YPG at the 69th World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
First-timer mentor program
Sometimes when you attend a conference for the first time, you can feel lost and miss the exciting activities of the conference. With this in mind, the FIP and YPG organized a first timers mentoring program where first-timers were paired with a congress mentor, someone who had attended FIP Congress previously and was able and willing to welcome and orientate the newbies to help them make the most of their first Congress experience. On Friday, September 4th YPG launched the first mentoring program with the great support of Myriah Lesko in coordination with Zhining Goh (Former YPG-PC) and Sonia Faria (Immediate past YPG-Chair), let's not forget also the enthusiasm of our beloved YPG friends like Veronika Sumpichova, Lisa McDevitt, Christie Robinson and many more who participated in this program.
YPG Booth
A very nice space to share experiences and time with old and new friends (Thanks a lot to the FIP staff). The YPG booth was located next to the FIP and IPSF booth (What a great neighbours we had!). The YPG booth offer information like the YPG/IPSF congress booklet, YPG newsletter, FIP brochures amongst other publications. This was an opportunity for our members to meet the YPG Steering Committee and discuss about YPG activities. Make a deliberate effort to look and visit the YPG booth in Lisbon.
YPG Business Meeting
On Monday, September 7th the young pharmacists from around the globe gathered for the annual YPG Business meeting. This was an opportunity for all young pharmacists to participate in strategic planning and development of the YPG agenda. Reports for the activities during the past year were also received from Sonia Faria (Chair 2008/9), Zhining Goh (PC 2008/9) and Cairo Toledano (PR 2008/9). Interesting to note was the increasing number of YPG members during the year and membership now stands at 560. The new YPG Steering Committee for 2009/2010 was elected: YPG
is chaired by Cairo Toledano from Mexico, and PR is Luther Gwaza from Zimbabwe. The PC position was left open for nominations being recently selected Neveen Abdelghani from the U.S.
As part of the agenda the YPG will be forming a working group to start the review of the YPG's rules of procedures (if you are interested in participate just let us know). By the end of the m
eeting our friend Luther Gwaza received his recognition for the YPG Grant for the professional innovation 2008. For those who missed, this is a must attend as young pharmacists discuss the direction and activities that the YPG will take for the coming years. It is an opportunity to participate in the business of the YPG and share your views on what you want to see YPG doing. See you in Lisbon and be part of the process.....
Educational and Scientific Meetings
During the last FIP Congress in Istanbul, the YPG was pleased to chair, coordinate and participate in several educational & scientific sessions. On Sunday 6th September took place the Forum of policy makers in pharmacy practice: Trends in community pharmacy-debating the future of the profession. It was a joint session with the PS, APS, YPG & IPSF. The session discussed economic models (Are pharmacists "good value for money", business versus care - ethical pharmacy practice and expanding roles for pharmacists in primary health care. The attendants had the change to hear well-prepared speakers and very enthusiastic respondents from all over the world.
YPG FORUM: Pharmacy practice in an era of pharmacogenomics
With Sonia Faria (YPG Chair 08-09) as the chair (celebrated on Tuesday 8th September), the session explored the important role that pharmacogenomics play in individualizing drug therapy to maximize therapeutic benefits and reduce adverse drug events in the near future. The lecturers dynamically explored opportunities and challenges for pharmacy in this era of pharmacogenomics, ethical, legal, social and policy issues involved in pharmacogenomics.
Social Events
YPG/IPSF Welcome Party
One participant remarked that the social events are one of the major highlights of the FIP Congress. These are not to be missed as new friends are made, business cards are exchanged and you get to meet old friends in a relaxing and exciting atmosphere. The memories will last you a lifetime. Many thanks to the YPG steering Committee 2008/2009 who organized an exciting social event programme with the YPG-IPSF international evening on the Friday night. This was held at the 360 Restaurant, a multi-award-winning restaurant set in a penthouse perched on a 19thcentury apartment building. The restaurant commanded a 360º breathtaking landscape view of Ista
nbul all the way from up close steeple of St Antonine's Church and across the Bosphorus straight to the Hagia Sophia Mosque and out to the sea of Marmara. People danced well into the Saturday morning.
YPG Dinner
The more formal YPG dinner were you got to sit down and enjoy a meal with old friends and an opportunity to make more new friends was held at Tike Nisantasi Restaurant. The restaurant offered unique dining experience of ethnic barbequed kebabs at its best in Turkey, Greece and Israel.
Learning to Teach Workshop
The first Learning to Teach Workshop was organized at the 69th FIP Congress in Istanbul, Turkey and more than 40 young and experienced pharmacists from 28 countries participated. Participants represented all fields of pharmacy, from community pharmacies to academia. The objective of the workshop was to help participants to develop basic teaching and mentoring competencies. The workshop was organised in collaboration between Young Pharmacists' Group and Pharmacy Education Taskforce.
At the start of the workshop, there was a short role-play on the different views of both senior and junior faculty members on the teaching responsibilities in a humoristic way, and thus was a good warm-up. The key message of the role-play was that the communication between faculty members often needs to be enhanced.
Following the role-play, there were three presentations giving presenters top tips for
1) Teaching and mentoring (Billy Flutter, Rhodes University, South Africa),
2) Presenting (Jennifer Marriott, Monash University, Australia), and
3) Supervising research (Sonak Pastakia of Purdue University, USA and Moi University, Kenya).
These presentations brought up tips based on speakers personal experiences as a mentor, supervisor or teacher. For example, Sonar Pastakia, who is currently mentoring both American and Kenyan pharmacy students in Kenya, told how he had paired up students to help them to learn from each other. Often, American students have more knowledge on non-communicable diseases while their Kenyan counterparts know more about infectious diseases, and thus their knowledge can complement each others'.
The final part of the workshop was devoted to an imaginary case study and participants were divided into groups. The case study described difficulties that a new faculty member can face when teaching a new course, what help they would need, and how a senior academic can consider that situation. Different groups took different views on the issue. One group pondered on what the junior academic should do in the current situation while the second group focused on how senior academics could help new academics with their teaching tasks. The third group discussed what could be done at the faculty level to create an environment that can advance the collaboration between junior and senior academics.
In conclusion, it was generally felt that the workshop was a success and it attracted more participants than expected. Issues raised in the workshop provoked or encouraged discussions during and after the workshop. Many people noticed that they were not alone with their challenges when beginning in a position requiring teaching, mentoring or supervising. In addition, it was noted the most problems are common across the globe. A more detailed report of the workshop can be found from the December 2009 issue of the International Journal of Pharmacy.
Following the success of the first Learning to Teach workshop, the second edition will be organised at the 70th FIP Congress, in Lisbon, Portugal in September 2010. If you are interested in being part of the planning activities or you have any suggestions please contact Vibhuti Arya (vibhuti.arya@gmail.com). If you are interested in joining the online community of practice dedicated to global pharmacy education or want to know more about Pharmacy Education Taskforce, please contact education@fip.org or visit at www.fip.org/education.
YPG DISCUSSION FORUM
Share your thoughts, follow and participate in ongoing discussions on pharmacy related issues on the YPG Discussion forum on members only area section.
Let's meet in Lisbon in 2010!
YPG at other FIP Congresses
Click here to read the report of YPG activities at the 2008 FIP Congress in Basel, Switzerland!