Pharmacist's work shares knowledge with students globally
Posted on Jan 14, 2014
By St. Luke's, Duluth MN
A St. Luke's pharmacist is helping students 6,000 miles away learn
from some of the leading minds in the US.
When Sunghee (Sunny) Park, Pharm D, moved to the United States in 2000,
she became passionate about the changing role of the pharmacist –
from the pharmacist of the past, focused on products and medications,
to the modern-day caregiver focused on the patient.
This fall, she saw the results of a year-long project come to fruition
when her translation of
Pharmaceutical Care Practice: The Clinician's Guide – viewed by some as "the Bible of pharmaceutical care"
– was published in her native South Korea.
"I learned a lot and I thought I should share what I learned in school
here with the Korean students," said Sunny.
She worked on the translation together with three UMD pharmacy students,
often gathering over meals to discuss progress. Other members of the translation
team included a student from Seoul National University pharmacy school,
and three pharmacy professors from South Korea.
As each member of the team took responsibility for individual chapters,
Sunny oversaw the work, bringing the sections together, reviewing and
revising translations and compiling lists of synonyms for both popular
and technical terms.
She says that the authors – Robert Cipolle, Linda Strand and Peter
Morley, all professors at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy
– were delighted at the suggestion that their textbook be translated
into Korean, bringing benefit to pharmacists and pharmacy students one-quarter
of the way around the world.
"I hope to open their eyes to the idea that we as pharmacists are
not a dispensing-only role; pharmacists can take care of patients individually,"
said Sunny, who also wrote her own book –
Pharm D and Precepting – in Korean based on her experience. "I hope this translation
can give a vision of that to the Korean pharmacy school students and pharmacists."
BELOW: Sunghee Park with the Korean translation of
Pharmaceutical Care Practice: The Clinician's Guide
(right) and her own book,
Pharm D and Precepting
(left).