It
is heartening to see that this advertisement is getting blanket
coverage on “coastal tv” through the Mid North Coast.
Despite usually being placed between advertisements for water tanks
and animal feeds, the advertisement is very effectively shown between
shows usually watched by those in their late teens.
It even shows a fairly bohemian looking pharmacist wearing his pharmacy
straightjacket, complete with mini goatee and earring.
The
blanket coverage has led to young people, some of whom are or
just have finished siting their HSC examinations, wandering into
the pharmacy asking about being a pharmacist, what sort of marks
are received, and the sort of pay packets that one can bring home.
The
most exciting part of this initiative is the fact that it has
been advertised in the rural and regional areas.
It is well known in the medical educational institutions that
those who originally come from a rural area generally return to
either that rural region or another of equal or lesser service
standards.
In pharmacy, this has also been acknowledged, through the Guild’s
bonded rural scholarships, where those from a rural background
can accept a fiscal incentive to move to a more urban setting
to study to become a pharmacist.
The
Pharmacy Guild has also been very generous with their distribution
of funds to those from a pharia classified rural background to
attend conferences and professional development activities.
It has meant that for some compulsory Pharmacy Graduate Training
Course functions, rural pharmacists have not been “put out”
by having to commute to Sydney.
There
is a middle ground that may be utilised by pharmacy organisations,
and that is at the University level.
Despite a very well represented pharmacy contingent in the rural
health club at the University of Sydney, a majority of the sponsorship
moneys for attendance of conferences and delegations is from,
and attached to, medical students.
It
is through this form of association (the university rural health
clubs) that the seed of rural health is first planted in the minds
of pharmacy students and pharmacists.
It is certainly worthwhile investigating the feasibility of sponsoring
students at this level.
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