Being a health care provider brings an added responsibility to your shoulder that every pharmacist would realise. Invention of new drug molecules, advanced drug delivery systems, ensuring quality medications to a patient, all these magnanimous duties primarily belong to pharmacists and pharmaceutical professionals only. Thus pharmacy is not only a field of earning your living but also a noble, responsible profession.
Ever since I was in 9th grade in Viqarunnisa Noon School, I belonged to the rare "chemistry loving" genre at midst of my physics loving friends. I was so much in love with the subject that I once asked my chemistry teacher at school which field of higher education required intense study of chemistry. He suggested different fields like biochemistry, applied chemistry and pharmacy. Pharmacy ranked first in my list of preferences due to its appeal as a noble health care profession. Thus I readjusted my focus on secondary and higher secondary biology as it is another integral part of the field.
After completion of my HSC, I immediately took admission at the Department of Pharmacy at North South University, NSU. I was so sure of my choice of the programme that I started my undergraduate studies even without waiting for my grades in HSC. The 4 year B. Pharm programme covered different fields of pharmacy like medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical technology, pharmacology, clinical and hospital pharmacy and pharmaceutical marketing. During these 4 years. visiting manufacturing sites of top ranking pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, handling patients, running experiments in laboratories transformed a mere fresher like me into a real pharmacist.
When I was graduating from NSU, Summa Cum Laude, did I little realise that my journey of pharmacy education had just begun, that this journey, would take me to different time zones? No way! From there, it took me to work for one of the leading local pharmaceutical companies for a year followed by another multinational one, where I have played many different roles as a pharmacist, be it directly handling cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, promoting high end oncology products or world class quality manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
 As the field offers such variety of specialisations, it is your own understanding and work experience that can find your own calling as a pharmacist. After working for a while in the industry, I decided to have my academic specialisation in industrial pharmacy. Thus I moved to Copenhagen with a prestigious invitation from the government of the Kingdom of Denmark to study MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen (KU). I was the first ever Bangladeshi student at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at KU. Many at the university were pretty amazed by meeting a Bangladeshi for the first time in their lives.
The two year programme was one of the best experiences you can ask for. Availability of state of the art research facilities and some of the most helpful teaching staff gives Denmark the 3rd best higher education system in the world. It was time for me to make the best out of this opportunity. By working closely under supervision of world renowned specialists in the field, I not only learned advanced manufacturing techniques, I also realised the value of self-discipline and professionalism. Being honest to yourself and to the stakeholders of your work (in my case it was to my research) is one of the most valuable properties of pharmacy as a profession.
Meanwhile, I got selected at the KU Mentor programme where the Project Manager, Global Safety of Novo Nordisk A/S, the global leader in diabetes cares, agreed to mentor me for a year. His perspective taught me a great deal about the global pharmaceutical industry.
Later, my master's thesis got nominated for prestigious Pharmacy Student award in 2014 that earned me a project where I could extend my work at the master's thesis at KU for 5 months after the completion of my MSc degree. This experience of working in a lab in a professional aspect taught me how to be an initiator as I had to plan and execute the entire project on my own.
While receiving a world class education abroad, I always felt the necessity of such teaching initiatives in Bangladesh. Thus I returned to Bangladesh at the end of 2014 and joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at North South University so that I could channel some of my learning experience back to the budding pharmacists of Bangladesh. My learning experience still continues as I work with some of the best minds in the country at the university and learn how to teach young professionals more efficiently. Nothing can overrule the appeal of molding fresh minds. If I can inspire a single student at the university by sharing my experiences or even by writing this article, I would consider it to be a very small payback to my country.
The writer is a lecturer at Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North South University, email: paromitaislam@gmail.com
Pharmacist: A noble healthcare professional
Paromita Islam | Published: April 09, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
Students working in a lab — Bangladeh University Photo
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