What should have been an half-hour presentation this morning turned into an hour-long discussion-based presentation.

My presentation this morning was informing the students what pharmacy is like in America by giving a description of the school, the curriculum and the pharmacy healthcare system. I incorporated some discussion-based questions into the presentation and was met with many questions and answers (hence “hour-long” presentation). What I learned from the students- not just one, but with the many perspectives in the room, is that most of the students who finish their B.S, go on to work in the hospital/retail and then take a test to become “pharmacists.” Other students would go on to pursue their masters for an additional 3 years (this involves mainly research). Some of these students who finish their masters again can decide again to go into hospitals, or become drug representatives (a more desirable and lucrative field), or work for domestic/foreign drug companies, or go for even further schooling to get their Ph.D so that can work as a researcher. Apparently, to work as a researcher, you need a Ph.D

The pharmacy curriculum, in their undergraduate years, have a more chemistry-based leaning. They have analytical chemistry, chemistry this and chemistry that– (erhm, chemistry is not my most favorite or best subject, so I’m thankful that biochemistry was the end of the “-chemistryism” for us).

The students were unfamiliar with pharmacotherapy courses, but it’s understandable because their curriculum is more research-oriented.

Now, if you take a step back, the definition/profession of pharmacy varies according to different countries, so going into China believing that pharmacy is the same – or even close to the same as pharmacy in America is an outright fallacy (I admit to thinking that it was at least similar). The pharmacy profession in China, is still in its developmental stages so it’s not as greatly developed as our system, but I do believe that there will be exciting changes ahead when new programs open to offer more opportunities for the students. I think Fudan is trying to be the first to initiate those changes.

In regards to retail, retail pharmacy isn’t a large component of pharmacy as it is in the United States.  Again, being lost in translation with the students, I think patients obtain most of the drugs from the hospital pharmacy, but hopefully I’ll know better next week when I go to Huashan Hospital.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, unlike what we in the U.S might think, is not just one herb, or one pill, but a concoction of multiple herbs. I was told that each of the herbs in the concoction works synergistically to help treat the ailment and reduce the side-effects. One of the students at Fudan actually transferred in as a graduate student from a TCM school and so she’s going to explain to me more about it later. Otherwise, the students here in pharmacy school have minimal exposure, if any to TCM practices. The TCM college next door, is where I would probably need to go to if I would like to be more informed about TCM.

So there you have it. There seems to be a decent proportion of the population that believes in TCM and uses TCM and but a greater proportion that only trusts Western medicine. The hospital I will be going to next week will have a TCM department in addition to their pharmacies and this is interesting because the health system here really seems to fuse both Western and Traditional Medicine together to accommodate the different health needs/preferences of the people. I’m really eager to try acupuncture on myself, and if they let me, taste an herbal concoction.

However, don’t get me wrong though, their healthcare system is far from perfect as there is a great discontent between healthcare workers and patients here primarily due to lack of trust – but this is an issue I will detail at the end. (Although it’s terrible to compare, just by being and seeing things on both sides of the pond makes you a little bit more appreciative for what you have back at home.)