Exploring the Different Pathways of Pharmacy – An Interview with Dr. Ann Leung

CHAN, Stephanie Nok Yan; CHONG, Donald Wing-Kit*



Pharmacy Education & Practice
HKPharm J Volume 30 (2), May-Aug-2023 (2023-12-21): P.38

ABSTRACT

 

In this interview, Dr. Ann Leung talks about her experience as a clinical pharmacist in Canada and her views on Hong Kong’s pharmacy education. In addition, she shares her teaching experience at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and discusses the new Master of Advanced Pharmacy (MAP) program, which consists of four streams through which students can tailor their course selection and experience depending on their professional needs. In the future, she hopes to continue to align the program with the evolving needs of the healthcare system and connect with more pharmacy professionals to promote experiential learning.

INTRODUCTION TO DR. ANN LEUNG

 

Dr. Leung is currently a lecturer and one of the program coordinators of the Master of Advanced Pharmacy program at HKU Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy. She is also a section editor for the Hong Kong Pharmaceutical Journal. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 2009, subsequently working as a pharmacy resident at St. Michael’s Hospital. After completing residency, she continued as a clinical pharmacist at St. Michael’s Hospital and specialized in cardiology and critical care pharmacotherapy. Dr. Leung has rich experience as a preceptor for undergraduate pharmacy students and pharmacy residents on clinical rotations. In 2017, she finished her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Florida. Before returning to Hong Kong, she worked as a hospital clinical pharmacist in Canada for ten years.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION TO MASTER OF ADVANCED PHARMACY

 

To support the evolving needs of pharmacy professionals in Hong Kong, HKU initiated the Master of Advanced Pharmacy (MAP) program in 2022. The program provides student-centered postgraduate training that allows students to customize their course selection and exposure based on their professional aspirations and interests in different pharmacy sectors. The program consists of four streams, namely Clinical Practice, Community Health, Pharmaceutical Medicine, and Generalist. All four streams include the option of completing a practicum that provides hands-on experience and networking opportunities to students. The program is currently offered as a 1-year full-time or a 2-year part-time program. Candidates holding a Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy or other relevant disciplines are eligible to apply. You can scan the QR code to learn more about the MAP program.

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH DR. ANN LEUNG

 

Q: Why did you choose to study pharmacy?

Dr. Leung: I have always been interested in life sciences in school. I was drawn to a healthcare-related career with plenty of interaction with patients. In addition, you can be an entrepreneur and build your own pharmacy in the community. After studying pharmacy, I discovered even more pathways, including hospital, industry, consultant and education roles. At graduation, I realized that I especially enjoyed the clinical aspect of pharmacy, so I chose to pursue a hospital residency after I graduated.

 

Q: What is the curriculum like in Canadian or United States pharmacy schools?

Dr. Leung: In North America, students typically complete at least 2 to 3 years of undergraduate studies prior to applying for pharmacy school. Most schools now offer the entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy degree. For example, the University of Toronto PharmD program is a 4-year program that combines coursework, laboratory instruction, and at least 40 weeks of hands-on experiential learning in a variety of practice sites, ranging from community, hospital, research and education settings. Students spend 5 weeks at each rotation so that there is enough time to immerse and hone their knowledge and skills. Compared to the old Bachelor’s degree with only 1 semester of dedicated rotation time, I definitely see the value of increased experiential learning on students’ ability to apply knowledge and handle patient scenarios in a real-world setting.

 

Q: Do you see any differences in how students choose their professional degrees when comparing Hong Kong and Canada?

Dr. Leung: In Canada, most professional degrees do not offer direct entry from high school. Students must go through at least 2 to 3 years of undergraduate studies, and many will complete an undergraduate degree first. During this time, students are expected to explore different career options through volunteering or summer work. Professional programs not only consider academic achievement, but also extracurricular involvements to select well-rounded individuals. By the time Canadian students get into pharmacy school, they typically have a better idea of what being a pharmacist is about. The Canadian university system wants students to gain more life and work experience before choosing their career direction. On the contrary, students in Hong Kong enter professional degrees straight from high school. It’s hard to know what you want to do at such a young age.

