Yesterday we were picked up from our hostel at 9am by two new students, Ceren and Tuğçe, who took us to the dorms and helped us to check in. It was quite the process, as we had to get a special letter of permission, go to the bank to pay the dormitory fee, receive our blankets, and be shown to our rooms. We were then introduced to one of the faculty members, Mehmet.
The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing pharmacy while being given a sort of tour by Mehmet. He is originally from a town outside of Istanbul but came to Ankara for pharmacy school at Hacettepe University in 2006. Back when he was applying to pharmacy schools there were only 16 in the entire country. Currently there are approximately 40 different schools. In his opinion this has led to many of the new graduates being unqualified upon graduation as their faculties are not strong and their programs are not established. Additionally, upon explanation of the Naplex exam, Mehmet related that there was no such equivalent in Turkey; students are able to practice pharmacy after graduation from school without taking a licensing exam. However, the men are required to do a year of service in the military as a lieutenant if they graduate from one of the health science programs, including pharmacy. Mehmet is now working toward his PhD in bio-technology with his graduate project focusing on insulin analogs. He wishes to work in the field of industry, though he says this is also difficult, as pharmaceutical companies do not bring the research and development laboratories to Turkey. Rather they complete this work elsewhere and then bring the finished products for distribution.
During our tour we were able to meet the Vice Deans of Hacettepe University School of Pharmacy. One of the Deans expressed to me that he completed two years of residency in Tennessee; his specialization is in the area of infectious diseases. He was also very proud to tell me that he is considered one of the first clinical pharmacists in Turkey; he even passed the Naplex when he was in the United States! He said that he returned to Turkey because he wants to help pioneer clinical pharmacy in Turkey. As Hacettepe University is the number one ranked school of pharmacy and the hospital is also ranked number one in the country, it is the ideal setting to be able to establish such a practice. He welcomed us to stop by his office at any time, therefore I plan on going back to discuss with him more the differences between Turkish and American pharmacy practice.
This morning at 9am we showed up at the Hacettepe University general practice pharmacy for our first official day of internship. Mathilde and I will remain at this pharmacy for the next 3 weeks while Mateusz has elected to complete his internship at the oncology pharmacy. Much of the day was spent talking with the four Turkish pharmacy students who are doing their internship at the hospital as well. This was especially hard because one of them speaks absolutely no English whatsoever, two of them speak very little English, and the last student speaks English but with some difficulty. This situation was somewhat remediated when we realized that with the wifi at the hospital we could use iTranslate on our iPhones to go back and forth between English and Turkish. Although being the only native English speaker, I am constantly being asked what someone else is trying to say or come up with the English word that someone does not know. It is interesting being considered the “English expert,” as I am the first to admit my grammar could be better.
I was able to take some photos of the pharmacy department after asking permission of the head pharmacist of the department who responded, “my pharmacy is now your pharmacy, please make yourself at home.” It was very informative to have him show us around and explain some of the foreign concepts and technological advances they have made. The most recent of which is the new computer system they upgraded to a week ago, which they are still learning how to use. This switch was made as a part of the requirements of the Joint Commission International, who will be visiting the week of July 22nd (while I will still be here!) from the United States to inspect the pharmacy and see if it is up to JCI standards.
I have tried to explain each photo to the best of my ability in the captions. There is still much to learn after this first day, and I am excited now more than ever to continue to discover the Turkish culture and pharmacy practice.