In the light of transformational change happening in the field of clinical pharmacy practice settings worldwide, a deemed university from Malaysia has selected 15 students of Pharm D clinical pharmacy programme from Kerala and trained them in various areas of clinical pharmacy profession.

This is the first time in the country after the introduction of the clinical pharmacy course, Pharm D, a foreign university showed interest to give comprehensive training to competent students from India.

Al Shifa College of Pharmacy in Perinthalmanna in Kerala is the pharmacy institute that sent the students to AIMST University in Malaysia to attend the training programme of clinical pharmacy.

Sharing the details with Pharmabiz, Dr. TNK Suryaprakash, principal of the college, said, the students of 4th, 5th and 6th year were selected by the university by considering their knowledge in the subject and experience in clinical pharmacy at Al Shifa Hospital. One faculty member, Prof. Levin Thomas, was also selected to accompany the students and attend the programme .

According to the principal, Al Shifa College has sent their students to Malaysian University following a contract (MoU) signed between the institute and the university last month. As per the MoU, Al Shifa will send 15 more students to AIMST University in 2019. The training programme provided knowledge about clinical pharmacy and hospital pharmacy practices and made the student-pharmacists assume that they were also part of the healthcare management system.

Prof. Levin Thomas, who accompanied the students representing faculty, said “the training-cum-seminar sessions provided the students the required skill to transform the pharmacy practice services of a healthcare institution into a dignified area of service in the healthcare system. Further, the programme encouraged the students to feel that they have an accountable role in pharmacy practice as a professional for patient care. Those who have attended the training course are now able to meet the challenges in their field of career”.
 
The core areas of training included Clinical Pharmacy in Malaysia and in AIMST University, Total Parental Nutrition, Anti-hypertensive pharmacotherapy, Methadone Replacement Therapy (MRT) in Malaysia, Provision of Pharmaceutical Care, Practical Based Learning (PBL) of Therapeutics, Clinical Research in Malaysia, Use of Body Language skills in Patient Counseling, Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) of Community Pharmacy, and Clinical Pharmacy Practice in Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Malaysia.

Prof. Levin Thomas delivered a talk on ‘Paradigm shift of Pharmacy Practice in India’ during one seminar in the programme.

Dr. Suryaprakash said, unlike the degree course in pharmacy being conducted in India, the Malaysian universities are conducting a clinical oriented B Pharm course. Whereas, in India the degree course is industry oriented, in Malaysia, no university is conducting Pharm D program. Dr. Suryaprakash has wanted the Malaysian university, AIMST, to take necessary steps to introduce Pharm D in that country.

In the list of pharmacy colleges from Kerala, Al Shifa College of Pharmacy has been ranked first on the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings-2018, approved by the ministry of human resources development, government of India. Last year also the institute stood first on NIRF, said the principal.