yoko Gocho Chairperson of Public Health 2005-2006
I am looking forward to working with you all this coming year, and am so glad for an IPSF life after graduation!
I would like to invite all of you to contact me on any public health issues. You can email me at publichealth@ipsf.org. I welcome any questions and ideas. Looking forward to working with you throughout the year.
Wishing you all the best, Ellen Diedrichsen Chairperson of Pharmacy Education 2005-2006
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New IPSF Executives Chairperson of Professional Development To All IPSFers, My name is Yasmine and I am a 4th year pharmacy studentat Alexandria university in Egypt. My 1st contact with the IPSF outstanding spirit was in Halifax, Canada, when I was representing Alexandria Scientific Pharmaceutical Students' Association (ASPSA) . In being part of very active team, I succeeded in getting ASPSA's work close to the IPSF world, this made me more curious and enthusiastic to get more involved.
The meeting was special because all executive members were present. This is exceptional, especially considering that the exec members come from all over the world, from the U.S. through to Europe and Egypt to Japan. The meeting began with discussing the executive reports and portfolios, then we moved on to talk about the Regional Offices, upcoming congresses, relationships with allied professional and students' organisations, representation at meetings, and membership promotion ideas. The executive committee decided to print more information and promotional materials to help our current and future
Even though I am basketball fan and I have been playing basketball for more than 6 years, I decided to devote most of my effort, time and energy to IPSF and fortunately I was elected this year Chairperson of professional development. I was representing my association in Bonn not only as the Officer of Information and Education but also as an Official Delegate. I started my IPSF year as a member of the RC and IPSF representative at the 65th Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation this year in Cairo, Egypt. All of these meetings strengthened my belief that through IPSF, we can strengthen overall global communication among pharmacy students. I believe that focusing on patient counselling, clinical skills events and Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaigns as students will help us to develop our pharmacy careers and move our profession forward internationally. IPSFers know that it is not easy to be serving as one of the IPSF executives but I am very happy to be working with you this year for the better future of IPSF. The IPSF world is nothing without you caring, sharing and being involved. "Inspiration and motivation make difficult things more possible but actions make them happen." Hope to see you all in Cairns next year. Yours in IPSF, Yasmine Salah Koraiem Chairperson of Professional Development 2005-2006
First Executive Meeting in the Hague The second week of October was a very exciting and busy time for the executive committee as we gathered for our first meeting in The Hague, The Netherlands. During the IPSF congress in Bonn the executive did not have the opportunity to get to know each other well due to the lack of time, so we took these few days together to introduce our work plans as well as ourselves.
members, looked into the finances of the Federation, agreed in the basic points of revising the White Book on the Development Fund, discussed new ways of collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), and also ways to enhance communication with our members. In the evenings we met with IPSF oldies, like Boayn Todorov (Secretary General 2001-03), Tana Wuliji (Immediate Past President) and Xuanhao Chan (Chairperson of Public Relations 2003-04) and Dutch student representatives like Martijn Scholten and Bart van Rossum (current KNPSV CP and SEO). Axel was kind enough to organise a French evening where the executive committee could taste authentic French cheese and racklets, Yasmine brought us original Egyptian cookies, and on other evenings we went out to the all-time executive committee's favourite "Augustus" restaurant or had Chinese dinner in the IPSF flat. The meeting was very productive and all executive committee members returned home with fresh ideas for the rest of the year. I am sure that the meeting also helped in making collaboration among the executive easier, as now we know each other better not only professionally, but personally, too. Georgina Gรกl Secretary General and Vice President
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News And Views English Version UNESCO, 58th Annual DPI/NGO Conference IPSF was represented by the President Katja Hakkarainen and the Chairperson of Public Relations Axel Thomas at the 33rd General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, held in Paris from 3rd to 7th October 2005. The main theme of the conference was "Education for all by 2015". The IPSF delegates participated in a number of meetings during the Conference. A possibility of a new project was discussed with the UNESCO Sector of Social and Human Sciences together with the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA). In 2001 UNESCO, IPSF and IFMSA published a tool kit for student organisations to run educational workshops about HIV/AIDS and Human Rights to raise awareness of human right issues and decrease stigma and discrimination. The project is coming to an end and IPSF is looking for ways to continue the collaboration. IPSF had two meetings with the UNESCO Education Sector, Section for Reform, Innovation and Quality Assurance, who are interested in collaborating with IPSF to promote Higher Education as a new document "Guidelines on Quality Provision of Cross-border Higher Education" was approved in the conference. New contacts were formed with the UNESCO Section for Youth. After the first week of the General Conference Prof. Dr. Ian Bates, Tana Wuliji, Immediate Past President of IPSF, and Katja Hakkarainen had a successful meeting with UNESCO representatives, discussing future collaboration on the Moving On III project.
IPSF Programme in the International Social Pharmacy W orkshop 2006 IPSF is happy announce that our proposal to organise a patient counselling workshop at the International Social Pharmacy Workshop (ISPW) in July 2006 in Oxford, Great Britain, has been accepted! IPSF submitted the proposal in collaboration with the Pharmacy Information Section of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). This workshop aims to facilitate a consultative process to develop new internationally recognised guidelines for patient counselling taking into account the concordant approach. These guidelines can be used as a tool through which greater understanding of core elements of patient counselling and concordance can be achieved, taught, and practiced at all levels. This is a wonderful opportunity for IPSF to take part in developing internationally recognised guidelines for patient counselling and promote our expertise in the field of patient counselling! More information: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pharmacy/ISPW
Moving On III What are you doing after graduation? Moving On III would like to know! This year IPSF will launch the Moving On III project in collaboration with UNESCO, which will look at the migratory intentions of pharmacy students in their final year of study. Health care migration is a critical issue. Shortages of qualified health care professionals are a global problem. Many studies have been done to show the migration trends for physicians and nurses, but none have looked at the impact of migration on pharmacy. Want to be part of the research team? Already 21 countries have answered the call! But we are always looking to add more. If you are interested in Moving On III, please contact Tana Wujili, Chair of Moving On III (twuliji@varsity.co.nz) or Ellen Diedrichsen, Chairperson of Pharmacy Education (education@ipsf.org).
66th FIP Congress, Salvador Bahia, Brazil The IPSF-FIP Students' Day session has been set. The session "Community Pharmacy - Advancing Patient Care" will feature Brazilian pharmacist Carlos Vidotti, Ema Paulino from Portugal, pharmacist Manjiri Gharat and student, Yash Jalundhwala of India, and Dr Shalom 'Charlie' Benrimoj, Australia. Speakers will discuss Brazilian and Portugese community pharmacy projects, the TB Fact Card project, and present future innovations in the profession! The IPSF - Academic Pharmacy Section joint symposium, "Learning for Practice" features fantastic examples of innovative and hands on learning opportunities. Speakers are Ellen Diedrichsen, IPSF, Tim Chen, Simon Bell and Jennifer Marriott of Australia. They will discuss current views of education then provide ideas to improve education through medication reviews, using virtual patients to teach clinical skills, and using patients as teachers in mental illness. The IPSF - Pharmacy Information Section joint symposium "Counselling, Concordance and Communication Innovative Education for Pharmacists" seeks to improve communication between patients and pharmacists. After discussing concordance, speakers will discuss communication methods to provide thorough, appropriate health care information to patients and identify barriers to health care based on patient illnesses and stereotypes. Many speakers from different practice backgrounds will share their experiences: Tana Wujili, New Zealand, Katja Hakkarainen, Finland, Inka Puumalainen, Finland, Carlos Vidotti, Brasil, Simon Bell, Australia, and Marja Airaksinen, Finland. More information: http://www.fip.org/brazil2006
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News And Views Arabic Version
http://www.fip.org/brazil2006
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News And Views French Version
Conférence Générale de l'UNESCO
Moving On III
L'IPSF était représentée par la Présidente Katja Hakkarainen et le Vice-Président aux Relations Publiques Axel Thomas lors de la 33e Conférence Générale de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'Education, les Sciences et la Culture (UNESCO), qui avait lieu à Paris du 3 au 7 octobre 2005. Le thème principal de la conférence était: "L'Education pour tous d'ici 2015". Les délégués de l'IPSF ont participé à plusieurs réunions durant la conférence. La possibilité d'un nouveau projet a été discutée avec le secteur des Sciences Sociales et Humaines de l'UNESCO en collaboration avec la Fédération Internationale des Associations d'Etudiants en Médecine (IFMSA). En 2001, l'UNESCO, l'IPSF et l'IFMSA avaient publié un document "boîte à outils" destiné aux organisations étudiantes pour qu'ils tiennent des ateliers sur le VIH/SIDA et les droits de l'homme, afin de favoriser une meilleure sensibilisation aux problèmes des droits de l'homme en diminuant le stigmatisme et la discrimination. Ce projet tirant à sa fin, l'IPSF cherche des moyens de poursuivre cette collaboration. L'IPSF a eu deux rencontres avec des représentants du secteur Education de l'UNESCO, Département pour la Réforme, l'Innovation et l'Assurance qualité. Ceux-ci sont intéressés à travailler en collaboration avec l'IPSF afin de promouvoir les études supérieures puisqu'un nouveau document, intitulé "Guidelines on quality provision of crossborder higher education" a été approuvé lors du congrès. De nouveaux contacts ont également été établis avec la Section jeunesse de l'UNESCO. Après la 1re semaine de conférence, une réunion réussie a eu lieu entre le Prof. Dr Ian Bates, Tana Wuliji, présidente sortante de l'IPSF et Katja Hakkarainen, et des représentants de l'UNESCO, concernant une collaboration à venir au sujet du projet Moving On III.
Que faites-vous après l'obtention de votre diplôme? Moving On III aimerait le savoir!!
Un programme IPSF lors des Ateliers Internationaux de Pharmacie Sociale L'IPSF est heureuse d'annoncer que notre proposition pour organiser un atelier de conseil au patient lors des Ateliers Internationaux de Pharmacie Sociale (ISPW) en juillet 2006, à Oxford, Grande Bretagne, a été acceptée! L'IPSF a soumis une proposition en collaboration avec la Section Information Pharmaceutique de la Fédération Internationale Pharmaceutique (FIP). Cet atelier a pour but de faciliter la démarche consultative afin de développer de nouvelles lignes directrices, reconnues au niveau international, pour le conseil au patient en prenant en compte la nouvelle approche axée sur la concordance. Ces lignes directrices pourront être utilisées comme un outil par lequel une meilleure compréhension des principes de base du conseil au patient et de la concordance sera possible, celle-ci pourra être enseignée et pratiquée à tous les niveaux. Ceci est une incroyable occasion pour l'IPSF de prendre part au développement de lignes directrices pour le conseil au patient reconnues au niveau international et de promouvoir notre expertise dans le domaine du conseil au patient. Pour plus d'information: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pharmacy/ISPW
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L'IPSF lancera cette année le projet Moving On III, en collaboration avec l'UNESCO, qui se penchera sur les intentions migratoires des étudiants de pharmacie en dernière année d'études. La migration des professionnels de la santé est un problème critique. La pénurie de professionnels de la santé qualifiés est un problème global. Plusieurs études ont été faites afin de mettre à jour les tendances migratoires des médecins et des infirmières, mais aucune n'a considéré l'impact des migrations dans le domaine de la pharmacie. Vous voulez faire partie de l'équipe de recherche? Déjà 21 pays ont répondu à l'appel ! Mais nous sommes toujours ouverts à en ajouter d'autres! Si vous êtes intéressés au projet Moving On III, svp contactez Tana Wujili, Responsable de Moving On III (twuliji@varsity.co.nz) ou Ellen Diedrichsen, Vice-Présidente, Education en Pharmacie (education@ipsf.org).