 

The downside of the Canadian system is the uncertainty during the first few years of university, as you are not guaranteed a professional degree and will need to compete. I remember feeling very uncertain at that time, but looking back now, I think it is wise to spare some time to get to know yourself first. There is no need to rush into anything and you will not know what you want to do until you have had some exposure and experiences first.

 

Q: Can you share about your work experience in Canada?

Dr. Leung: After I graduated from the University of Toronto, I became a pharmacy resident at St. Michael’s Hospital. Residency is a 1-year intensive accredited training program, which includes structured rotations to drug distribution, drug information, and around six clinical areas. It was a great opportunity to polish my therapeutic thought process and deepen my knowledge and ability to apply it in various patient populations under the guidance of wonderful mentors. I also presented patient case presentations monthly and took a research project from design to manuscript. With the structured residency program, the 1-year experience is generally considered equivalent to 3 to 5 years of working experience as a clinical pharmacist.

 

After my residency, I started my first job at the same hospital, covering various areas including the neurosurgery and trauma intensive care unit (ICU), cardiovascular ICU, operating room pharmacy satellite and pre-admission clinic for 3 years. Then I took on my permanent role as a clinical pharmacist in the cardiac ICU, working with patients with acute coronary syndrome, severe heart failure, arrhythmia, and after resuscitation for cardiac arrest.

 

My work consisted of 70% direct patient care on the ward and 30% project time. I worked on many interesting assignments such as preparation for hospital accreditation and protocols and education leading up to the legalization of cannabis. Looking back now, my 10 years at St. Michael’s Hospital gave me a strong clinical background, project management skills, the ability to deal with ill-defined problems, and many other soft skills that are so important for my role now at HKU.

 

Q: How did you become a specialist pharmacist in cardiology and critical care?

Dr. Leung: It’s a combination of learning on the job and seeking additional training. In Canada, you are assigned to a specific clinical area. At my hospital, the department will also assign a senior mentor in that area to guide your development and review patient cases with you. It’s a lot of self-directed learning. You also learn every day on multidisciplinary teaching rounds. I would say it takes about 1 year to gain familiarity and feel comfortable in any specific area, and you continuously learn. It wasn’t until I returned to Hong Kong that I obtained the Board of Pharmacy Specialties certification for cardiology. It’s not that common in Canada but in retrospect, the structured materials would have been very helpful when I first started in the cardiac ICU.

 

Q: What was your daily work routine in the cardiac ICU ward?

Dr. Leung: On a typical day, I start work at 8 am to prioritize and see patients in preparation for rounds. Then, from 10 am to 1 pm, I join the bedside round with the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapist, and dietitian. ICU rounds are very systematic to ensure the team reviews all the issues for each patient. As the pharmacist, I was responsible for summarizing the active medications, providing recommendations on how to optimize the medication regimen, supporting drug monitoring and reconciling home medications. I loved being on rounds because I can proactively contribute to the orders of the day rather than retrospectively resolving issues. In the afternoon, I follow up on less urgent issues and address any drug information questions.

 

Q: After working in Canada, what is your view on the future of clinical pharmacy in Hong Kong?

Dr. Leung: Hong Kong’s clinical pharmacy services are rapidly developing. In the hospital setting, pharmacist roles are expanding on the ward beyond high-risk areas such as oncology and pediatrics. Pharmacists are now serving in many new specialized outpatient clinics. It is only a matter of time before pharmacists are regularly expected in every ward and clinic as we see in North America. With the rapid development of primary care, we are already seeing the expanding role of community pharmacists in sharing the load of outpatient prescriptions and providing essential education to the public to keep the population healthy. Pharmacists will need varied knowledge and skills to expand their role depending on their setting, and we will continue to evolve the Master of Advanced Pharmacy curriculum and courses to support this exciting growth of clinical pharmacy in Hong Kong.

