Third year UCSI pharmacy student Siti Zubaidah in the faculty’s fully-equipped Simulated Pharmacy Lab.

Passionate about helping people and healthcare, Siti finds that being a pharmacist is the perfect job for her.

KUALA LUMPUR: Like many JPA scholarship applicants, Siti Zubaidah binti Al-Nazir Hussain wanted to pursue dentistry. Her second choice was pharmacy and when she was offered a scholarship for that instead, she decided to give it a try. Three years later, she realised that it was the best decision she could have made. 

“After actually studying pharmacy at UCSI, I realise that I have a passion for helping people and pharmacy is at the frontline of helping patients, through medicine,” she said with a smile. 

Exuding a sense of quiet confidence – she is a black belt karate holder – she points out that the biggest misconception about pharmacy, is that the career only involves dispensing medicine. 

“Honestly, when people know that I’m pursuing pharmacy, they ask me why do I need to study for four years just to give people medicine?” 

Laughing good naturedly, she often finds that she needs to explain the role of a pharmacist to them. 

More than mere pill pushers, pharmacists have extensive knowledge of drugs that is used to manage the most suitable medicine for patients. They also monitor the patients’ reactions to the medication – if a patient’s body reacts badly to a drug or if a drug has no effect on the patient, they would need to suggest an alternative. 

As part of their role as the go-to person for medication advice, pharmacists also counsel patients on their medication history and motivate them to take their medication on time and correctly. 

So having completed three out of four years of pharmacy, what is the most rewarding aspect of the job? 

With a grin, Siti answers, “The respect and trust obtained.” 

In the professional aspect, she shared that it is important to gain the respect and trust of patients. Only then will they be completely honest about their illness and medication history. This allows pharmacists to properly prescribe medication to them. 

On the home front, her studies see her relatives and friends come to her when they have any questions about their medication. 

“You are respected for studying pharmacy, and your advice is trusted.” 

An experience like no other 

One of Siti’s most memorable experience studying at UCSI, is taking part in the UCSI Annual Public Health Campaign. It is a campaign that raises awareness on various health issues such as kidney diseases and breast cancer. Free health checkups such as blood pressure test, waist-to-hip-ratio measurement and urine test are also conducted. 

UCSI’s Pharmacy Student Association have organised the event annually for the last 13 years. This is no mean feat as it includes raising funds to conduct the free health tests, obtaining information from the relevant government and NGOS for the presentation slides and exhibitions, and managing the logistics for the entire event. Remarkably, the students have organised the UCSI Annual Public Health Campaign all around East Malaysia, including in Malacca, Ipoh, Kuantan and Kuala Lumpur. 

Siti was in the team in charge of the exhibition slides and posters. They worked closely with dean Assoc Prof Dr Yeong Siew Wei. As a registered and experience pharmacist herself, Assoc Prof Dr Yeong inspired the students to go above and beyond in their roles as future pharmacists. 

“We had to redo the slides many times but it is a fantastic opportunity because this event benefits members of the public from another state. What we learned also complemented our classroom studies,” said Siti. 

What stood out for her also was the experience studying with students from all around the world. As UCSI is home to students from more than 80 countries, the international exposure is something that she treasures. 

Being the only muslim in the UCSI Annual Public Health Campaign committee was not a problem, as ‘everyone spoke English’ and were ‘so kind to provide me separate halal meals’. 

When it comes to the classroom experience, she has high praise for UCSI’s syllabus and lecturers. 

She revealed that UCSI’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences is the only one among all universities that practices an integrated syllabus approach. 

This sees the students being exposed to a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the relevant subjects. For example, for the component on the human nervous system, the students will learn the physiological, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry aspect of it in the same year. 

“This is very useful and very realistic because when we meet our patients, we don’t prescribe medication just for one aspect,” she said, adding that her friends from other universities learn the various components separately. 

As a student whose grades are in the top 10% of her class, she humbly dismisses any praise and credits her lecturers and the Faculty’s unique mentor-mentee system. 

From the dean to the lecturers, all Faculty staff members have years of experience in pharmacy and a large number of them come with international exposure. Student-lecturer interaction is of paramount importance to the faculty and the mentor-mentee system was set up to enhance this. Students are paired with lecturers who will counsel them every semester regarding their grades, and whom they can approach for any academic queries. 

Summing up her experience, she would advise anyone who is interested in pursuing pharmacy, to have a passion for helping people. 

“I will tell people that there isn’t much difference between a doctor or pharmacist – in the end, you are still in healthcare and your priority is still your patient’s wellbeing.” 

To find out more about UCSI University’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences programmes, contact us at 03-91018882 or email www.ucsiuniversity.edu.my/onlineenquiry. You can also drop by our Open Day 28 - 29 March 2015 (9am – 5pm). Scholarships are available