German Holiday!

This morning we had a pharmacy student visitor, Christian, who is the current International Pharmacy Student Federation (IPSF) representative from Germany.  He shared some information with us about BPhD (German Pharmaceutical Students' Association- Bundesverband der Pharmaziestudierend en Deutschland), IPSF, International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and the European Pharmaceutical Student Association (EPSA). 

BPhD was founded by student pharmacists in order to improve education and create resolutions & motions to affect the future of pharmacy (similar to APhA-ASP, the U.S. national pharmacy organization's student chapter).  BPhD supports a focus on the patient's health, interprofessional collaboration, evidence-based medicine & education, and economics. 

Christian was especially interested in learning more from us about collaborative practice agreements that many pharmacists have with other health care providers. 

With IPSF-Germany representative, Christian

Because it was a German Holiday (Ascension Day), we received the second half of the day off!  Most of the group decided to visit Wald Abenteuer, a ropes adventure course in Velbert.  We definitely had a lot of fun, and it was a great workout!

Entering the park- it was a bit rainy today

Signing our lives away

Avoiding the rain & trying to stay warm inside before braving the ropes course

Trying out the Intro course

Taking a little break after the Extreme course

Heidi taking on the challenge of the Extreme course

 Teeter-totter crossing

 Course Finale: Zip line!

Munsters University

  Morning run in Velbert

Today we visited Westfälische Wilhelms Universitat Munster (the University of Munster), traveling ~2 hours by bus & train.  

Velbert is between Essen & Dusseldorf; Muenster is ~105 km away

Lots of time on the bus/train & I found a Starbucks :)

University of Munster (thanks for the pic, Wikipedia)

When we arrived to U of Munster, we had lunch & visited with some of the PhD students & professors.

Reviewing some geriatric pharmacotherapy before working on a patient case with German pharmacy students

We received an introduction to Munster's pharmacy program & pharmacy in Germany.  German pharmacy students take Staatsexamen (a state exam) in order to receive their pharmacist license. There are also optional programs at Munster, including Promotion (PhD, independent science work, teaching, to obtain higher positions), and a Masters in Drug Science (focusing on pharmaceutical industry). 

Munster's new pharmacy building

Something unique about the Munster pharmacy program is that there are 9 pharmacy professors, which is bigger than average (~5 profs) in Germany. 

There are no unemployed pharmacists in Germany, and often a shortage because many female pharmacists will work less after they have children. 

Do we look like German students?

We then worked on a patient case beside German PhD students.  It was interesting to work with the students; overall, we noticed mostly similarities in the way we approached the patient case.  Our German counterparts are very good at pharmacology & the biochemistry of the medications, while we as U.S. students aided in a more direct and systematic way to approach the case and find drug therapy problems & ways to resolve them. 

Visiting the pharmaceutical garden at Munster's pharmacy school was the highlight for many students in our group.  Here are some of the plants we saw & learned about: 

Wide-eyed while learning about belladonna

Joe smelling the refreshing mint leaves

Ginkgo biloba- doesn't necessarily improve memory & prevent dementia, but does improve blood flow & act as an antioxidant

 

http://youtu.be/imOE6EMWVrM 

Papaver somniferum, opium poppy- opium & poppy seeds are derived from

 Cannabis sativa- related to new legislation in MN

Ephedra foemina- class of plant that pseudoephedrine comes from

Senna plant

We received a presentation on Munster's new Pharm(MS)School: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Undergraduate Students. This is an innovative joint project that integrates pharmacy students with other pharmacy science students, where they work collaboratively on research projects directly related to their coursework.  

Our group then gave our presentation about pharmacy in the United States. 

Discussion with the German pharmacy students brought up a point that U.S. students are often able to explore careers during highschool & undergrad, while Germany pharmacy students usually do not have this opportunity, and usually decide their career path upon graduation around age 18 or 19.  The German students were also interested in our (usually paid) jobs/ internships we experience while in pharmacy school. 

The 2-hour bus & train rides home brought us back to Velbert around 10:30 PM.  Kaputt!

University of Düsseldorf

Today we ventured via bus & train in the rain to Düsseldorf to visit their university & pharmacy school.  

Making our way to the train station

Thanks to Ms. Biester for the umbrellas!

