Students want to be involved in new professional leadership body
The British Pharmaceutical Students' Association should be involved
in shaping the professional leadership body formed as part of the Government's proposed changes to the regulation of health professionals, members of the BPSA believe.
BPSA members who attended the association’s annual conference in
Manchester last week voted unanimously to accept a motion that the BPSA
become a faculty of the body akin to a royal college when it is created.
Supporting the motion, James Wood,
former president of the BPSA and an honorary life member of the association,
said: “The White Paper presents a fantastic opportunity for the
profession and also for the BPSA in terms of … integrating students
within the profession culturally from day one. It is good for us and
it will be good for the new organisation.”
Jennifer de Val, BPSA president and recently qualified pharmacist at
Barts and The London NHS Trust, said that, because it is unlikely membership
of a future royal college will be compulsory, the college will need to
have pharmacy students, as the future of the profession, on board. She
added: “We need to say what we think and get what we want out of
it. If we are passive, we will just get left behind. It makes sense that
students engage with this exciting time in pharmacy.”
A report of the BPSA conference will be published in next week’s
Journal.
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