 

Q: Are there any challenges or unforgettable memories from your hospital work?

Dr. Leung: The first few years were challenging. I had a good base from pharmacy school, but it took lots of practice and feedback to get to a point where I could efficiently apply my knowledge and handle a full patient load. I stayed an hour or two behind almost every day and tackled additional learning in the evenings and weekends. My first job as a pharmacist in the neurosurgery and trauma ICU also presented a lot of sad patient cases that taught me how to have empathy without being too emotional.

 

As for the memorable part, the first thing that comes to mind is my wonderful multidisciplinary work team. I value the positive team dynamics and am glad to have worked with such a harmonious team. Also, I am thankful for all the mentors at St. Michael’s Hospital who have become dear friends. There were many good role models in terms of both professional and personal attributes. By observing my mentors, I learnt how to communicate with patients, how to deal with stress, how to be a good coworker, and many other things. I truly loved my job as a clinical pharmacist.

 

Q: Why did you start teaching in Canada?

Dr. Leung: St. Michael’s Hospital is a teaching hospital that provides rotation spots to the University of Toronto and Waterloo every year. All pharmacists in the department are expected to take students and that’s how I got started. It’s such a rewarding experience to support and see how students grow over the course of 4 to 5 weeks. Experiential learning is so crucial to a pharmacy student’s transition into practice, and I’m honored to play a small part. As I got more experienced in critical care and cardiology, I was invited to teach a few lectures at the university and to guide international pharmacy graduates. Teaching in Canada was mainly conducted in small groups, so that has really shaped my teaching style.

 

Q: What made you come back to Hong Kong?

Dr. Leung: I moved back to Hong Kong for family reasons. I took some time to network and met some great colleagues who helped me understand the pharmacist job opportunities in Hong Kong. Since I had already worked for 10 years in hospital pharmacy, I decided to develop myself in the field of teaching. Time flies, and now I have been teaching at HKU for three years and have become the course coordinator for the MAP program.

 

Q: Why did HKU decide to transition from the Master of Clinical Pharmacy to the Master of Advanced Pharmacy program?

Dr. Leung: The Master of Clinical Pharmacy (MCP) program had been running for over 10 years and it was primarily focused on hospital pharmacy practice. Students complete mostly the same courses with the difference of only one elective course. Over the years, we noticed that MCP lacked flexibility and did not fully satisfy the learning needs of individual students, especially in community and industry settings. At the same time, we wanted to increase the exposure of our students to important skills and topics, such as health informatics and big data, primary care and public health, and advanced therapy products. As such, we introduced the MAP program which absorbed the MCP as its Clinical Practice stream. With its 4 streams of study, we greatly expanded the scope of our courses and flexibility so that students can tailor their exposure according to their career goals and interests.

Teaching team and students of the Master of Clinical Pharmacy program at the 2023 Poster Presentation Day

 

Q: What are the new features of the MAP program that you would like to highlight?

Dr. Leung: In addition to the student-centered curriculum, the MAP program introduces the option of practicum. Students gain hands-on experience and competencies at different practice sites in the hospital, community and industry. Also, they gain project management and other soft skills by completing an on-site project to improve medication management. They work on solving real-world issues that benefit the practicum organization and the clients served. It is a great way to develop our students' critical thinking skills, so they can identify and deal with ill-defined problems. The MAP is a hub that connects the various sectors of pharmacy practice and fosters collaboration and networking.

 

Another key focus of the MAP program is local application. We want our students to be able to apply the knowledge and skills the next day at work. We have built a community of experienced local pharmacists who collaborate with our academic staff on course design and assessment so that the courses capture what pharmacists need to know most in Hong Kong practice.

 

Q: As the course coordinator, how are you feeling about the new MAP program after a year? What are the future directions for the program?

