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Pharmacy students around the globe: Memory of practice in the Pharmacy Department of Denia-Marina Salud Hospital

24 February 2021

Ashkan Goodarzi, a former student of our faculty, spent part of his internship in Spain at a hospital in the town of Denía on the south coast of the east coast. However, Ashkan thought he would prefer to spend his practice abroad, so he applied for the Erasmus mobility program to connect the good with usefulness.

He began his practice at the Pharmacy Department of Denia-Marina Salud Hospital. But read Ashkan's experiences about what it was like to do a practice in a foreign pharmaceutical institute, and even within the frame of Erasmus.

Ashkan's memories of pharmacy practice in Denía, Spain

Upon completion of the Degree in Pharmacy program, 14 credits required to be obtained as professional practice in community pharmacy and hospital pharmacy. Since beginning of March I was there and every day I had to go to the hospital in the morning until 3 pm in the evening when working hours was over. We visited patients every day, providing their drugs and giving them consultation regarding drug therapy.

They also asked me to participate in a project that the Denia Hospital is working on regarding 2 specific cancer, Multiple Myeloma and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. During whole 3 months I researched and worked on it very hard, and finally the hospital will publish our review.

If I want to compare pharmacy in Spain and Hungary I have to say they are almost the same in many aspect. The hospital pharmacy is very similar in Hungary but maybe in community pharmacy just little difference like magistral preparations that I didn’t see in any pharmacy in Spain. I visited couple of pharmacies that they didn’t even have a room to prepare magistral preparations.

Denia is a small town in eastern part of Spain. Local people over there speak in Valencian which is different than Spanish. I really tried to learn some Spanish during my stay. My mentor and other staffs in the hospital helped me a lot for learning Spanish, it was very helpful. As I was living in a shared flat I had a chance to make some new friends from all around the world for example, from Argentina, France, Germany, Spain, Columbia, Canada, England and Scotland and I am still in contact with some of them, especially with the pharmacist Dr. Adrian Munilla.

For other students in Erasmus who decide to go abroad I highly recommend Spain, and I have to add that Spain has a lot of monuments, old castles, and beautiful beaches with perfect weather all around the country. I also visited some other cities like Valencia, Benidorm, Alicante, and Calpe. All of them are very nice cities.

I have to say that living costs in Valencia and Denia in low season is almost the same as in Hungary. Only in high season (June, July, and August) rents rise almost three times. For example a single bedroom apartment cost around 400 euros per month but during summer the same flat will be more than 1000 euros.

Foods in restaurants and drinks in bars cost quite the same as in Hungary. A meal in a restaurant with drink cost around 10 euros. My favorite sandwich over there is Metralleta which is 4 euros.

There are many programs for foreign students which are in English mostly in bigger cities like Valencia and Madrid but I didn’t join any so I don’t have enough information of them.

At the end I would like to add that spending 3 months in Spain and doing my practice in a new place has made me very useful experiences and given me motivation to learn Spanish in the future.