Author: ellso950

Last week was the annual NZAPS-O Pharmacy awareness week  – 24th-28th September.

We stepped up our game this year with jam packed week of activities as shown below:

Cuddle fix was coordinated by our marketing representative Emma Gray with the support from North Otago SPCA.
Three beautiful doggos came along for cuddles.

 

Tuesday we had the pharmacy quiz night. Associate Professor Joel Tyndall was our MC for the night. The turn out was fantastic and we had some awesome prizes to give away thanks to Larson’s Pharmacy, Tokyo Express, Rob Roy Dairy and Go Healthy.

 

Patient Counselling event on Wednesday was highly competitive this year with a high standard of students entering. Congratulations to the winner of the day Kayla Waters!
We had ten pharmacy students donate blood this day also, saving 30 lives!

Thursday we gave back to our NZAPS-O members by offering free goodie bags. These contained a range of small keepsakes such as a bottle opener, stress ball, cell phone popsockets, a notepad and confectionery.

 

President Laura Pidcock and SEO/Welfare Rep Nadine King offered free blood glucose and blood pressure testing outside of Centre City Pharmacy Dunedin on Friday. They had 50 people take part in this – it was a great success.

 

The instagram frame competition also increased a lot of exposure for pharmacists. We randomly chose three winners to get a prize.

 

Thanks to everyone involved who made this week possible! Special thanks to the 2018 Executive, Te Puna Kaitaka and the Pharmacy Awareness week committee members for all their hard work.

On Saturday 15th September we had our annual Go Healthy Pharmacy Ball. The theme this year was Casino Royale, and it was held at the Savoy.

Everyone arrived full of energy down the red carpet, claimed their welcome drink and enjoyed the live singer with much excitement until the DJ came on.

Everyone danced the night away and enjoyed the delicious nibbles! A big thank you to our sponsor Go Healthy.

The following awards were announced:

• Best Dancer – Ben Mwangi
• Biggest Balls up – Jesse Jordan
• Bachelorette – Anneliese Cooper
• Bachelor – Joey Chan
• King and Queen – Stephanie Murphy and Aaron Walker

 

 

On Friday evening we had our NZAPS-O annual general meeting. Congratulations to our new executive team for 2019! We wish you all the best.

President: Rebecca Angus
Secretary: Emma Gray
Treasurer: Ella Mountstevens
Education: Judy Park 
IPSF Contact Person: Callum Porter
Student Exchange Officer/Welfare: Daniel Lim
Social: Bella Mcloughlin
Sport: Tasia Sissing
Marketing: Ollie Sibanda
Revue: Glenn Wallace

Congratulations is also in order to the recipients of the NZAPS-O award: Devon Crooks and Prashikha Chand.
We truly appreciate the huge time and contribution these girls have given to NZAPS-O over the last few years.

The 2019 Executive from back left: Glenn Wallace, Callum Porter, Bex Angus, Tasia Sissing, Bella Mcloughlan, Daniel Lim
Front: Emma Gray, Ollie Sibanda, Judy Park

Prashikha Chand – One of the winners of the NZAPS-O appreciation award. Photographed with Polo Nguyen.

Three Generations of Marketing Representative

Three generations of social representatives.

2018/2019 Executive together

This month some of our P4s have been busy completing a first aid course. Each year NZAPS-O organises sessions through Red Cross for our members. This year 42 students took up the opportunity.

Although we had to give up a whole Saturday (or Sunday), at least the first aid smartphone app preparation modules meant an extra half day wasn’t required!
I hope everyone that attended learned something, and feels as though they would be able to act when necessary. Those that attended are now trained in the “DRSABC”, giving CPR, helping a choking person, dealing with a bleed, and so much more.
I hope we never have to use these skills but I’m glad we will be able to act when necessary.
We are required to hold a current first aid certificate (check PCNZ website for standards
required) when applying for registration as a pharmacist at the end of intern year. It’s a
good idea to get it out of the way before the busy intern year begins, is something extra to put on your CV, and it’s fun to complete it with pharmacy peers!

Keep an eye out for details in your final year.
Shout-out to Red Cross for providing courses at a discounted rate for our students.
– Jemma Fielding, Education Representative

This year’s revue was based on the classic Star Wars Saga.

Darth Ventolin and Emperor Palpation have devised a scheme to dispose of our favourite lecturers in favour of a new curriculum. The only hope of stopping their evil plan from coming to fruition lies in the form of a ragtag team, comprised of some hopeful pharmacy students, some sex robots, and a couple of Pharmacy’s seediest lecturers.

The road to the show was a long and bumpy ride, but thanks to the determination of pharmacy’s most talented individuals, it was a huge success.