le 66e Congrès de la FIP à Salvador Bahia, Brésil La session pour la journée IPSF-FIP pour les étudiants est fixée. La session "Pharmacie Communautaire - Soins au patient en marche", impliquera le pharmacien Brésilien Carlos Vidotti, Ema Paulino du Portugal, le pharmacien Manjiri Gharat et l'étudiant Yash Jalundhwala de l'Inde et Dr Shalom 'Charlie' Benrimoj de l'Australie. Les conférenciers discuteront de projets brésiliens et portugais concernant la pharmacie communautaire, du projet sur la fiche-ressource sur la Tuberculose, et les innovations à venir pour la profession! Le symposium commun IPSF - Section Pharmacie Académique, "Apprendre pour pratiquer" présentera de fantastiques exemples d'opportunités innovatrices et concrètes d'apprentissage. Les conférenciers sont: Ellen Diedrichsen, IPSF, Tim Chen, Simon Bell et Jennifer Marriott de l'Australie. Ils discuteront des points de vue actuels sur l'éducation et fourniront des idées pour améliorer cette formation par l'intermédiaire de revues de médicaments, de l'utilisation de patients virtuels pour enseigner des techniques cliniques et de l'utilisation de patients comme professeurs dans la maladie mentale. Le symposium commun IPSF - Section Information Pharmaceutique "le Conseil, la concordance et la communication - formation innovatrice pour les pharmaciens" cherchera à améliorer la communication entre patients et pharmaciens. Après avoir abordé la concordance, les conférenciers discuteront de méthodes de communication permettant de fournir des informations approfondies et appropriées à un patient tout en identifiant les barrières aux soins de santé reliées à la maladie d'un patient et des stéréotypes. De nombreux conférenciers provenant de différents milieux de pratique partageront leurs expériences: Tana Wujili de la Nouvelle-Zélande, Katja Hakkarainen et Inka Puumalainen de la Finlande, Carlos Vidotti du Brésil, Simon Bell de l'Australie, et Marja Airaksinen également de la Finlande.
News And Views Spanish Version
Conferencia General de la UNESCO, Paris, Francia Durante el 3 al 7 del pasado Octubre, la presidenta de IPSF Katja Hakkarainen y el coordinador de Relaciones Publicas Axel Thomas, se reunieron en la 33era Conferencia General de Educación de las Naciones Unidas titulada "Organización Científica y Cultural. El tema principal de la convención fue "Educación para todos hacia el 2015." Los delegados de IPSF participaron en numerosas reuniones durante la conferencia, en la cual surgió la posibilidad de un nuevo proyecto en colaboración con el sector de ciencias humanas y sociales de la UNESCO, IFMSA, y nuestra organización. En el 2001, UNESCO, IPSF, y la IFMSA publicaron un modulo para las organizaciones estudiantiles que quisieran proveer talleres educacionales sobre el SIDA/VIH y los derechos humanos/discriminación. Mientras que el proyecto ya esta a punto de su culminación, IPSF sigue buscando diferentes maneras de mantenerse involucrado en esta causa. IPSF tuvo 2 reuniones con la sección de reformas, innovación y control de calidad de la UNESCO, quienes están interesados en colaborar con nosotros en aras de promover la educación universitaria; como se presenta en el nuevo documento, "Instrucciones para la Enseñanza Superior" Terminada la conferencia, Dr. Ian Bates, Tana Wuliji, y Katja Hakkarainen volvieron a reunirse con representantes de la UNESCO para ultimar detalles y discutir la colaboración del proyecto "Adelante III."
Puntos de vista IPSF tiene el gusto de anunciar que nuestra propuesta para organizar un taller de consulta al paciente fue aceptada recientemente. La propuesta fue presentada en conjunto con la Federación Farmacéutica Internacional (FFI). Esta nueva dinámica tendrá lugar en el Taller Internacional de Farmacia Social que se celebrara en Julio de 2006, en Oxford, Gran Bretaña. La conferencia tiene como objetivo el facilitar el desarrollo de pautas para consultar pacientes. Estas reglas podrán ser usadas como base para mayor entendimiento de nuestro rol como farmacéuticos en todos los niveles que tengan que ver con el mejoramiento de nuestros pacientes. Esta es sin duda una gran oportunidad para IPSF para tomar parte del desarrollo de pautas que serán reconocidas internacionalmente y a su vez, promover nuestras habilidades en el campo de la salud y el cuidado a los pacientes. Para más información (disponible en ingles), puedes visitar la siguiente liga: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pharmacy/ISPW
Moving On III Qué vas a hacer cuando te gradúes? El programa "Hacia delante III" quiere saber!!! Este año, IPSF lanzará un nuevo proyecto titulado "Hacia delante III" en colaboración con la UNESCO, el cual se enfocará en estudiar las tendencias migratorias de los estudiantes de farmacia al terminar su último año de la carrera. La migración del personal de la salud es un tema muy delicado que requiere de gran atención. Hay una gran escasez de profesionales certificados. Varios estudios se han llevado a cabo analizando la tendencia de doctores y enfermeras a trasladarse a distintas localidades. Sin embargo, ningún estudio ha analizado el impacto que tiene la emigración/migración en el campo de la farmacia. Quieres ser parte de este estudio? Ya 21 países han respondido, pero siempre hay espacio para más. Si estás interesado en participar en el proyecto Hacia delante III, por favor contacta a Tana Wujili, twuliji@varsity.co.nz coordinadora del estudio o a Ellen Diedrichsen, education@ipsf.org coordinadora de Educación de Farmacia. Tenemos ya lista la fecha para la sesión de los estudiantes
66to Congreso de la Federación Farmacéutica Internacional en Salvador de Bahía, Brasil. de IPSF-FIP. El título del tema será "Farmacia comunitaria: avances en el cuidado al paciente" y constará con la presencia de farmacéuticos de varios países: Carlos Vidotti de Brasil, Ema Paulino de Portugal, representando a la India-Manjiri Gharat y Yash Jalundhwala (estudiante), y el Dr. Shalom "Charlie" Benrimoj de Australia. Los ponentes discutirán proyectos comunitarios que se llevan a cabo en Brasil y Portugal como la tuberculosis y también estarán proponiendo interesantes e innovadoras ideas en nuestra profesión. Entre las diferentes actividades del congreso, IPSF y parte de la Academia de Farmacia, juntarán esfuerzos para el simposio "Aprender para Practicar," que promete incluir ejemplos innovadores de nuestra profesión así como oportunidades de práctica. Los coordinadores serán Ellen Diedrichsen, IPSF, Tim Chen, Simon Bell y Jennifer Marriott de Australia. Ellos explicarán las diversas formas de educación y promulgarán ideas para mejorar la revisión de medicamentos y enseñar habilidades clínicas para la comunicación con pacientes que sufren de enfermedades mentales. Por otra parte, la sesión "consulta, concordia y comunicación: educación innovadora para los farmacéuticos" tendrá como objetivo fundamental el mejorar la comunicación entre los farmacéuticos y sus pacientes. Algunos métodos de diálogo serán practicados para guiar al farmacéutico a una mejor relación con el cliente y poder identificar las barreras que impiden lograr un mejor cuidado a la salud. Los ponentes compartirán sus propias experiencias con nosotros, entre ellos se encuentran: Tana Wujili (Nueva Zelanda), Katja Hakkarainen (Finlandia), Inka Puumalainen (Finlandia), Carlos Vidotti (Brasil), Simon Bell (Australia), y Marja Airaksinen (Finlandia).
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Congresses and Symposiums
51 st IPSF Congress Bonn, Germany
The Congress as an Executive Member The 51st Annual Congress of IPSF, held in Bonn, Germany August 5-14 2005 was my fourth IPSF congress. However, it was very different from the others, as I participated in it as an executive committee member. The executive committee had arrived in Bonn almost a week before the congress started for a last executive meeting in order to finalise the General Assembly and workshop plans. We also tried to help the Reception Committee, who were doing an awesome job and incredible efforts, to solve problems that came up in the last minute. It was a very exciting time waiting for the participants to arrive and the congress to begin. We also went for small walks in Bonn and explored the city, which was something we did not have time for during the congress. Once the congress started, we became very busy, but also excited, to show what we had done during the year and all we had planned for the congress, including the workshops, the meetings, the educational forum and the General Assembly presentations. Meanwhile, the Reception Committee was busy with the background work: registering
participants, organising evening gatherings, and ensuring that everything went well with the event. After the executive had carefully prepared the congress activities, we had free time to get to know the congress participants better, chat with our friends, and enjoy the parties. The parties included the German National Evening, the typical Bavarian Oktoberfest-party, the trip to beautiful Cologne and the boat cruise back to Bonn, the open-air barbeque dinner, and the usual features of IPSF congresses. The Development Fund Auction that was exceptionally successful this year; as was the International Evening, where we got a little insight in the different cultures represented at the congress; and the elegant Gala Dinner was also enjoyed by all.
Issue 35 December 2005
I hope to see you all in the 52nd IPSF Congress in Cairns, Australia next year!! Georgina Gรกl IPSF Chairperson of Student Exchange 2004-2005 IPSF Secretary General 2005-2007
Numerical Information
It was a pleasure to meet old friends and also to get to know new people. After all, the congress is the best opportunity to meet pharmacy stu-
IPSF News Bulletin
I would like to thank the Reception Committee for their hard work and congratulate them on the successful organisation and I hope everyone who had the opportunity to take part in the congress enjoyed it at least as much as I did!
In the regional, thematic meetings and workshops we were happy to see how interested and motivated congress participants were and we hope these occa-
sions helped them in taking home new ideas.
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dents from all over the world.
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174 participants 41 countries worldwide 25 hours of General Assembly 19 workshops 4 educational forums 10 scientific lectures 100 kilograms of bananas 80 kilograms of apples and 20 water melons eaten - 600 liters of coffee drank!
Congresses and Symposiums Students Experiences Numerous educational workshops and sessions were organised by the German Reception Committee and the IPSF Executive Committee at the congress in Bonn. Students gained valuable experiences and information. Many new ideas for future activities were introduced.
