Elixir Aug 2012

A Publication of the NUS Pharmaceutical Society

AUGUST 2012 AY 2011/2012

Semester 2 AY 2011/2012

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1. Note from the Editor

2. Summary of Events

3. Know Your Medicines, Get It Right!

4. Namaste! - Dispense-a-Dream

5. It’s Showtime!

7. Jokes, Quotes - Odds & Ends

8. Sponsors

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CONTENTS

Credits Editor Ihtimam Hossain Writers Choo Yan Cheng Lim Yi San Tricia Leong Loh Guek Leng Ong Yue En Ong Jia En Tan Jia Yao Special Mention Rachel Ho Anthony Yip Genevieve Ho Lee Gim Ling Lim Guo Yong And anyone else who has contributed to this publication in one way or another (:

AUGUST 2012 AY 2011/2012

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Oh dear, are the summer holidays over already? Sigh.

Back to another semester of tests/assignments/

reports…

Wait, NO. Let me try that again with a bit more enthu-

siasm and positivity.

ALRIGHT, it’s a new semester! I’m sure we’re all very

excited to see our dear friends and professors again (:

Hope everyone had an awesome summer break! Per-

sonally, I’m super pleased to share the latest issue of

Elixir with you guys - a lot of procrastination, thought

and energy went into this. In sticking with the previous

issue’s theme, this issue is easy to read and (hopefully)

nice to look at; a simple, breezy recap of the previous

semester and maybe a sneak peek of things to come.

Hope you enjoy looking through this issue as much as I

did putting random embarrassing/funny photos of you

guys all over! Wheeeee.

Peace & Love, Ihtimam (: Media Resource Director 51st Executive Committee NUS Pharmaceutical Society

Note from the Editor By Ihtimam Hossain

This is how I spent 6 weeks of my summer. If you have any feedback/questions about this issue of Elixir or wish to help out for the next issue, feel free to email me at [email protected]!


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The events segment offers a quick look at most of the key

NUSPS Events during the last semester. The write-ups are

kept light and brief but should you have any queries about

any of the events, do feel free to email NUSPS Media Re-

source Team at [email protected] and we will help you get

in touch with the relevant people. Thanks! JANUARY

Summary of Events From Semester 2, AY2011/2012

Edited by Ihtimam Hossain


2nd Hand Book Sales Just like every semester, this one too started with a 2nd Hand Books Sale organised by NUSPS Welfare. Need-less to say, recommended texts can be very expensive and it’s a service that is appreciated by seniors and juniors alike. Watch out for this se-mester’s 2nd Hand Books Sale as well, that’s when you know the se-mester has REALLY started!

Design-your-own-Pharm-Tee Competition Everybody loves T-shirts. Especially T-shirts designed and voted for by our fellow students. A total of 12 entries were received and the voted winner , Chan Boon Kiang received a $150 cash prize (on top of the honour of hav-ing his peers wear a shirt he designed). Look out for stu-dents wearing the winning design around campus!

NUH and CGH Hospital attachments NUSPS Academic committee always works hard to increase students’ ex-posure to various practice settings. This semester, short hospital attach-ments to NUH and CGH were organ-ised. These were very eye-opening, especially for the Year 1s and 2s who have not had hospital exposure prior. Attachments like these are always useful for students to have a better idea of where they’d like to work in future (or maybe where they would NOT want to work!).

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FEBRUARY


Know Your Medicines, Get it Right! The “Know Your Medicines, Get it Right!” series of medication reviews continued this semester with one on 11th February and another on 20th February. These were done in the Northwest region, specifically Nee Soon East and Nee Soon South. As typical of E-Med medication reviews, they drew a lot of enthusiastic volun-teers, up to 40, who woke up at crazy hours to come down and help out with the various booths. Read more about these events in the feature ar-ticle later on in this issue!

KOI Bubble Tea Sale by Welfare It’s an open secret that lectures place an im-mense strain on mind and body (despite the commendable efforts of our dear professors to make them interesting and engaging of course). However, it is also well documented that having a drink (non-alcoholic, presumably) during lec-ture goes a long way towards preventing heavy eyelid syndrome. To show their love for us, NUSPS Welfare organised a KOI Bubble Tea Sale - complete with delivery to their respective lec-ture theatres. NUSPS Welfare <3s YOU!

