Utrecht Pharmacy students help Dutch pharmacies

Not only hospitals and GP practices are under pressure during the corona crisis; pharmacists also have much more on their hands than usual. At the same time, there are many Pharmacy students who want to contribute. The Utrecht Pharmaceutical Student Association “Unitas Pharmaceuticorum” (UPSV) decided to bring the two together with an online job bank. "A number of pharmacies have already been taken off the platform because they now have enough help.”

"The great thing is that there are pharmacies on the platform from all over the Netherlands," says Lennart Mak, chairman of UPSV. "A student who is now with his parents in Noord-Brabant can help out pharmacies there." The student association approached pharmacies through various channels and there was a lot of enthusiasm. Pharmacy students also reacted positively. "We don't know exactly how many students are working at pharmacies by now, because they contact the pharmacy themselves via the job bank", Mak explains. "But it’s somewhere in the range of dozens."

At the counter

The activities for which students are deployed differ per pharmacy depending on where the help is needed. "Some students help in the back office with registering and replenishing medicines or with processing orders," says Mak. "Other students with enough experience in a pharmacy help patients at the counter."

Host

According to Mak, the pharmacies in the Netherlands need extra hands for several reasons: "Many people are a bit sick and come to the pharmacy for medication. Some people are also hoarding medication. Another problem has more to do with logistics: since a lot of medicines come from China, there might be a shortage in the near future. So pharmacies have to find other ways to get their inventory, and that takes time. Luckily, this isn’t the case yet".

Good exercise

The extra experience in a pharmacy is a bonus for students. For their Master's degree, they are required to do at least two internships at a pharmacy. "The experience students gain in this way doesn't officially count, but it's a good exercise and can certainly help in the course of their studies," says Mak. "In addition, it can be a nice stepping stone to a side job next to their studies, for example”.

Hands itch

Mak himself works part-time in the hospital pharmacy at the UMCU. He can’t work as often as he would like this year, because he has a fulltime board position. Yet his hands are itching as well: "We are still a bit busy with the crisis measures at the student association, but that's all going fine now and it's getting a lot calmer", he says. "So I think I'll be helping out in the UMCU very soon."

Pharmacies that need help can contact bestuur@upsv.nl.