Fulbright scholar Nickania Pryce seeking to gather more wisdom, pass on knowledge

Were it not for the need to garner more wisdom to share with others, Nickania Pryce, lecturer in pharmaceutical studies at the University of Technology (UTech), might not have said “yes” to being a part of this year’s Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence Program at the Concordia University in Wisconsin.

According to Pryce, she wants to gain more First-world knowledge to impart on the youth in Jamaica, especially those who sit in her lecture sessions – where she teaches pharmaceutics laboratory and pharmaceutics theory – and need to be more compassionate in providing service to patients in the healthcare sector.

Speaking with The Gleaner last Wednesday after the United States Embassy in Jamaica’s announcement of her placement in the Scholar-In-Residence Program, Pryce said she is driven by a recognition that young people are not as caring as she would have hoped they would be.

“Yes, it’s good to know the theory. It’s good to know how to do the stuff, but you have to incorporate some amount of care for your patients ... . If you care for your patients, they will come back,” she said.

“I think that is something that I have observed while teaching, and so I thought to myself, ‘What could I do to get the student to care more, care about what they’re doing?’ Not just getting a grade and passing and getting a degree and going to work, work all of this money and buy this and buy that, [but] to have a vision for themselves; so that is what I am passionate about.”

She is also concerned that her students might think that she is imposing her “generational think on them”, but, in the end, she strongly believes “it makes [it] better for the healthcare system”.

“I think it’s the generational gap, because I’m older. When I was a student, I wanted to care for the patients. I wanted to make sure I understand what I was doing,” said Pryce, who has a passion for community pharmacy work, but now falls in academia.

Pryce is looking forward to the year ahead under the Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence Program.

“I am excited. I am very happy for it. I’m very happy for the opportunity to share with other persons in academia in another country,” Pryce told The Gleaner.

The lecturer, who already holds a master’s degree in pharmaceutics, intends to do research in pharmaceuticals with laboratory work.

“If that is on the table, fine, I’ll do that; but really and truly, I want to do something in education, pharmacy education specifically. I have a lot of ideas bubbling around in my head. There are certain courses that I think that we can use for our healthcare team, healthcare students, that would help them in increasing their empathy, because, you know young people these days, they’re not very empathetic. They tend to be within themselves, and I’m thinking of certain courses that will be geared towards them being a little bit more self-aware, etc,” Pryce said.

Her career in pharmaceuticals started after completing secondary-level education at Ardenne High School’s sixth-form programme, when a friend introduced her to it.

“My friend said, ‘Let’s go to UTech and apply for pharmacy. I really didn’t think about [being a] pharmacist at the time, but I went and I applied. I got through and I fell in love with pharmacy while at pharmacy school actually, because I liked compounding a lot, and compounding is where you are making medication for an individual patient,” Pryce said.

“I was fascinated by that,” she said.

She worked for six years in community pharmacy and she found herself teaching patients by drawing organs of the body, encouraging them to take their medications.

“I went back to school and my professor told me, ‘You should teach’, and the opportunity came ; and in 2010, I came on staff at the University of Technology while doing my master’s,” Pryce explained.

“I enjoy teaching a lot. If I go somewhere and I’m looking at how things are done, I’m saying [to myself], ‘How can I incorporate that in a lesson?’, so teaching is just a part of me,” she said.

She also said she likes community pharmacy, but not the day-to-day running of such a facility.

“I’d prefer to just deal with the patients, and that’s not possible; so teaching is where I want to lead,” she explained.

The other Fulbright Graduate Student Programme recipients for this year are Lerone Laing and Kamala McWhinney under the Fulbright Faculty Development Program; Dr Imani Tafari Ama and Dr Paulette Ramsay, under the Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence Program.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com