My apologies for the lack of photos. But I will try to add in any important contents which we learnt from the conference. So here's Day 2!
After a session of conference business (CB), we had a Q&A session on the pharmacy profession in general. The panel below included key players from the General Pharmaceutical Council, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, RPS Scotland and senior pharmacist from NHS England. In short, a whole lot of sector leaders giving us an insight into the challenges in the pharmacy world today!
In the background shows one of the motions debated during the CB prior to the Q&A session. Yeap, even 1st year students are really into the issues of pharmacy today. C'mon seniors, GET INVOLVED!
One crucial question directed to the panel was about how to address the lack of pre-reg training posts in the future. Some of the answers given was about modernizing the role of pharmacists to one which is more clinically-driven, not mainly dedicated to the dispensing process. It has been said that the reason why the number of training posts not going up is due to the lack of mentoring, training and development in the field of community pharmacy.
There were suggestions to decrease the salary of pre-reg trainees to accommodate for more training posts, but of course, some people don't like that on the reasons of paying for accommodation, survival costs etc. It has also been said that although it may be unfavorable, due to the financial constraints in the NHS, this is probably the way forward and it also encourages employees to work up the career ladder to increase their salary pay.
Another thing said was that the demand for pre-reg training in the field of academia (teaching and research) in Schools of Pharmacy has increased recently. Though it is not very widely available, it is an additional sector apart from the community, hospital, primary care, and industry sectors to do your pre-reg. Of course, one point worth mentioning was that the MPharm degree can be used to venture into jobs not related to pharmacy, due to the uptake of transferable skills such as lab research, management, journal critique etc.
(Reference : http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00434053.pdf accessed on 21/4/2014)
One of the major changes that happened recently was with the pharmaceutical care setting in Scotland (read the paper "Prescription for Excellence" above), which is a good evidence that things can be improved without using excessive funds. It is more towards a change of mindset (something I'm trying to do here) on the things pharmacists can do to contribute towards an efficient healthcare force. Go and have a read, learn from Scotland!
One of the new concepts we were introduced to is that there is an increasing uptake of the trend to do E - SHOPPING. Although it may not be feasible now, there could potentially be the future of having medicines bought over the internet, somewhat like Amazon or Ebay. Now, if we pharmacists don't do our job well in terms of counselling and promoting health, then what is there to stop the rise of e-shopping, which is hassle-free, less human mistakes, more informative and widely available? This is something we should think about as we will eventually lose our role if we don't produce enough evidence and results to show how important we are!
Alright, enough of work! Now, dinner and socials!
Our Nottingham delegates dressed up for the night. Theme: Formal Business Attire
The night was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) dinner, which involved the presentation of the Reckitt Benckiser "Student of the Year Award". How do you win this competition? Well,....
It is true! I spoke to the finalists myself. You could win a tablet if you were the finalist. So look out for Reckitt Benckiser competition next year!!!
Many key individuals were there, including those from the RPS, GPhC, and even from other countries! So much opportunities to meet your future employers and learn from the experts! For the rest of the night, I'll let the pictures do the talking.
DAY 3!
Wow there's four more days to blog about! After some more conference business (sorry I did not remember in detail what we debated, there were so many!), we had smaller group sessions with the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA). As you guys know (probably), PDA is an avenue for pharmacists and even pre-reg students to seek advice on legal disputes. Many of the problems PDA give legal guidance to is on civil claims against pharmacists regarding mistakes (such as dispensing wrong medication to patients), compensation to patients (such as in negligence of care), regulatory cases (fitness to practice of pharmacists) etc.
The most interesting part was when the PDA conducted a workshop on a case study regarding Student Fitness to Practise. We were divided into three groups, namely the Prosecution Team, Defence Team and the School Committee (neutral). Based on a scenario, we were instructed to devise questions to ask the pharmacy student, pharmacy supervisor, and other witnesses to gather the evidences and decide whether to impose any penalties onto the student. This was very enlightening as it clearly reflects the complications in the disputes of pharmacists, and how important it is to seek legal advice when you have a problem.
We were given an anology,
"There was a bird that lived at the farm. One day, the bird stopped by near a cow and the cow happened to take a dump on the bird by accident. The bird tweeted repeatedly until a cat noticed it and came over. Digging the bird out of the mess, the cat then immediately gobbled it up.
One day we may just be like the bird. Not everyone who takes a dump on you is your enemy, nor everyone who saves your from the mess is your friend. So when life takes a dump on you, keep your mouth shut and call PDA!"
I'm not trying to promote the PDA here, but this is really important! There will always people who is willing to take advantage of the situation, so always seek for legal advice!
Moving on, we had a Q&A panel regarding hospital pharmacy! In this one hour,basically there were many questions thrown at them, from how to address the medication wastage issue, how to secure a hospital placement for pre-reg, to things like how do you cope with deaths in the hospital.
It was mentioned that, although we always look for the benefits of the pre-reg in hospitals, it is important to also keep in mind what you can offer to the trust or the job position. Regarding to how early we should go up the career ladder, the panel advises that in hospital pharmacy, there is so much opportunities to venture horizontally (in terms of the career ladder) and pick up skills in many other departments. This is much more favorable than just working up the career ladder vertically as you will need to understand the processes in many other departments and areas before being suitable for a managerial role.
In terms of split placements for pre-reg, it has been argued that this gives more opportunities for students to explore the hospital environment, as well as to experience as many different sectors of pharmacy as well. Although this is true, we have to consider from the employer's point of view as well. The panel mentioned that some employers wish to use the pre-reg year to train up students to be future employees at the trust, moreover the pre-reg post is fully funded by the hospital. Hence, it is not that viable to have students who have not decided on their future and train up another fresh qualified pharmacist from scratch again.
After that, we had a session with the European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA), which is the European version of BPSA. There is actually many programs catered for us, which is really beneficial, such as student exchange programs (such as TWINNET), EPSA training projects (to develop important soft skills), Drug Information Association (DIA) meetings and poster presentation awards (present your research poster which you have done in uni). We also had a little workshop discussion session to think of ways to spread the awareness of EPSA, one of which is these newsletters below :
(Reference : http://www.epsa-online.org/index.php/publications/newsletters)
Do subscribe and read these EPSA newsletters to find out more!
Wow, what a post! To finish off day 3, I have a little pic here (courtesy of chloe) to sum up our buffet night sponsored by the PDA! There was also a charity auction session, in which you can donate your stuff and have other delegates buy them, with the money going to charity! Sometimes the Pharmaceutical Press also donate some text books which you can get at a lovely price, all for the goodness of charity!
Theme : Traditional Dress. Look out for day 4 and 5!
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