Thursday, April 3, 2025

Developing communication skills as future pharmacists

Knowledge translation is an important skill for pharmacy students to gain for their future careers as pharmacists. When they volunteer to present to elementary school children they practice explaining their pharmacy concepts to a different audience, in a different way. This helps students gain a valuable skill while giving back to their community.

“Our knowledge as future pharmacists is highly technical, but in our future practices we’ll need to learn how to disseminate information that’s accessible to different audiences,” Elsoukkary says.

Pharmacy brings together service and science. There are many different pharmacy professions and a wide range of careers a pharmacist can contribute to, but all require explaining therapeutic knowledge to different audiences.

“With kids you want to deliver the message in an accessible way so they can apply it in their lives at home and school without oversharing our deep pharmaceutical knowledge,” Shah says.

“Their retention is proof that they understand,” Elsoukkary adds. “When we asked them questions at the end of our presentation they were able to repeat the most important information back to us.”

What pharmacy students wish they knew when they were kids

Hakim reflects on the broader healthcare picture, “when kids think, what do I want to be when I grow up and think of healthcare they associate it with doctors. It’s hard as a kid to understand the big picture. I would’ve wanted to know that other healthcare professionals exist, such as nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, pharmacists and more.”

Shah speaks on the important of healthcare teams. “I didn’t realize, even as an adult, that pharmacists work in teams. It’s so great to see more interdisciplinary teams in healthcare.”

Elsoukkary would’ve wanted to know that she could’ve asked a pharmacist for help and advice on any medication in the store, not just prescriptions. “As a kid when I went to the pharmacy with my family, I didn’t know that you can ask pharmacists questions beyond prescriptions. There’s so much a pharmacist can do for you.”

Thank you to the clubs and students involved in the elementary school visits this year, the University of Waterloo Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns (CAPSI) chapter, Pharmacy Peer Relief Network (RxPRN) and the Paediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (PPAG).

Mind over matter: 17th annual Waterloo Brain Day set for April 7

A message from the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience.

The University of Waterloo's Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience supports the development of robust explanatory theories of mind and brain through education and research. In pursuit of that goal, the CTN has invited four internationally renowned speakers to present generally accessible lectures from each of the perspectives of neuroscience, computational neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy on the ideas of mind, brain, theories and models.

This year’s speakers include Jeffrey D. Schall, Robert E. Kass, Michale S. Fee, and John Heil. More about the event schedule can be found on the CTN event website.

This is a free event. Everyone is welcome.

Thursday's notes are louder than words

The University Choir's end-of-term concert, Louder than Words, takes place on Friday, April 4.

"Louder than Words, from the Musical Tick Tick Boom, is one of the signature pieces, hence the title," says a note from the music department. "Composers include Palestrina, Rachmaninov, Emery, and the perennial favourite Jim Papoulis."

The Choir is directed by Liska Jetchick and accompanied by Nicole Simone. 

The concert takes place at Trillium Lutheran Church at 22 Willow Street in Waterloo. Tickets are available from choristers or at the door. Tickets are $5 for students or $10 general admission.

The Registrar's Office reports that the 2025-2026 Undergraduate Studies Academic Calendar is now available online. "The archived 2024-25 Undergraduate Calendar is available with other archives via the Archives list page, with a new unique URL," says an email from the Registrar's Office. "Students will be informed shortly via mass email and a news item on The Centre website."

On campus today, the Writing and Communication Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University's Student Success Office and the Department of English Language and Literature are hosting Neisha-Anne Green for a virtual event entitled Recipes made Radical: Kitchentales of Survival and Resistance. 

"The kitchen has long been a site of both nourishment and defiance—a space where survival, culture, and activism converge," says the talk's abstract. "This talk explores how food serves as a powerful tool of resistance, from the resourceful cooking of enslaved and oppressed peoples to the current and impending food injustice movements that call to questions folks understandings of a tariff and bird flu. Blending activism, and personal storytelling, Radical Recipes highlights the ways in which marginalized communities have used food to preserve identity, sustain resistance, and build collective power."

Neisha-Anne Green is the Senior Director of Academic Support at American University in Washington, DC.

The event takes place from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. online via Zoom.

Also today, Transparency in animal research with Dr. Michael Brunt is scheduled to take place from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Enterprise Theatre in EC5 1111. Michael Brunt is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow and NSERC Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Population Medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. Please register to attend.