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On farms and pharmacy

Country pharmacist, vet and farmer - Colin Chapman is bringing a lifetime of experience to his role as Monash's dean of Pharmacy. JOHN CLARK reports.

On a rainy day in New Gisborne, 40 minutes' drive north-west of Melbourne in the foothills of the Macedon Ranges, the dean of Pharmacy at Monash is musing on isolation.

Geographical isolation, that is. It's a thread that has looped through Colin Chapman's life, from his boyhood on a couple of remote tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean (his civil engineer father was working there) to his long-standing concern for the future of pharmacists in country Victoria. And along the way the thread has become a theme.

"My experience in a rural pharmacy has informed everything we're trying to do at the college with rural pharmacy," he says.

For Professor Chapman not only lives in the country, he works there too. Every second weekend he spends a day as the sole pharmacist at a pharmacy in either neighbouring Woodend or Gisborne.

"Originally it was to help pay for the kids' education ­ now it's to keep in touch with the community and with contemporary practice," he says.

"I take great delight in having credibility as a working pharmacist. When people in meetings are talking about conditions in rural practice, I can speak from experience."

Experience is another thread. Born in Melbourne but raised on Nauru and on neighboring Ocean Island (now Banaba), Professor Chapman is both a qualified pharmacist and a vet. After studying pharmacy and doing a stint in national service, he completed a veterinary science degree and worked in research and in practice. These days he does a "modest amount of work locally, treating horses, dogs and the occasional koala".

Professor Chapman's veterinary training has also helped him establish a rewarding sideline. He and his wife, Margaret, also a pharmacist, breed Dorset Down sheep, the black-faced variety so popular in New Zealand but something of a rarity here.

The rams, and ewes undergoing artificial insemination, are housed on the New Gisborne property. The remainder of the 400-strong mob has the run of the family's 320-hectare farm at Wedderburn, north-west of Bendigo.

Rural matters pervade almost every aspect of Professor Chapman's life and, not surprisingly, his role as dean of the Victorian College of Pharmacy. Before he was appointed college head in 1991, the three-year pharmacy course didn't contain a single rural component. Today it's a four-year degree with a special accent on rural training.

An acute shortage of pharmacists in country Victoria underlines the urgency of the change in direction. "GPs receive government support to set up in country towns ­ pharmacists don't," Professor Chapman says.

The situation is not helped by a state law that decrees a pharmacy cannot open its doors unless a pharmacist is in attendance. The effect on a one-person pharmacy in a small country town can be dramatic.

"Under current law, the only way for some pharmacists to get out is to close the pharmacy," Professor Chapman says. "As a result, they can't contribute fully to community life. It's a real disincentive."

To give students first-hand experience of such issues, the college has introduced a compulsory work-placement scheme with a rural component.

"We want to make our students aware of these things and to make them agents of change, to make them question the status quo.

"We encourage them to get out into the community. Part of the requirement of the placement is that they spend time with the local vet, GP, SES, CFA or ambulance service."

Close encounters of the rural kind are, for the students at least, typically eye-opening.

"They are often surprised by the number of customers who use concession cards or are taking anti-depressants. They also learn that farmers don't come into town except when it's raining."

After their three-week placement, students return to the Parkville campus, their workbooks bulging with answers to pre-set questions. Subjects include health issues faced by Indigenous Australians and the role of emergency services and hospitals in country towns.

Professor Chapman and the college are also trying to boost the numbers of pharmacists in rural Victoria through a rural selection scheme. Under the scheme, students educated in the country are given extra ENTER points to help them get into the course.

"It's effectively a bonus scheme," Professor Chapman says. "About 10 students each year gain admission to the college this way, and I expect all will go back and work in the country at some stage of their working lives."

As the mix of students changes, so too does the role of the pharmacist. Although they may never reach the dizzy dispensing heights of those pharmacists in the UK, France and the US who are permitted to give out emergency contraception, students at Parkville are now taught primary health care, including wound management and burns treatment.

"Pharmacists used to be the first port-of-call for people with ailments, then over time their role was more focused on dispensing. It's important now that they get out from behind the counter again."

The aim, says Professor Chapman, is effectively to make the pharmacy part of a triage. "We teach the students to recognise important signs in people presenting with an ailment, and then get them off to more expert help, such as a GP or physio."

A greater emphasis on postgraduate courses and the introduction of new degree courses have widened the career path for pharmacists. New courses at the college include a Bachelor of Formulation Science, launched in 2000, which enables students to work in a range of industries other than just the pharmaceutical industry, such as food manufacturing and paint-making. Next year, the college will introduce a Bachelor of Medicinal Chemistry.

Apart from helping run a college, farm and pharmacy, Professor Chapman also teaches a short course on veterinary pharmacy.

"The drugs after all are no different to those used by humans. My view is that pharmacists should be experts in the use of drugs in all fields."

For more information on the Victorian College of Pharmacy, visit http://www.vcp.monash.edu.au. For information about donating to the college's research and teaching, creating a scholarship, commemorating a loved one, or leaving a bequest to the college in your will, contact Ms Sarah Vincent, foundation development manager, at foundation@vcp.monash.edu.au or by calling +61 3 9903 9507.

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