Educational-Practical Pharmacy

The Educational-Practical Pharmacy of Bukovinian State Medical University is located at the educational building of the Department of Pharmacy. The pharmacy is licensed to retail medicines and produce (formulate) medicines at the chemist’s – to produce medicines prescribed by doctors individually, ordered by health centers and to produce inter pharmaceutical purveyance.

The Educational-Practical Pharmacy has been functioning since May, 2012. There are all the available premises at the chemist’s necessary for formulating  medicinal products that meet the requirements of quality as well as storage and distribution requirements according to normative documents, (namely: medical service room, assistant’s room, analyst’s office, a room for obtaining purified water, washing room, material room, a storage room for subsidiary material and tare, staff and locker room, the office of the manager, etc.).The location of the production facilities corresponds to the sequence of operations of the production process and meets the requirements of the level of cleanliness that makes an intersection of technological, material and human flows impossible. The production premises of the pharmacy are provided with the equipment and facilities for a proper production and storage of drugs (production equipment, laboratory equipment, measuring instruments, cabinets, storage shelves, refrigerators, safes, etc.) as well as technical means for continuous monitoring of the temperature and humidity.

The equipment is located so as to minimize the risk of errors. In order to prevent the negative influence on the quality of formulated medicines the production facilities are equipped with the plenum-exhaust ventilation system, bactericidal irradiator which permits to reduce microbiological contamination of pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Practical Training in Pharmacy at BSMU

One of the most important stages while training specialists is mastering practical skills in the course of theoretical training of a specialist. However, it is completely impossible to re-create the practical activity of a pharmacist under the conditions of one Department. Therefore, the usage of the Educational-Practical Pharmacy is promising not only in terms of practical activity, but it also promotes mastering the theoretical material and practical skills of students.

Therefore, throughout the academic year the pharmacy is used for a series of practical classes:

• Demonstration classes on pharmaceutical drug technology are conducted to enhance the responsibility of formulating pharmaceutical dosage forms.
• A number of classes on the organization for pharmaceutical economics are conducted as well.

Key Practical Skills Students Acquire

The main practical skills that students master on the base of the Educational-Practical Pharmacy on the technology of medicines are:

• Preparation of solid, liquid, soft dosage forms according to individual prescriptions (powders, solutions, mixtures, suspensions, emulsions, tinctures, decoctions, liniments, ointments, suppositories), taking into account the theoretical principles of the pharmaceutical drug technology and the requirements of regulatory documents.
• Evaluation of the quality of a prepared medicine in accordance with standard technical documents.
• Compliance with storage conditions and the type of packaging in order to ensure the stability of dosage forms.
• A set of measures are carried out providing a compliance with the sanitary regime in pharmaceutical institutions and exercising control over aseptic preparation of dosage forms.
• Standardization of finished products according to the requirements of regulative and technical documents.
• Preparation of the workplace to manufacturing dosage forms.
• Rules for handling mechanization means under the conditions of pharmaceutical production.
• Identification of physical, chemical and pharmacological discrepancies, finding a solution to the question of the possibility of preparing and dispensing medicines taking into account compatibility of their components.

Since over-the-counter medicines are dispensed right away at the chemist’s, it may be used as the bases for developing practical skills of organizing pharmaceutical economics. The basic practical skills that students master on the base of the Educational-Practical Pharmacy are:

• Organization of the pharmaceutical business (licensing, planning, etc.).
• Ordering, receiving and storing medicines
• Placement of drugs in the salesroom and in the material room
• Storage peculiarities of medicines, depending on their physicochemical properties
• Study of the basic documentation related to pharmacy
• Realization of all types of interpharmaceutical monitoring and control
• Conducting incoming control.

A convenient location of a pharmacy will permit students to do not only practical training, but also to familiarize themselves with separate practical aspects of the activity of a pharmacist in the process of studying theoretical material. This will enable students to consolidate their knowledge, adapt themselves to the working day, learn to make optimal decisions in non-standard situations.

Practical training of students is an integral part of specialists’ training at higher educational establishments and is carried out at appropriately equipped bases of these institutions, pharmacies, pharmacy stores, as well as pharmaceutical factories. The usage of the Educational-Practical Pharmacy is envisaged as the basis of students’ practical training. The advantage of using this framework is the possibility of a rotation of students considering pharmaceutical practical activity and curriculum of practical training.

To implement practical training in terms of the credit-module system, the use of the Educational-Practical Pharmacy is a necessity, since the practice proceeds during the regular hours of studies, and it does not enable to use adequately city pharmacies as the bases of practical training.

So, it’s safe to say that while mastering practical skills and undergoing practical training on the base of the Educational-Practical Pharmacy students receive an important lesson from pharmaceutical practitioners and teachers of the Department, which will help them in future to perform their duties at the workplace professionally and competently.