Training pharmacy students
IN efforts to better meet the training needs of a new generation of healthcare professionals, simulation-based education is growing and evolving rapidly.
Often, a pharmacy school’s access to authentic pharmaceutical industry training is limited.
Simulation, thus, offers junior students preliminary insights into pharmaceutical production processes and challenges, and helps prepare them to undertake workplace learning in their later semesters.
The International Medical University (IMU) Bachelor of Pharmacy’s Model Industry Concept (MIC) was introduced in 2008 for this purpose.
This MIC simulation adds value to learning by enabling students to undertake collaborative learning with a high degree of autonomy, as well as to develop and demonstrate leadership and team-working traits such as assertiveness, effective communications, responsibility, accountability, mutual trust and respect.
Since its inception, the MIC has continued to evolve and includes students from the BSc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
The 2017 MIC students acquire knowledge through talks from industry experts, through videos and virtual learning, on pharmaceutical production, quality control and assurance processes.
Knowledge acquired helps pharmacy students fill the gap between classroom learning and workplace learning.
The simulation provides a good mental picture of what to expect when the students undertake their industrial placement in Year 4.
Teams of students then showcased their learning by describing principles of Current Good Manufacturing Practice and their applicability to the production and quality assurance of pharmaceuticals.
Ethical considerations relevant to the evaluation of drug products in humans were also discussed.
The final part of the module familiarises students with pharmaceutical industrial practice.
The closing MIC event held on Sept 29, 2017, was an open exhibition of the student team posters at the Bukit Jalil campus.
Visitors, including faculty and students of all schools in the university, were able to gain insights regarding pharmaceutical industry processes.
The posters were assessed collaboratively by the Pharmaceutical Technology faculty together with pharmaceutical industry experts and the students themselves, using a process of peer evaluation.
The pharmaceutical industry experts provided valuable, realworld feedback on the posters.
They agreed that the MIC is a good platform for students to understand industrial processes and regulatory control, helping prepare students for workplace learning in the pharmaceutical industry.
Commenting on the experience, Melissa Teng Li Quinn said, “The MIC sparked my interest to explore industrial pharmacy, especially the area related to bioequivalence study, for the formulation of generic products. This implies that medications can be made more affordable for patients. I am glad that our perseverance and hard work paid off by winning the Best MIC Poster Award.”
Another student, Wong Xin Yun, commented, “We feel such pleasure in getting the first runner-up prize in the MIC poster presentation. Thanks to my colleagues for their effort and our collaboration.
“Also, thanks to IMU for giving us a chance to showcase our ideas on the poster. This competition should be held for our juniors, too.”
IMU’s Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) students have the option to transfer credits in their first two years’ curriculum to the pharmacy programme in the University of Otago, New Zealand or University of Tasmania, Australia.
These international partnerships are a clear testament to the alignment of IMU’s innovative education to global standards.
Students can also complete the entire four-year pharmacy degree in IMU.
The next commencement for the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) programme is in July and September.
Those keen on a diverse career involving the safe and effective use of medicines can apply online for IMU’s pharmacy programme today.
Those who have just completed their SPM and do not have pre-university qualification can consider enrolling in the oneyear IMU Foundation in Science – the preferred foundation and direct route for entry into any of the university’s degree programmes.
The next intake for the Foundation in Science is in April.
■ For details, visit www.imu.edu. my, e-mail start@imu.edu.my or call 03-2731 7272.