Charity Home Visit

After reading what Wai Fun had written on her blog regarding her charity home visit, i somehow, felt obliged to write one as well...Charity home visit is a must for all IMU students and i wouldn't say that we were forced to go. It is just that the future health care professionals have to be trained to have compassion for others. True, right??? If one doesn't even feel sorry when he/she sees a limbless man lying on the ground, begging for money, is he/she humane enough to be in the medical professions? Actually, i'm one of the cold-hearted one....

Instead of going to Ti-Ratana, the orphanage that Wai Fun and her course mates went, my group went to Rumah Shalom in Puchong. About 30++ of us visited the home and we did some painting, cleaning and most importantly, entertaing the kids. During our visit, there were some kind-hearted people who dropped by with Milo, biscuits, rice, etc. We too collected some money and bought some food stuff for them. I'm sure the children have enough to eat and wear but what is lacking the most is love...

Rumah Shalom is a corner-lot terrace house with adequate area for the children to run around.
SEE....so many leng-luis in BPharm

The children were very shy...

Ice-breaking...

See the trophies!!! If they can do it, why not us who have everything?

These were the 'painting' people.

The 'sweeping'beauties...

This is Ben, the 'head' of 'cleaning department''Cleaning' group in action

'Curi tulang' time - Su Yu and Poh Jin

Another pretty and funny girl - Stephanie from Kota Kinabalu

Me, Yen Shuang (Johor) and Vanessa (Malacca)

This is Ms slim-tall-&-pretty Susan...by the way, she's from Brunei

Yusra from Kelantan, my practical bench mate

Lucky draw session...

We literally removed everything against the wall and swept, wiped, mopped, arranged, .......This site seemed to be not 'cleaned' for years as we found hidden old smelly shoes, bags of all clothes, some were even wet, old newspapers for recycle, wooden plates, etc.....luckily i didn't get to spot any dead cockroaches or rats...


This visit really reminds me of how lucky i am to have family, to have many friends, to have the opportunity to do the course i want, to do things i like.......

Industrial Visit

For the module 'Introduction to Pharmacy Practice', there wouldn't be any written examination...good news, right? If there is, we would most probably be forced to memorize the Code of Conduct or the stages in registering a drug or even the vision and mission of MOH...just kiddin' :P

So, we are assessed through log books which record the key concepts learnt through discussions, visits, tutorials and practical. Although the visit to a manufacturing plant was just a brief one, at least i've 'seen' one which is normally not opened to the public.

Our destination : PharmaNiaga Manufacturing Facility in Bangi

This company mainly supplies medicine to the government hospitals. Besides, it is also a contract-company for many big pharmaceutical company like Pfizer, Bayer, Astra Zeneca, GSK, etc. It also produces herbal products and supplements like Citrex Vitamin

Sadly, photo-takings are not allowed and we have to follow strict rules or we would be barred from entering the plant.

A short briefing from a Human Resource representative.

The first stop was the Warehouse, a place where it stores all incoming raw materials which pass physical inspection. Boxes which are wet, unsealed packaging or dented drums are all rejected. The conditions of the warehouse are carefully controlled, e.g temperature and humidity, by a device called thermohygrograph. Besides, samples have to taken from the bulk raw materials and analysed by Quality Control. Only those that pass the chemical inspections can be sent to the Production unit. The rejected ones are discarded properly, not by throwing into the river. There is even a 'jailed' rack to keep those batches of products which receive complaints, to avoid sabotage from irresponsible third party.

Next stop was the much anticipated Production and Packaging Unit as we had to be 'sterilised' by covering ourselves from head to toes. Processes like granulation, blending, tablet-compression, packaging, tablet-coating are all under stringent supervision. While the mass production is going on, some samples are taken to be analysed. This is called In-Process Quality Control (IPQC) and this is to ensure the products are still of standard requirements. The production will stop immediately even when there is a slight contradiction or inaccuracy in the samples.

