Sicily: An Offer You Can't Refuse

Christine Ha, P2 Taken from The Capsule, a student publication

Most people have an easier time associating Sicily with the mob than with pharmacy. After all, Sicilians usually get a bad rap because of their connection with organized crime- an image commercialized by American movies like The Godfather. But for a moment, fuggedd-about Hollywood, Don Corleone and the Italian Mafioso. In a matter of months, Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) School of Pharmacy sends its first six students overseas to study in the southern, Sicilian port-city of Messina, at Messina University.

Beginning in June, July, September and October of 2006, six third-year pharmacy (P3) students participate in retail, hospital and research environments over the course of their elective rotation in Sicily. To prepare students for the language barrier, VCU offers a two-hour Italian elective, taught in McGuire Hall, during the spring semester. Dean Victor Yanchick is confident that four months of Italian, including some medical terminology, will sufficiently prepare students for their rotation. “There are people there [in Messina] that do converse [in English] and we will probably tie them with students…and have them interpret,” said Yanchick.

Students will quickly learn that difference between American and Italian pharmacy education goes beyond language. In Italy, pharmacy education focuses primarily on chemistry; there is no patient contact in the clinical sense. And despite some education regarding side effects, clinical pharmacy rotations do not exist. Pharmacists serve one purpose: drug dispensing.

So far, VCU students have shown strong interest in the new rotation. Of the 13 applicants, the selected six will receive notification within the first few weeks of the spring semester. Four students from Messina University have already spent their past summer with the VCU Center for Drug Studies.

When asked what he hoped students would gain from an international rotation, Yanchick replied, “It’s a broadening experience to see how different culture provide pharmacy deliver and provide patient care or lack of patient care…It may set a spark, you never know, for international healthcare.”