Materia Medica Malaysiana

Hospital stint

UNIVERSITY College Sedaya International (UCSI) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Health Ministry in relation to the clinical clerkship of its final-year pharmacy students.

The MoA, signed at UCSI Segar campus recently, was witnessed by Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Prof Lai Hoi Chaw, UCSI vice-president (academic affairs), who signed on behalf of UCSI, said that the agreement would allow UCSI pharmacy students to spend two semesters in a total of 12 different clerkships at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

SIGNED: Dr Chua (centre) witnessing the exchange of documents between Prof Lai (left) and Ministry of Health secretary-general Datuk Ismail Adam. With the signing of the MoA, final-year UCSI pharmacy students can undergo a stint at Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
“Our students will have the opportunity of going on ward rounds with medical specialists during their clerkships, and obtain experience in various pharmacy services,” he said.

In the first semester, the final-year students will be concentrating on pharmacy service clerkships such as total parenteral nutrition (intravenous), therapeutic drug monitoring, hospital management, outpatient pharmacy, inpatient pharmacy and drug information services.

“In the second semester,” Prof Lai added, “they will concentrate on obstetrics and gynaecology, surgery, medicine, psychiatry and paediatrics.”

UCSI has been offering its pharmacy programme since 2000, in close cooperation with Universiti Sains Malaysia. Its first batch of 23 pharmacy students will graduate on Aug 6.

On the question of what makes good pharmacists, UCSI head of the School of Pharmacy Dr Yeong Siew Wei said that there was a need for more pharmacists who were professional and caring. She commented that almost 90% of the potential pharmacy students who turned up at the admissions interview were thinking mainly of community pharmacy.

“This is a worrying trend,” she said, “as pharmacists should not only think about setting up their own outlets to make money. They should also think about getting involved in areas such as industrial pharmacy, education, drug enforcement, research and hospitals. That is why the Government has introduced the compulsory service for pharmacy graduates.”

“We want our pharmacists to be all-rounders in order to provide quality consultation to their patients,” she added.

Dr Yeong also explained that UCSI was selective about accepting students into its pharmacy programme as the number of places was limited.

She said: “Parents and students must realise that there is more to pharmacy than just makin