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FEBRUARY


Baxter Singapore & NUS Research Facility Visits The academic committee continued their bid to improve our knowledge of the various options to registered pharmacists in the month of March. A visit to Baxter Singapore was a timely look at the industrial sector of the profession. Short visits were also organised to our very own NUS re-search facilities where students had a chance to see what our professors get up to when we’re busy mugging. As expected, these events were very well received, with more sign-ups than slots. Rest assured though, if you’ve missed last semester’s visits, there will be more this coming se-mester!

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March


Pharmily Day What was traditionally a Pharmacy sports day has been rebranded into… wait-for-it… Pharmily Day! Held at West Coast Park, it was a day of fun in the Sun (thankfully, it did not rain) and was a perfect opportunity for seniors and juniors to bond through sports like football and Frisbee. The games weren’t simply a stroll in the park though, with a lot of healthy (yet intense!) competition amongst the various years. Everyone was also provided a *FREE* lunch. At the end of the event, everyone seemed two shades darker (or redder) and looked forward to spending the rest of the weekend studying (just kidding – ac-tually no, it’s probably true).

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March


Abbott Manufacturing Plant Visit A visit to Abbott’s manufacturing plant was organised by the ever con-scientious academic committee in March. This was another glimpse into the industrial sector, specifically at the manufacturing process – which is quite a mysterious proposition for many of our students who only get retail and hospital exposure during preceptorship. So yes, remember kids, it’s not just either hospital or retail – there are also opportunities in industrial and academic/research settings to look into! This visit was a resounding success thanks to the efforts of the academic committee and Abbott.

Rx Production – The Odd Pea of the Pod The inaugural Pharmacy play production, The Odd Pea of the Pod was performed on the 25th of March at Good-man Arts Centre. It featured a cast and crew composed of only Pharmacy students. Directed by Belinda Tan, it featured not only acting, but a dance number choreo-graphed by Ong Chit Yin. It also featured original music & lyrics by Chee Enqing. It was the perfect stage to show-case the various talents of our own Pharmacy students. Although the venue was small and intimate, the produc-tion was a resounding success and was a able to draw rapturous laughter and applause from the audience as well as tug at their heartstrings (and tear ducts too). Putting up the production was definitely not an easy task and we all hope it becomes a mainstay in our Pharmacy calendars for years to come. Read more about a cast member’s journey later on in the issue!

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April


Exam Welfare Pack Distribution The distribution of Examination Wel-fare Packs might just be NUSPS Wel-fare’s flagship event every semester. During a period when morale is low and caffeine consumption starts to peak – a lovingly packed bag filled with goodies is just the thing every-one needs. Well, when you think about it, it would be nicer to get an extra week of reading week actually – but let’s not start making unreason-able demands right? As everyone started getting into a crazy hermit mugging mode, this was a nice re-minder that NUSPS Welfare CARES!

May

Retail Attachment & Alexandra Hospital Visit Although the examinations had just ended, the academic committee had another set of attachments lined up for our students (mainly year 1s). As most of the year 2s and 3s were look-ing forward to (or dreading) their preceptorships, there were many en-thusiastic year 1s who couldn’t wait to see what retail and/or hospital had in store for them and this attach-ment and visit was a perfect oppor-tunity for them to satisfy their curios-ity. Kudos should also go to the phar-macists who shared their insights and experiences with the students to make this event an enriching one!

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Know Your Medicines, Get It Right! A behind the scenes look.

By Lim Yi San & Tricia Leong

Pre-Event Preparation A training session was organised for the student volun-teers. From how to use the lancets and glucometers, to operating the digital blood pressure meters, to important things to look out for when taking measurements from the elderly, the volunteers learnt them all. This was made pos-sible by Ms Sharene Goh, a pharmacist from Watsons who briefed the students on the practical aspects of the meas-urements, the generous sponsorship of lancets, test strips and glucometers by Johnson & Johnson, blood pressure meters and other peripheral logistics by Watsons. The or-ganising committee had worked very hard to get in touch with Watsons and Johnson & Johnson long before the event date to work out these collaborations.