We took a pretty extensive tour of the pharmacy school, visiting the pharmacology & pharmacokinetics lab, library & cafeteria. 

Checking out the pharmacy research lab

Eating lunch like German university students

After drying off from another trek through the pouring rain, we joined the '8th semester' German pharmacy students in their Clinical Pharmacy course.  We chatted with some of the students before class started.  Their pharmacy professor gave a brief introduction about Germany & German pharmacy school to us, then we proceeded to give our presentation regarding pharmacy in the United States, the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) as a degree, the University of Minnesota's admissions/curriculum/activities, and medication therapy management.   

Spreading some U of M pharmacy knowledge during our presentation

The German pharmacy students asked questions about our tuition, loans & salaries (which are all higher! German students have free education, but lower salaries overall).  

They also asked about our experience and confidence in working directly with patients; we explained that we often have "fake" patients during our first couple years of pharmacy school, but plenty of other instances (work, volunteering, community teachers) to interact with real patients.  

The German students have lots of lab, and so were wondering why we only had 2 hours of lab per week; we reviewed our timeline of receiving a PharmD, and that a lot of lab is done during our prerequisite courses in undergrad.  Germans enter pharmacy school directly after highschool graduation, so their classes and labs are more chemistry-dense during pharmacy school, which is very different from the U.S. 

After a very succesful 40-minute presentation given by the 11 of us, some of the German students & staff hosted a BBQ at the school, and we all had a great time!

Enjoying some time with our new German pharmacy friends!

MEAT!

Day 1 of Rotation

Today is our official first day of rotation in Germany!

Where we are staying- Burgerstube 

After my inability to fall back asleep and ignore the birds chirping outside my window, I decided to join them and venture around Velbert at 5:30 AM. 

We were told Velbert is a very small town, but there's still a casino

 

Started off with breakfast at 8:00 AM, which was awesome, courtesy of Ms. Biester :) 

Our preceptor, Josh went over the objectives & expectations of the rotation, and gave us our first assignment.  We are required to- as a group of 11 (including our Germany intern student, Sebastian)- create a presentation describing the Doctor of Pharmacy (vs Germany's 5-year + state exam), prerequisites & curriculum at a US College of Pharmacy, and various jobs and responsibilities of a pharmacist in the United States. 

 

Hard at work

We will give this presentation 4 times at the German universities we are visiting. 

Our biggest challenge at this point will be to fit all this information into 20-25 minutes...

German pharmacy intern, Sebastian, has joined us for our APPE rotation.  He took us for a little tour around Velbert.  We checked out the bus stops, grocery store, park and animal zoo. 

Giant hairy pig at the animal petting zoo

Later in the day, pharmacist preceptor Nick gave us our introductory tour of Adler Apotheke, the pharmacy that we'll be working at throughout the rotation.

Adler Apotheke, established 1902

Nick showing us around the pharmacy's basement- w/ Corey, Dipali, Ann

Michelle, Sarah, Selam, Joe, Traci, Heidi

Herbal tea compounding area

Excess meds in the pharmacy basement

After our premier visit to Adler Apotheke, we ventured back "home" to work on our presentation for tomorrow, then had dinner. 

3 kinds of potato, 2 kinds of meat, & pasta

Dinner time!

 

Hello Frankfurt!

Our flight was good and a quick ~7 hours 20 minutes from JFK in NYC to Frankfurt. 

Luckily, we had no delays, missed flights (although we did run to our connecting flight in NYC), or lost luggage.  A few others in our group of 10 were not as lucky. 

Land! Finally across the Atlantic

Currently on a train from Frankfurt airport to Dusseldorf.  Josh is our energetic tour guide right now.  The 4 of us are pretty tired. 

Preceptor Josh

Making our way between trains and airports

Michelle, Heidi,  Sarah, me

Georgetown!

It was a beautiful Saturday morning to visit Georgetown!  My good friend from Baltimore came down to meet up with the group, and we wandered the very cute streets and shops. 

View of Georgetown & the Patomac (w/ lots of kayakers!)

Met up with Tessa!

Ate some Georgetown cupcakes

Ran across some guys parkouring in the park

 

What's parkouring?! We didn't know either

Now for some time in the sky...