Winning video a pharmily affair
Winners from left to right Simon Liang, Chenhao Ding, Linda Tran and Jennifer Tu.
While others were at home celebrating the holiday season, a group of Monash University pharmacy students spent their Christmas Eve working on what would become an award-winning video.
The students, Jennifer Tu, Linda Tran, Simon Liang and Chenhao Ding, put their passion for pharmacy into a video entry for the YPharm competition, run by University of Tasmania, which asked students to submit entries showing ‘why pharmacy is so damn awesome’.
“We spent our Christmas Eve gathered around a table like a 'pharmily', brainstorming ideas and allocating tasks such as writing up the dialogue, drawing the images, voiceover recordings and video editing,” Jennifer said.
The team’s planning and creativity paid off, resulting in an inspiring final product that amusingly depicted why they chose to pursue a career in pharmacy.
“We felt surprised, but nevertheless happy when we heard that we had won,” Jennifer said.
“We feel proud that not only did we win $1500 for ourselves, but also an additional $1500 for the Victorian Pharmacy Student Association who organise educational and social events for pharmacy students.”
The video was based on the caring and empathetic role pharmacists play in society, and their vested interest in the health and wellbeing of patients and the wider community.
“We emphasised our theme by the juxtaposition of a monotonous sales person who bombards a patient with an exorbitant list of brand names and in later scenes we portrayed a responsible pharmacist who asks relevant questions and provides adequate counselling,” Jennifer said.
“As most pharmacists are the first port of call for basic health advice and treatment, we drew a comparison to pharmacists as ‘medicine’s superheroes’ who come to save the day by providing the right product to cure the signs and symptoms of disease.”