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Simon Bell, of Sydney, Australia,
is currently president of the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation
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The International Pharmaceutical Students Federation (IPSF)
is the oldest faculty-based international student organisation in the
world. As a non-profit,
non-political and non-religious federation, the IPSF is a global network
connecting pharmacy students from a diverse range of backgrounds and
geographical locations. The IPSF is run entirely by motivated and enthusiastic
pharmacy student and young pharmacist volunteers from around the world.
The International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation
The International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation was
established in 1949, following an initiative by the British Pharmaceutical
Students’ Association.
It is a non-political, non-religious organisation currently represented
in 74 countries. It has 33 national pharmacy student associations
as full members, plus a number of local student organisations as
associate members. Individual membership is available to students,
new pharmacy graduates and pharmacists who have been registered
for less than five years.
The focal point of IPSF activities is its 10-day annual congress.
This includes general assemblies, at which policy issues and future
projects are discussed, plus symposia, workshops, a poster exhibition
and social activities. Jointly with the International Pharmaceutical
Federation, the IPSF also presents a
students’ day during the annual FIP congress.
IPSF projects include work on national and international educational
and health issues and “village concept” schemes, in
which pharmacy students work with others to improve the standard
of living and health conditions in remote areas of developing countries.
A student exchange scheme gives IPSF members the opportunity to
work in a branch of pharmacy in another country for a short period.The
federation’s publishing activities include project reports
and a thrice-yearly newsletter.
Those wishing to support IPSF through individual membership should
apply to the IPSF Secretariat, International Pharmaceutical Federation,
Andries Bickerweg 5, 2517 JP Den Haag, The Netherlands
(tel +31 70 3 63 1925; fax +31 70 3 65 9047; e-mail ipsf@fip.nl;
website www.ipsf.org). |
The
IPSF secretariat is co-located with the International Pharmaceutical
Federation (FIP) in The Hague, The Netherlands. In 2001, the IPSF adopted
a new regional structure designed to promote strength and co-operation
between pharmacy students in each of the six World Health Organization
regions. This new regional structure has been supported by the organisation
of regional pharmacy student symposiums and close collaboration with
the pharmaceutical forums of FIP.
The success of the regional structure is evident in the growth of the
federation in previously under-represented areas and in an increased
in level of active participation on IPSF subcommittees by students and
young pharmacists from all regions. This year the IPSF has conducted
its most successful range of regional events to date.
The 3rd IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium was held in Panama City
from February 4–8. One hundred student delegates attended the event
from across the region. The theme of the symposium was “A new organisational
culture in pharmacy”, with presenters focusing on new and extended
opportunities for young pharmacists to work in the dynamic and rapidly
changing health systems across Latin America. Pharmacy students were
also given the opportunity to present their own research work and discuss
ideas for advancing the pharmacy profession both regionally and globally.
The next Pan American event will be conducted in Jamaica in 2005.
The 3rd IPSF Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) and 4th IPSF
Scientific Symposium were held in Bangkok, Thailand, from March 1–7.
Hosted by Silpakorn University and the Pharmacy Students’ Union
of Thailand, these events attracted delegates from over 15 countries.
This was the first time Nepal and South Korea were represented at an
IPSF event in many years. For the Indonesian delegates it provided sufficient
motivation to apply to join the federation as full members at our upcoming
World Congress in Canada.
The theme of the APPS was “Tradition and innovation”. In
addition to workshops and lecture style presentations, delegates had
the opportunity to tour a local hospital, visit a pharmaceutical manufacturing
facility and learn from the experts at the Thai Institute of Traditional
Medicines. At the “international night” conference social,
participants performed a dance from their country, then auctioned a traditional
gift, with all proceeds going towards the development fund to help bring
people from developing countries to the 4th APPS in Japan.
Pharmacy education
The document “Pharmacy education — a vision for the future”,
a joint publication of the IPSF and the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation
(EPSA), was distributed to all pharmacy schools worldwide in 2000.
Since then, the IPSF has taken an active role in promoting good quality
and innovative pharmacy education. The second IPSF-EPSA Joint Symposium
on Pharmacy Education was held in Strasbourg, France, in October 2003.
One hundred and fifty students attended this highly successful event
from across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific. The abstracts
and outcomes from the symposium will be published in the Journal
of Pharmacy Education later this year.