First T ime with IPSFers This year was my premiere attendance at the annual congress of IPSF and I am very happy that I finally did attend. Since I began studying at the faculty of pharmacy, I entered a new world full of enthusiasm and activities with our student association and I became very interested in international activities. We used to have at least one exchange every year with countries such as Croatia, Poland, Hungary or Serbia. I think it was a valuable experience for both sides and an easy way to start other international activities. The exchange programme is based on a student spending one week abroad, living at other colleges, and after that, bringing other students from the other colleges to visit the student. This programme is open to 15 student participants. In addition, it can be easily organised. I would like to renew this tradition, which was broken last year. If anybody from IPSF is interested in this, please let me know. Due to this programme, I lost my shyness from speaking to new people and become more and more interested in the principle of all international activities and meeting people. I decided to participate in congress in order to bring benefits to our association. It is really inspirational to meet all of the enthusiastic IPSFers, talk to them, share opinions, and share experiences. This contact with other people is essential for the development of skills, although its usefulness may be underestimated in our countries. Congress is not only about great parties, but is mainly an irreplaceable source of information. It is about making friends all over the world and I am happy to have been a part of it. I participated during some of the sessions, which allowed me to contribute my efforts to the great idea of IPSF and become a part of the IPSF family. The first time I heard about the patient counselling competition was from my friend and I also read an article in the IPSF bulletin about it. I missed the competition when it was organised in our faculty, so in Bonn I had my first personal experience with the patient counselling event (PCE). Next year, I am going to organise this competition in the Czech Republic again. Thanks to people dealing with PCE, students can develop their abilities in understanding the feelings of patients better. Students also learn how to speak to patients. Pharmacy is balancing on the edge of humanities, like psychology or sociology, and I consider practical experiences to be, in some cases, more valuable than theory in humanities. It is important to be focused on this area, because it is being underestimated in some universities. I will give an example from the Czech Republic. We had some seminars and lectures from principals of psychology and social interactions, but it was done in a not so
interesting way and also the content should have been better. This is an example of why students do not like this subject and think, that it is unimportant. In fact, our expertness and social skills together are both needed in pharmacy. Zdenek Spacil Czech Pharmacy Students' Association (CPSA) Czech Republic
Development Fund Recipient: Experiences from IPSF Congress Please receive these greetings from the beautiful Himalayan country, Nepal. When I was leaving the Novotel hotel on 14th of August, I remembered my arrival day and was surprised that I had arrived there ten days ago. The days had passed so quickly that I could not believe it. I wished it to be the second or the third day so that I could spend more time with friends and enjoy Bonn. The congress in Bonn was the first IPSF congress for me and for Nepal, as well. Yes my friends, the congress really meant something to me and I simply loved it. The congress, as I've realised, is an excellent gathering for all the pharmacy students where they can share their ideas and get a peek at what's going on in other parts of the world. Students talk about their activities, they participate in different workshops like Public Health Workshop, Moving On Research, Patient Counselling Event and other scientific sessions as well. Once you've participated at an IPSF congress, you'll bring an IPSF spirit back with you and believe me, this spirit is transferable, but it won't leave you. I think that all the IPSF events or its activities whether on national, regional or international level hold that quality. Though it can be matter of money and time, a pharmacy student should participate at an IPSF event (at least once in one's life). It gives me a great pleasure to inform you that I was one of the Development Fund participants at the congress. Shortly after the congress in Bonn, the Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) was held in Japan. Nepal had participated for second time in APPS. I was extremely delighted to hear that Nepal will host the APPS in the year 2007. On this occasion, I would like to welcome you all in our beautiful Himalayan country and I am confident that you will have a memorable stay in Nepal. Finally, I would like to thank the German Reception Committee for the wonderful congress. Suresh Panthee Forum for Pharmacy (FoP) Nepal
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Congresses and Symposiums Attending Patient Counselling Event in Bonn It is a pleasure for me to tell you how delighted I was that l could attend last 51st Annual IPSF Congress in Bonn, Germany. As a secondyear-student I have been filled up with a huge enthusiasm and with a wish to be in charge of the IPSF Student Exchange Programme (SEP) and to become a Contact Person (CP)for IPSF here in Czech Republic and follow the work that Irena Subova and Lenka Elsnerova had already started. And so I travelled to Bonn with them and had my first experience in meeting so many pharmacists from all over the world. Before I came to Germany, I had heard about the Patient Counselling Event (PCE), because Irena already arranged this event in previous years at our faculty, so when I saw that there was going to be a competition, I immediately decided to attend a workshop that was related to it. With the great support of my colleague and really good friend, Zdenek Spacil, I applied for the competition on the first level. The reason why I decided to attend this was mainly because I've realized that PCE should be taught as a proper study programme at the universities all around the world. Since the pharmacist is a highly specialised person in charge of drugs, a human approach in solving patients´ problems and easing their psychological or physical pains is desirable. However many students, from my experience, do not see these problems as being relevant. The competition was truly well organised, the time we had for preparation was sufficient and also the way Professor Marja Airaksinen judged the situation was reallly kind and highly professional. Dana Schloeffel showed wonderful understanding and acted as a proper patient really well, all supervised by an open-eyed Yen Nguyen. Becoming a winner of Patient Counselling Event was very pleasant for me but what a great surprise! Nowadays, in my mind I have a plan to organise PCE at our faculty and I hope that, thanks to the award, I will be able to open the door for sponsors and make this event even more attractive for Czech students of pharmacy. Here, in the first place, I would like to express my thanks to Professor Marja Airaksinen for great help and fantastic attitude she had, Dana Schloeffel for great acting abilities, Yen Nguyen for supervising competitors and all who came and tried their best. I think the best award for all of us is to be there, to try and find out, what we did well or wrong. It is fabulous to become a winner, but the experience itself, has a great value for our future professional life. Veronika Sumpichova Czech Pharmacy Students' Association (CPSA) Czech Republic
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Skills Training for S tudents: A model for IPSF? Have you ever wanted to do a project or activity but found it too difficult? Have you ever felt inexperienced? Have you ever felt frustrated with students and student organisations? Have you ever noticed that when people get really experienced in a student organisation they graduate and leave? These are well-known challenges for students and student organisations all over the world. In a workshop at the recent IPSF Congress, I presented some ideas that we have been developing in The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA), the sister-organisation of IPSF for medical students. I believe that these ideas might help IPSF and its members to grow and become more effective. IFMSA was founded in 1951 and currently has member organizations in more than 90 countries around the world. It is in official relations with the UN, WHO and UNESCO and many other non-governmental health-related organisations. You can find out more at www.ifmsa.org.
Much like IPSF, our organisation offers students opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills relevant to improving the health of people in their communities and across the world. Regional, national and local medical student activities form the bulk of the work of IFMSA and its members. We have international meetings twice a year, with up to 600 students representing up to 80 countries. Within IFMSA, we have a Training division, which I have been directing this year with Michael Froneberg, a medical student from Germany. For us, "Training" is to give someone the right skills, knowledge and attitudes through practice as much as through "lecturing". In fact, "lecturing" is mostly forbidden in our training! In IFMSA, we believe that the best training is as interactive and motivating as possible. It must also be carefully adjusted to the needs of those being trained. Good training emphasises giving people simple and very useful tools for their work and encouraging them to learn from their own experiences and each other. Topics for training mainly fall under the themes of leadership or project management.
Congresses and Symposiums At each IFMSA International Meeting, 25 student trainers run 5 hour training for a group of up to 25 student delegates, so that around 400 students are trained in total. At the most recent meeting, in March 2005, an anonymous paper evaluation looked at satisfaction on content, presentation and interaction and asked for suggestions for improvement. Overall, satisfaction was high. Suggestions for improvement of the program included more time for training, more help to choose an appropriate session, smaller groups and better training rooms, as well as specific suggestions on what trainers can do better. We also ask people to get in touch with us if they need trainers for regional, national or local events and we try to send them IFMSA trainers whenever we can. But where do we get all these trainers from? And who trains the trainers? Our Training New Trainers (TNT) programme aims to produce high quality trainers for IFMSA and its members every year. Students with projects and/or leadership experience are trained over three days on how to plan, run and evaluate training. Up to 20 new IFMSA trainers are produced at each workshop. We have now run 6 of these workshops, 3 at international meetings, 1 on regional level (Europe) and 2 on a national level (Sudan, Malta). Luckily for us, a number of fantastic professional trainers have donated their time to run the program. Our funding has come from UNESCO.
What is the result? We hope that nearly every student who comes into contact with IFMSA gets some kind of training. This means that they have more skills and more motivation to carry out health projects and activities. In student organisations, people are only involved for a few years, so that they don't always have time to learn the skills that they need through experience; training can help make the process faster. In addition, it is very nice for those more experienced students/graduates to be trainers - it is a very satisfying and fulfilling role to play when you have been in the organisation for a while. Training can give students skills that they can use for their work in health and education, as well in their future lives and careers. I believe that IPSF and IFMSA have many similar strengths and also face many similar challenges. A "training culture" for our organisations can provide significant short and long term improvement to the organisation. IFMSA's model could be a useful model for IPSF and its member organisations to consider. Perhaps it will be possible to develop the concepts to suit IPSF's needs and create a "training culture" in this organisation also. For more information, see www.ifmsa.org/training or email Emily Spry training@ifmsa.org Emily Spry Training Director International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
52 nd IPSF Congress Cairns, Australia The 52nd IPSF Congress will be held in Cairns, Australia, on 13th - 23rd July 2006. In addition to interesting and innovative educational programme, participants will enjoy exciting social activities from bungee jumping in a rain forest to scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef! Since its creation in 1949, the International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation has become an essential ingredient in the lives of pharmacy students around the globe. By far the biggest event of IPSF, and arguably the biggest event in any pharmacy student's calendar is the annual IPSF Congress. At this congress, hundreds of young people at the beginning of their pharmacy careers from all over the world can congregate to focus on IPSF, and to rejuvenate the passion, friendship, culture and enthusiasm that drives the future of our profession.
ional event on our own soil. The northern Queensland tourism epicentre of Cairns is the location, and with its summer-weather-in-winter climate and laid-back sun-loving beachside lifestyle, it is the ideal venue for the international future of pharmacy to be created. Cairns will provide the ultimate Australian experience for international visitors, being a gateway to the reef, rainforest, and outback, which is the focus of our congress logo.
In 2006, IPSF is heading downunder!!! The National Australian Pharmacy Students' Association (NAPSA) is hosting the 52nd IPSF World Congress in Cairns next year, and is preparing to make it the best IPSF congress yet.
Cairns 2006 will be held from 13th to 23rd July, at the Cairns Student Lodge, located in this far north Australian tropical escape. The Lodge caters for students all year round, and is built to accommodate guests in a fun, relaxed, private haven, providing excellent facilities for all.
As the national body for pharmacy students in Australia, NAPSA was a founding member of IPSF over 50 years ago, and is extremely proud to be hosting this premier internat-
The James Cook University (JCU) campus is just next door, and will be the ideal location for all official congress functions.
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Congresses and Symposiums Named after Captain James Cook, the British explorer who mapped the coast of Australia in the late 18th century, JCU is Australia's leading tropical research university. Throughout its many campuses, JCU has a focus on public health, science and the environment, and is ideally suited to undertake research and teaching in tropical medicine. JCU teaches a prominent Bachelor of Pharmacy, and is thrilled to be part of this international pharmacy event.
Symposium, incorporating IPSF annual Educational Forum and Scientific Symposium. This event will be addressing two themes that are highly relevant to IPSF, and to the pharmacy profession. The first of these is "clinical skills and pharmacy education", which will be presented in a series of lectures and workshops on the topic, and the annual IPSF patient counselling event. This will allow for the strengthening of IPSF's educational focus, as well as providing a setting for attendees to develop their own clinical knowledge, pharmacy practice skills and receive information on pharmacy education. Along side this theme, the symposium will also seek to provide an insight into the "provision of healthcare in the rural and remote setting", with a series of lectures, forums, focus groups and a poster exhibition to explore the extensive issues, possibilities and opportunities surrounding this internationally relevant concern.
The congress programme includes the usual IPSF events, celebrating the multi-cultural community that is international pharmacy, but with a very distinctively Australian feel. Guests will have the opportunity to go outback with Skippy the kangaroo, to experience the Great Barrier Reef, and to explore the tropical Queensland rainforest. Aussie culture will be felt throughout the congress, with a variety of social events that highlight not only the modern Aussie lifestyle, but also display traditional Australian Aboriginal culture. Cairns 2006 will ensure that every guest will leave with an excellent appreciation of what it means to be Australian!
Cairns 2006 is set to be an exciting, relaxing, enjoyable and professionally rewarding event, so start planning your 2006 holiday now! Travel to Australia is a long way for most IPSF members, but Cairns has an international airport, and is serviced by all domestic airlines, which makes it a very accessible location. Registration will begin in January 2006, via the website. Visit www.ipsf2006.org for all Cairns 2006 information, and join our mailing list to keep up to date with the congress plans. 52nd IPSF Congress Organising Committee Australia
The final two days of congress are dedicated to a Pharmacy
4 th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium The 4th IPSF Asian Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) in Tokyo, Japan, on 22nd - 27th August 2005 brought together close to 300 pharmacy students from the region. The 5th APPS will be held in Bandung, Indonesia, on 4th - 10th June 2006.
