Pharmacy and pharmaceutical science students as good global citizens

Dr Sudax Murdan is leading this project at the School, where the aim is to embed global citizenship in our pharmacy students, thus producing 'global pharmacists'. A symposium will be held on 18th March 2014 in the Maplethorpe Lecture Theatre at the UCL School of Pharmacy.

Students as Global Citizens: Globalisation and healthcare professions have a major mutual influence, and there is thus a need to create ‘globally-competent’ professionals.  In this context, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded a 3-year collaborative research and development project called ‘Students as Global Citizens’ at the Institute of Education, the School of Pharmacy, the Institute for Global Health at UCL, the Royal Veterinary College and the London International Development Centre.  The main aim of the project is to develop and test methods to integrate learning about global and development issues into undergraduate curricula in pharmacy, medicine and veterinary science.

During the project, students and staff were interviewed and surveyed on their views about the inclusion of global issues in the MPharm curriculum. Information was collected about the global issues that are already taught, and additional areas were identified in the curriculum where global health could be discussed. Teaching and learning material that could be used collated, school-wide seminars organised, and Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) was invited to the School’s Careers Fair. In terms of teaching and learning, the aim is to embed global issues within all years of the MPharm curriculum, in addition to running optional modules such as the existing ‘Healthcare, medicines and pharmacy in developing countries’.

We are publishing a document - The Global Pharmacist - where the work done during the project is discussed. We are also holding a symposium at the UCL School of Pharmacy on 18th March 2014 to launch the document in which research designed to address medical needs in poorly resourced regions will be discussed

Contact: Dr Sudax Murdan