I’ve been a part of the revue for the past three years and I have to say this year’s was probably my favourite. I’m definitely going to miss it next year, but I think the world has had enough of me and my horrible jokes.

I wish good luck to all the future Revue rep’s, but just know you will never be as good as me.

Mitchell Smith – Revue Rep 2018

 

NZAPS-O Pharmacy Awareness week is creeping up fast! Events will run from the 24th-28th of September.

Thanks Pharmacy today for the article on our upcoming “Pharmacy Awareness Week” Campaign!

You can read it here:

https://www.pharmacytoday.co.nz/article/news/one-day-not-enough-celebration-pharmacy-say-otago-students

To follow our Pharmacy Awareness campaign and get updates on what we are doing, join the facebook event here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/260429994585837/

 

On Wednesday the 23rd August, Nick Taylor from GO Healthy hosted a presentation for NZAPS-O students to inform us about a range of their natural health products. They have also given our fourth year students an opportunity to fill out a ‘GO Healthy Training module’ booklet. These have both been extremely useful in getting to know more about some of their products so we can provide the best patient care possible in our practice as future pharmacists!

GO Healthy have backed NZAPS-O for a number of years and we are extremely grateful for their ongoing support.

Thanks Nick and thanks GO Healthy!

– Laura Pidcock

By Laura Pidcock

Ruby, Nadine, Grace, Callum and I have been lucky enough to attend the IPSF (International Pharmaceutical Students Federation) World Congress in Mendoza, Argentina this year.

This year the Congress revolved around the theme ‘From lab to counter: The different pharmacists’ profiles and their constant contribution to global health‘ which the hosting committee chose to base their educational and scientific seminars off, in conjunction with the health campaigns and work shops which were attended by our delegates. We learnt about many drug developments, pharmacy policies, and other common diseases in Argentina.

Ruby our Contact Person (CP), Nadine our Student Exchange Officer (SEO) and myself as the President also represented NZAPS-O in the IPSF General Assembly as Official Delegates. Here we were given the opportunity to voice our opinions on an international scene and partake in voting upon policies and amendments as NZAPS-O are full members of the federation.

The importance of NZAPS-O remaining a part of IPSF is insurmountable. It enables us to network with pharmacy students’ associations from around the globe, regarding their activity in various public health campaigns and assists us in building connections for all the incredible student exchange opportunities. And of course, much more.

Meanwhile Grace, Callum, and myself participated in public health campaign where we set up a stall in the middle of the city and carried out blood pressure and glucose tests on the public aswell as educating the locals (in Spanish) about Chagas disease, a common parasitic infection cause by the ‘vinchuca’ bug. The first symptoms are a swollen eye and is a common cause of death in Latin America.

 

This opportunity presents a unique way to form lifelong international contacts and bring back the knowledge of the pharmacy profession overseas to share with colleagues and implement in your own personal development as a pharmacist.

If you think you would be interested in learning more about IPSF and representing NZAPS-O on an international stage, please message Ruby Gallavin or Nadine King if you have questions. I STRONGLY suggest that if you are considering running for the position of CP or SEO you apply to attend the World Congress in RWANDA next year in 2019.

Here’s a few photos of what we have been up to:

On Friday 10th August, we held a new social event on the calendar – the lab group BYO and Pharmacy Stein! The aim of this event was to give everyone the chance to get to know their lab groups better as well as meet new people across the different year levels.

Student BYOs were split into the different lab groups (A,B,C,D) creating a mix of students across each year group. We kicked off with students from group A at Tokyo Garden, group B was at India Gardens and Group C and D were combined at The Marajahas. Everyone enjoyed their meal and it was great seeing a lot of socialising across the year levels!

With tummies full of curry and Japanese we all headed to Starters bar, the DJ kicked off at 9pm and everyone had a great time dancing all evening!

We hope to see this event run again in the future and improved! Well done to social rep Bex Angus (and the rest of the executive) for organising such a successful event.

Thanks to Tokyo Garden, India Gardens, Maharaja’s and Starters Bar for their support.

 

Two weekends ago, the annual inter-pharmacy sports was held, and there was fierce competition from each year group. The sports started at an early 10am with Netball numbers not as prolific as hoped, but still having enough for a competitive game.

The numbers then sky rocketed in time for the basketball, with the P4’s taking out both the P2 and P3 teams on their way to basketball victory. New faces then arrived and were ready to play some indoor football, with again the P4 asserting their dominance and beating both the P2 and P3 teams again, to be crowned the inter-pharmacy champions.

Well done to everyone who turned up and made it a great day, and congratulations to the P4 champions!

A special mention to our Go Healthy spot prize winners James Walters (P4), Ben Mwangi (P3), and Jenna Maia (P2) for their dedication and sportsmanship.

(Photo credit: Kevin Lee)