4th APPS in Japan Konnnichiwa, (Japanese for "hello") from Japan! I am the Chairperson of the 4th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) and am pleased to report the events of the symposium that took place in Tokyo from 22nd ~27th of August. Our theme was "Public Health" and thanks to all the publicity generated over the past year and a half the event attracted several hundred enthusiastic participants. The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare Lectures held a session on the importance of vaccinations and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases updated attendees on current issues in infectious diseases in the Asia Pacific region. This year we had many workshops set up for participants to choose from - 10 in all! These included sessions on "HIV/AIDS", "Polio", "No Tobacco", "Diabetes and the role of
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a Community Pharmacist", and many more. This year over 270 participants came from across the Asia Pacific region and for the first time, Australian and Chinese delegates were present. This year's elections for Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) officers were very competitive, with many people eager to contribute. The combination meeting and workshop was both informative and exciting for everyone involved with delegates also deciding that "No Tobacco Pharmacy" would become an official campaign of APRO. APPS could not end without sightseeing in Tokyo and experiencing the culture of Japan. Many enjoyed the cityscape from the Tokyo Tower, Japanese fast food, temples and shrines, and much more!! On the final evening, all participants and staff dressed up to enjoy Gala Night in the centre of Tokyo. People could not pass up a long night of karaoke and very little sleep!
Congresses and Symposiums Despite a few difficulties leading up to the symposium, we were able to end with great success. Once again APRO has continued to grow, with more friends joining in every year. There are increasing numbers of people ready to reunite in Indonesia for the 5th APPS! Since my first acquaintance with IPSF-APRO at the 3rd APPS in Thailand in 2004, IPSFAPRO has been part of my daily life. I felt so content to see everyone fill their bags with souvenirs, their hearts with IPSF- APRO, and faces with smiles. I would also like to say a big thank you to the IPSF Executives who were always there to advise us, the APRO Regional Working Group for being so patient with our "not-always- so-fast" work, all the sponsors and enthusiastic participants, and last but not least, to my team in the reception committee. This symposium could not have successful without you. Finally, I would like to end my report by wishing the best of luck to the reception committee of the 5th APPS in Indonesia. Yours in IPSF-APRO, Megumi Inoue Chairperson of the Reception Committee 4th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium Japan
Development Fund Recipient: Experiencing 4th APPS in Japan My name is Ganesh Prasad Subedi, and I am the Immediate Past President, Contace Person (CP) and Student Exchange Officer (SEO) of the Forum for Pharmacy, Kathmandu University, Nepal. Firstly, I would like to show my heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness to the IPSF-Executive Committee and Development Fund (DF) Sub-Committee for providing me the DF Grant, which made the possibility of our association to represent Nepal in the 4th APPS- Japan. Experiencing the 4th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) in Japan was a lifetime opportunity for me. It was my first international symposium where I could stand among such a large number of pharmacy students. Working in a group to discuss IPSF Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) promotion, attending lectures about vaccine development, and knowing the spirit of Rotary Club were great enough experiences to broaden my knowledge.
I was also glad to learn about the project fair and poster presentation. The tsunami camp run by the Thai pharmacy students was more than enough to prove the professionalism and work done for human kind. Attending workshops and learning the development of the profession of pharmacy in Japan was very interesting too. I have no words to explain the experience of visiting Tokyo Tower and Asakusa Temple. Oh my! Viewing Tokyo from Tokyo Tower was just the most unforgettable moment. I can just remember the view with just the single glimpse of my eye. Tokyo was awesome and so was the symposium. It seemed to be the beginning of the symposium, but unfortunately time was passing at a more rapid pace than we knew. I also had a great hour during the election of the new APRO Regional Working Group (RWG) and also being a part of APRO Public Relation Sub Committee. I would like to congratulate the new executive and wish them success in the good work they do. Another great and most unforgettable moment was that when Anne (past Chairperson of APRO) announced, " The host country for APPS 2007 is Nepal". I was extremely glad that for the first time an IPSF meeting would be held in South-East Asia and that Nepal could be the first country to organise the event. On behalf of the Reception Committee of APPS in 2007 I would like to warmly welcome all the IPSFers to experience the great meeting in the Kingdom of Himalayas. I am also very thankful to Tana Wuliji, Megumi Inoue, Yoko Gocho and all the members of the Reception Committee who had taken great pains to organise the outstanding and memorable Symposium in Japan. Now, I can never stop writing the names of my friends from Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, USA, France (Axel Thomas; room mate), Slovenia (Rok Sibanc: room mate), Taiwan, China and of course, Japan. Last but not the least, I wish a very great success for Indonesia as they host the APPS in 2006 and hope to see more friends in Indonesia. Ganesh Prasad Subedi Forum for Pharmacy (FoP) Nepal
4th - 10th June www.apps2006.com
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Congresses and Symposiums 65 th Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Cairo, Egypt Each year the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) organises an international congress for thousands of pharmacists around the world. IPSF is represented at the exhibition area and develops part of the educational programme. From September 2nd to 8th 2005, I participated in the 65th congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), held in Cairo, Egypt. It was a unique experience, as it was the first time I could attend an FIP congress. The congress venue was beautiful, a brand new five-star hotel especially built for congresses. There were over two-thousand participants with pharmacists from around the world attending. Egyptian pharmacy students joined the congress at the FIP/IPSF Students' Day and many of the old and the new IPSF executive members were also present. The congress theme was "Medicines for all - a human right". The congress programme was very complex, containing sessions about pharmaceutical practice, science and many other topics related to pharmacy such as public health, patient counselling and tobacco free pharmacies. I had the opportunity to observe the FIP Council meeting and the Board of Pharmaceutical Practice meeting besides taking participating in the sessions and both of these occasions were very interesting and informative. The Students' Day's theme was "Access and Equity" and the session was a huge success. The Patient Counselling Booklet, that had been prepared in collaboration with the Pharmacy Information Section of FIP, was also launched at the congress and created great interest. A joint session was also run with with Academic Pharmacy Section that launched the Moving On II research results. All sorts of promotional materials were given out at the IPSF booth.
The congress did not only offer a wide
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range of lectures on attention-grabbing topics, but also provided a good opportunity to get to know practicing pharmacists from different parts of the world and the profession. Additionally, the evening activities made it possible to explore Cairo a little bit. Participants could taste delicious Egyptian food and enjoy the special Arabic atmosphere at the Welcome Dinner, while on the the Nile Cruise, which was organised by the FIP Young Pharmacists Group (YPG), we could view the shores of the Nile and the show of a belly dancer. The International Evening, organised by IPSF and YPG, was a good place to relax, chat, play games, and dance. The FIP Congress was a very special experience for me and I hope I can participate in the upcoming congresses, too! Georgina Gรกl IPSF Secretary General 2005-2007
Joint IPSF - FIP Academic Pharmacy Section Programme at FIP Congress The FIP Academic Pharmacy Section (APS) and IPSF held a joint symposium entitled "Educating Pharmacists to Empower Patients" chaired by Ronnie Hanson, APS General Secretary, Sweden, and Tana Wujili, IPSF, New Zealand. Lesley Zwicker past IPSF Chairperson of Pharmacy Education presented "Students' perspectives on their learning experiences." With data collected in the Moving On II project, she showed how students from over 12 countries felt about their pharmacy education. Generally, students expressed dissatisfaction regarding assessment mechanisms, workload and independent learning. Men and women ranked the indicators opposite by all markers. Data collection was limited and further data collection will continue this year. When it comes to social sciences, such as sociology, history and geography, many students and administrators alike may not see the value of this educa-
tion. Events such as the patient counseling competition are modified needbased social experiences, which are considered by some to be a form of satisfactory social education. Kath Ryan, a sociology and ethics professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand, argued that the loss of the basic social sciences injures the profession because it dose not arm new practitioners with the tools they need to create innovative approaches to health care. Many practicing pharmacists, especially those who move on to become managers and owners, would benefit from more theoretical applications, such as geography, so they are able to understand how best to target the needs of their patient populations and identify ways to provide services. In order to engage students in their education, Janie Sheridan and a group of preceptors from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, developed a week long programme directed at understanding cultural barriers to health care and integrating multiple disciplines in providing health care. While they lived for one week in an indigenous Maori village, the students developed an appreciation for cultural differences in health care. The week also fostered a health care camaraderie between nursing, medical and pharmacy students as the students worked together on projects. The session generated some excellent dialog and was a great success. For more information visit: http://www.health.auckland.ac.nz/ne ws-events/news.html ?id=68&from=headline Ellen Diedrichsen IPSF Chairperson Education 2005-2006
of
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Congresses and Symposiums
Bio V ision Alexandria 2006 New Life Sciences, Changing Lives The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is proudly hosting BioVisionAlexandria 2006 from 26 to 29 April,2006 in Alexandria, an international conference, organised in partnership with The World Life Sciences Forum BioVision, that will blend new and old ideas, inventions, knowledge, and also examine the implications as well as the potential applications of biotechnology. Unique Event BioVision, is a unique international platform, bringing together representatives from society, science, and industry in equal numbers, to discuss, debate and put forth proposals on the major international issues concerning the future of health, food and the environment. Growing International Success The World Life Sciences Forum, BioVision was held in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005 and its next meeting is in Lyon, France from 11 to 14 March 2007. Following the World Forum in February 2001 it was decided to widen the participation from developing countries, with also a wider representation of the Society at large. There was unanimous agreement that in all sectors, the development of BioSciences may have a dramatic impact, and may constitute a unique opportunity for developing countries to move forward. The appropriate use of these technologies, within strict ethical framework, should, at a relatively low cost, transform the living conditions of large populations. The Alexandria Conference, then called the Egyptian Biotechnology Conference, was subsequently developed in 2002, focusing on Life Sciences and Sustainable Development, giving priority to concrete actions between the South and North. As a consequence of the Alexandria Conference in 2002, it has been decided to alternate the two conferences, the World Life Sciences Forum BioVision taking place in Lyon every odd year, while the Alexandria Conference would take place in even years and is officially called the BioVision Alexandria Conference. In 2004, Bibliotheca Alexandrina hosted the BioVisionAlexandria from 3 to 6 April, 2004 in Alexandria, Egypt. The conference was entitled "The New Life Sciences: Ethics, Patents and the Poor" and revolved around Healthcare and the Poor, Agriculture and Safe Food Sufficiency, Exploiting Biodiversity and Protecting the Environment, as well as sessions on Trade, Patents and Developing Countries.