Guess what is this spongy thing?

A 'shower' cap...interesting, isn't it?

This is just part of the 'sterilization'....Not shown in the picture are surgical face mask, plastic shoe covers and a thorough surgical hand wash before stepping into the Production unit.

Basically, i didn't see any pharmacists around as those involved in the laboratory testing and machine-handling in Production unit were mainly technicians. The pharmacists are usually at the executive level. So, what is so valuable about pharmacists? Their signatures and licences.....

hectic schedule

An-nyo-ha-se-yo!!!

Finally i've the mood and time to write a proper entry as having a daily 9am-6pm schedule (most of the days) which is 80% filled with lectures, practicals and computer-aided-learning (CAL), really drained me.

Let's take yesterday as an example, at 8am sharp, i had a workshop on General Chemistry where we were given some questions to be solved. Then, we had a lecture on Aromatic Hydrocarbon by Dr Arjun, a very strict lecturer with some understandable Indian accent at 9.15am. Right after that, we rushed to the cosy library for a nap (actually, it was just me.....hehe :P).

As my Moral studies group was supposed to meet up at the noon for some discussions on the given topic -War, my friends and i went down to the cafeteria for a early lunch at about 11.30am.

By 1pm, we had a short briefing on Hospital Visit. For your information, some of my course mates and i will be visiting Hospital Seremban in early September where we will get to see hospital pharmacists in practice, pharmacy services that are available e.g. clinical pharmacokinetics, oncology services, drugs information and of course, the dispensing counter.

From 1.30pm onwards, we had 3 lectures and 1 tutorial in a row, right to 6.15pm. My eyes could barely open during those classes except for the talk on Telemedicine by Mr Tan, a Pharmacy Enforcement Officer. He even showed us a picture of Miagra, which is a fake version of famous Viagra and told us many laughter-inducing incidences he encountered as a drug enforcer.

As usual, i'll be in the library till about 7.30pm to download and print some lecture notes. If i don't procrastinate, i SHOULD be able to do some revisions.......

What do you think of my timetable? Tiring? Suffocating? Boring? or Challenging?

1% interest

I am ecstatic!!!! The administration charge for PTPTN loan is reduced to 1%

Previously it was 3% per annum

With the previous rate, the amount of interest alone i will have to pay for the next 20 years is RM26, 000 ++......that's is a looooooootttttt!!!!!!

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/14/nation/22079534&sec=nation

Just pray that the Cabinet wouldn't change its mind and increase the rate by the time i'm supposed to repay the debt.

a glimpse of imu

So, it has been about 3 weeks since i first entered IMU as a student. Of course, there are things that i'm love as well as detest about the uni. However, i'm not gonna reveal them here.....hehehe...i'll just bring you for a short tour to IMU library

Currently, IMU is undergoing a major renovation where many areas are not accessible, important departments like students' affairs depart, academic affairs depart, cashier, etc, are temporary being hidden on some higher floors,...

If there isn't any lecture or practical going on, i will definitely be in the library - cold, quiet and spacious...

Sometimes, we would gather to do some discussions and group-work in one of those semi-soundproof-glass-cubicles in the library

There is even a small cafe in the library where you can enjoy a cup of Latte with crispy croissant in between classes.

you speaking english?

What would happen if one day, someone who is supposed to deliver knowledge to you, start pronouncing words like the followings :

• instead of 'alkane', he said 'alcan'
• instead of 'alkene', he said 'alkane'
• instead of 'trend', he said 'train'
• instead of 'chain', he said 'change'
• instead of 'due', he said 'duke'
• instead of 'carbocation', he said 'car-bo-cat-tai-yen'

and the list goes on......

Sooooo confusing!!!

if you add '-s' to the end of every single word you say, it's fine... e.g. " I likes to eats chocolates and sweets,"

if you love eating the '-th' sound, it's ok... e.g. " Don trow de tree oranges away,"

but please don't make them into words with totally different meanings...it's scary!!