Reasons for choosing nursing at University of Puthisastra

Globally, Nursing is one of the most demanded professions among other health professions. Nurses have great responsibilities; they help to survive patients, prevent diseases, promote health wellbeing, and produce the new generation nurses. In most countries, it’s no secret that nurses are trusted, appreciated, and respected.

The University of Puthisastra is a well-known university producing high quality nursing graduates that can demand the best jobs and the best salaries. Below are the top reasons to study nursing at UP:

1. 100% pass rate in recent exams
2. All UP graduates have found excellent jobs in international and national high standard hospitals.
3. Outstanding quality of education.
4. Free English tuition
5. Use modern technology teaching methods to strengthen student’s capacity to fulfill the job requirement
6. All lecturers in both theory and practice are selected in high qualification and highly experienced in each skill.
7. Curriculum follows latest national curriculum and with additional subjects for ensuring highest quality of graduate students.
8. The practical lab rooms are full of equipment and the ratio of practice lecturers with a number of students are clearly defined.
9. Provide an exchange program with other universities outside the country for promoting the students skills and experiences.
10. Excellent working opportunities through UP’s strong network and reputation
11. Promote professional attitude of students based on the core value of UP (Self-respect, Respect others, and develop Society) and the 4 Cs of Faculty of nursing and midwifery (Compassion, Caring, Community and Celebration underpinned by Integrity, Accountability and Responsibility).

Virtual Signing Ceremony of MOU between UP and Politeknik Medica Farma Husada Mataram

UP understands the value of international collaboration and networking and also the great value that students and staff get from visiting other countries – enriching our lives by experiencing new ways of doing things, new cultures.

That’s why we are delighted with our recent MOU signing with University of Puthisastra, Cambodia, and Politeknik Medica Farma Husada Mataram, Indonesia, held a virtual signing ceremony of a MoU on February 25, 2021. We hope that this is promote cooperation in medical science, information technology education, educational exchanges, and scientific research.

The MOU was signed by Professor Ian Findlay, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Puthisastra & Dr. Syamsuriansyah, Director of Politeknik Medica Farma with the following purposes:

• Exchange of students.
• Exchange of visiting research scholars.
• Join potential research projects in the Pharmacy and Health area that both University need.
• Participation in international conferences, seminars, symposia, workshops, and other activities agreed by both parties.
• Exchange of academic materials and other information.
• Team taught courses, including online courses.
• Visits by, and exchange of, lecturers and other staff.

Congratulations for the successful signing ceremony of this MOU and we look forward to seeing the collaboration with Politeknik Medica Farma Husada Mataram come to fruition once the world has recovered from the COVID19 pandemic.

Biography: Mr. Mean Samphoas, Administrative Assistant in the Faculty of Medicine.

Mr. Mean Samphoas joined the Faculty of Medicine in November 2019 as Administrative Assistant. He is also a student at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, majoring in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Prior to joining UP, he worked as a translator in a company and as part-time English Teacher at Sovannaphumi School.

Mr. Samphoas has assisted Faculty colleagues and lecturers in many online classes and workshops, and has provided administrative support to the research project entitled “Early identification of subjects with chronic liver disease in the general population of Phnom Penh”.

Mr. Samphoas says: “It has been a pleasure to join the Faculty of Medicine because I have learnt a lot and gained considerable experience. I am grateful to my senior colleagues in the Faculty for their help and advice”.

Nursing Bridging program at University of Puthisastra

BSN Bridging program was established since 2018 for providing opportunity to all associate degree nurses who wish to upgrade their qualification to be Bachelor degree nurses. Currently, the BSNB program has been running 3 generations at the University of Puthisastra and we will announce soon for new enrolment of BSNB Batch 4.

Advancing nursing practice through competency-based education that includes knowledge, skills, qualities and attributes, are consisted in BSNB program at the University of Puthisastra, that our graduates are expected will improve health outcomes in an ever changing and diverse society.

Since the Covid-19 has been invading in Cambodia since March 2020, the learning and teaching for BSN Bridging program has been implemented in Hybrid learning, which is strongly supported by the IT department of the University of Puthisastra.

Because of well preparedness of our management team to be readiness for producing modernize nurses for matching to the job requirement of international and local needs, the process of teaching and learning remain active during the society blocked.

In the situation of combating to Covid-19, The University of Puthisastra provide the education follow the restriction policy of government, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. Our students were organized to learn by online for theory and in class for practicing clinical skill before sending them to apply knowledge in the real patients at hospital under direct supervision from the nurses supervisors in many hospitals that have signed MoU with UP. Our students are closely monitoring and evaluation the progress of learning and improvement by lecturers and program coordinator of BSN Bridging program. Our students are strengthening their knowledges, skill, and behaviour and including soft skill and hard skill.

Meet the Champion of Socio-emotional Learning (SEL) in the Field of Health Sciences in Cambodia

Currently a learning and teaching officer at the University of Puthisastra, Mr. Serey NGUON champions the philosophy of social emotional and collaborative learning in the Health Sciences field.

When he first involved in the industry, he realized that most students preferred individual learning and they on some occasions viewed their peers, who could be their supporters in learning, as competitors. The students, moreover, even encountered emotional distress mainly caused by heavy pressure in learning.

Determined to address the issues, Serey came up with an idea to embark on a project to deliver SEL training to teaching staff at the university and to document positive impacts of a socio-emotional approach to learning. Supported by his experiences, his research reflects his firm beliefs in learning beyond the classroom. Also, he even found that lecturers teaching the degree could actively promote socio-emotional skills to their students’ learning and a closely-knit community is significant in creating a safe space for knowledge-sharing.