Dr. Leung: It has been a smooth transition and we’re receiving great feedback from students and employers! In the future, we hope to expand our role in connecting pharmacy professionals in various sectors. We will continue to introduce new courses and public seminars to respond to evolving issues and skills needed in pharmacy practice. For instance, we organized a public seminar in collaboration with The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong last year, and over 100 people registered to learn about the latest developments in ambulatory care clinic pharmacy practice. This in turn identified the need for including clinical assessment skills in our curriculum to prepare pharmacists to seize new opportunities in the workplace. Through our close links with external stakeholders, we will continue to align the program to prepare our graduates to advance our profession.

 

Q: After three years of teaching, how are you finding your work at HKU?

Dr. Leung: What I like about this job is that there are new tasks and challenges every year. Our department head, Professor Wong, empowers us to try new things and to push pharmacy education forward. In addition to teaching skills, my job constantly challenges me to grow. In my first year, I led the process to bring the Master of Advanced Pharmacy program to approval at HKU. I gained experience with promoting MAP and events, both through social media and in collaboration with multimedia companies. This year, I received a teaching development grant to build a new educational electronic health record platform that will help students bridge the gap to practice.

 

Q: What advice do you have for our pharmacy students and graduates?

Dr. Leung: To fellow pharmacy students and graduates, I encourage you to stay open-minded about your future career. Get exposed to various sectors during your training so that you can figure out what you’re most interested in and good at. Make good use of the summer holidays to gain experience, and this will help you stand out during future interviews. In addition, prepare yourself for future opportunities before they come. Seek ways to upskill and it doesn’t always have to be pharmacy related. For example, I’ve had great students who developed great programming and social media promotion skills that they were able to apply beautifully in pharmacy. This really helped them shine amongst the crowd.

 

Most importantly, do not just focus on pharmacy knowledge, because you need more than that to be successful in the workplace. Learn how to be helpful and valuable in your team. As mentioned, I had many amazing mentors along the way. Do not be shy to seek out senior colleagues because they are happy to share their experiences and knowledge with you.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

As a lecturer and course coordinator for the MAP program at The University of Hong Kong, Dr. Ann Leung shares her experiences as a clinical pharmacist in Canada, and how she found her path as a pharmacist in Hong Kong. She now focuses on coordinating the MAP program to ensure that the program allows for students to shine in their respective fields in pharmacy practice.


2023-12-21 於2021月03月11日

INTRODUCTION TO DR. ANN LEUNG

 

Dr. Leung is currently a lecturer and one of the program coordinators of the Master of Advanced Pharmacy program at HKU Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy. She is also a section editor for the Hong Kong Pharmaceutical Journal. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 2009, subsequently working as a pharmacy resident at St. Michael’s Hospital. After completing residency, she continued as a clinical pharmacist at St. Michael’s Hospital and specialized in cardiology and critical care pharmacotherapy. Dr. Leung has rich experience as a preceptor for undergraduate pharmacy students and pharmacy residents on clinical rotations. In 2017, she finished her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Florida. Before returning to Hong Kong, she worked as a hospital clinical pharmacist in Canada for ten years.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION TO MASTER OF ADVANCED PHARMACY

 

To support the evolving needs of pharmacy professionals in Hong Kong, HKU initiated the Master of Advanced Pharmacy (MAP) program in 2022. The program provides student-centered postgraduate training that allows students to customize their course selection and exposure based on their professional aspirations and interests in different pharmacy sectors. The program consists of four streams, namely Clinical Practice, Community Health, Pharmaceutical Medicine, and Generalist. All four streams include the option of completing a practicum that provides hands-on experience and networking opportunities to students. The program is currently offered as a 1-year full-time or a 2-year part-time program. Candidates holding a Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy or other relevant disciplines are eligible to apply. You can scan the QR code to learn more about the MAP program.

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH DR. ANN LEUNG

 

Q: Why did you choose to study pharmacy?

Dr. Leung: I have always been interested in life sciences in school. I was drawn to a healthcare-related career with plenty of interaction with patients. In addition, you can be an entrepreneur and build your own pharmacy in the community. After studying pharmacy, I discovered even more pathways, including hospital, industry, consultant and education roles. At graduation, I realized that I especially enjoyed the clinical aspect of pharmacy, so I chose to pursue a hospital residency after I graduated.

