Some of the students with faculty members

Staff Reporter
THE first ever pharmacy programme in Qatar crossed a major milestone on Sunday when 20 students of the first batch at Qatar University (QU) donned their white coats at a ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, QU president Prof Sheikha Abdulla al-Misnad described the BSc degree programme as an example of the university’s dedication to serve the country.
“This was an idea five years ago,” she recalled, observing that the programme would support the healthcare sector, which is undergoing a major development.

Prof al-Misnad and other officials at the ceremony

Pharmacology programme head Dr Peter Jewesson described the ceremony as start of a tradition that underscores the students’ commitment to a profession that hopes to provide safe and effective care to the people they serve.
Referring to the relevance of the course, he pointed out that pharmacology has been voted, in North American public opinion polls, as the most ethical and trusted profession for more than two decades.
“Society’s demand for qualified pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists has become insatiable as the practice of clinical pharmacology is now recognised a vital part of a complete health care system,” he stated.
Observing that in the US alone, a projected shortfall of over 150,000 pharmacists is predicted by 2020, Dr Jewesson told the gathering, and that this programme virtually guarantees employment for life to the graduates.
Progressive countries are demanding more, and better trained, pharmacology graduates, and have invested heavily in the training of new pharmacists to meet the demands of today’s health care systems, he maintained.
“Our objective is to graduate ‘7 Star pharmacists’, as defined by the WHO, and who would be caregivers, decision makers, communicators, leaders, managers, teachers, and lifelong learners,” he stated.
Dr Jewesson also announced that QU has initiated the process to accredit the pharmacology programme with the Canadian Council of Accreditation of Pharmacy Programmes, to provide an internationally benchmarked standard.
Faculty members Dr Maguy El Hajj, Dr Nadir Kheir, Manal Zaidan, Dr Husam Younes, and Dr Kerry Wilbur draped the white coats on the students.
The ‘Oath of a Pharmacist’ was recited subsequently by the students, in English and Arabic.