Ex-O’Connor Catholic College student and now Griffith University Master of Pharmacy graduate Cameron Press was recently selected as winner of the James Dare Graduate of the Year award from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia National Queensland branch.
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“You have to write a personal statement and the university has to write one for their nominee. It then goes behind closed doors, and I think they ave a panel of about five,” Cameron said.
There are so many possibilities now. You're not pigeon-holed into hospital pharmacy or community pharmacy; we can be diabetes educators, we can work in health clinics now ... and research will always a big thing.
- Cameron Press
“They then nominate the top four – I was one of those – we were invited to go to the awards night and I was given the award.
“It was a surprise. I was stoked just to be nominated from Griffith.”
Cameron said he is working full-time as a pharmacist to complete his registration year and is also doing research around health literacy.
“I’m trying to find a way for pharmacists to give medication education to adults to adolescents,” he said.
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“We’re very good at teaching people about medications after they’re sick, we’re very good at teaching preventative health, like sexual education, elicit drugs and alcohol, but we’re not very good at teaching people how to use medications until something has gone wrong.”
It was research Cameron started when as a university student, and was keen to carry on with given the changes taking place in the pharmacy industry.
“Pharmacy will probably be very different in the next five to 10-years,” he said.
“Our scope of practice in terms of immunisation is constantly getting bigger. We started off with flu vaccinations, we’ve got a lot of whooping cough and that’s going to widen in the next five-years.
“They’re talking about pharmacists prescribing as well. So, not needing to see a doctor for everything; that’s only for continual supply, not first consultations.”
Cameron said the pharmacy profession could be very different in the next decade depending on the demands of the health care system and what gains in popularity.