 

Q: What is the curriculum like in Canadian or United States pharmacy schools?

Dr. Leung: In North America, students typically complete at least 2 to 3 years of undergraduate studies prior to applying for pharmacy school. Most schools now offer the entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy degree. For example, the University of Toronto PharmD program is a 4-year program that combines coursework, laboratory instruction, and at least 40 weeks of hands-on experiential learning in a variety of practice sites, ranging from community, hospital, research and education settings. Students spend 5 weeks at each rotation so that there is enough time to immerse and hone their knowledge and skills. Compared to the old Bachelor’s degree with only 1 semester of dedicated rotation time, I definitely see the value of increased experiential learning on students’ ability to apply knowledge and handle patient scenarios in a real-world setting.

 

Q: Do you see any differences in how students choose their professional degrees when comparing Hong Kong and Canada?

Dr. Leung: In Canada, most professional degrees do not offer direct entry from high school. Students must go through at least 2 to 3 years of undergraduate studies, and many will complete an undergraduate degree first. During this time, students are expected to explore different career options through volunteering or summer work. Professional programs not only consider academic achievement, but also extracurricular involvements to select well-rounded individuals. By the time Canadian students get into pharmacy school, they typically have a better idea of what being a pharmacist is about. The Canadian university system wants students to gain more life and work experience before choosing their career direction. On the contrary, students in Hong Kong enter professional degrees straight from high school. It’s hard to know what you want to do at such a young age.

 

The downside of the Canadian system is the uncertainty during the first few years of university, as you are not guaranteed a professional degree and will need to compete. I remember feeling very uncertain at that time, but looking back now, I think it is wise to spare some time to get to know yourself first. There is no need to rush into anything and you will not know what you want to do until you have had some exposure and experiences first.

 

Q: Can you share about your work experience in Canada?

Dr. Leung: After I graduated from the University of Toronto, I became a pharmacy resident at St. Michael’s Hospital. Residency is a 1-year intensive accredited training program, which includes structured rotations to drug distribution, drug information, and around six clinical areas. It was a great opportunity to polish my therapeutic thought process and deepen my knowledge and ability to apply it in various patient populations under the guidance of wonderful mentors. I also presented patient case presentations monthly and took a research project from design to manuscript. With the structured residency program, the 1-year experience is generally considered equivalent to 3 to 5 years of working experience as a clinical pharmacist.

 

After my residency, I started my first job at the same hospital, covering various areas including the neurosurgery and trauma intensive care unit (ICU), cardiovascular ICU, operating room pharmacy satellite and pre-admission clinic for 3 years. Then I took on my permanent role as a clinical pharmacist in the cardiac ICU, working with patients with acute coronary syndrome, severe heart failure, arrhythmia, and after resuscitation for cardiac arrest.

 

My work consisted of 70% direct patient care on the ward and 30% project time. I worked on many interesting assignments such as preparation for hospital accreditation and protocols and education leading up to the legalization of cannabis. Looking back now, my 10 years at St. Michael’s Hospital gave me a strong clinical background, project management skills, the ability to deal with ill-defined problems, and many other soft skills that are so important for my role now at HKU.

 

Q: How did you become a specialist pharmacist in cardiology and critical care?

Dr. Leung: It’s a combination of learning on the job and seeking additional training. In Canada, you are assigned to a specific clinical area. At my hospital, the department will also assign a senior mentor in that area to guide your development and review patient cases with you. It’s a lot of self-directed learning. You also learn every day on multidisciplinary teaching rounds. I would say it takes about 1 year to gain familiarity and feel comfortable in any specific area, and you continuously learn. It wasn’t until I returned to Hong Kong that I obtained the Board of Pharmacy Specialties certification for cardiology. It’s not that common in Canada but in retrospect, the structured materials would have been very helpful when I first started in the cardiac ICU.

 

Q: What was your daily work routine in the cardiac ICU ward?

