This year’s National Australian Pharmacy Student’s Association (NAPSA) Congress was held in January in Canberra for the first time, with almost 150 students attending.
The six-day event was described as an outstanding success, highlighted by speeches from industry figures, workshops, a trade show and a gala ball.
The Pharmacy Guild was a platinum sponsor of the event and hosted some of the activities including workshops on:
- Pharmacy ownership
- Opioid replacement treatment
- Tips for interns
- Leadership in the classroom and pharmacy
The workshops proved to be a major highlight of the Congress. Students attending the opioid replacement treatment workshop heard from a patient who’s on a methadone program and who credits her community pharmacist with saving her life.
Students at the pharmacy ownership activity workshop were shown three different pharmacies and were asked which one they would buy.
The Guild also hosted a tradeshow stall providing Congress goers a showbag provided by the ACT branch filled with lots of goodies from the Guild’s National Secretariat.
The Congress proved to be a great way for pharmacy students to connect with the Guild.
NAPSA even sent the Guild a letter of thanks with Organising Chair, Zineb Medrek saying, “Without this support, we would not have been able to expose the students to as many speakers and a variety of topics as we did.”
As well as receiving lots of support students were also willing to give, raising more than $2,500 at the Congress to donate to Pharmacists’ Support Services (PSS).
Congress organisers presented the donation to PSS Executive Officer Kay Dunkley, at the Congress Gala Dinner.
The next NAPSA Congress will be held in Hobart next January.
