PDM college of Pharmacy enthusiastically organized various events on the auspicious occasion of National Pharmacy Week-2014 on the theme “Responsible use of medicine-Role of Pharmacists”. The celebration formally started on 17th November with assembly of students at Seminar hall of college. The events organized during the weeklong celebration were Group Discussions, Logo designing competition, Poster making competition, Pharma Rally, Free Health checkup camp and survey. This pharmacy week has been more than a festival at PDMCOP.
This pharmacy week has been an opportunity to bring students in hot seat to test their pharmacy knowledge in Pharma Quiz organized during NPW-2014. An overwhelming participation of 12 teams with 4 members in each team made this event an immensely successful.
5. Pharma Rally:
7. Health Survey:
PDM College of pharmacy conducted a door to door health survey which included 200 families of Sarai Aurangabad Village. The aim of survey was to find out the actual health habit of people residing in village and their way of storing and using medicine. Whole college was divided into 9 groups and each group was assigned with specific area of village where they reached and collected data. The data collection was based on the questionnaires provided to teams. The questions were related to health like how often they wash hand, brush teeth, take medicine and how they store them. Team members gave public valuable information on healthy habits and safe medication use.
1. Group Discussion:
On 17th November, 2014 PDMCOP organized a group discussion on “Sikshit Bharat Saksham Bharat”- Quality education for all. The program was held at G4, Seminar hall of the campus. Twelve student leaders from PDM College of pharmacy representing B. Pharm and M. Pharm participated in the discussion in presence of all faculty members and rest students.
The main aim of the discussion was to discuss concrete solution to the various problems in education quality, loopholes in Indian education policy and access of education to all. Respected principal Dr. Hema Chaudhary addressed the gathering and highlighted the role of education in nation building and crucial role of education of pharmacists and safe medication use. She also extended her congratulations and best wishes to all students and announced the formal beginning of National Pharmacy Week 2014.
Participants were briefed about the purpose and framework of the discussion by program host Bijay Gautam, a final year student at PDM College of Pharmacy.
Students brought into discussion the numbers of problems in the first phase of the 2 hour long program followed by their ideas as solution to the problems in second phase.
Some of the notable problems discussed were:
- Street-kids not getting an opportunity to attend school in their lifetime. Being kids of the nation they should also get an equal opportunity of Education, Growth, Security and Participation but still we are failing in bringing to classroom.
- The Indian education is too theoretical and practical based knowledge is very meager.
- The education offered to students is incomplete and this is what makes country lagging behind of many others developed countries. The syllabus designed not by any means fulfill the requirements to build a student as a skilled manpower.
- The syllabus designed for B.Pharmacy is lagging too behind the current situation and is in severe need of update.
Some of the important ideas collected during the event were as follows:
- Each one Teach one- Taking responsibility is one of the important part for success of any initiative. One of the student leaders presented this idea of reaching out to one street kid in own area and dedicating few time daily in teaching them so that they can also get an opportunity to be literate. For this, educated India should come out and feel their responsibility in educating uneducated ones.
- Teachers exchange programs- As there is wide gap between education quality in schools at town and villages, the teachers exchange programs between village and town will help students at village get quality education and teachers at village get to learn more.
- Learning by doing- Though smart classes have been implemented in most of the schools it is not effectively followed. The classes should be participative and focus on making students learn by doing. As one of the participants cited example of USA where to make a school going kid understand about color they ask teachers to send their kids on dress of same colored dress for whole month.
- Students taking technical degrees should be exposed to real working conditions for minimum of 6 months before granting degrees. This improves quality of manpower country produces and when quality manpower are produced development of the country is bound to happen.
- Ground level study: The data reaching to policy makers is handicapped and is not the actual ground level data. When policy makers are not getting an actual data the policy will never succeed. The government should bring out an effective data collection system from the very ground level so that better planning could be done. Door-to-door awareness campaigning to aware people about education, identification of uneducated ones and suitable policy according to age group will ensure quality education to one and all.
After the completion of the discussion audiences were given an opportunity to put forward their ideas and feedback for the event. Most of the audiences emphasized on women education and approved idea of Each one Teach one.
