Two UBC students complete one-month internship at QU-CPH

The PharmD students were involved in a variety of activities during the four-week rotation.In the first two weeks, they had meetings with the deans of the college, chairs of departments, and faculty members with administrative portfolios to learn about their roles and activities.In addition, they visited the Pharmacy and Drug Control Department at the Ministry of Public Health to learn about the licensing of new drugs in Qatar.For teaching-related experience, they contributed to professional skills lab, integrated case based learning (ICBL), structured multi-skill assessment (SMSA), and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).Further, they contributed to other activities such as validation of the oral comprehensive examination for the PharmD programme and participation in an outreach event on coronavirus (Covid-19).Finally, to learn about patient care in Qatar, they visited four Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) hospitals/centres (Al Khor, Al Wakra, Hamad General Hospital, and Women's Wellness and Research Centre), Sidra Medicine, and Wellcare community pharmacy to observe the activities of healthcare professionals.These were in addition to having the opportunity to interact with QU-CPH pharmacy students.QU-CPH acting dean Dr Feras Alali said: “CPH is keen to provide international students with the opportunity to experience Qatar and its clinical and educational system.”QU-CPH head of Clinical Education Dr Hazem Elewa, one of the student preceptors during their international rotation, said: “It was a pleasure hosting the pharmacy students from University of British Columbia as it provided a platform to learn about pharmacy practice advancements between Qatar and Canada.”“It was great learning about the similarities between pharmacy in Qatar and pharmacy in Canada, especially with regard to how community and hospital pharmacies are operated,” Overend said.“Everybody that I met in Qatar was incredibly friendly and willing to help with anything and everything,” he said. “It was very interesting learning about the different career paths that a doctor of pharmacy degree can take you down as well as being a part of the academic side of the programme for my rotation.”“I am incredibly grateful to have been able to have had my practicum at Qatar University,” Overrend added. “It was a once in a lifetime experience and I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my programme.”“Qatar University and CPH taught me about so many different facets of pharmacy that I might not have ever learned,” Anthony said.