SEP-vaihdossa: Etelä-Korea
STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAMME IN SOUTH KOREA
I participated in a 2-week International Pharmaceutical Students Federation’s exchange
programme, where I was in South Korea with the Korean National Student Federation
(KNAPS) to learn about the South Korean pharmaceutical industry, hospital pharmacy and
community pharmacy. The two-week schedule was well organised and the KNAPS staff had
worked very hard on the programme. Among other things, we spent the day at GC
Biopharmaceutical, where we were able to learn about the work of the different teams and
visit the company’s laboratory. I was also impressed by how committed and motivated the
employees seemed to be, and it was clear from their speeches that they enjoyed working
for the company.
We were able to visit the hospital pharmacy on two separate occasions. We spent a day at
Seoul National University Hospital, where the pharmacy department explained its activities
in the hospital, and then we toured the various wards, where the departments explained
their activities. For me, as a clinical pharmacist, it was quite difficult at first to understand
how hospital pharmacy works there. The process was completely different from the role of
hospital pharmacy and clinical pharmacy in university hospitals in Finland. In Seoul
University Hospital, each ward has its own ’hospital pharmacy’, staffed by several dozen
pharmacists. Each ward does not have its own medicine room, but all medicines are stored
in the ward’s ”hospital pharmacy”, where medicines are only supplied on request for use in
the ward concerned. There are also several clinical pharmacists in each ward’s hospital
pharmacy who check patients’ medication and take a position on their prescriptions. The
nurses do not dispense patients’ medicines, but the medicines are dispensed by a
dispensing machine in the hospital pharmacy. The pharmaceutical resources available in
the department were therefore many times greater than in Finland. I also remembered a
point in Seoul University Hospital where anyone could come and ask questions and discuss
their medication with pharmacist. There were also pharmacists working on clinical trials at
the university, which I found interesting and different from Finland. Second hospital visit was
to Catholic University St. Mary’s Hospital where we had discussion panel with pharmacy
interns.
We also visited K-FDA, where we were able to hear about the preclinical phase, where the
immunotoxicity of a vaccine that might be launched on the Korean market was being tested
on mice. I am oriented towards the pharmaceutical industry in my pharmacy studies, so
hearing about preclinical phase was quite eye-opening and deepened my understanding of
the subject.
We went to the pharmaceutical company Handok’s factory, where we got to see and learn
about the company’s tableting process. My technical knowledge was certainly enhanced
during the visit, as we went through everything from powder manufacturing to extrusion.
Another interesting visit was to International Vaccine Institute, where we had a lecture about
ongoing research on the Ebola Virus and its challenges.
In addition, the programme also included a K-Food cooking class, a picnic at Han River, visit
at house of parliament and lunch at Gwangjang Market just to name a few. The programme
was well-scheduled, the days were invariably long over the two weeks, but I made good
friends from all over Europe and America. I can warmly recommend the program pharmacy
students, it was incredible two weeks in South Korea.
– Kira Honkanen 9.8.2024