Purple Pen Podcast

In this episode, I'm coming to you live from NAPSA Congress, the National Australian Pharmacy Students' Association's week-long flagship event that brings together pharmacy students from across Australia. The Congress is packed with education sessions, workshops, social events, networking opportunities, and a vibrant trade exhibition, and this episode captures the energy of being right in the middle of it all.
I spoke with Sebastian Harper from Griffith University, NAPSA's National President, Sebastian Schulke from the University of Queensland, and Mia Avram from Monash University and NAPSA's National Treasurer. We spoke about their favourite moments from Congress, what stood out most, and the key learnings they will be taking forward into their future pharmacy careers.
Our conversations explored a wide range of timely and important topics, including practical insights into probiotics, the expanding role of pharmacists in harm reduction and dependency services such as naloxone take-home programs, and the skills of full-scope physical assessment. We also discussed how pharmacists can better support patients using GLP-1 agonists, from counselling to ongoing care, and what it really means to serve your community as a healthcare professional.
We also touched on highlights from Pharmacy Student of the Year (PSOTY), unpacking the qualities that set leaders apart, as well as a thoughtful conversation on authenticity in pharmacy. We discussed why being yourself matters, how to avoid the "pharmacist Barbie" stereotype, and the value of showing up as a real, relatable professional.
This episode was recorded live in the trade exhibition space at NAPSA Congress, so you may hear some background noise throughout. Every effort has been made to optimise the audio while keeping the authentic atmosphere of Congress intact.

Listen in to our latest episode as Kristin chats with Josh Schiller, a Accredited Practising Dietitian, about navigating the world of nutritional supplements and vitamins in pharmacy practice. Josh breaks down which products he would recommend, the key interactions between diet, vitamins, and prescription medicines that you need to know about and the age old question, do you really need that multi-vitamin.
From green leafy vegetables to food-drug interactions that can impact therapy outcomes, this episode will help you confidently guide your patients through the supplement aisle and beyond.

We talk to Gary Bain (AKA the wound guy) about the integumentary system, the stages of wound healing, the advantages of good old fashioned clean water for wound cleaning, guiding principles of dressing changes for inflammatory phase vs proliferation phase, when to use different types of dressings e.g hydrocolloid, the benefits of a wound selfie to check progress, advantages of compression bandages for accelerating wound repair, the importance of moisturising a closed wound and busting wound management myths.

We talked with, Dr Eleni Yiasemides (board-certified consultant Dermatologist specialist from Sydney) about
*Inappropriate indications for topical corticosteroids (cortisones) like perioral dermatitis when less is usually more
*The verdict on combination products corticosteroids + anti fungal creams and when to use them
*Busting myths on topical corticosteroids like "apply sparingly"
*The issue of tachyphylaxis
*Practice points about alcohol based treatments, preservatives and fragrance
*Alternative topical therapy other than corticosteroids
*Best practice for managing skin health (moisture, hydration and occlusion) alongside medicated treatment like corticosteroids
 
Read further
Perioral dermatitis
https://dermnetnz.org/topics/periorificial-dermatitis
RACGP
 https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2021/september/selection-of-a-corticosteroid
The Australasian College of Dermatologists
https://www.dermcoll.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ACD-Fact-Sheet-Topical-corticosteroids-and-eczema-April-2024.pdf

We're marking World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week 2025 with an episode dedicated entirely to antibiotics, the medicines we rely on every day and the ones we need to protect.
We're joined by Caroline Chen, a senior antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist and project officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, for a deep dive into all things antibiotics. Together, we walk through the ABCs of commonly used antibiotics, or more accurately the B through T, including beta-lactams, clindamycin, doxycycline, macrolides, metronidazole, nitrofurantoin, quinolones, rifampicin and trimethoprim.
This episode highlights how these medicines work and when we use them and key counselling points. Antibiotics are a finite resource, and understanding them is one of the most powerful tools we have to preserve their effectiveness for the future.