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| -Bijay Gautam |
You must be feeling like
a plastic bag. Free and light. Your exams are over and you will not have to
attend boring lectures for at least next two months before the college resumes.
You will not have to mug up the biological name and uses of Coriander nor you
will have to build esoteric structures out of benzene rings. You can chat on
what’s app all day long or play candy crush endlessly. You can pay visit to
your Nani or Bhuwa. You were waiting desperately for exams to come to an end and
these vivacious days unfold.
You will miss your college
friends though. Maybe you will get bored to death at your home. Going nowhere
and watching TV. But do you have any better idea to turn this holiday into a
learning opportunity?
My sister is starting
college this year and it’s been several months since she has completed her 12th.
I ask her every time on phone, “How are you using your free time and what are
you learning?” And she says “nothing”. It makes me feel bad to see people
wasting their spare time and learning nothing
while there is a lot to learn around us. It could be anything like to give
speech, play guitar, photography, designing, dancing, writing or whatever
fascinates you. I am not trying to be a preacher but I am writing this article
to convince you in making use of this vacation time pharmaci-cally. I don’t know if this word existed
in dictionary.
When you come out of your
college after graduating your parents and non-pharmacy friends expect you to
know about all the drugs name and that too by their trade name. Maybe one of
your school friends doing B.Tech will call you one evening to ask the name of
medicine that will cause abortion. If you can’t suggest them the medicine he
might think that you are dumb. There could be the cases where people will show
you a strip of tablet and asks you to tell them what this medicine is used for.
To confirm if doctor prescribed right medicine and mostly to see if you really
know about medicines. And if you still remain silent then you will hear things
like, “tune 4-saal m sikha kya h”? What
did you learn in last four years?
My dad kept me asking
every single year of my college that what I was learning that year. In first
year, I said, “We are learning basics like types of dosage form, Physiology and
anatomy of our body and so on.” Again in second year I answered, “We are now
learning basics of few more things like microbes, pharma engineering, etc.” One
fine day he asked when was I going to learn about medicines and how to prepare
medicines.
This is what most of our
parents expecting us to know by the end of four years. And let me inform you
that our curriculum is not designed in such way that we learn anything like
that. All we have to study is outmoded medicines and their mechanism of action
in Pharmacology or synthesis of medicinal substances in Medicinal Chemistry we
might never need in our entire life.
Well wait. Don’t get
pissed off yet. These are just few examples. You will know you have learned
nothing in college that will make you sound like a person who knows all about
medicine by reading the pharmacology or Medicinal Chemistry books. Even if you
remember few of them they will get washed out of your brain few months after
your college.
So how can you meet these
expectations of your parents and get yourself acquainted with the sea of knowledge
about medicines? After all that’s who we are supposed to be.
So here is what you can
do to be a pharmacy superman:
Work
at a Retail Pharmacy Outlet:
No you are not young
anymore to go and work nor it is the matter of shame. Rather you should feel
proud.
Look for a retail
pharmacy shop in your locality where there is constant rush of patients. As you
should know the more patients visit the shop more you will learn about the
medicines. You are not working here to make money but to make knowledge so it
doesn’t matter whether you are getting paid or not. Request the owner that you
are a pharmacy student and would like to work at his premise for next two
months or so. He would be happy in offering you the job. Who don’t like
volunteers or low wage workers anyways? Once you are in, your aim is to learn
about the medicines. On the basis of what you learn here you will be able to suggest
your B. Tech friend with some medicines name.
If you are among those
who love interacting with people and listen their story there could be no
better place to be. You can ask them how long they are taking that medicine for
or how they are feeling. You can ask your experienced co-workers what a
medicine you are holding in your hand used for. The best part is you will know
what the medicine is used for in pharma shop practically and in college you
will learn how this medicine works. Isn’t that great to know a medicine that
well? Remember to read its generic name every time you pull a medicine out of
shelve. This will help you in learning both trade and generic name. Two months
at a retail outlet and I bet you will have at your tongue tip the basic
medicines and condition they are prescribed for. That too for long long time.
I strongly urge B.Pharm
First and Second Year students to go and work in retail outlets. You are too
young for any industry to offer you industrial training. So this makes my next
point here:
Get
Industrial Training:
Wow! Industry. That
sounds great. I would love to.
Hold on! I didn’t say
Picnic.
If you have completed
your first or second year and planning for industrial training you will hardly
learn anything there. I already said you are too young for Industry. Once you
have completed your third year its best to get industrial training of at least
three months. For industrial training ask your college administration to make
arrangements in well advance or talk to alumnus already working in industry.
If you get a choice for
the department of your training, chose it wisely. It totally depends on your
personal interest. If you love analyzing samples and want to learn techniques
like UV, IR or HPLC, Analytical or QC Department is for you. If you wish to
learn how tablets are formed or how syrups are filled then production
department suits you. If you are more of a pharmacology guy then you can get
training in Pharmacovigilance or clinical trials. Even if you want to go for
marketing in future it’s best to get training in marketing.
The motive of getting
industrial training is to prepare yourself for the real work situation. You
will learn a lot from your training. Getting training at a pharma company is
the best reward you can give to yourself this vacation. Lot of learning and
exposure to the world you will be stepping few years later.
I wish you a very rewarding
vacation!
Send your feedback at bjaygtm@gmail.com. You can read more of Bijay's work at http://bjaygtm.blogspot.com and connect him on facebook at fb/bijay.goutam.