20 May 2012 (3rd Medication Review of the series) What were you doing at 7.15am on a lazy Sunday morning during the summer holidays? On 20th May, a group of student volunteers gathered at Khatib station and headed to the community centre to-gether. The big group, donning red (NUSPS t-shirt) and blue (Emed) tops made their way through the neighbourhood to get to the community centre as curious residents looked on. The volunteers and Essential Medicines organising com-mittee had to make special arrangements to meet earlier

due to a Malay wedding being held at the same venue the day before. Upon reaching the CC, and with the green light given by the Logistics IC (Leroy), the rush to set up the different booths in Nee Soon South Commu-nity Centre began. Surprisingly, quite a number of senior citizens were early birds too! By the time the first big group of elderly par-ticipants entered the hall, the volunteers had undergone a pre-event briefing, given by the Event IC (Yisi). Despite the meticulous planning and preparation before the event, the event started off slightly late with a state of near- frenzy as volunteers realised that some of the lo-gistics were not functional or lacking at certain booths. In light of the tight event schedule, these issues were quickly ironed out within several minutes as the organis-ing committee went around to coordinate and fix these minor blips.

Batch after batch, the senior citizens came in their zones. Like a factory assembly line, they went through all the booths in an orderly manner (registration, height and weight measurement, blood glucose and blood pressure taking, pharmacist counseling and goodie bag collection) ushered by the field volunteers. While the medication review was ongoing, informative talks on recognising medicines, and diabetes, were respectively conducted by the two pharmacists who had volunteered beforehand, Mr Khu Jia Vui and Ms Sharene Goh. The talks were conducted in Mandarin, Malay and English and were delivered in two separate rounds for the par-ticipants’ convenience.

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During the intervals between the two rounds of talks, the emcees mingled with the crowd as they invited the partici-pants to take part in the interactive quizzes. Quiz questions were set based on the content covered during the educa-tional talks. Participants who answered the questions cor-rectly won personal care items such as Tiger Balm. Finally, a lucky draw dip was carried out for the registered partici-pants. The three delighted winners walked away with NTUC vouchers and health supplements. A few senior citizens took the chance to voice pertinent concerns such as the high medical costs during their turn to register at the registration counter. These participants proved to be quite a challenge for the volunteers in charge of registration as they surveyed the daunting queue that had formed behind. It was a lesson in personal/public rela-tions as our volunteers listened patiently and helped reas-sure these participants without holding up those behind for too long. The two pharmacists, Mr Khu Jia Vui and Ms Sharene Goh, who took pains to prepare and carry out their talks during the medication review, provided inter-esting insights to not only the senior citizens but also the volunteers and other pharmacists present. Many volun-teers were also pleasantly entertained when Mr Khu switched around effortlessly in three different languages during the separate talks.

The number of pharmacists who turned up to provide free medication review for the people on a Sunday morning was impressive as they had come from differ-ent regions of the country without hesitation upon re-ceiving their e-mail invitations. The emcees for that day were also geared with questions to keep the audience occupied during the intervals between the talks. Alt-hough the senior citizens were somewhat distracted initially, they participated enthusiastically when they were told that Tiger Balm would be given out to those who answered the questions correctly. The food catered that day was sufficient and was well-received by most. A participant had joked that it was ironic that ‘fried and oily’ food was catered during a health-related medication review. Some unfortunate residents, however, were upset when they turned up late and missed the session entirely. Nevertheless, for those who turned up on time, it was indeed a good medical review session coupled with good food and fun games. For the volunteers, it was definitely a meaningful event where they got to work alongside pharmacists, practice taking blood glucose and blood pressure meas-urements and interact with the participants. Apart from the dedicated volunteers and enthusiastic participants, credit also goes to Watsons and Johnson & Johnson for their generous sponsorship.

Although an event like this is over in a few hours, many more hours of effort and preparation go into it. Thank-fully, the lessons and experience last a lot longer too, making it all worth the effort!

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Namaste! - NUS Pharmacy YEP says Hello to Nepal By Choo Yan Cheng

Every year, NUS Pharmacy sets up an elite team of stu-dents who visit a foreign land. This Youth Expedition Pro-ject - funded by the National Youth Council - aims to devel-op Singapore’s youth by exposing them to different living conditions and cultures. The team’s role in their host coun-try is to contribute towards improving the standards of living for the locals. This year, Dispense-A-Dream 2012, our YEP project, visited a country which is rarely touched by Overseas CIP teams – Nepal, where we were to help with educating the children and building a classroom.

