Passion for Pharmacy

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم

In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful

Passion is what drives me.

Passion towards pharmacy profession motivates me to strive my best in academics.

Passion towards my family is what pushes me to be a good daughter and sister. (I hope I am one)

Passion towards Allah (God) is the essence why I try to be a good muslim.

I think what a country needs, what its citizens need, what you and I need to succeed in this world, is just that; PASSION.

What is passion?

Passion is love, the strongest love you feel for something. So powerful are your feelings for it, that you are willing to sacrifice anything just to see it succeed, or make it happy.

Passion for pharmacy

July 2012 is a month I will remember as the time I got my passion for pharmacy.

If you asked me three years before: "Why do you want to be a pharmacist?" I wouldn't have an answer for that. In fact, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a pharmacist.

Today, I am more than happy to answer you: "Each and every profession is special. Everyone has their own purpose in this world. I believe God has put me on this path as my way of contributing to society, specifically, for their health and well-being. That is my belief."

APPS Taiwan 2012 

APPS (Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium) 2012 in Taiwan encapsulates the best memories during my years as a student. 

Taiwanese people have captivated my heart with their polite attitude towards foreigners, even though they were not used to seeing women wearing head scarves on a daily basis. Even the cleaners were very helpful to me in the restroom. I think of them up till today and still marvel at their amazing culture of helping others when language was obviously a barrier for us. Like my friend Elina likes to say, "Macam ayam cakap dengan itik (like chickens talking to ducks)." 

Aside from the captivating culture and beauty, the symposium itself was really beneficial. The theme was 

"Drug safety and Pharmacist Responsibility." 

Want to know a secret? But don't tell anyone! ...I'm not a very umm..active listener in talks, if you can read between the lines. (read: doze off)

But, I am pleased to tell you that I did not come home empty handed.

One of the talks which caught my attention was about "Asia Pacific Pharmacy Education" by Asso Prof Chan Sui Yung from National University of Singapore (NUS). I was very into the idea of educating the students first about the fun in pharmacy profession, because I believe to get the public to acknowledge us pharmacist in Malaysia for instance, we absolutely must get the students first to be proud of their Bachelor in Pharmacy. If the students are not passionate about their own field, how can they project the love that is not there?

Where is the love, the love, the love..

Various workshops were held in which we were required to choose one. there were Patient Counselling Education (PCE) workshop, Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaign (PPAC) workshop and other interesting topics.

But the best part for me was the atmosphere. Making friends from various countries, getting to know their different pharmacy education systems and just working together, wow..is a "wow" experience I definitely am eager for more. I will miss them a lot.

Group 6! Miss all of you!

If you..yes you dear reader (smiles), happen to be one of the committees, then I sincerely thank all of you for your dedication and hard work in making the experience worth reliving every day. I had such a great time getting to know Taiwan and your education and practicing pharmacy systems. All of you are super amazing! Thank you so much!

at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

NoGAPS 2012 at UiTM Puncak Alam

One week after coming back from Taiwan, I joined NoGAPS at UiTM Puncak Alam. It was my second NoGAPS after AIMST 2 years ago.

It was enjoyment all over again, meeting pharmacy students from over 15 universities in Malaysia, working together in workshops, performing together during Creactive U, running up and down the 201 steps during explorace, and teaching kindegarten kids on health issues and playing science experiments in COP, Community Out-Reach Programme (which were more like magic tricks to them). 

Listening (yes, this time I was all ears) to various Professors and practicing pharmacists during PCE workshops and symposium injected the "Passion Serum" in me. I felt motivated and eager to share with fellow classmates what I had experienced from their talks. 

The juicy bit

Dear readers and fellow pharmacy mates,

Do you what I have come to realize?

I realized that pharmacy is a field that is ever-changing. You will always hear these words: "ever-changing", from our senior pharmacist already working in the field. 

We have a variety of settings to choose from, be it clinical, retail, industry, enforcement and education (lecturers). See, just learning one degree and you can become at least five professions in your lifetime! Maybe you feel like diving into industry first. If you get bored after five years, switch to hospital. 10 years later, you can join the education team. Isn't pharmacy cool? (smiles)

This is the juicy bit about becoming a pharmacist.

A pharmacist can contribute in multitude of ways to help patients maintain a healthy living and cure diseases through the use of medications.

But we must first strive to earn the patient's trust. And how do we do that?

Learn properly. Be passionate when learning the horrible Medicinal Chemistry, or the mind-boggling Physical Pharmacy. Be thankful guys, that we are still students. This is the time to make mistakes and learn the right solutions. Because the next time we make mistakes, it will be at the cost of a patient's life.

This is what July 2012 has taught me. This is what Allah has taught me.

To be thankful of where I am right now, and to make the best of it.