The IPSF is also committed to fostering research opportunities for pharmacy
students, and studying both undergraduate and postgraduate education
worldwide. The “Moving on” projects are a series of three
IPSF research projects undertaken by pharmacy students internationally
and supervised by Ian Bates and Catherine Duggan from the University
of London. “Moving on 1” is a study of the mobility of academic
staff between pharmacy faculties in over 30 countries and is nearing
completion. “Moving on 2” and “Moving on 3” will
investigate the international demographics of undergraduate pharmacy
students and cognitive pharmaceutical services provided by community
pharmacists respectively.
The IPSF maintains operational relations with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) and, in March this year, the IPSF was invited to nominate 20
graduate women for inclusion in a UNESCO talent bank of Women with International
Societal Experience (WISE). In December, IPSF director of public health,
Joana Cruz, from Portugal, made a keynote presentation at the 3rd Session
of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge
and Technology conducted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The IPSF will hold a joint symposium on pharmacy education with the FIP
Academic Pharmacy Section at the FIP World Congress in New Orleans in
September 2004. Professional development
Promoting the role and potential roles of the pharmacist within health
care systems is the aim of the Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaign
(PPAC). This campaign continues to be one of the most popular IPSF
campaigns. In the past six months, IPSF PPAC events have taken place
in Singapore, Nigeria, Australia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, the US and
Hungary. These events have included promoting pharmacy as a career
choice to high school students, providing medication counselling in
shopping centres and holding a “pharmacy fair” where career
choices for pharmacists were presented.
With a worldwide shift towards pharmacists providing cognitive pharmaceutical
services, the IPSF has also organised a series of patient counselling
events. These events involve pharmacy students competing to be best at
counselling a patient about his or her prescribed medicines. The events
take place each year at the IPSF World Congress. In response to interest
from member associations wishing to organise similar events of their
own, the IPSF is collaborating with the FIP Pharmacy Information Section
to produce a patient-counselling booklet. Over the past six months several
member associations have conducted patient counselling events. Public health
In January delegates of the 113th session of the executive board of
WHO voted to admit the IPSF into official relations.
The application was four years in development, and was based on a plan
of collaboration with WHO that was completed by the IPSF in September
last year. The plan involved having both pharmacy students and young
pharmacists actively promoting activities for World Aids Day, World Health
Day and World No Tobacco Day.
Having official relations will mean that the IPSF is granted increased
opportunities actively to represent pharmaceutical students at WHO committee
meetings, conferences and forums. The IPSF now joins the International
Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) as only the
second student organisation worldwide to be granted official relations
status. The IPSF is the third organisation representing the pharmacy
profession to achieve this level of relations.
The IPSF conducts a number of public health campaigns in collaboration
with WHO. Its Aids Awareness Campaign involves students promoting the
message about HIV/AIDS to young people in schools, universities and other
places where young people meet. The IPSF provides campaign resources
to member associations, which then use this material to develop programmes
culturally suitable and appropriate for their communities. The focus
of the project is conducting activities for World Aids Day on December
1. Last year IPSF member associations, including those in Hungary, Ghana
and Jamaica, conducted aids awareness campaigns.
World Health Day this year was on the theme of “Road safety” with
the slogan “Road safety is no accident”. The IPSF, the IFMSA
and WHO are working on a joint project on road safety calling on health
professionals to treat road safety as a public health priority rather
than simply a transport issue. Campaign organisers’ kits were distributed
to IPSF member associations.
In June 2001, the IPSF signed a joint statement with WHO about promoting
smoke-free pharmacy schools. The aim of this statement was to encourage
pharmacy students to take action and help “clear the air” in
their schools. In 2004 this initiative was re-launched under the new
name of Tobacco-Free Pharmacy Schools. A new series of banners and posters
have also been printed promoting the fact all IPSF events are tobacco
free.
The IPSF Tobacco Alert Campaign aims to change the attitudes and behaviours
of young people towards tobacco use. Pharmacy students have visited secondary
schools and promoted smoking cessation at universities and in community
pharmacies across the world since 1998. This year pharmacy students once
again will undertake activities for World No Tobacco Day on May 31. The
theme for this year’s day is “Tobacco and poverty”. Student exchange programme
Students have taken part in student exchange programmes in industry |
Mobility in pharmacy education is an important factor in preparing
pharmacy students to work in a rapidly changing global environment.
