This is baddd

Too tired to post yesterday after deciding to stay the whole stretch of the NSU open house on Saturday. I went for every open house since year 2 - hoping to open the eyes of my future juniors.

More often than not, prospective students will put their choices as such - Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy - nursing not counted in yet as it is in its infancy and I personally feel that the course should be exploited more by the Nurs Dip. students.

(Just to add on, I do not know if the centre head for nursing knows that the striping on the missy uniforms [orange one blue on white] machiam looks like it had been cut from the pharmacology department's lab coats)

Many students who wanted to come into pharmacy thinking it was a branch of life science (harrrooozzzz we a lot older dept than life science) and there are bridging courses available. The sad thing is not - we need BOTH bio and chem A-levels (H2) as you'll be thrown into the higher levels of biology and organic chem from day 1. No slacking allowed. We are not a branch of life science or a mere biological discipline - we are a profession degree course catered to improve the lives of patients' through proper use of drugs.

I would like to appeal to the healthcare professionals in Singapore - PLEASE HAVE A SCHOOL / FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES - Pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, medicine and other auxcillary health science instead of one faculty of medicine, one under science and another dentistry (punny cohort) - very confusing leh.

Some students want to apply for the course but they are very uncertain about the profession. Perhaps having being moulded by family, friends or black sheep, they come to believe that pharmacists are mere storekeepers of drugs and medicine packers. I had a hard time explaining to 2 potential students who have the misconception of pharmacists standing behind picking and packing - for that we have the help of PTs - Pharmacy Technicians.

I always remember the words of my idol - "Whenever you do something in the pharmacy, trying to think whether this is what you should be doing. If your pharmacy is very busy and there is a backload of scripts to pack, just help out -but remember to ask yourself if you should be just packing medicines. Your place is in front of the pharmacy helping patients and providing them pharmaceutical care."

Pharmaceutical care is something very foreign concept to the local healthcare professionals - a lot of them (may include some of my own kind) do not know how to place pharmacists. Bulk of the patient's bill often comes from taking medication and some patients are resistant to taking something foreign into their body - this places us in possible bad light. The amount of money a pharmacy handles can be a crazy sum, but we are not money guzzlers - we are there to help the patient get well in the best possible manner.

Let's look at the definition of Pharmaceutical care:

"Pharmaceutical care is the responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that improve a patient's quality of life . \

These outcomes are:
(i) cure of a disease
(ii) elimination or reduction of a patient's symptomatology
(iii) arresting or slowing of a disease process or
(iv) preventing a disease or symptomatology.

Pharmaceutical care involves the process through which a pharmacist cooperates with a patient and other professionals in designing, implementing, and monitoring a therapeutic plan that will produce specific therapeutic outcomes for the patient.

This in turn involves three major functions:
(i) identifying potential and actual drug-related problems
(ii) resolving actual drug-related problems
(iii) preventing drug-related problems.

Pharmaceutical care is a necessary element of health care and should be integrated with other elements. Pharmaceutical care is, however, provided for the direct benefit of the patient, and the pharmacist is responsible directly to the patient for the quality of that care. The fundamental relationship in pharmaceutical care is a mutually beneficial exchange in which the patient grants authority to the provider, and the provider gives competence and commitment (accept responsibility) to the patient.The fundamental goals, processes, and relationships of pharmaceutical care exist regardless of practice setting."
-Helper, D.D. & Strand, L.M., Opportunities and Responsibilities in Pharmaceutical Care, Am.J. Pharm.Educ., 53, 7S-15S(1989).

PS, those going for discretionary interviews - please know the profession - it will also help you on in a better path in life. The profession may not be what you want to be in. Alternatives are out there as well. We are looking for people who can bring the profession forward, not a step back.

You get mixed reactions when you hand out procedures - some "eee"s, some "no thanks. Oh pharmacy ar?! i wan", then there are some (especially the Caucasians) who go, "Oh! Pharmacy." May be it could be because of my monstrous face that should be buried in the depths of the ground never to be seen ever or something. For some reason, I was only one giving out fliers at the front end while most of the people are clustered in the booth squeezed right at the corner. Hmmm, can we like get some pretty ladies or handsome guys out to give fliers out. May be because of out triple serving of tests this week that made everyone stay at home? Tests fly by all the time - just take it in stride.

I supposed some already had made their decision to join the healthcare sector and decided not to come for the open house. But then they would follow the usual ranking, wipe out all those with not so good grades by placing pharmacy as their 3rd choice and decide to fume when they got their 3rd choice. I think there is a need to come out with an algorithm to make selfish people suffer !!! I'm one of the few people who placed pharmacy as my first choice and medicine at the bottom just to fill out the blanks >.<. How about the others who feel strongly about the profession by don't make the cut because the straight As-ers put pharmacy as 3rd? Unfair hor? In the end they cause the shrinkage of the co-hort by flying off overseas or appealing to get into medicine =.= Really chian bian.

What differentiates us from Life Science, Medicine, Nursing grads? Let's take a drug like liposomal doxorubicin:

Doctors - Know on who to use, when to use, roughly how much to use
Nurses - Know how to administer
Life scientists - research, manufacture, molecular make-up
Pharmacist - should have the knowledge of all the above (albeit the hands-on bit), accurate dosing, manufacture, storage, stability, interaction and accurate dosing in certain age groups and co-morbidities - we are usually the ones carrying calculators and PK is something unique to us that we should embrace.

Even as a pharmaceutical rep, compared to sales reps who hold other degrees, they are able to use jargon and be on par with doctors and fellow pharmacists. They would also be able to explain better on use, interaction, storage and even medicinal chemistry of the product they are selling.

So, incoming juniors, choose your poison carefully.