11th Essential Medicines Prospectus Help yourself. Help others.

Volunteer.

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WHAT IS ESSENTIAL MEDICINES?

Essential Medicines, or EMed, is the voluntary wing of NUSPS. Our members

are a dedicated group of people who plan, execute and take part in meaningful

activities that give back to the society and also enriching themselves along the

way with lessons and experiences learnt.

These include pharmacy-related volunteer projects such as Medication

Reviews as well as other ad-hoc projects where we have the valuable

opportunity to interact with the young and the old too.

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Public Education: (On left) Common ailments and its complications.

(On right) Community Health Assist Scheme

Public Education: (On left) Common ailments and its complications.

(On right) Community Health Assist Scheme

Basic health screening and medication reviews with registered Pharmacists

WHAT DO WE DO?

Basically anything and everything that falls under volunteerism!

Some of our past projects included:

Health zone and carnival programme where healthy lifestyle in young

children was promoted and encouraged through games

Conducting a mobile library for children in a NUH Programme

Celebrating World Diabetes Day at NUS where volunteers were in charge

of blood pressure management stations and provided suitable

counselling on lifestyle habits to the NUS population

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What to expect from the 11th EMed?

Here’s the current work plan we have proposed in the 11th EMed Committee.

October 2012 November 2012 December 2012

Voluntary Project 1

January 2013 February 2013

1. Voluntary Project 2 2. Medication Review 1

@ Chong Pang Community Club

March 2013

April 2013

Voluntary Project 3

May 2013 June 2013

Voluntary Project 4

July 2013

Medication Review 2 @ Ulu Pandan Community Club

August 2013 September 2013

Election of the 12th Emed Committee

The befriender projects are projected to run on the specific months, according to the work plan above. They are run by the committee and the volunteers who have indicated their interests and availability during those months.

“Know Your Medicines, Get It Right!” medication reviews are not limited

to only EMed members. Typically, a call for volunteers’ involvement will

be sent out to Pharmily via the various platforms prior to the event so

that anyone who is interested to help out at the event can sign up for it.

Do keep a look out for these messages!

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What is the key thrust for 11th EMed?

This year, we are geared towards making volunteering a wholesome

experience for our members. This means more emphasis will be placed on the

entire conduct of an event – from the planning, to the resource acquiring to

the final execution and post event reflection; rather than just relying on a

touch-and-go approach.

A structured ‘volunteering team system’, where volunteers take on a particular

project is introduced. With this program, a more rewarding self-learning

experience awaits those who join us!

Tentative plans for this long term project are:

1) A befriender project at a Family Service Centre whereby volunteers will

educate the elderly beneficiaries on medication safety, lifestyle

management, and healthy lifestyle and celebrate birthdays/events with

them (i.e. CNY in Feb, X'mas in Dec). In turn, the project also aims to

foster better youth-elderly ties where the elderly can share their live

experiences with the volunteers.

2) Partnership with Singapore Heart Foundation to conduct a Health

Mapping Exercise (HME) for lower income residents living in rental flats.

Students will be given professional training on the non invasive ways to

conduct health screening and deploying them to serve the needy.

Through the programme, participants will learn how to care for

themselves and apply the same knowledge to care for others as

healthcare professionals. More information can be found here:

http://www.myheart.org.sg/article/school-programmes/health-

mapping-exercise/about/151

The current proposed dates are as follow:

Voluntary Project 1: December 2012

Voluntary Project 2: February 2013

Voluntary Project 3: April 2013

Voluntary Project 4: June 2013

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Volunteers can choose to commit to either one, or all of the projects based on

their availability. We strongly urge all volunteers to take on at least one project

and commit it into your calendar. Volunteers can also choose to be exposed to

the different job roles in each project to be undertaken. For instance, a person

can choose to play the role of a voluntary team member in Voluntary Project 1

(to be held in December) and the role of marketing personnel in Voluntary

Project 2 (to be held in February).

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What do the different roles in EMed play?

There are currently 4 different key roles in the Essential Medicines Committee

namely: Publicity, Marketing, Operations and Voluntary Team.

Their respective job scopes are listed below:

Publicity Team

Advertising and promotion of all Emed activities (e.g. preparation of

PowerPoint slides for publicity)

Visual documentation of the event and preparation of event’s publicity

material (flyers etc)

Marketing Team

Coordination of fund-raising activities

Sourcing of sponsorship for Emed events

Operations Team

Working with the Marketing Team to secure sponsorship items

Liaising with the external agencies for the collection of sponsored items

Ensuring the logistical requirements of all E-med activities

Procure items required for Emed activities

Maintain the Emed cupboard

Voluntary Team

Liaise with external organisations

Allocation of volunteer manpower and assigning job roles to the

volunteers, so as to ensure volunteers all have a role and know what

they are supposed to do.

Ensure that the residents/elderly signup for the event and that they are

not left out (i.e. make sure that they get attended to during the event)

Looking out for other volunteering opportunities

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Why I should join Emed!

1) I want to have a more fulfilling undergraduate career.

Volunteering is always a rewarding experience, be it for the giver or

receiver.

2) I want to interact with people.

As future healthcare professionals, we will be communicating with our patients on many different fronts every day. Furthermore, we would be working in a multi-discipline team comprising different members from various healthcare fields. It would require sensitivity and suitable communication skills. Volunteering allows us to interact with people from all walks of life, hence enhancing our soft skills and interpersonal relationship.

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Why I should join Emed!

3) I want to know my course mates better / I want to work with

Pharmacists

Each team in every project would have a healthy mix of students from

the different years of study. Joining Emed is a good opportunity for

seniors and juniors to mingle. Also, during medication reviews, students

also can get to engage in discussions with Pharmacists and these

increase our awareness both in drug knowledge as well as pharmacy as a

profession.

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I would like to ask …

1) I am in year 1. Why should I join?

The bulk of applications every year usually come from the Freshmen.

Freshmen year is the best time to try out campus activities while the

workload is still relatively low. We need your energy and enthusiasm to

make our projects a success! Also, it would be a good exposure should

you decide to take on leadership roles in the future.

2) I am a senior. Why should I join?

We understand that seniors are extremely busy with coursework and for

the graduating cohort, FYPs. However we need experienced seniors in

each team to guide the juniors when it comes to Medication Reviews as

this require the use of MIMS as well as other drug references. It is also a

good chance to practice communication and counselling skills and

maybe put some drug knowledge to good use.

3) How much commitment do I need?

The level of commitment required from each individual differs from

projects and the role each person plays in the project undertaken so

there is no clear cut distinction.

You might be required to attend meetings but these are few and far in

between. Besides, you get to decide on when you would want to chair

the meetings for each voluntary team taking on a particular project for

the month.

Planning for events might seem daunting and exhausting but the

workload will be shared with the other members of the committee. As

for the participation in projects, it is normally held on weekend mornings

not lasting more than half the day so you will still get the rest of the day

to yourself after the event ended.

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Hesitate no more, join us NOW!

Should you still have any enquiries, do not hesitate to ask!

Neo Jun Kai (Year 3) Shermain Ng (Year 3)

Director, 11th Emed Asst Director, 11th Emed

emed@nusps.org ngyalishermain@gmail.com

Sign up from the URL appended below! We strongly encourage you to partake

in the voluntary projects and expose yourself to the various roles available.

Please take note that after you have decided on a project, you would have to

commit till the end because it would be very difficult to do manpower

reallocation if anything crops up. We really hope all volunteers are able to

commit to the project till the end.

Finally, we hope that you guys would enjoy the projects along the way and find

your fulfilment from these projects!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGltRUdtWTBfNm9

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