Dispensing life lessons

Report: Caroline Huze
Photography: Greg Ford

Transitioning students into fully-fledged pharmacy professionals and working to shape the profession's attitudes to some of the most marginalised in our community are hallmarks of 40 years of dedication to the pharmacy profession by Mr Irvine Newton OAM (BPharm 1969).

With a deep appreciation for his days at the Victorian College of Pharmacy (now Monash University's Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences) and influenced
by early career mentors, Irvine Newton has always felt compelled to share his experience and expertise with students and young pharmacists.

A sessional lecturer at Monash University for many years, Irvine is also often invited to speak around Australia on drug strategy. He has served on various professional committees including a stint as President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.

Owner and operator of an inner Melbourne pharmacy, Irvine says: "No-one in Gen Y ever thinks about 30 years in the same profession, but I'm lucky, I still love going to work each morning."

"Pharmacists are still the most accessible professionals. Anyone can walk straight in and get advice from an expert – that's our greatest strength. In the old days pharmacists stood up the back and often just dispensed what was written on a script, now we are often the first point of general health consultation or medication
advice in the community, in hospitals and in institutional care."

Twenty-first century pharmacy students need to be armed with effective and genuine interpersonal and counselling skills, as well as being able to absorb rapid medical advances.

Irvine is proud to play his part in the University's commitment to providing graduates with these comprehensive skills and individualised health care emphasis.

The generous philanthropic support of the Victorian College of Pharmacy Foundation, industry partners, alumni such as Irvine Newton and other supporters has contributed to a range of space and technology innovations which support the Faculty's unique educational offerings.

"We were lucky in my time that the College was built and provided for by the generations which went before me. I feel we are all beholden to make sure the place continues, with the best possible education, with the best possible graduates."

Light-years away from the 1960s-style science labs in which Irvine trained, the Faculty's Professional Practice Suites (PPS) are the newest facility to join its world-first collection of teaching innovations.

The slick, brightly-lit, red-accented rooms of the PPS include: tutorial areas fitted with computers for each student on rotatable benches; various wall-sized projection screens; consulting rooms with built-in video-recording equipment; and a social learning space for informal small group work.

But on their own new spaces do not improve learning. To complement the PPS, Monash staff developed the MyDispense software. This simulated program helps students develop their medication-dispensing skills in a safe, paperless environment. Utilising virtual patients, barcodes, labels and products, students learn at their own pace, and even in their own time off-campus. MyDispense gives constant feedback on a student's progress.

The PPS joins the faculty's Virtual Practice Environments – flexible rooms where students interact with virtual 'patients', health professionals and others through role-playing, video conferencing, online software and avatars.

Other innovations include the 3-D e-learning resource Pharmatopia, a virtual world where students, as their avatars, can interact in a tablet-making laboratory and Pharmville, online video vignettes of a community of 'true to life' patients bearing typical medical histories and lifestyles, used to provide context to learning.

"It's so exciting to watch students learning and demonstrating their competence in key areas of pharmacy practice such as safe dispensing protocols, patient history-taking and professional interaction," said Irvine.

"Students gain experience in counselling, problem-solving and clinical decision-making. Their exposure to the human perspective of health care increases their cultural awareness, confidence and preparedness for practice."

Alongside his retail practice and teaching work, the other area that Irvine has been passionately pursuing for the past 30 years is illicit drug harm-minimisation practises.

Irvine feels great pride in having received an Australia Day medal in 2002 from the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia – the first pharmacist to have done so. The award recognised his career focus on implementing services for illicit drug use. In 2005 he was further honoured with an Order of Australia Medal for service to the pharmacy profession and to the community, particularly through promoting harm-minimisation programs.

"I've never lost sight that it's a privilege to hang that pharmacist's certificate."

Your role in pharmacy eduction: To make a donation visit www.pharm.monash.edu/foundation