Don't worry about the title, it's a motto by Daniel and I when we got in the van/bus.
We started our official University of Arizona trip by letting everyone sleep and get over the jet lag.
We went to Ramathibodi and were given a tour. We later went to Siriraj hospital where we were given a tour of the grounds, private pay and public pay sections. The hospital was really cool as it had a built in park/botanical gardens that people could walk around in. There was a museum we visited and got to see some history about the museum as well as some exhibits with the human body. No photo!
The next day we visited a community pharmacy where we learned some of the problems faced by community pharmacies, but also some of their opportunities. The government will pay pharmacists to visit a patients home to perform medication reconciliation and referral. The downside is that not a lot of pharmacists can do this due to a shortage. The pharmacist said that students in Thailand are attracted towards industry and hospital as that is the main focus of Universities.
Visiting Chulalangkorn University we talked with some students about their program and presented what life is like as a student at the University of Arizona. We were shown the herbal museum by some students we made late to class (Sorry!). Then we broke off into groups to see some hospital wards where we asked questions of students on rotation. One interesting thing I noticed about hospitals in Thailand is the lack of private or semi-private rooms. Every bed for patients was in a ward of 20 or more beds.
At Huachiew Chalermprakiet University the faculty showed us a presentation explaining how pharmacy is taught in Thailand, the differences between private and public universities and the teacher/student dynamic. One interesting thing that the faculty expressed was the lack of student confidence in questioning or even doing things on their own. It was explained that culturally, students don't question teachers or the teacher may become offended. As compared to the US where it is encouraged so that the student may learn. The faculty had more questions for us than we did them. They wanted to know how to make their students more active in their education and how to westernize their attitudes and curriculum.
On our last day of professional work we met up with some University of Kentucky residents and sixth year Thailand students on rotations at the community pharmacy. We went out with the residents and the students into the community to provide home health visits. There we observed/assisted the students as they asked patients questions, took blood pressure, blood glucose, etc. It was very different from what is taught at University of Arizona. Some of the students had a hard time with performing the screenings as they had only 1 hour of being taught how to do these tests earlier in their education, as compared to the UofA where we are given multiple opportunities to practice these skills before rotation.
I have to say that all the Thai students, faculty, and pharmacists that have hosted us have been very nice and made this trip a lot of fun so far. I will post again about all the extracurricular activities!
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