Individual experts from all over the globe, who not only represent virtually all aspects of biotechnology, its applications, and its regulation, but also the many nations of the world as well, gathered to discuss the different topics of the BioVision Alexandria Speakers: -Nobel Laureates -Renowned scientists and eminent figures from around the world. Participants: BioVision participants come from around the world and represent the following communities: -Society - patient associations, consumer groups, environmental organisations, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and other areas of society -Science - public and private research organisations, scientific academies, and research foundations. -Public decision makers - Government officials including heads of state, commissioners, ministers and heads of large international organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Confirmed Nobel Laureates! Peter Agre, Chemistry 2003 Baruch Blumberg, Physiology or Medicine 1976 Peter Doherty, Physiology or Medicine 1996 Eric R. Kandel, Physiology or Medicine 2000 Jean Marie Lehn, Chemistry 1987 Stanley B. Prusiner, Physiology or Medicine 1997 Harold Varmus, Medicine 1989 And more to come‌
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Congresses and Symposiums Date: 26-29 April 2006, Venue: Bibliotheca Alexandrina Language: English and Arabic. Translation is provided The Conference will be attended by experts of highest caliber, Nobel laureates, distinguished keynote speakers, Ministers of Health and Agriculture, and eminent scientists from the four corners of the globe. Themes: Health Discoveries: -Local public health needs, necessity becomes opportunity -Biotechnology for affordable medicines -HIV/AIDS in developing countries: affordable treatments and social intervention -Vaccines for Malaria and other treatments for neglected diseases -Clinical trials and regulation -Emerging health biotech industries in the developing world -Marketing issues for biotechnology products Agri-food and Environment discoveries: -Environmental conservation -Improving nutrition through biotechnology: new examples -Green biotechnology genomics -Genomics and bioinformatics in agriobiotechnology -Novel products from plants -Fertilization of desert and salty areas -Delivery of new agricultural products Registration Fees: Regular fees November 2005 till end - February 2006)
March 2006 and Onsite
Others
Euro 350
Euro 500
IPSF
Euro 90
Euro 120
-Student rates are applied for under- and post graduate students -Special rates for group registration -For more details please visit our website: www.bibalex.org/biovisionalexandria . Register now and receive all the benefits of early registration!
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New IPSF Members The 51st IPSF General Assembly elected two new members into the federation in Bonn, Germany. As new Members in Association, a warm welcome was given to Himpunan Mahasiswa Farmasi Unpad (HIMAFAR UNPAD) from Indonesia and Pharmaceutical Student' Association of Novi Sad (PSANS) from Serbia and Montenegro. The Kuwait Pharmacy Students' Association (KuPSA) had been active in IPSF as a Member in Association before, and was now elected as a Full Member. Congratulations to all three organisations!
Pharmaceutical S tudents' Association of Novi Sad - Serbia and Montenegro In the year 2000, the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro, founded the School of Pharmacy. This October, the first pharmacists will graduate from Novi Sad, which is the second largest city in Serbia, after Belgrade - the capital. Being a freshman in a new-founded faculty required more energy and patience for achieving different goals. At the beginning, students of pharmacy joined two major students' organisations at the Faculty of Medicine, which has a 40 year long tradition, representing students of Medicine and Stomatology. However, because of the specificity of the pharmaceutical profession it became necessary to exchange information and experiences with other colleagues. That's why the contact was made with students of Faculty of Pharmacy in Belgrade - National Association of Pharmacy Students Serbia and Montenegro (NAPSer), which is Full Member of IPSF. Foundations were laid for further cooperation, common activities and friendship. The Pharmaceutical Students' Association of Novi Sad (PSANS) is a new young organisation, founded in October 2003, with the main purpose to help and coordinate work of science and sport sections, to start programmes of student exchange and professional cooperation, to improve the implementation of the Bologna Process at our faculty and, of course, to connect students from Novi Sad with their colleagues all over the world! Up until now, we've organised a few projects underthe umbrella of the European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA), mostly about public health issues. We will be well prepared for clinical pharmacy, since all classes bound with medicine are held by the same professors that teach medicine students. We also have the opportunity to get involved in some projects at the Faculty that are usually prepared only for the future medicine doctors - we are all learning how to work together and combine knowledge in order to improve patient care. I hope that someone from PSANS will be able to come to Cairns next year! It's not only because of the General Assemblies. This was the first IPSF congress for us, and I was lucky to come to Bonn as the representative. My acknowledgements go to the Reception Committee, for all their efforts and taking care of all the details of the event. The union of diversity, I think, is what makes IPSF events great experiences - people are attracted by the same ideas and goals, leading to an incredible atmosphere! It has to be experienced!
Branka Radic, Pharmaceutical Students' Association of Novi Sad (PSANS) Serbia and Montenegro
Himpunan Mahasiswa Farmasi UNPAD - Indonesia I would like to introduce Himpunan Mahasiswa Farmasi Universitas Padjadjaran, or you can call it HIMAFAR UNPAD. First, I would like to introduce you to pharmacy education in our country. Indonesia has about 47 pharmacy schools and the Pharmacy Department of Padjadjaran University is one of them. It's located in Jatinangor Sumedang, on West Java island. The Pharmacy department of Padjadjaran University was founded on 17th of February 1959 and we have two programmes: the four years of bachelor degree and one year of apothecary programme. And now, let me introduce HIMAFAR UNPAD. HIMAFAR UNPAD is a students organisation in Padjadjaran University. The members of HIMAFAR are all students who still run their bachelor degree, and are accepted as members after they passed the orientation time. HIMAFAR UNPAD is divided into four bodies to run the programme well. The Body of HIMAFAR are: General Congress (just like the IPSF General Assembly), Legislative Members Body, Executive Body and Student Activity Unit. We have a lot of activities in our organisation. They are: (1) Leadership Practice where we learn how to become a good leader and perform some role plays in small groups; (2) Pharmaceutical Care Seminar at which we discuss how to improve the pharmaceutical care in our country; (3) Alternative Medicines discussions which is important for Indonesian people, because we think that in Indonesia the alternative medicines are more trusted than the doctor prescribed medicines; and the (4) Drugs Village Post which is a programme whereby pharmacy students of Padjadjaran University go to the villages and give free information to villagers and collaborate with medical students to give the people in Jatinangor /West Java area a free medical check up and free medicines for their illness). We organised our General Congress in October, where we chose a new president for our organisation for the 2005/2006 period.
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Members' Activities This year, at the congress in Bonn, I presented my organisation in the General Assembly room and, luckily, we were accepted as a Member in Association of IPSF. It is an amazing opportunity, because we know that we'll gain a lot of knowledge from every IPSF activity.
IPSF events, and participate more in the decision-making of the General Assembly and all IPSF activities. KuPSA will keep working hand in hand with the IPSF Executive Committee to promote the IPSF goals in the world and especially in the Gulf area.
HIMAFAR UNPAD would like to join every single IPSF activity and also the IPSF campaigns. We really want to join the Student Exchange Programme and if you have any interest to do the SEP in Indonesia, just call us. We'll be honoured to have you here, in Indonesia. We'll also take you around to explore the beauty of Indonesia, the emerald of equator.
KuPSA had a big chance to represent Kuwait at the Congress in Germany. It was an opportunity for us to introduce the Kuwaiti culture to other delegates, especially on the international night, when other delegates joined us for the dance on the Kuwaiti music and were totally impressed by the Kuwaiti national dress and the Arabic coffee and tea taste. We were also amazed to see the culture of others.
Last but not least, we would like to invite you to visit our website www.farmasiunpad.net to find out more about us. See you soon in Indonesia! Syfia Mufiedatussalam Himpunan Mahasiswa Farmasi Universitas Padjadjaran (HIMAFAR UNPAD) Indonesia
Kuwait Pharmacy S tudents Association The Kuwait Pharmacy Students Association (KuPSA) participated in the congress with seven delegates. It was a really a great chance to meet new people and exchange knowledge with them. KuPSA got the honour of being chosen by the General Assembly to be a Full Member in the IPSF. This trust will be the motivation for KuPSA to be an effective member in
In addition, KuPSA had the honour to win first place in the poster competition. Personally, Bonn congress was my second IPSF congress as I had participated at the Halifax congress. It was a good chance to see the old friends and meet new ones. Despite the rainy and cloudy weather, the moments when the sun appeared were really enough. I hope to feel this experience again. KuPSA promises to continue its activities promoting the IPSF ideas and encouraging other pharmacy students to take part in IPSF events. KuPSA will go as far as possible for a brighter future of the pharmacist. Thanks for the trust and see you all in Cairns! Ahmad Saeed Kuwait Pharmacy Students Association (KuPSA) Kuwait
Members’ Activities IPSF member organisations successfully organise and participate in a range of activities endorsed by IPSF, from public health campaigns to surveying pharmacy students.
HIV/AIDS Campaigns AIDS A wareness W eek - USA Societal views towards people with disabling health conditions are often based on a lack of understanding, fear of the unknown, and stereotypes learned from others. Many students enter their curriculum with similar perceptions. Attitudes of student health practitioners are integral to their response towards individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Our attitudes as practitioners ultimately affect patients' understanding of their conditions and their selfconcepts as they adjust to major life changes.
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Today, there are an estimated 40,000 new infections every year, resulting in a steady rise in the number of Americans living with HIV. The United States currently has the highest number of new infections of any developed nation. Despite access to protective methods and the availability of effective therapies, people fail to take the disease seriously and continue to engage in unsafe practices. It is of paramount importance that we, as healthcare providers, communicate that HIV remains a very significant and severe disease. It is because of these attitudes towards HIV/AIDS that AIDS Awareness Week was born at The University of Arizona's College of Pharmacy. At the 2004 inaugural event, students from all professional colleges were invited and came together in a community forum to participate in an educational intervention.
Members' Activities Students, faculty, and members of the community were invited to learn how to become better practitioners and how they can be more involved in making a difference for patients living with HIV. The program was carried out over the course of one week and consisted of a series of speakers. On Day 1: "A Patient's Perspective," the college hosted a panel of patients living with HIV who were also very active in the community spreading awareness of the disease. They spoke about their personal experiences and offered their perspective on the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Day 2, "Grasping Global AIDS," featured the film presentation "A Closer Walk" coordinated by the ONE Campaign and DATA organisations. Day 3, "Bridging the Gap: Transgender and HIV", included another panel of speakers who first discussed the meaning of transgender and the psychosocial issues within this group. They later relayed to students the prevalence of HIV in this group and the fact that despite its preventability transmission rates remain high. On the fourth and final day, "HIV in the prison population," a clinical pharmacist and a clinical psychologist working in the Florence Prison led a series of discussions. The clinical pharmacist discussed drug resistance issues, which are increasing at an alarming rate within this patient population. The clinical psychologist discussed the psycho-social stigma of living with HIV in the prison system, how the disease affects many facets of the prisoner's life in jail, and how, ultimately, many patients will die due to the serious gap in the continuity of care faced by this community. The program aims to broaden the College of Pharmacy's impact on, and service to, the community by increasing awareness of the many facets of AIDS/HIV not only in our community, but also in the world. The event was seen to be extremely successful although there was no data collected to evaluate and quantify its impact. During the second annual HIV/AIDS awareness week, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of this program in educating participants and changing attitudes towards HIV-related issues. Leanna Pugliese University of Arizona College of Pharmacy (UofACOP) The United States of America
AIDS Campaign - Indonesia I would like to share with you the success of our AIDS campaign in December 2004. It was held over the Republic Indonesia Radio, with those around Java able to listen to the programme - an audience of over 10,000 people! We
ran the radio campaign twice, once in Indonesian and again in English. We received a good response from listeners. The campaign opened up many people's minds to AIDS, as many people in Indonesia have strong, negative beliefs about this disease, as if it were a curse. In addition to the radio programme we also distributed brochures and bulletins about AIDS/ HIV across our campus, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and in the largest mall in our city, Bandung Supermall. This was organised with the assistance of the Indonesia health students' network (JMKI). Established in April 2000, JMKI is a multidisciplinary network composed of students of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and public health. To make this network more effective, it is divided into several smaller, regional networks. Besides public health campaigns, other activities include organising symposiums and discussing health policies in Indonesia. Here in Indonesia, we're also preparing the 5th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium in 2006. Everything is going great, and I hope you will come and join in on the events! Yours in IPSF, Audrey Clarissa HMF 'Ars Praeparandi' ITB Indonesia
Who Cares? W e do! W orld AIDS Day in Hungary Although the number of registered HIV positive patients in Hungary is currently quite low (around 1200), we still have to work on preventing an increase in this number. For this reason the Hungarian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (HUPSA) decided to organise a series of events for the World AIDS Day. In the previous year, the campaign was only carried out in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. This year, we wanted to involve the other three pharmaceutical faculties (Debrecen, Pecs and Szeged) in organising this event. The goal was to encourage pharmacy students at all four faculties to improve awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS. Two posters were designed for the World AIDS Day: One about the history of AIDS and the other about the history of condoms. Manufacturers and distributors were happy to donate condoms for this event. Red ribbons were also prepared.