Our team visited Shree Janakalyan Lower Secondary School in Nagarkot and we spent 10 days doing our best to make a difference to the lives of the students . During those few days, we interacted with the children, through the playing of games such as volleyball, soccer and chap-teh. We also introduced them to other games like Old Maid, Snap! And Pick-up sticks. As we played sports with the children, we found ourselves outmatched by their out-standing agility and athleticism. We were completely de-feated in a game of pick-up sticks, our clumsy and stubby fingers being no match for their slim and nimble hands.

As this school was one of the few accessible to the villag-ers on the mountain, parents would send their children to the same school so that their older children could take care of their younger siblings on the 45 minute long trek to school. Considering the arduous terrain, foot was the only mode of transport for most of these children.

Raj Kumar - A firm favourite with the ladies!

A street in Thamel, in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu

Left : Some of the students on their daily com-mute to school. De-spite the long walk, they’re all smiles. Below: A heartwarming picture capturing an elder sister’s care and concern for her little brother.

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Our interaction with the children was much more than simply fun and games. Although the children possessed a strong passion for learning, they had too little experience in the usage of English in their curriculum. As a result, they could only use English on the basis of rote-learning, rather than relying on a true understanding of the language.

We tried to resolve this issue by covering their syllabus in English, with the help of translators, so that they could better understand the terms we used. However, given the short amount of time we had with them, this strategy had limited effectiveness. In order for us to overcome this lan-guage barrier more effectively and become more inde-pendent of our translators, we had Nepalese lessons every morning. This made communication with our pupils much

easier.

Other than interacting with the students, the YEP team also got their hands dirty by helping to shift the building materials up the hill to the construction point of the class-room. In the beginning, moving up and down the hill was a strenuous activity, by virtue of the thinner air on a moun-tain.

After a few days, we eventually got used to the intensity of physical activity and the tempo was stepped up a few notches. All the building materials which we brought up would be used for the building of this school building which would allow the school to accommodate more chil-dren.

Our team members teaching the students about the digestive system in English Editor: Maybe this served as a revision for some our own Pharmacy students as well? ;)

Our dedicated members learning Nepalese before the school day started.

The tents in which we stayed for 10 days

Hard work can be enjoy-able when it is mean-ingful!

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When completed, this new school bulding can last for at least half a century.

Our last day in Nepal ended in a bang with the Nepalese children putting up excellent performances and dances. Their dances were expertly choreographed by their teachers and they spent many hours rehearsing so they could put up a good show. We also put up an improvised dance to return the favour to our gracious hosts, dancing to the tune of “Singapore Town”.

As we left Nagarkot, many of us did so with a heavy heart and great reluctance. But all good things have to come to an end, as clichéd as that phrase may be. Even if we are no longer by the side of these adorable children, they will remain in our hearts for a very long time.

The Dispense-a-Dream 2012 team consists of: Tan Seow Yee Lim Guo Yong Rachel Ho Wong Wai Yan Elissa Tan Li Yan Zul Hakim Fong Hui Min Michelle Goon Chong Ping Neo Zhi Yang Sim Wenlyn Tan Zi Liang Marcus Chua Wen Bing Brandon Chan Mun Ling, Sarah Chuang Xue Fen Chong Soon Mun Brenda Tan Li Ting Choo Yan Cheng Goh Jia Ling Rachel Ong Yi Jia Phang Yi Xuan Vanessa Tey Li Jun Emily Nicholas Wong Brandon-Shaun Lee

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It’s Showtime! By Loh Guek Leng

