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The Script: International practice provides hands-on, cultural experience

COPHS Staff | 

In 2017 student pharmacists gain job experiences in Italy and Malawi

One of the unique aspects of Lipscomb University’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences is an opportunity for fourth-year student pharmacists to gain hands-on experience in health care settings internationally through elective advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

During the 2016-17 school year, student pharmacists traveled to Belize, Malawi and Florence, Italy, to foster a global awareness of other cultures with customs, values and worldviews differing from those of our student pharmacists. From a professional standpoint, students engage these international communities by participating in certain aspects of their health care delivery systems, alongside local health care providers.

Service, compassion and education are the underlying essence of why our student pharmacists participate in these experiences, which influences them on a personal level as well. These international APPEs are approved for curricular credit hours, and student pharmacists eceive a grade at the conclusion of the experience.

From the students' viewpoint...

This summer three groups of student pharmacists traveled to Florence and one student went to Malawi to work in local pharmacies, hospitals and universities. 

“Getting to step out and see something new was the biggest thing for me,” said student pharmacist Allie Dixon, who participated in one of the experiences in Florence. “Before I came to Lipscomb I hadn’t really traveled much. So getting to see a new culture and how to apply the things that I learned there back to the field here.

“I think anyone who has an opportunity to travel should. You get to learn about the culture, you learn to think outside the box and to adapt to being in a different culture,” she said.
 

Click here to see a photo album of the student pharmacists in Florence this past summer.

Click here to read Rachel Brunner's  personal reflection on her time in Florence.

—Videos by Josh Shaw

Daniel Brashear, a fourth-year student pharmacist from Calvert City, Kentucky, worked at Blessings Hospital, a small, private hospital located in Lumbadzi, Malawi, during June and July 2017. Brashear has participated in five medical mission trips since beginning his studies at Lipscomb.

During his Malawi experience, he dispensed medication, counseled patients on prescriptions, traveled with a mobile clinic to establish care and worked on building computer-based tools for the hospital to better track inventory and revenue and expenses surrounding its medical care. He worked with hospital administrators and trained medical staff so they could continue using the computer programs after he returned to the U.S.

"In all my serving abroad, one thing I have learned to be true is this: no matter where you go, what language you speak, what you have or not, what you give or not, what you know or not or how you view the passage of time, there is always room for hope, joy and connection," said Brashear. "I have seen abundance and I have seen abject poverty, yet my heart carries not the memory of the conditions; instead it holds on to the smiles, the laughs, the tearful hugs and the mutual expressions of hope for tomorrow. With each memory added, my heart grows softer to the needs around me and within, impressing upon me just how intertwined we all are, and thus, just how much consideration should be given to how we care for each other."

Click here to see Daniel Brashear's personal reflection of his summer in Malawi.

More info....

The trips are coordinated through the university's Global Learning Program, which offers a variety of semester-long and short term travel study opportunities.

For more information about the Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences visit www.lipscomb.edu/cphs.

For more information about Global Learning Program visit www.lipscomb.edu/globallearning.

To see more articles from The Script, December 2017, edition click here.