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Members' Activities A 30-item questionnaire on AIDS was compiled to test the knowledge of students on HIV/AIDS. After filling in the questionnaire, trained members of HUPSA gathered with students to discuss the answers and provide more information on the disease. We asked doctors at St. Laszlo Hospital, the only hospital in Hungary treating HIV/AIDS patients, for an article on antiretroviral drugs with descriptions of various medication cocktails used in the treatment of the disease. Organisers in each city collected completed questionnaires and provided a condom and red ribbon in return. They also organised an afternoon when they would display posters in a classroom and speak about HIV and AIDS. In fact, in all 4 cities, members did much more. In Budapest, a get-together was organised where Dr. Zsuzsanna Szabo, a psychologist from the St. Laszlo Hospital spoke about the feelings a person has when hearing they are infected with HIV and described the methods used to treat the emotional/psychological trauma. Endre Miskolczi, the President of the "HIV Positive and Plus" association (a group in which every member has HIV) spoke about his life. He refused to stop working after he had been diagnosed and said he did not experience negative discrimination among his colleagues - this is exceptional in Hungary. A condom exhibition was also prepared in the youth hostel of the Technical University. The event was a huge success. We presented the variety of condoms that can be purchased in Hungary and some unique ones from abroad. The exhibition was used to grab the attention of students so they would come and complete questionnaires. In Debrecen, the questionnaires were completed and the methods for preventing HIV/AIDS were discussed. In Pecs, the film "Philadelphia" was shown and afterwards Dr. Eszter Ujhelyi from St. Laszlo Hospital gave a presentation. Questionnaires were completed and condoms were distributed in the university cafeteria and in classrooms. Enthusiastic students also went to the nearby supermarket to distribute condoms. In Szeged, a full-day program was organised. A photo exhibition was created, Krisztina Sasvari held a presentation on behalf of the Hungarian Red Cross, and HUPSA members participated in the commemoration organised by the Hungarian Red Cross at the main square of Szeged. We believe that those we reached with our campaign will go on to speak with their friends and family members about what they learned. In this way, they too will help contribute to the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Zoltan Vadaszi President 2005-06 Hungarian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (HUPSA) Hungary
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Pharmacy Profession A wareness Campaign in Taiwan The government implemented a policy, which separates pharmacy practice from medical practice in the recent years. Now pharmacy has a little bit of recognition on this policy but not so much. We are trying to make an effort on each aspect to show our profession and our care. We use the IPSF Pharmacy Profession Awarenes Campaign (PPAC) to achieve our goals. There are two main ways PPACs are run in Taiwan; One is organised by pharmacy students, where professors are the consultants. The other way is proposed by the professors to the government's project, where students are the assistants. For the first way, the two regular activities includes "Pharmacy camp" and "Pharmaceutical services team" which is usually held in the winter and summer vacations. The target of the Pharmacy camp is students in senior high school. The main goal of this camp is to make them more interested in pharmacy. The programme includes Potent Medicine, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Medicine Abuse, and other basic knowledge of pharmacy. The Pharmaceutical services team has two targets; one is the junior high school students or elementary school students, the other one is the community of an under-developed village in Taiwan. There are three parts in our services team; two of them mainly hold the camps for the students for different ages, we aim to let them gain more knowledge in basic public health through some interesting activities. The third part is the tour survey and pharmacists accompany us as we provide the basic services for them, such as measuring blood pressure, the value of body fat, blood sugar and glucosuria. Pharmacists are in charge of patient counselling and through this kind of service, we get closer to the villagers to increase awareness of the profession. Now we still have two other projects; "The campaign for drug-free-teenagers via education in elementary schools" and "Community Educational Programme on Pharmacy and Medications". The first campaign was first mentioned in the 2004 IPSFCongress in Canada and I believed that everyone might have a basic understanding about it. We emphasised the assessment of the contents of the primary school textbooks regarding drugs at the beginning, in order to combine drug knowledge with daily life, Pharmacy students took a part in the role plays of "Bear illness" and millionaire game called "Myth of Pills" to instruct primary school children on basic drug knowledge and show them the pharmacist profession. As for the "Community Educational Programme on Pharmacy and Medications" it's a kind of campaign popularising lifelong learning, it's a short-term informal education for the residents living in the nearby community; One goal is to convey correct medicine concepts to the residents, the other is to show them what pharmacists can doto improve their health in a health care team.
Members' Activities Every week there are different pharmacists from various professional specialties, such as community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, and pharmaceutical industry. They teach pharmacy knowledge in variety of ways including discussions, activities and games to create a more active and attractive learning atmosphere. Pharmacy students are the class assistants; they will know what they will be after their graduation and what the residents expect from a pharmacist through this campaign. We are still working hard on spreading pharmacy recognition. I wish we can apply our knowledge well and I hope that one day the masses could give more endorsements to pharmacist's professional skills, furthermore, to reach a well cooperation between pharmacy and medicine. Kevin Huang Pharmacy Students' Association of Taiwan (PSA-Taiwan) Taiwan, China
Patient Counselling Event in Ghana The patient counselling event is organised each year as part of the faculty celebration week. This year was no exception. Some students volunteered to be patients while the others were counsellors. There were preliminary rounds where some of the patients and counsellors were screened to go to the next stages. The judges were lecturers from the faculty and they really did a good job. At the end of the day the best patient as well as the best counsellors were awarded. The cases presented and the medical advice given by the counsellors really was educational enough to help us with our professional knowledge. At the end of the day the judges also took time to explain to us the mistakes made by some participants. It was a very successful event. We hope to continue to have more interesting PCEs in the coming years. Nana Kwaku Mainoo Ghana Pharmaceutical Students' Association (GPSA) Ghana
Patient Counselling Event in Finland The Finnish Pharmaceutical Students' Association (FiPSA) implemented an IPSF Patient Counselling Event in cooperation with the national Pharmaceutical Learning Centre and the local pharmacy schools in November 2005. The event was called "Pharmacy Idols" and was organised at the Pharmacy Days which is the annual conference of Finnish pharmacistsfor the second time.
A jury consisting of university lecturers and communication skills specialists gave feedback to the participants after each section of the competition. A professional actress played the role of a patient and was able to create a feeling of a real patient interact for the participants. There was a different aspect of patient counselling in each three sections of the event. For starters the participants practised discussing challenging topics with the patient without using jargon. After this the participants conducted full patient counselling scenarios. At the end of each section the audience voted for a winning team. The competition was tight and the final section, the climax of the competition, was pharmadrama in which participants acted a patient and a pharmacist. The audience chose the patient's and the pharmacist's mood and the health issue in question. Team members did their best and the audience enjoyed and laughed a lot. This was a wonderful conclusion to the event that was won by team of pharmacists. The lecture hall was full-crowded and the most of the audience wasn't students but graduated pharmacists. The feedback FiPSA got afterwards was overwhelmingly positive. In many people's opinion Pharmacy Idols was the best part of the Pharmacy Days 2005 conference. FiPSA was also very happy with the result and the cooperation with our partners. The event proved studying and learning patient counselling can be entertaining and educating at the same time! Juha MÜnkäre Finnish Pharmaceutical Students' Association (FiPSA) Finland
The event was carried out as an entertaining competition between three teams: one student team from the Helsinki University, one student team from the Kuopio University and one pharmacist from community pharmacies. The Members of the first two teams were 3rd, 4th or 5th year pharmacy students.
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Members' Activities Anti Smoking Campaign in Singapore The National University of Singapore Pharmaceutical Society (NUSPS) recently held a one-day anti-smoking campaign on our campus. Our government actively supports anti-smoking campaigns and this has also always been a key focus of NUSPS. Therefore we are very glad to collaborate with our national Health Promotion Board (HPB) to embark on new anti-smoking efforts. Recently, we supported the HPB on their current webbased campaign, www.iwanttoquitsmoking.com.sg , and we also held a promotion on campus. This web-based campaign provides lots of innovative advice on how to quit smoking and is a great place for smokers to refer to fun ways of quitting smoking alone or with groups of friends! The website also has plenty of interesting sections including calculating how a smoker's life expectancy can be extended if he quits his current smoking regimen and a blog of a real smoker who tries to quit smoking. Do visit the website for ideas!
We had to explain to them that, besides reaching out to smokers, we hoped that non-smokers could play a part in encouraging their friends who do smoke to quit by referring to them to either us or the website. NUSPS will be glad to share our Anti-Smoking efforts with any of you who wish to know more. Viva la pharmacie Yen Fang Lim National University of Singapore Pharmaceutical Society (NUSPS) Singapore
TB Fact Card Project in India It is a great pleasure for me to inform everyone, that today the TB Fact Card Project has become synonymous with community pharmacy and students in Mumbai, India. The project the students took part in, expanded their horizons as it was for the first time they interacted with patients and pharmacists so closely. The platform in the framework of which they were able to interact with each other across different colleges was also phenomenal. The project is almost in its final stage now, but the students' enthusiasm has not ceased at all. Each visit they pay to someone is accompanied by fresh vigour and energy.
For the campus campaign, a booth was set up alongside one of the busiest walkways in NUS and catchy Anti-smoking posters were put up together with an impressive "Cigarette punch bag"! The punch bag drew lots of attention from passers-by, and a significant number of people expressed interest in what we were doing and approached us for more details. Volunteers wearing black tops imprinted with "Nice Lungs" in white helped to distribute tissue packs that had "Best after food" printed on them to signify the alternative to habitual smoking after eating. Quit packs were also given out to passers-by who expressed more interest in the campaign. The packs contained a range of innovative items including magnets with encouraging phrases such as "Persevere, Brighter smile," lozenges, and much more. Through this event we have increased awareness of the importance of anti-smoking on campus as well as providing an opportunity for our volunteers to demonstrate counselling skills. Moreover, the booth was a good avenue for reaching out to smokers who require help to quit but are lost as to how to start. Along the way, we did face some interesting issues, like people rejecting our collaterals because they are nonsmokers.
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The project has done very well in parts of Mumbai that take the brunt of tuberculosis (TB). Patients in those areas and others acknowledge, that pharmacists as well as the students contributed a lot in the fight against TB. Some of the doctors prescribing medicines were also informed about the project by the students and they too, were satisfied with the initiative taken by the pharmacists. We started seeking out more specific feedback from the patients through questionnaires in Hindi language (since it is the most widely spoken and the national language of India at the same time). In the areas of Govandi and Mankurd which bear the heaviest burden of TB, a medical awareness camp is also being planned for December 2005.