Dr. Leung: On a typical day, I start work at 8 am to prioritize and see patients in preparation for rounds. Then, from 10 am to 1 pm, I join the bedside round with the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapist, and dietitian. ICU rounds are very systematic to ensure the team reviews all the issues for each patient. As the pharmacist, I was responsible for summarizing the active medications, providing recommendations on how to optimize the medication regimen, supporting drug monitoring and reconciling home medications. I loved being on rounds because I can proactively contribute to the orders of the day rather than retrospectively resolving issues. In the afternoon, I follow up on less urgent issues and address any drug information questions.

 

Q: After working in Canada, what is your view on the future of clinical pharmacy in Hong Kong?

Dr. Leung: Hong Kong’s clinical pharmacy services are rapidly developing. In the hospital setting, pharmacist roles are expanding on the ward beyond high-risk areas such as oncology and pediatrics. Pharmacists are now serving in many new specialized outpatient clinics. It is only a matter of time before pharmacists are regularly expected in every ward and clinic as we see in North America. With the rapid development of primary care, we are already seeing the expanding role of community pharmacists in sharing the load of outpatient prescriptions and providing essential education to the public to keep the population healthy. Pharmacists will need varied knowledge and skills to expand their role depending on their setting, and we will continue to evolve the Master of Advanced Pharmacy curriculum and courses to support this exciting growth of clinical pharmacy in Hong Kong.

 

Q: Are there any challenges or unforgettable memories from your hospital work?

Dr. Leung: The first few years were challenging. I had a good base from pharmacy school, but it took lots of practice and feedback to get to a point where I could efficiently apply my knowledge and handle a full patient load. I stayed an hour or two behind almost every day and tackled additional learning in the evenings and weekends. My first job as a pharmacist in the neurosurgery and trauma ICU also presented a lot of sad patient cases that taught me how to have empathy without being too emotional.

 

As for the memorable part, the first thing that comes to mind is my wonderful multidisciplinary work team. I value the positive team dynamics and am glad to have worked with such a harmonious team. Also, I am thankful for all the mentors at St. Michael’s Hospital who have become dear friends. There were many good role models in terms of both professional and personal attributes. By observing my mentors, I learnt how to communicate with patients, how to deal with stress, how to be a good coworker, and many other things. I truly loved my job as a clinical pharmacist.

 

Q: Why did you start teaching in Canada?

Dr. Leung: St. Michael’s Hospital is a teaching hospital that provides rotation spots to the University of Toronto and Waterloo every year. All pharmacists in the department are expected to take students and that’s how I got started. It’s such a rewarding experience to support and see how students grow over the course of 4 to 5 weeks. Experiential learning is so crucial to a pharmacy student’s transition into practice, and I’m honored to play a small part. As I got more experienced in critical care and cardiology, I was invited to teach a few lectures at the university and to guide international pharmacy graduates. Teaching in Canada was mainly conducted in small groups, so that has really shaped my teaching style.

 

Q: What made you come back to Hong Kong?

Dr. Leung: I moved back to Hong Kong for family reasons. I took some time to network and met some great colleagues who helped me understand the pharmacist job opportunities in Hong Kong. Since I had already worked for 10 years in hospital pharmacy, I decided to develop myself in the field of teaching. Time flies, and now I have been teaching at HKU for three years and have become the course coordinator for the MAP program.

 

Q: Why did HKU decide to transition from the Master of Clinical Pharmacy to the Master of Advanced Pharmacy program?

Dr. Leung: The Master of Clinical Pharmacy (MCP) program had been running for over 10 years and it was primarily focused on hospital pharmacy practice. Students complete mostly the same courses with the difference of only one elective course. Over the years, we noticed that MCP lacked flexibility and did not fully satisfy the learning needs of individual students, especially in community and industry settings. At the same time, we wanted to increase the exposure of our students to important skills and topics, such as health informatics and big data, primary care and public health, and advanced therapy products. As such, we introduced the MAP program which absorbed the MCP as its Clinical Practice stream. With its 4 streams of study, we greatly expanded the scope of our courses and flexibility so that students can tailor their exposure according to their career goals and interests.

