FIP-YPG: Focus on National YP Groups – Malaysia

Posted by jslim on Jan 28, 2012 in Articles, News, Views from Afar | 0 comments

Dear all,
The MPS-YPC was once again featured in the FIP-YPG Newsletter, this time in December 2011. Below is the article taken from the newsletter.

FOCUS ON National YP Groups: Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society Young Pharmacist Chapter
Malaysia: It’s all because your voice matters!

One of the biggest questions that a young pharmacist instinctively ask is ‘Why should we join our professional organization?’ It cost money and takes up plenty of our time! The reason we concluded at the YPC here in Malaysia is simple and it boils down to this – that your voice matters! Here is why.

YPC? What’s that?
The YPC stands for the Young Pharmacist Chapter of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS). We are the representative organization for young pharmacists aged below thirty-five in Malaysia and we are an integral part of the local professional body, the MPS. We were founded around 2003-2004 but we truly got ourselves organized just in October last year. It was from then that we established a formal committee. As of today, we reach out to at least a thousand young pharmacists in Malaysia and we have around 20 active committee members.

Who are these cool looking Asians?
Like I said, we have around 20 active committee members that focus on four areas of interest – Social/Events, Publicity, Career/Education and Student Affairs. Each committee member is free to choose his or her area of interest but we generally organize programs and events as a whole (since we are still small and growing!).

You mentioned programs. What programs?
We are heavily involved in organizing events (even for the MPS as a whole) as well as reaching out to pharmacy students and other young pharmacists about their career prospects – basically their future! We also engage with the public by organizing health forums as well as participate in educating ourselves (such as first aid courses) and having fun! We also conduct yearly surveys to bring the issues that matter to young pharmacists to the MPS as well as senior pharmacists.

Where are you guys heading from here?
We have started planning the next two years with a Roadmap for 2012-2014. One of the cornerstones in the development of the YPC will be to participate wholly on the international arena, connecting with young pharmacists from all over the world. It is precisely for this reason that we intend to participate more in the YPG-FIP as well as the Asian YPG (just recently formed in November 2011).

This is all very interesting. Wait! Where’s Malaysia again?
Yeah – we get that a lot. Most of the time we just say that we are near Singapore. However, it is useful to know that Malaysia is, geographically, at least 475 times bigger than Singapore. We are located right in the heart of South East Asia between Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Any last words?
Simply put – participate in your local young pharmacist group today. Your voice matters and the louder it is, the more you can affect your future!

To find out more, please visit our website www.youngmps.org