Members' Activities The recent visit of Mr. Simon Bell and Mr. John Bell contributed to the enthusiasm of the students. It was nice to listen to them and share their ideas. In India, many people suffer from TB and in such times this project helped not only raise public awareness about the disease but also encourage the people to take their medicines on a more regular basis and thus avoid unnecessary complications. Last but not least, I would like to sum it all up with the following lines: The seeds are sown and the tree is growing. Only time will bear the right fruits for us all. But I am sure that with this kind of right efforts the fruits will be sweet. With every second, the number of people suffering from TB increases and so does the number of those who need our help. The noble cause has just begun, and I am convinced that with a continuing support the project will soon be replicated on a larger scale. Yash Jalundhwala. Student Co-ordinator of the TB Fact Card Project Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) India
WHO Internship in Switzerland I have just finished my internship at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva where I spent 2 months working in the Quality Assurance and Safety: Medicines unit (QSM) under the Department of Medicines Policy and Standards (PMS). Access, quality and rational use of medicines is one of the priority areas of WHO work. There are still many challanges to face taking into account that one-third of the world's population (2 billion) still don't have regular access to essential medicines; counterfeit and substandard medicines are widespread; and irrational use of medicines by prescribers and consumers leads to suboptimal treatment and waste. Furthermore, medicines are essential for the success of many other programmes run by WHO and other United Nations agencies. The main function of the PSM department is to develop, validate, disseminate and promote global policy guidance, norms and standards on pharmaceuticals, including essential medicines which is a very complex and challenging task. Many different projects are run by the PSM department to cover this comprehensive area of work. For example there are teams working on the development and update of the Good Manufacturing Practice standards, on the International Pharmacopoeia, on the development of global nomenclature for pharmaceutical substances (International Nonproprietary names in six languages), on the Pharmacovigilance project and on the assessment of quality and safety of priority medicines for HIV/AIDS, quali-
-ty and safety of priority medicines for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to guide procurement decisions by the United Nations and other organisations (Prequalification project). I'm very glad that I had this great opportunity to work together with the experienced, highly qualified and also very friendly Quality Assurance and Safety: Medicines team and to learn about their everyday work and also about the difficulties and challenges they are facing. My main task during the internship was to establish the Quality Assurance of Medicines Terminology Database that includes the definitions of various terms related to quality assurance of medicines. The database I created is intended to help to harmonise the terminology and shows the inconsistencies that have occured in the past. I was also involved with the update of the Quality Assurance and Safety: Medicines unit website and had the opportunity to attend various meetings and seminars held at the WHO Headquarters. These 2 months at the WHO have been a very good and valuable experience for me. I have learnt a lot about public health and about WHO activities in the area of medicines (see www.who.int/medicines/en/ for more information). I also enjoyed the beautiful city of Geneva a lot and was very happy to get to know the other WHO interns. Antra Zeltina, Latvian Pharmaceutical Student Association (LPSA) Latvia
Moving On II, Move On with Us! The Moving On II Research Group is looking to welcome more members to our family! Moving On II is a questionnaire-based project that studies the motivations, aspirations and learning experiences of pharmacy students worldwide. More than 1800 responses from 12 countries were received in the last round of data collection and we want more! We've heard from a number of new participating countries after the 51st Congress in Bonn, Germany, namely Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Israel, Nigeria, Rwanda, Serbia and Montenegro, Sweden, Tanzania and Thailand. If your country is not already represented in this group, why not join us and make a difference? I am honored to be able to serve IPSF by chairing the Moving On II Research Group this year. Please do not hesitate to contact me at -
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Members' Activities u0204301@nus.edu.sg for any information on this project. Looking forward to hear from many of you! Zhining Goh Chair of the Moving On II Research Group 2005-06 Singapore
Moving On II The Singapore Experience
The project was also used to promote IPSF and APRO to two Malaysian pharmacy schools when they visited Singapore for three-days exchange in June 2005. NUSPS had decided to revive the defunct Intervarsity Event this year and we had students from Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur and Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang over for workshops and games. Interest in IPSF was elicited in our Malaysian counterparts, and Moving On II was used as an example to show how membership in the federation may benefit them. They were then invited to participate by filling in the available questionnaires.
Almost 6 months of waiting, and they were finally here. "They" being the Moving On II questionnaires. The Moving On II workshop at the 50th Congress in Halifax, Canada had sparked off my interest in the project and when I was appointed Education Director for the National University of Singapore Pharmaceutical Society (NUSPS) thereafter, I thought, why not? Why not participate in this project since there is no similar study of its kind here that evaluates students' aspirations, motivations and experience when undertaking the pharmacy course? We would be able to use the results to bridge gaps between lecturers and students with regards to perceptions of the course, address any faculty-student relation issues that may be affecting the course experience and maybe even call for student input in improving the curriculum and curriculum experience. It would also be interesting to see how we compare globally. Why not allow Moving On II to increase our participation in IPSF activities, rather than sticking to the Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaign (PPAC) and the Student Exchange Programme (SEP) all the time? Not only will it create opportunities for greater learning from and interaction with friends from other member countries, we had also hoped that it would increase the credibility of NUSPS amongst the students. Why not use it to promote IPSF to our closest neighbor, Malaysia, and get them to join the federation? After all, our links date a long way back in history, and this would strengthen the Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) too. And so with 320 printed copies of the questionnaires (sponsored by the NUSPS treasury) and a 100% target, I was off. There were announcements about the project to be made and questionnaires to be distributed before common lectures, people in each class to be appointed and coordinated to collect completed copies and work to be divided among my subcommittee members for data entry. Classes had to be visited twice in case people were not at the first session. And because the questionnaires were made available only about one month before the exams, lesson schedules were already erratic, so I typed out the questionnaire in Word format to send out to the students via the e-mail groups for each class. This was also done twice and people sent their replies with highlighted or underlined answers. All these translated to 270 completed questionnaires, and a response rate of about 79%. Well it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I guess it was pretty good for our tiny little country with only one pharmacy school.
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It's crazy, but my main reason for traveling to Bonn, Germany for the 51st Congress was the Moving On projects! From the data entry I had done, I was hardly surprised that the Moving On II results for Singapore turned out negative. The international preliminary results were presented to the lecturers and teaching assistants at our Department of Pharmacy's staff retreat in mid-September this year, to which the incoming and outgoing NUSPS Executive Committees were invited. A number of lecturers expressed being “disturbed� at the results for Singapore, and in view of the time when data was collected, we're considering a second sampling in January 2006 to see if the results would differ. We're also looking into working with our lecturers to do more comprehensive local data analysis and to see if any changes can be deduced. A big thank you to everyone who has helped me in the data collection! Zhining Goh National University of Singapore Pharmaceutical Society (NUSPS) Singapore
V iews from Moving On II Research Group Moving On II is the largest scale student survey ever launched! Of course IPSF is the perfect setting to accomplish such a large scale project. Many students are eager to start collecting data this year and some data collectors from last year have comments to improve the success of Moving On II in your faculty. Students from all over the world had suggestions about getting started with Moving On II. In Nigeria, students from the nine faculties of pharmacy are able to create a network through student presidents of each university to promote the Moving On II project and work together to share information and spread the survey to all students. According to Ugwuanyi Ikechukwu, Nigerian universities are ready to begin data collection this year. Not only is Moving On collecting information, but it is also recruiting new student associations to IPSF. A student from Bangladesh was very hopeful in launching the Moving On II project in his country. He commented on the great disparity between private and government faculties of pharmacy. Some of the universities give diplomas to students who do not always complete the entire curriculum. These students are disadvantaged by poor laboratories and disinterested faculty.
Student Exchange Programme While no barriers to the Moving On project are anticipated the expectation is that the results of the survey will show a gap between view of private and public education systems. Both Slovenia and Romania collected information this past year. Both have tips to improve collecting information, as well as showing the possibility of putting the results into action. Romania became involved after receiving an email asking if we would like to participate in the Moving On II project. It was during our exams period, so it was difficult to find a lot of students in my faculty town. Some of the students go home, to study there. That is the reason for having not so many questionnaires completed. We hope this year to be different. This year we plan to organise a workshop during the National Congress of Pharmacists for an academic session. The session will present the results of Moving On II. It will be interesting to present in front of all the pharmacists and our teachers the students’ opinions regarding the quality of teaching, regarding the way that teachers understand us, helping us with useful information for the future!
After a few months, they received the questionnaires and got started. I printed out the questionnaires, because I thought that was the best way to collect data. Many people erase emails, so if I sent the questionnaire out that way I would have probably not have received even a quarter of questionnaires back. However, even after distributing copies of the questionnaire, I had problems motivating students to fill them in. It was exam time and students may not have been interested in more work, especially when they saw the questionnaire was in English. Even though I told them it was international research, we had a low response rate. I think it would be better to distribute the questionnaire earlier, before exams. During this time many students stay home to study instead of attending lectures. It is also good to give questionnaire before lecture starts and collect them at the end of lecture. Of course questionnaires can be given out on breaks when you can watch students complete and return them at that time. Due to the timing of distribution only about 20 students completed questionnaires. They were distributed at the only pharmacy faculty in Slovenia. When the faculty has almost 900 students, twenty responses are not a large enough sample size to be representative of the whole.
V iews from Moving On II Research in Slovenia
Working with the Moving On II team was a really great pleasure for me. When I had some questions or problems they responded immediately. They made a good spirit in working and collaborating with us "data collectors". And it's really amazing when you see that people can work together even though they are thousands of miles away from each other and that the work has results.
My first "contact" with the Moving On II project was in Halifax at the 50th IPSF Congress last year. I was very interested and joined the Moving On II group. It was the start!
Anja Lampret Students' Section of Slovene Pharmaceutical Society (SSSFD) Slovenia
Anca Pop Federation of Pharmacy Students' Associations in Romania (FASFR) Romania
S tudent Exchange Programme In 2004-05 47 IPSF member associations participated in the Student Exchange Programme. Using the online Student Exchange Database, 500 students were placed around the world to conduct their exchange working in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, research or industry.
S tudent Exchange in Serbia and Montenegro Undoubtedly, many of our roads have potholes. This however, should not deter anyone. My grandmother always says, "If yuh waan good, yuh nose hav fi run" (Jamaican Patois). This means that if you want something good out of life you will have to work really hard to accomplish it. Therefore, when I made the decision to become the first Jamaican pharmacy student to travel to Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro in July 2005, I knew it would have been a challenge. I chose Serbia, particularly because I had an interest in industrial pharmacy, which is not offered here in Jamaica, and I was determined to learn about this aspect of my pharmacy profession. Though there are a few other countries which offered this practice to exchange students, I preferred the package
that Serbia and Montenegro offered. Besides, communication with the Student Exchange Officer (SEO) and Contact Person (CP) of Serbia and Montenegro was excellent. They were supportive and encouraging in every step of the way. I braced myself for the challenges that were awaiting me, which included obtaining all required documents, visa, and seeking sponsorships. Initially, I learnt that there was no Serbian embassy in my country and in order to obtain such a visa, I would have to either visit Cuba or London. Due to reasons beyond my control, I obtained my application for Serbian visa via the London route. This meant applying for a British visa first and then a Serbian visa at the Serbian embassy in London. By this time, my sponsorship letters were futile since most companies had other engagements for the year. Nevertheless, I surpassed all these obstacles.
