Kazakhstan’s Future Pharmacists Inspired by Virtual Lecture Course: Making Ambitious Plans

As the strategic partnership between the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) and Kazakhstan’s higher medical schools continues, the University’s researchers are discovering new ways to share their knowledge and skills.

This year, LSMU signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University (KazNMU). Recently, Professor Jurga Bernatonienė, Head of the Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy at the Faculty of Pharmacy of LSMU, completed her fellowship at the university as a visiting professor.

The 40-hour course on Pharmaceutical Formulation Technology was delivered by the professor to Kazakh students by remote synchronous class delivery method. Students from the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology at the School of Pharmacy also listened to her lectures and actively participated in them.

“It was an interesting and great experience to teach the students of the KazNMU Faculty of Pharmacy remotely! A kind of telepharmacy, but in the field of studies and education. I am glad that I was able to share all my experience in science, education, and business with the future pharmacists of Kazakhstan”, – said Prof. J. Bernatonienė.

The students were remotely shown the production of various pharmaceutical forms in the laboratories of the LSMU Centre for Advanced Pharmaceutical and Health Technologies, equipped with modern equipment, while in Kazakhstan, the students of various pharmaceutical specialties repeated the same production process real time in the KazNMU pharmaceutical laboratory.

The professor commended the Kazakh pharmacy students wholeheartedly. According to her, the representatives of the younger generation were extremely diligent, active, extremely polite, made a good effort to speak English, asked a lot of questions, and always demonstrated how they managed to complete the assignments.

Pharmacy students also shared their impressions of the course on the KazNMU website.

Nesibeli Bitemirova, a student of Technology of Pharmaceutical Industry, was pleased that, for the first time, she and her peers managed to produce all the pharmaceutical forms, and that the professor used various interactive tools to test their knowledge.

Aytymbek Nurtore, a student of the same specialisation, was pleased to have gained international work experience in a Western laboratory and hoped to apply this experience to his further studies abroad.

After the course, Shayakhmet Dagira was delighted to discover the innovative production of pharmaceutical moulds using a three-dimensional (3D) printer, and looks forward to further developing this knowledge in her MSc and PhD studies.

Mailybajeva Nazerke, a student interested in the production of soft and liquid pharmaceutical moulds, said it was very useful to see the working principles of a modern laboratory, the principles of crushing, homogenisation, mixing, sterilisation, filtration, and other state-of-the-art technologies. In the future, she intends to apply her knowledge to the production of innovative natural cosmetic products from local plant raw materials, and has therefore found Prof. Bernatonienė’s lecture course very valuable.