The journey of the inaugural Rx Production has been a chal-lenging but enjoyable one, from the early days of training to rehearsals, set building to the actual performance. When Belinda, the director, first shared her ideas to the cohort about staging a production, I just signed up with my enthu-siastic group of friends to experience and be part of phar-macy’s first production. The training sessions began soon after recruitment, where we learnt basic acting skills in a fun and light-hearted man-ner through games and re-enactment. As there was no dis-tinction between crew and cast yet, it was a good oppor-tunity to know fellow classmates and seniors. Soon, the committee was formed and preparations for pro-duction officially started: the script was developed; cast and dance rehearsals commenced; construction of props and sets began. As a cast member, rehearsals were most memorable. Despite the hectic and draining schedule, eve-ry rehearsal felt like a different experience filled with so much fun and laughter. I will never forget how we first attempted the ‘rat race’, one of the most difficult and ‘chaotic’ scenes, and ended up bursting into laughter. I will also never forget how we laughed at each other in hilarious scenes and sometimes before rehearsals when we tried reading each other’s lines in different accents. Amidst the laughter were also times when we had to put aside our playful selves and focus on our emotional selves. To facilitate our emotional delivery, self-reflections were done; life experiences were shared; tears were shed. Grad-ually, we grew not only to deliver our own emotions but also to support fellow cast members in theirs by under-standing where they were coming from. It has never been easy right from the start but with guidance, practice and time, we managed to overcome our emotional barriers and eventually move the audience.

As production day neared, the various elements of the show started to come together. It was the most stressful period with the publicity team promoting and selling tick-ets, the crew rushing to complete the props and set and the cast brushing up the final scenes and rehearsing with dancers and stage crew in full dress. Time was running out so every rehearsal was precious. Even though we were sometimes reprimanded for our underperformance, we kept our morale up and moved on, ensuring that mistakes would not be made again and that we would put up a good show for the audience.

Production day – the day we all had been looking forward to – finally arrived. After a final rehearsal, there seemed a sudden surge of excitement and energy among the team for all the effort over the past six months would be paid off in a just few hours’ time. For me, the most nerve-wrecking moment would be the time minutes away from the show when the crowd started streaming in and everyone were to standby in their positions. As a newcomer in theatre, I was really worried about making mistakes and disappointing the audience and the production team. But remembering what Belinda, the director, said - to go with the flow and let everything fall into place as rehearsed - and seeing how fellow cast prepared themselves, I set aside my worries and focused on my upcoming scenes. Soon, the lights were dimmed and the show began.

Even though small mistakes were made, the show went smoothly. Upon receiving a standing ovation from the audi-ence, we knew that we have done a good job. More im-portantly, we have created history in pharmacy and have enjoyed ourselves so much in the process. Looking back, though Rx production has been full of ups and downs, it has definitely given me an experience to be proud of.

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Jokes, Quotes - Odds & Ends Compiled by Ong Yue En, Ong Jia En & Tan Jia Yao

Know your medicines! A chemist walks into a drug store and asks the pharmacist, “Do you have any acetylsalicylic ac-id?” “You mean aspirin?” asked the pharmacist. “That’s it, I can never remember the word.”

The importance of the question, “Is this medicine for yourself?” A man goes into a pharmacy and asks the pharmacist if he can give him some-thing for the hiccups. The pharmacist promptly reaches out and slaps the man’s face. “What did you do that for?!” the man asked. “Well you don’t have the hiccups any-more, do you?” The man says, “No, but my wife out in the car still does!” Lady says to pharmacist: "Why does

my prescription medication have 40 side effects?"

Pharmacist replies: "Cause that's all

we've documented so far."

Alternative medicine, anyone?

Use Layperson Terms!

Customer gets a topical cream.

Direction: apply locally two times a day.

Customer says to the pharmacist:

"I can't apply locally, I'm going overseas."

Q: What do you call a person who doesn’t like anybody to be around him? An anti-body!

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Jokes, Quotes - Odds & Ends Compiled by Ong Yue En, Ong Jia En & Tan Jia Yao

Q: Why do people feel sleepy when they are studying? Because their knock-out genes are being expressed!

Q: Why don’t scholarship holders straighten their hair? They’re not supposed to break their (disulphide) bonds!

Q: What are our students’ favourite hobby? Face-a-Book!

If you can’t read this, you’re not ready to graduate yet!

Q: What did an influenza virus say to a HIV virus? I’m Cold, could you lend me your (protein) coat?

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Sponsored Advertisement

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NUSPS Main Sponsors

Jointly Supported by

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A Publication of the

www.nusps.org

[email protected]

Facebook Page: “NUS Pharmily!”

Elixir Aug 2012

Documents

Transcript of Elixir Aug 2012