2. Poster making competition:
The second event was poster making competition. Students participating in the competition were instructed to prepare hand-made poster on the theme of Responsible use of medicine: Role of Pharmacists. The posters represented the role of pharmacists in safe medication use, and healthcare and in proper handling of drugs. 12 Students participated in competition and showcased their art skill with their inner creativity poured into A3 size sheets. The winners for this competition was Priya Bhoria from third year and runner ups were Shivam Tiwari and Yagya Sundriyal.
3. Logo Designing competition:
Pharma Buds is a community of students at PDM College which has been organizing various programs and aims to boost students’ communication and leadership skills. On National Pharmacy week one competition was held to make logo for this club. Students participated enthusiastically and designed logo to ensure the club objectives are represented along-with pharmacy profession on their logo. Among several participants the winners for logo designing competition were Prabhsimran Singh and Bhomesh Thakur, Students of 2nd and 3rd year respectively.
Winners for all the competitions were felicitated with certificate of Appreciation on last day of event.
4. Quiz Competition:
This pharmacy week has been an opportunity to bring students in hot seat to test their pharmacy knowledge in Pharma Quiz organized during NPW-2014. An overwhelming participation of 12 teams with 4 members in each team made this event an immensely successful.
Questions in quiz competition were asked from B. Pharma Syllabus and general knowledge. The competition was held in three rounds. Six least scoring teams were eliminated from round-1 (Mixed Bag Round). Rest Six teams were upgraded to second round where students were given an opportunity to choose their subject of interest. The final round was rapid fire round where a total of 6 questions were asked to a team within 1 minute. Winning team for the competition was Team C ( Jyoti Dahiya from 4th Year, Deepa Sarkar from 3rd Year, Kajal Jain from 2nd Year and Priya from 1st Year).
National Pharmacy Week is an opportunity to reach out to general public and aware them about the pharmacy profession, role of pharmacists in healthcare, medicare, drug discovery and safe use of drugs. PDM College of pharmacy for the first time in history took step out of the college in Pharma Rally on 26th November 2014. All the students of B. Pharma and M. Pharm, Faculty Members and few others joined the initiative taken by PDMCOP.
During rally all the participants were wearing lab-coat, the single-most identity of pharmacy profession and held banners and play-cards with messages of safe medication use and healthy lifestyle. The rally had been to different parts of near village of Sarai-Aurangabad chanting slogans to attract public eye to the message to be delivered. This rally has been successful in opening eyes of public about medication use and realization of importance of pharmacy profession.
6. Free Health Check-up:
PDM College of pharmacy with the support of Nandini Free Health Checkup Society conducted free health check-up. On the camp more than 500 villagers took benefit of the free health camp.
The health camp
provided basic health check-ups like BMI, Blood pressure, Blood Sugar, General Dental Check-up and Eye-sight Test. Pharmacy students were trained a day before the camp to perform all tests and they has successfully conducted all the tests on camp. Physicians were arranged for the event that analyzed the overall report of patients and prescribed the suitable medicine. Students gave suggestions for healthy living and proper use of 
medication to the villagers During the camp students performed play showing importance of prescription and safe use of medication. It also gave public a message about devastating results of self and incomplete medication. It served as good utilization of time for patients waiting their turn with invaluable information.
medication to the villagers During the camp students performed play showing importance of prescription and safe use of medication. It also gave public a message about devastating results of self and incomplete medication. It served as good utilization of time for patients waiting their turn with invaluable information.PDM College of pharmacy conducted a door to door health survey which included 200 families of Sarai Aurangabad Village. The aim of survey was to find out the actual health habit of people residing in village and their way of storing and using medicine. Whole college was divided into 9 groups and each group was assigned with specific area of village where they reached and collected data. The data collection was based on the questionnaires provided to teams. The questions were related to health like how often they wash hand, brush teeth, take medicine and how they store them. Team members gave public valuable information on healthy habits and safe medication use.
From survey we got to know that people are far less concerned about their health and do not complete their medicine course when they get symptomatic relief during medication course. This survey gave firsthand information about the lifestyle of Indian villages. The level of awareness is meager and unhealthy lifestyle that causes life-threatening diseases.