Stanley Graduate Awards for International Research
This summer I had the opportunity to be involved in the Stanley International Research Grant Program through which I traveled
to The Hague, Netherlands to visit the headquarters of The International
Pharmaceutical Federation and The International Pharmaceutical Student's
Federation. As part of my research, I
visited a community, Regentesee Pharmacy, and a hospital, MCH Westeinde,
pharmacy in The Hague. While there, I
talked to the pharmacists and observed pharmacy operations through which I
learned about the pharmacists training, their current role, and was able to
identify similarities and differences in pharmacy practice between the United
States and the Netherlands. The Netherlands already has technicians verifying
each other's work, while in the United States this idea is just starting to
take ground. This allows the pharmacist to devote more of their time to
clinical activities and management of the pharmacy. I also learned that the community pharmacist
did not consider addiction to scheduled medications a major problem in the
Netherlands though in the United States it is a big challenge. The
pharmacist also spoke of the record keeping they are required to do and the
drug information resources they most utilized. At the hospital pharmacy,
I spoke with both the director of pharmacy and the current pharmacy resident
and learned about the lengthy training that hospital pharmacists receive to
practice in The Netherlands. While
spending time at the FIP headquarters, I interviewed the pharmacists to learn
their current role at the organization and their career path leading up to the
current role. This was especially beneficial for me as a student because
I was able to learn about the wide variety of work that pharmacists can be
involved in. In addition to the interviews, I wrote a short advertising
piece for FIP’s annual 2013 conference. I
also helped Alexandra, the current IPSF chairperson of Media and Public
Relations, by compiling World Congress Surveys to help gauge member feedback on
various issues, which would hopefully influence the direction of IPSF.
Following my time in The
Netherlands, I traveled to London to spend two weeks at the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society to continue my research.
During normal office hours at the RPS, I interviewed seven pharmacists with
different roles at the organization to complete the main focus of my research. In
addition, I assisted the research manager, Rachel Roberts, with analyzing data for
the Community Pharmacy Prescription Interventions project. My primary responsibility
was to find discrepancies in the data and work to resolve issues so that the
Excel files contained the correct totals before further analysis could be
done. I also did some preliminary
analysis consisting of basic statistics and comparing different variables to
each other. I also spent time shadowing
the pharmacists at the Heart Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and the Green
Light Community Pharmacist in London to see pharmacy in action. I found my time at the community pharmacy
interesting because I had the opportunity to observe the travel nurse giving
immunizations and observe a patient taking part in a methadone program for
which he had to drink his medication in front of the pharmacist. I was also
told that all contraceptives are free in the United Kingdom and the cost to the
patient is 7.85 pounds per item. I also
noticed that the method of dispensing is different in both countries where most
medicines already come in 30 blister boxes instead of a stock bottle as it is the
case in the United States. The boxes also contain braille on them which I
though was a wonderful feature to have for the blind. Since, it is hard to get a new license to
open a pharmacy in the UK and most pharmacies are acquired by buying an
existing pharmacy.
My time abroad has been
absolutely wonderful and I look forward to continue helping with the efforts of
IPSF by taking on a leadership position in IPSF. Spending time abroad and
staying with the IPSF leadership team helped me better understand both the work
and rewards of being involved in IPSF at an international level. The Stanley Grant was a great start and
opportunity to begin making international connections since I do wish to be involved internationally in the
future. In addition to helping
individual patients, I hope I can work on international health endeavors that
improve the health of people around the globe.