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Student Exchange Programme By July, I was able to travel to Belgrade. Belgrade at a glance was no doubt a huge city and everything was dramatically different. I was provided with accommodation at a flat that I shared with four other exchange students from different European countries. Shortly after, I commenced working at The Medicine and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia. My first two days were spent learning about this organisation and its role in health care management. One of several pharmacists who works within this organisation was my supervisor and he ensured that each day I learnt something new, not just about the pharmacy profession but also about Belgrade. I was also rotated to the various departments, which included microbiology and chemistry laboratories, pharmaceutical, pharmacovigilance, and clinical trials departments. It was a pleasure going to work daily. My supervisors and coworkers had a positive work attitude and they behaved in a professional manner. Consequently, working within this agency was informative, interesting and enlightening. Within the city a lot of culture and history is displayed, therefore most of my spare time was spent visiting various sights such as the museum, zoo, churches, and different areas of the city by bus and boat. Some evenings were spent dinning at exquisite restaurants, hosting parties at our flat (the most memorable being our international evening) or simply socialising at a pub with the other exchange students. We also went as a group to another pharmaceutical industry, where the process of making small-scale ointment and creams was demonstrated. The group also attended a presentation on M e d i c i n e Management by a very eloquent speaker. My trip to Serbia was very enlightening and most importantly I have achieved my goal, gained insight into industrial pharmacy and experienced a foreign culture. In conclusion, to overcome challenges in life, one should not procrastinate; make early preparations and be positive at all times. As a budding pharmacist, I am more openminded to my profession and I look forward to future roads that will lead to success. I recommend that other students to take advantage of such a lifetime opportunity that is offered by IPSF. Keon Green IPSF Individual Member Jamaica
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S tudent Exchange in Alexandria, Egypt My name is Mariann SemjĂŠni, and I am from Hungary. I am studying at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Debrecen, and I spent my training in Alexandria in this summer. I was very happy to be there, and I think I am so lucky. When I arrived at the Cairo Airport, Mohammed Abd-El-Aal, and Kareem Elgazouly were waiting for me, and from this time they became my best friends in Egypt. They helped me in everything, and planned a lot of programs for me. For example, I visited the Montaza palace, Citadell, Roman theatre and Roman-Greeco Museum, did some. They also brought me to around Cairo to see the famous places, and of course, the Pyramids. The training in the Egyptian European Pharmaceutical Company was extremely useful. I spent two weeks in this company. My favorite department was the Quality Control Unit, but I also liked the other departments. In Egypt everybody was so helpful and kind, so it was easy for me make friends with the students of the Faculty of Pharmacy. I was so happy when I realised that everybody wants to make my time wonderful. So I want to thank all of you for everything, and I hope I will see Egypt again. Best wishes, Mariann SemjĂŠni Hungarian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (HUPSA) Hungary
S tudent Exchange Programme in Finland After the long flight, I finally arrived successfully in Finland. I started hanging around for ten minutes then I found my tutor waving at me, she was so nice and took me to my apartment as well as helping me to carry my heavy luggage and get familiar with Helsinki. It did not take too much time from the airport to the center of Helsinki. The weather was nice, neither hot nor humid. With the breeze in the air, I started to love the city from that moment. Working at the first day I was working at the Faculty of Pharmacy. At the beginning of the first day, we had an orientation, there were two trainees in our pharmacy. One is the Finnish student, and the other, of course, is me. The head of the pharmacy explained the working process and the environment to us. We were very lucky because we communicated with each other fluently in English with little obstacles. He also mentioned the ethical rules and explained all of it carefully and sincerely. It seems that they regard these rules as a priority indeed. After the orientation, both of us, the new
Student Exchange Programme learners, started to follow one specific pharmacist and tried to learn what he did for each. Thanks to other warmhearted exchange students, Aina, who was a German girl, and Aina, a Spanish girl, I enjoyed every weekend during the whole month. We travelled and made plans together. We went to Turku, Porvoo and the capital of Estonia, Talinn. Sometimes we shared our working experience, discussed different professional pharmacy practice and the systems with each other. Furthermore, we had an international dinner together. It was really a fantastic experience to enjoy different kinds of "cuisine". To tell the truth, we found that each one of us is a talented cook! Beside all of that, the Finnish pharmacy students held a kind of welcome party for the exchange students who were leaving or arriving. The party was wonderful since we talked about activities in different countries, or the different exchange programmes of other exchange students from other cities. Above this, there was great harmony amongst everyone in the party. The atmosphere was exciting and the place was so cozy that we even didn't want the party to end. As time went by, I learned about a lot of special systems and cherished practicing skills from the working opportu-
nity. Time passed away very quickly. For me, it was really hard to say goodbye to all the pharmacy staff, other exchange students, my tutor, and of course the city that I've lived in for a whole month. I had the feeling that I will come back again!!! See you Finland! An-Chen Pharmacy Students' Association of Taiwan (PSA-Taiwan) Taiwan, China
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Regions and Allied Organisations IPSF Regions and Allied Organisation The Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) and the Pan American Regional Office (PARO) have been established to advance and support the aims and objectives of IPSF at a regional level. IPSF also works closely together with allied organisations, including the European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA).
EPSA Corner I am happy to have the opportunity to write some words and thoughts to IPSF members about European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA) and possible collaboration between both associations. As I was writing this article, EPSA was actively preparing for its biggest Autumn event, which was the 2nd Autumn Assembly that took place in Amsterdam between the 25th and the 30th of October. The Autumn Assembly consist three major events: EPSA Annual 2nd Congress, EPSA-European Society of Clinical Pharmacists Students' Symposium, and ESCP Symposium. The topic "Student Profiling: Finding the future Clinical Pharmacist" was attractive and future oriented and hopefully emphasised the importance of presence of clinical pharmacist in the public health system. The interest of pharmacy students to attend it confirms that the decision of creating Autumn Assembly was the right decision. Almost 200 pharmacy students planned to come to Amsterdam to meet pharmacy friends from all around Europe. It was also an opportunity for the EPSA executive to present work of association and discuss plans for the future. A kind invitation from Tana Wuliji, the Immediate Past IPSF President, gave me the opportunity to attend the IPSF congress in Bonn for a couple of days. It was very interesting to hold the European regional workshop together with Scott Dalgliesh, the past IPSF Secretary
General. It gave me the opportunity to hear participants' opinions and participate in discussions about possible fields of collaboration between EPSA and IPSF on a European level. Participants of the workshop expressed ideas and wishes, especially about closer collaboration in public health field and common databases which would provide members more information that could be used on the local level. I believe the received feedback gives both Executive Committee members responsibilities to investigate possible collaboration. Another point in which EPSA and IPSF are strengthening their collaboration is through the World Medical and Pharmacy Students' Symposium (WorldMaPS). The first WorldMaPS held in Malta between the 7th and the 12th of November. It will serve as a unique opportunity to bring medical and pharmacy students together. The multidisciplinary programme will give us a lot of opportunities to discuss currently attractive topics and the necessity of closer collaboration between medical and pharmacy professions. It is important to join strength and ideas from all students and professions to ensure better active involvement in health care systems. Events will also bring many opportunities to learn, and hopefully all associations will take advantage of them. Certainly, there are no doubts about the success this event will bring and I am sure it will be a great event with a bright future. At the end, let me congratulate the recently elected IPSF Executive. I wish them and all IPSF members all the best in their future work. Yours in pharmacy, Jaka Brumen EPSA President 2005-2006
Interested in sending an article to us? Your article should be related to the world of pharmacy students, young pharmacists and IPSF. There are no other special limitations on the topics.on the topics. Keep in mind that IPSF is a non-ppolitical, non-pprofit and non-rreligious organisation. All the articles will be reviewed and politically and religiously motivated sentences or paragraphs will be dismissed. The articles should have between 200-6600 words. You can send it to us in MS Word Document format. Do include some photos in publications@ipsf.org JPG/TIFF/Bitmap files. Please send your article and photos to If you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact us publications@ipsf.org or ipsf@ipsf.org
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Regions And Allied Organisations APRO CORNER Greetings from Asia Pacific, The 4th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) in Tokyo, Japan has passed and left us many good memories and wonderful friendship among all participants, as APPS always does. The scientific programmes on the "Public Health" theme has also brought about great outcomes and made an impact on us. I was impressed with the Japanese pharmacist speakers of the workshops I joined, the study tour to the Research Institute and the plenary lectures. I learned a lot about pharmacy in Japanese society and ideas of pharmacists promoting public health. Not to mention how much exercise I got and how interesting getting around Tokyo by foot and train was. I did enjoy experiencing Japanese culture and lifestyle very much, and of course food (yummy and healthy). Best of all, I am now working with my new friends in the Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) Regional Working Group (RWG) for 2005 to 2006. You may have seen my introduction in the Newsletter. So, let me tell you what our plan is and introduce my friends who are working with me. So far John, Nene, Ken, Audrey and I are working very closely to start up things as we had discussed in the 4th APPS meetings and workshops. The strategic five year plan, 2005 to 2010, is going to be worked as a step-by-step process, and before the end of this year, should be done. The Tobacco campaign will focus in our region this year on ways to take action. Szting Ho, the past APRO Permanent Officer, and the IPSF project supporting team are now helping us to do this. We also will focus on promotion to non member countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, China, Phillipines, Malaysia, South Korea and some countries in South Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) along with our up coming 5th and 6th APPS in Indonesia and Nepal. We are organising the "Training for Trainers" programme, which will be happening right before the 5th APPS starts in June. Information and registration is available in APPS 2006 website www.apps2006.com This year we hope to see great collaboration among students in our region. This is because APRO RWG has now been offered assistance by students in many countries to do promotion in their own local associations and non member countries, run the Tobacco Campaign, and assist with publications/translations. The Chairperson of Reception Committee of the 4th APPS in Japan, Megumi Inoue, is now the co-chair of the Federation of the Asian Pharmaceutical Associations (FAPA) student section. This will serve as another way to help us keeping in touch with FAPA. Thank you everyone for supporting APRO and for reading this column! Doungporn Leenanupan (Jang) ARPO Chairperson 2005-2006 apro@ipsf.org, http://www.apro.ipsf.org
APRO Regional Working Group Introductions -Doungporn Leenanupan (Jang) ARPO Chairperson 2005-06 -John Nguyen, Australia Secretary General One of the most active people in his local association, with his devoted and his extensive previous experiences, such as the Chairperson for the Reception Committee NAPSA Congress (2005-2007), Industrial Affairs Subcommittee (2003-present), President Victorian Pharmacy Student Association (2004-2005), Assistant Treasurer VPSA (2003), Young Pharmacist Committee - Pharmaceutical Society Australia (2004-present), Orientation week organiser (2004), Vice President Parkville Multicultural Society (2004), Australian Victorian Health Science Students Association Committee (2004), he will give outstanding output to APRO as the Secretary. -Patcharawadee Burarungrot (Neng), Thailand Regional Relations Officer (RRO) Her previous experience in student organisation includes being the Head of freshman students at Khon Kaen University (KKU), Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science (2003-2004) and Head of international affairs of Student Union KKU (2004-2005).An active young girl from the North Eastern Thailand who always has a smile on her face is exactly how to describe her. She has been a big help to Suneerat (Anne) Jirakriangkai, past APRO Chairperson in promoting IPSF in her school and has always been interested in IPSF. Once she experienced her first IPSF event ,APPS in Japan, she wished to take part in IPSF even more. Her goal to promote IPSF in Indo-China region through her school's connections will be accomplished with her determination. Regional Relations Officer, you go girl! -Fang-Ken Lin (Ken), Taiwan, China Internal Coordination & Communication Officer (ICCO) His previous experience in student organisation includes being the Pharmacy Students' Association of Taiwan (PSATaiwan) Information Administrator (2004-2005) and the Chia-Nan University - Information Administrator (2004present). He is an Information administrator, web designer and web master who has won many homepage design awards. Once you have seen his previous work, you will realise that this is the ICCO we are looking for. -Audrey Clarissa (Au au), Indonesia Chairperson of the 5th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium She is a 4th year student in Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). She is currently the Chairperson of the Reception Committee of the 5th APPS in June 2006. She used to be the IPSF Contact Person for her students' association and had many experiences in organisations (pharmacy and non-pharmacy) and committees. She fell in love with IPSF since the 3rd APPS in Thailand, 2004 and continues to be even more involved since that time. She and the Reception Committee are preparing the best for the 5th APPS, a seven-day symposium with many pharmaceutical and social activities, you can get further information in the website www.apps2006.com. So we hope you can join the APPS, another step to enlarge your knowledge about pharmacy in the Asia Pacific region!
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