What a month it’s been!
As March comes to an end, it’s time for us to reflect on our campaign for Pharmacist Awareness Month 2015. It’s certainly a busy time of year for many people – and organizing a month’s worth of events has proven to be no small feat. The usual questions come to mind: What have we accomplished in the span of four weeks? Have we reached our goals? What improvements could be made in the future? But regardless of how we stack up against our own metrics for excellence, it remains of the utmost importance to keep in mind why we do Pharmacist Awareness Month.
Ultimately, we aim to make a difference through advocacy. And a key part of advocacy is recognizing what it means to be a pharmacist and sharing it with others. Today’s world demands strong co-operation, more involvement and greater responsibility from its healthcare professionals in order to serve the population’s needs. By identifying how the public perceives the profession and reinforcing the right while correcting misconceptions, we can reaffirm our role within the fabric of Canada’s healthcare system.
Pharmacist Awareness Month is an opportunity to connect students, the public, and pharmacy professionals.
At our SUB Pharmacy Fair in the first week of March, pharmacy students shared their knowledge of common conditions and the services pharmacists can provide. We found that many people didn’t know that pharmacists could be a source of information beyond medication, but were impressed to learn the depth and scope of our education! We drew crowds at the grand opening and closing events with several performances by our multi-talented pharmacy students.
During our Pharmacy Information Evening in the second week of March, we brought the future into the fold, playing host to potential pharmacy students from UBC, SFU and various high schools. Participants learned more about the UBC pharmacy program and mingled with current pharmacy students.
At our two symposiums, which rounded out the third and fourth weeks of March, we provided value to current pharmacy students by hosting interactive presentations with several accomplished pharmacy professionals. Even as students we can still be unaware of the countless opportunities a career in pharmacy can offer and these events seek to bridge that gap. Special thank you to our speakers: Dr. Wendy Leong, who discussed her unique interprofessional collaborative experiences in the community setting; and Winnie Ma and the pharmacists accompanying her, who shared their experiences and insight into hospital pharmacy.
And while these events occurred on campus, our community education and outreach programs sought to foster awareness outside of UBC. We organized several community education presentations at high schools. We also hosted a booth at Kerrisdale Community Centre and posted informational posters and information at a number of other community centres.
We hope our PAM 2015 events have brought more clarity to our roles as healthcare professionals in the community. At times it’s been trying and at others, inspiring – but there will always be tremendous value in demonstrating to the world that we are proud and passionate pharmacy students, seeking to positively influence human health and wellbeing.
We would like to thank all the members of the PAM committee for working tirelessly on this campaign as well as the UBC Pharm Sci faculty members for their support, and of course, the many volunteers who offered their time during exams and other obligations to help make our events a success! It was truly a team effort. We can’t wait to see what the next Pharmacist Awareness Month brings!
Your PAM 2015 Co-Chairs,
Elaine Chang and Kevin Sin
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