Teaching team and students of the Master of Clinical Pharmacy program at the 2023 Poster Presentation Day

 

Q: What are the new features of the MAP program that you would like to highlight?

Dr. Leung: In addition to the student-centered curriculum, the MAP program introduces the option of practicum. Students gain hands-on experience and competencies at different practice sites in the hospital, community and industry. Also, they gain project management and other soft skills by completing an on-site project to improve medication management. They work on solving real-world issues that benefit the practicum organization and the clients served. It is a great way to develop our students' critical thinking skills, so they can identify and deal with ill-defined problems. The MAP is a hub that connects the various sectors of pharmacy practice and fosters collaboration and networking.

 

Another key focus of the MAP program is local application. We want our students to be able to apply the knowledge and skills the next day at work. We have built a community of experienced local pharmacists who collaborate with our academic staff on course design and assessment so that the courses capture what pharmacists need to know most in Hong Kong practice.

 

Q: As the course coordinator, how are you feeling about the new MAP program after a year? What are the future directions for the program?

Dr. Leung: It has been a smooth transition and we’re receiving great feedback from students and employers! In the future, we hope to expand our role in connecting pharmacy professionals in various sectors. We will continue to introduce new courses and public seminars to respond to evolving issues and skills needed in pharmacy practice. For instance, we organized a public seminar in collaboration with The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong last year, and over 100 people registered to learn about the latest developments in ambulatory care clinic pharmacy practice. This in turn identified the need for including clinical assessment skills in our curriculum to prepare pharmacists to seize new opportunities in the workplace. Through our close links with external stakeholders, we will continue to align the program to prepare our graduates to advance our profession.

 

Q: After three years of teaching, how are you finding your work at HKU?

Dr. Leung: What I like about this job is that there are new tasks and challenges every year. Our department head, Professor Wong, empowers us to try new things and to push pharmacy education forward. In addition to teaching skills, my job constantly challenges me to grow. In my first year, I led the process to bring the Master of Advanced Pharmacy program to approval at HKU. I gained experience with promoting MAP and events, both through social media and in collaboration with multimedia companies. This year, I received a teaching development grant to build a new educational electronic health record platform that will help students bridge the gap to practice.

 

Q: What advice do you have for our pharmacy students and graduates?

Dr. Leung: To fellow pharmacy students and graduates, I encourage you to stay open-minded about your future career. Get exposed to various sectors during your training so that you can figure out what you’re most interested in and good at. Make good use of the summer holidays to gain experience, and this will help you stand out during future interviews. In addition, prepare yourself for future opportunities before they come. Seek ways to upskill and it doesn’t always have to be pharmacy related. For example, I’ve had great students who developed great programming and social media promotion skills that they were able to apply beautifully in pharmacy. This really helped them shine amongst the crowd.

 

Most importantly, do not just focus on pharmacy knowledge, because you need more than that to be successful in the workplace. Learn how to be helpful and valuable in your team. As mentioned, I had many amazing mentors along the way. Do not be shy to seek out senior colleagues because they are happy to share their experiences and knowledge with you.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

As a lecturer and course coordinator for the MAP program at The University of Hong Kong, Dr. Ann Leung shares her experiences as a clinical pharmacist in Canada, and how she found her path as a pharmacist in Hong Kong. She now focuses on coordinating the MAP program to ensure that the program allows for students to shine in their respective fields in pharmacy practice.

* GlaxoSmithKline Ltd., 23/F, Tower 6, The Gateway, 9 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

 

CHAN, Stephanie Nok Yan is a pharmacy intern at Consumer Health, GlaxoSmithKline Hong Kong. Her email address is: stephanie.x.chan@haleon.com

 

CHONG, Donald Wing-Kit is currently the Regulatory Affairs Director, Consumer Health at GlaxoSmithKline in Hong Kong. For enquiries, please contact him through the email address: donald.w.chong@haleon.com

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