Mobility of
both academics and students has become an important aspect of tertiary
education. In 2003, our IPSF Student Exchange Programme placed more
than 420 students on international professional exchanges in over
45 countries.
The duration of the exchanges were between one and three months.
The educational opportunities for students and young pharmacists
differ greatly in countries represented by the IPSF. The commitment
to developmental
change in higher education is not uniform across the world. In many
countries lack of opportunity is often compounded by limited access
to educational
resources and non-exposure to innovative teaching methods. Through
its Student Exchange Programme, the IPSF is working to create opportunities
for improvement in pharmacy education by offering students and young
pharmacists professional experiences in community, hospital, academic,
administrative and industrial pharmacy.
New developments include a collaborative programme with the FIP Industrial
Pharmacy Section to create additional opportunities for students
to gain professional experience working in the pharmaceutical industry.
The IPSF
is also working on the development of a new online exchange platform,
the better to handle the high demand for this popular programme. Development fund and book appeal
At both regional symposiums and at the IPSF world congress, a regular
event is the development fund auction. Delegates bring small souvenirs
and gifts from their countries to auction at a night designed to
celebrate the diversity of cultures represented. Money raised goes towards
helping
people from developing countries attend IPSF events. Through money
raised at the 2nd IPSF Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium, two
delegates from developing countries were able to attend the 3rd Asian
symposium
conducted in February in Bangkok, Thailand. Up to five delegates
from developing countries will be supported by the IPSF to attend the
50th
IPSF World Congress in Canada in July. A proportion of profits made
at IPSF events is also deposited into the development fund.
The IPSF book appeal aims to distribute pharmacy textbooks and journals
to schools of pharmacy in developing countries. Some pharmaceutical
societies and wholesalers of textbooks have donated books to this
scheme that have
been distributed by members of the IPSF executive and subcommittees
travelling to developing countries. Looking to the future
The 50th annual IPSF World Congress will take place in Halifax, Canada,
from 25 July to 3 August. This important milestone will be celebrated
by congress participants, both present and past executive members,
and pharmacists from all over the world who have contributed to the
federation over the past 55 years.
The congress reception committee has liaised with the IPSF executive
to offer an exciting educational and social programme. Highlights will
include a discussion about outbreak management, a forum on technology
and education, workshops on public health and the opportunity to visit
the many cultural and tourist attractions in the area.
As the federation continues to grow in the size and range of projects
it offers, programmes have been designed to promote innovative pharmacy
practice and to enhance the role of the pharmacist in providing health
care in this decade and beyond.
Future events include the 51st IPSF Congress in Bonn, Germany, and
the World Medical and Pharmacy Student Symposium in November 2005.
Now is a great time for pharmacy students to become active at local,
regional and international levels.
The Neema Village Concept Project
Local people pictured at the opening of the IPSF’s
Neema Village Concept Project in Tanzania in May 2001 |
The IPSF Neema Village Concept Project was initiated in 1993 with
the aim of improving the health status of
the people living in and around Kiromo, Buma and Mataya villages
in Tanzania. After eight years of fund-raising by pharmacy students
worldwide the first group of international pharmacy student and
young pharmacist volunteers attended the clinic in May 2001.
Volunteer pharmacy students and young pharmacists have staffed
the Neema dispensary in rotations of between three and six months
since this time. The project continues to be one of the most popular
and successful of the federation. In September 2003, the IPSF was
awarded the prestigious FIP Pharmaceutical Practitioners’ Award
for excellence in pharmacy practice for this project. |
Photographed in July 2000 before abseiling
from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s roof in aid
of the Neema project are Philip Green, David Allen, Emily
Horwill, Sultan Dajani and Lindsay McClure
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Ongoing student fund-raising activities have
included trivia nights, charity auctions, fun runs and even an abseiling
day from the roof of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in London (see
picture).
In September 2004, the Neema project will be handed over to the Tanzanian Government
to continue the running of the dispensary created by the IPSF and the thousands
of pharmacy students worldwide who have contributed to the project. The hand-over
ceremony will coincide with an International Symposium on Village Concept Projects
hosted by the IPSF in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The IPSF is supported by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
of Great Britain. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal