Vacation: An Opportunity to be a Pharma Superman

-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 12^th. 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.

My Story of Founding Pharma Buds

        -Bijay Gautam       

I’ve faced several interviews after completion of my undergraduate and one common question all interviewers asked me was to tell about myself. Never in an interview had I ever said I was topper at my college. Not in a single one.

I have completed my high schooling from beautiful land of Nepal. As a school boy I was an average student for my marks in exams. My school was one of the top schools in the area. It focused a lot in organizing extracurricular activities and my favorite used to be speech competition. I represented my school in several competitions and won numerous awards for my school in speech and debate competitions. I was president of Health club in my school that focused in raising awareness about health and environment. During my tenure we ran a campaign to ban plastic in our school and still today plastics are not allowed in the school compound. There used to be division of students into different groups and they were called houses. Our school had division into four groups, Annapurna, Macchapuchhre, Manaslu and Dhaulagiri. They were named on mountains of Nepal. 

I was Captain of Manaslu House. These houses held Morning Prayer in their own ways and played against each other during sports week. As a captain my role used to be hold morning prayer every day and nominate the students to represent our house in sport meet through internal competition. I used to be the host of almost all school functions and co-ordinator for these functions. My roles included managing and instructing volunteers, making it sure that backstage is doing fine, snacks is being distributed thoroughly and event is running perfectly. I leaded several campaigns of health clubs like street dramas, health rally where we went around the city with banners displaying messages to avoid tobacco and alcohol and live healthy lifestyles. Our other campaigns were environment cleaning, campaigns against child labor and sex discrimination. We collected our old clothes and some money at school to send them to flood hit areas of our country. I had been to week long training program of Red Cross society representing my district. We held elections at school to elect president of clubs like Health Club and Red Cross society. These all activities offered me much learning opportunities. I started seeing a lot of positive growth in myself. Had I just spent my school life with books, I would have not gained courage to stand in stage and give speech, I would not have been able to lead and grow my other abilities. Not to forget I was an average student in my school, as my teachers categorized me.

After I completed such a promising school life I came to PDM for my under-graduation. All of sudden I was in completely new place, I was in Haryana needing to understand Haryanvi while I couldn’t even speak and understand Hindi well. It seemed real hard for me to get through the language and cultural barrier. It took me a few months before I could understand and speak Hindi well and few more months later Haryanvi too. I have passion for language and I love learning. Now I started seeing the culture at college and I was truly disappointed. It was completely opposite to where I came from. No clubs to hold elections for, no senior to listen my problem and guide me, no events to participate in and no campaigns to make banners for. I thought if this is the case I cannot survive in environment like this. I firmly believed if there is no opportunity you have to build a door.

I started interacting with my classmates and shared them that I want to start a club where we can help each other in growing our leadership abilities and organize extra-curricular activities. I started doing this at the end of my first year as I started loving books. Study became my thing as there was nothing much to do in college. First year passed by and within 2 months in second year, result for the first year was published that amazed me. I was topper. I was always made believe in my school that I was an average student and I fed it in my mind that topping is not my thing. But being at college I proved them all wrong. It brought much confidence in me that I could do almost anything if I was ready to push my boundaries of comfort zone. I studied real hard back then.

Then at the beginning of my second year at College I went to then vice-principal of college Dr. Hema Chaudhary. I shared my idea to start a club that promotes growth of students and organize extracurricular activities. She asked me to bring a detailed proposal about it. I put a 15 page proposal in her desk within two days. I was so determined to give it a start that everything seemed possible for me. I included every minute details of club, what would be it’s name, how it would be run, how members for the club will be elected, how would it be funded, what sort of activities it would organize, how the club will be gradually expanded to other pharmacy colleges of the country. I had very big vision for the club. During that time Dr. Arun Garg used to be college director hence vice-principal kept telling me that she would let me know if he agreed to my proposal and it kept happening all second year.

I went to her office every month and asked, Mam shall we start now? She said wait. And I kept waiting.  By the end of second year I was popular in my college. My seniors and juniors started knowing me as I started going to their classes often and shared my ideas and collected their advices. Being topper was another reason of getting people’s attention. And it made them listen me.

At the end of second year, there was a fest organized by college for all the departments and unfortunately I was the only one participating in that event from Pharmacy. Other students were busy preparing for their finals. I won extempore competition during fest and I was one of the hosts for the program that evening. To my amazement I was awarded with the “Best student of Pharmacy” same evening. That evening was the best evening since I started college as I was proud of taking initiatives. That award brought more responsibilities in me and expectation of teachers rose above the grounds from me. I never seemed to care where did I came from but I always looked forward to where I could go.

With the beginning of my third year a ray of hope started shining as Dr. Hema Chaudhary took over as principal. I again knocked her doors and she kept saying she was in talk with management and asked me to come back the next day and I was standing at her door again the next day. I was very punctual in following her up. I could see her being overwhelmed at certain occasions but I never hesitated to knock her door again and again. It happened for a while. One fine day she looked at me and said, Bijay you go ahead with whatever you want to do and let me know how I could help you. I was so happy that day. I heard the phrase I was dying to hear since one and half year. I now got to shout that Pharma Buds is about to born this Saturday. I went to all the classes made announcement that I got green signal from mam and asked all to join on the following Saturday.  Nine of them turned on that Saturday and that was the birth of Pharma Buds. We discussed on how we could move forward and how we could bring in more members to the club. I started Pharma Buds website and Facebook page to get in touch and convey message to students. I came back home with a sense of achievement that my dream was about to get realized.

After that we kept organizing events and setting up cultures like celebrating teacher’s day, celebrating pharmacists’ day. We organized a week long national pharmacy week with several events such as rally, quiz competition, group discussions, poster designing competition and free health check-up camp. We called back our alumni and interacted with them about different perspectives in industry, government sector and wherever they worked. We discussed about Job challenges and opportunities. We started taking lead in organizing national seminars and several events. It now started to feel home for me. I was now relived as it was how I wanted to spend my college days. By the time I came to final year we had received a lot of messages from our alumni and they all were proud in whatever was happening in college. Not only with alumni words starts spreading across and the college prestige rose higher. We asked students to perform in whatever they were good at and provided them platform to perform. Students started interacting with each other. They started talking to their juniors and seniors as we all had to work as a team during events. They started participating in events and slowly accepted the club. They started to walk to me and discussed their wonderful ideas and how they can help.

Soon after that we were publishing Pharma Buds Bulletin, our monthly magazine with aim to help students write scientific articles and I worked day in and day out as editor to give it a shape. Abhijeet Debnath and Prabhsimran Singh played significant role in this. While many others were also involved silently in this. We asked students to submit articles and launched very first edition of it on Pharmacist’s Day.

Further, during my final year I knocked little more to principal’s door and we were going on college funded tour to Mumbai. Private colleges rarely fund students’ trip but PDM did. During those days I was trying to organize as many events and programs as I could so that these events become our identity and provide students an opportunity to get exposed to pharma culture we were setting up. When I look back at it, my heart fills with pride and sense of achievement.

I never bought words from my teachers or family when they said if you are a topper you can get a good job. I never believed that getting 90% ensure your job at good company. I always loved running extra mile, be it staying back a little more at college to complete the editing of pharma buds bulletin or to make arrangements for the national seminar. I missed my lunch several times in my college to update Website or to plan events. It was the thing I loved and was proud of than topping the class. I did topped but that was not the end. I never believed that topping Guarantee your success. You should develop extra abilities and college is the best place to do so. Be it developing your communication skills, public speaking, leadership, may be improving your English, singing, dancing or any skills that you think you need to improve and that only makes you a better human being.

And to that question, I started my answer with, “If I have to talk about myself two words best describes me they are Leadership and trend-setter. In my college, I founded a club named Pharma Buds which promotes students leadership and communication skills, I was co-founder and Editor of Pharma Buds Bulletin, our monthly magazine published in college website, I was awarded with award of Best student of pharmacy in year 2013 and I am a growth-oriented person looking forward to constantly push my boundaries and learn a lot from challenges.” And this introduction impressed interviewers of all companies I gave interviews for. Not to a single interviewer I had to say I was topper so please hire me. Because score and toppers are not what companies are looking for they are looking for go-getters and change makers. So what are you doing beyond your books to answer the question, tell us about yourself?

Bijay Gautam is founder of Pharma Buds and Co-founder of Pharma Buds Bulletin. He is currently working at Sun Pharma's R&D Center at Gurgaon. 

You can stay in touch with him on his email: bjaygtm@gmail.com or at Facebook.com/Bijay.goutam and read his blog at bjaygtm.blogspot.com.

Pharma Buds Officials Responsibilities

Pharma Buds Organizational Chart:

Click here to download PDF version of this post for future reference.

Pharma Buds Executive Committee:

Pharma Buds executive committee shall be a committee to execute club objectives, develop club strategies achieve club goals, and give direction to the Pharma Buds. It shall be constituted with following eleven members:

President

The club president is responsible for setting and monitoring the goals of the club, running club meetings, appointing committee chairs and delegating tasks as necessary, recruiting, training and retaining members and maintaining regular communication with the college administration.

The President should:

·         be well informed of all organisation activities and able to provide oversight

·         be a person who can develop good relationships internally and externally

·         be forward thinking and committed to meeting the overall goals of the Club

·         have a good working knowledge of the Committee Constitution, rules and duties of office bearers

·         be able to work collaboratively with other Committee Members

·         be a good listener and attuned to the interests of members and other interest groups

·         be a good role model and a positive image for the Club in representing the Committee in other forums  (e.g. league delegate meetings)

·         be a competent public speaker

The President’s responsibilities include:

·         Supervising and coordinating overall Pharma Buds activities

·         Calling and presiding over regular and special meetings of the Executive Committee

·         Leading, guiding, directing, and evaluating the work of other executive leaders

·         Chair Committee meetings ensuring that they are run efficiently and effectively

·         Act as a signatory for the Club in all legal purposes and financial purposes

·         Serving as principal liaison with the College, the Alumni Association and other organizations

·         Periodically consult with Committee members on their role, to see how they are going and help them to optimize their contribution   

·   Assist in the development of partnerships with sponsors, funding agencies, local and state government, shared facility users and organisations that are relevant to the goals of the Club. 

Vice-President

The role of the Pharma Buds vice president can be summarized in one word: service. The vice president serves the president, other club officers, committees and the general membership. He or she is also expected to learn the duties of the president in order to fill in or take over as necessary.

The Vice President should:

·         be well informed of all organisation activities and able to provide oversight

·         be a person who can develop good relationships internally and externally

·         be willing to step in for the President where needed including chairing meetings

·         be forward thinking and committed to meeting the overall goals of the Pharma Buds

·         have a good working knowledge of the Committee Constitution, rules and duties of office bearers

·         be able to work collaboratively with other Committee Members

·         be a good listener and attuned to the interests of members and other interest groups

·         be a competent public speaker

·         be able to raise concerns with the President where they arise 

The Vice President’s responsibilities include:

·         In the event of the President being unable to fulfill his/her duties to step into that role

·         In the absence of the President, chair Committee meetings ensuring that they are run efficiently and effectively

·         Be an alternate signatory for the Club for legal purposes and financial purposes

·         Assist the President in deciding which matters are dealt with by the Executive, the full Committee and delegated to Committees

·         Coordinate Club planning to ensure appropriate plans are developed, presented to and reviewed by the Committee, and enacted as required   

·         Represent the Club at meetings and forums as agreed with by the President

·         Other duties as nominated by the President and / or Committee

·         Assuming the duties of the President on an interim basis if the President is unable to complete his/her term

Secretary

The secretary is known as Heart of any Club or organization. Main roles of Secretary includes developing agendas for meeting, fixing club meetings with prior discussion with club president, keeping the meeting minute and preparing yearly club reports.

The Secretary should:

·         be organized

·         be well informed about meeting procedures of  club

·         be well informed about writing meeting minutes (Record)

·         have computer skills

·         be a good communicator

·         be able to keep confidential matters confidential. 

The Secretary’s responsibilities include:

·         Development of the meeting agenda in consultation with President and distribution prior to the meeting

·         Notifying all executive members of the club about meeting agendas at least 2 days prior the meeting dates and 1 day prior for special meetings

·         Taking and distributing meeting minutes (record of meetings) at Board and special meetings

·         Maintain all records of the Pharma Buds and ensure effective management of Club's records

·         Taking attendance at Pharma Buds Executive meetings

·         Preparing monthly and yearly club progress reports and present in executive meetings and publish in Pharma Buds website

Treasurer

The club treasurer controls the club’s money, both its collection and disbursement. He or she collects member dues, prepares and monitors the budget and maintains accurate financial records.

The club Treasurer should:

·                     Bear good Organisational Skills

·                     Has some financial expertise

·                     Ability to maintain accurate records

·                     Dedicated Club Person

·                     Honest/Trustworthy

·                     Computer skills

·                     Good communication skills

Responsibilities of Treasurer include:

·                     Administer all financial affairs of the Club

·                     Planning of budget of any event, presenting to college Principal and managing expenses.

·                     Receipt of all incoming monies

·                     Maintain accurate records of all income and expenditure

·                     Monthly financial reports – present at monthly committee meetings

·                     Arrange and dispatch invoices for periodical payment

·                     Collect yearly membership fees from club members and issue recipt

·                     Keep accurate record of all membership payments

·                     Be a signatory on club account

·                     Finding sponsors and Fundraising for the club programs

Vice Treasurer

Vice-Treasurer of Pharma Buds is required to work with club Treasurer and co-ordinate in maintaining club financial records. He/she is responsible to take up the position when Treasurer is absent or couldn’t complete the tenure.

The required attributes are similar to that of Treasurer. Responsibilities of a Vice-treasurer Includes:

·         Financial advising to the Treasurer working for Pharma buds.

·         Record Keeping, managing expenses, cash in hand and cash required.

·         Finance management, Planning of Procedures for cash collection and presenting same to the treasurer.

·         Making strategy and planning budget for Pharma Buds and presenting same to Treasurer and Fellow members.

Program Director

The Club Program Director is responsible for planning and executing all club events effectively.

Program Director should be:

·         Creative

·         Ability to work as team

·         Dedication to carry out events

·         Can communicate ideas effectively and listen to suggestions

Responsibilities of club program Director include:

·         Planning, arranging and coordinating events for the Pharma Buds.

·         Form a team (if necessary), communicate and make strategy to plan any EVENT.

·         Plan and prepare a list of Yearly events of Pharma Buds and present in Executive committee Meeting.

·         Determining subcommittees and elect subcommittee chairs that best fulfill the programming goals of the Pharma Buds.

·         Collecting informal feedback from event attendees and informing the Board of “lessons learned” from each event

·         To prepare proposal of the event and submit to President with expected financial expenditure at least a month prior to the event

Webmaster

The webmaster of Pharma Buds is responsible for updating Club website, Social Networking pages, reply and maintain club Emails and other technological issues.

The Webmaster should be:

·         Well versed with Computer and Internet

·         Knowledge of blogging and website updating

·         Knowledge of social networking

·         Effective communication

The responsibilities of Pharma Buds Webmaster are as follows: 

·         Regularly updating the club website taking care to keep its content current, fresh, appropriate, and safe. 

·         Acts as a conduit between the members and the website.

·         Regular update of club Social Networking pages like Facebook, Google plus.

·         Responding to the queries received through email and informing club President on the same if higher authority is required to answer the issue.  

·         Receiving and publishing member submissions, which may include but are not limited to the club calendar, which includes programs, field trips, and social events; member galleries; travelogues; member critiques; and educational articles.

·         Decides whether data submitted should be Members Only or Public.

Executive Members

Four executive members (one from each class of B. Pharmacy) will join the executive committee of Pharma Buds. These members are required to take part effectively in club meetings, have their say in club decisions and bring the general members issue to club meetings.

The following are responsibilities for Pharma Buds Executive Members: 

·         To take part effectively in every club meetings and make their suggestions for the overall growth of club

·         To take up the responsibilities as required in different occasions or events organised by club

·         To help other executive officials with their job and build strong relationship with general members

The above listed members are required to attend monthly club meetings, plan club strategies and work as team for the expansion of the club objectives and goals.

Pharma Buds Bulletin Committee:

This committee shall be a committee under Executive committee of Pharma Buds working in co-ordination with executive committee responsible for publishing club monthly publication Pharma Buds Bulletin. This committee shall be constituted with following members:

Editors:

There will be two editors for Pharma Buds Bulletin (PB hereafter) whose responsibilities would be to uplift the overall content quality of PBB.

The Editor should:

·         Has sound knowledge of language (English) and grammar.

·         Bear analytical skills

·         Good communication skill

·         Good writing skills

Responsibilities of the Editor include:

·         Deciding and developing different sections of PBB.

·         Deciding whether the submitted articles should be included or not in magazine as per objective of the Magazine.

·         Writing Editorial for every issue of PBB.

·         Editing and uplifting the quality of articles submitted without changing the theme of article.

·         Checking grammatical errors in submitted articles and correcting them.

·         Guiding Graphics designer, news compilers, report writers and content writers on working effectively meeting the objectives of magazine.

·         Organising meeting with committee members regularly to uplift the quality of articles in every issue and for betterment of magazine.

·         Determining the date of publishing magazine monthly and notifying general members about last date of articles submission.

·         Co-ordinating with webmaster for publishing any notices online and magazine every month.

News Compilers:

The responsibility of news compilers are:

·         To compile news from various pharmaceutical sectors like Industries, Recent development in pharmaceuticals, New Drug launches, ban on drugs, Clinical trials of drugs, epidemic diseases and any other relevant news getting media attention.

·         To put the compiled news in own way for publishing in PBB.

·         Submit the news to Editor before the deadline of article submission is met.

News/Report Writers:

The report writers’ responsibilities include:

·         To note details of every events organised by Pharma Buds and write news update about events for club website and magazine.

·         To write and submit the report of programs organized by Pharma Buds to webmaster next day of event for online publishing and to Editor before deadline of article submission is met.

·         To collect photographs from event photographer and put them in report.

·         To co-ordinate with Editor in publishing PBB.

Event Photographer:

The Event Photographer’s responsibilities include:

·         To capture photographs in every events organised by Pharma Buds.

·         To maintain the record/album of all photographs of club events.

·         To provide photographs as soft copy to report writers/editors/graphics designers/webmaster or other members whoever requires them.

·         To suggest graphics designer in selection of photograph for magazine cover.

Graphics Designer:

The responsibilities of Graphics Designer include:

·         To design the justifiable cover page of magazine in co-ordination with other members.

·         To give graphics beauty to the PBB.

·         To design the posters for club programs.

·         To suggest and co-ordinate with webmaster in designing the website of the club.

·         To submit the designed/final form of the Magazine to Editors at least 2 days prior to the actual date of publication for their review.