Owing to the huge potential of the study, Serey was fortunately invited as a guest speaker to share his respective experiences as well as knowledge, which were categorized under the theme of Resilience-focused Education, at the College of Alice and Peter Tan International Student Symposium 2021, National University of Singapore. Yet due to the pandemic – COVID 19, the event was moved online, and Serey virtually took part in the symposium to present his research study on 20th Feb 2021.

In addition to this recent success story, Serey has been recognized as the most outstanding youth leader following his excellent performances in a 2-week virtual webinar under the theme of Redesigning the Education in the New Normal hosted by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in collaboration with the ASEAN Youth Volunteer Programme. Beyond that, he even obtained Thriving in the Digital Workplace FutureLearn Award by the University of Leeds in 2020.

Serey’s quote for UP students: “No matter what the final result is, just try your best and progressively learn new things for capacity development, either personally or professionally, with passion.”

UP LAUNCHES A NATURAL PRODUCT CONTEST 2021

Plants contain a wide range of bioactive compounds. Plants, not only provide food and shelter but can also cure many different kinds of diseases. Medical plants are used in different forms as traditional/herbal medicines, health supplements, cosmetics, and functional food products so called natural products.

Therefore, Faculty of Pharmacy (FoP) aims to propose “Natural Product Contest 2021” for UP pharmacy students by initiating innovative ideas to develop natural products and providing the information to further research studies in screening bioactive compounds and activities in in vitro, in vivo, and/or in a clinical trial of natural sources as effective herbal medicines, modern drugs, health supplements, cosmetics, and functional foods for beneficing to human health. This project has been announced since the beginning of January 2021. As the result, there are a total of 63 students (15 groups) joining this contest.

FoP launches the first meeting with groups of students who apply for the “Natural Products Contest 2021” on February 23, 2021, via Google Meet. This meeting provided the overall purposes and guidelines for winning the top three awards including (1) the contest’s overview, objective, and criteria, (2) timeline, and (3) introduction to Pharmacognosy laboratory and safety guidelines in laboratory’s practice.

Furthermore, the criteria to select the top three awardees are (1) students who produce a natural product with any categories that were proposed by the leadership team on a specific deadline, (2) students who conduct a presentation (e.g. oral presentation or poster presentation) in an organized event by the leadership team, and (3) the natural products will be evaluated by the committee’s board of the contest.

All research activities of plants or natural products will be conducted in the Pharmacognosy laboratory which support students, lecturers, and researchers to produce natural products and conduct studies and/or researches in the related field of interest.

Pharmacy faculties attended the training of “Early detection of unsafe food by risk-based program”

Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Puthisastra assigned two staffs to join the “Early Detection of Unsafe Food by Risk-Based Program” from February 15th to 25th 2021. This program was co-organized by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, KKU, Thailand, and Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation under the project of Mekong – Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Special Fund. The objectives of this training are to understand the method of detection and analyzing by risk-based approach, to set the sampling plan for risk products, and to increase their awareness of reporting and communication to the public.

Many participants were selected from many countries such as Lao PDR, Burma, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Cambodia. The course content of the training are (1) sources of contamination and health effects, (2) food standard, an acceptable amount of each country, (3) filed work for food sampling at the fresh market, (4) practicing for 5 kits (borax, formalin, sulfiting agent, pesticides, coliform), (5) reporting for screening tests, and (6) risk communication.

During training, participants were selected to do group discussions and assignments to set up the surveillance team to propose a sampling plan for selected risk food and to share laws and regulations on early detection standards of risk food in their own countries. Moreover, there was the video of practicing food testing kits that allow the participants aware and discuss those practice techniques.

After the training, participants had to pass the evaluations (practicing and participating during workshop oral presentation) and attendance not less than 80% of the course. The training was very valuable and knowledgeable on food safety awareness. The training did not provide only the knowledge and practice to the participants, but also the friendship and cooperation among international participants. There was such a valuable training to our staffs to continue their professional development and share that knowledge to their colleagues.

APDSA Cambodia Promotes Dental Research among its Members

The Asia Pacific Dental Students Association (APDSA) is an organization promoting dental education, friendship and exchange between many countries in the Asia Pacific region. Several members of the Cambodian Board are UP dental students, including Vice President Borann Voleakjemmey, Secretary Mak Sangdor, Treasurer HengLiching, UP respresentative Henh Chan Sakada, and Assistant Editor Leang MuySeang. The APDSA Cambodia Board meets intermittently at UP and recently gathered to make a video, focusing on how to prepare for the APDSA Scientific Research Competition (SRC).

The purpose of the video was to tell students about the SRC, and to provide advice on how to carry out research from several student and new graduate researchers, including UP Faculty of Dentistry researcher Dr Horn Rithvitou. The Board hopes that this video will encourage more dental students to engage in research and perhaps enter the SRC in the future. The video will also help students who are writing their undergraduate thesis.

For the 2020-2021 year the SRC is one of the main activities of the APDSA Cambodia. The Board has been working hard to promote dental research among the members. The video interview was the second step of the project, following an Online Survey. Next, APDSA Cambodia will host an Online Lecture/Webinar, discussing dental research, and featuring a few well-known local guest speakers who have earned Ph.D degrees from various universities abroad. The APDSA Cambodia hopes that many Cambodian dental students with an interest in research will attend the upcoming online lecture/webinar. It would like to thank UP for providing its support for APDSA meetings and activities.

Biography: Mr. Voch Samran,Medical Laboratory Assistant in the Faculty of Medicine

Mr Voch Samran studied General Chemistry at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. From June to August 2019, he volunteered to work as a Chemistry lecturer at the 100 building High School, Phnom Penh and at Hun Sen Kang Tanoeng High School, Kampong Cham province. He joined UP in December 2019 as Medical Laboratory Assistant.

Mr. Samran enjoys working with lecturers and medical students in the Labs and interacting with the colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine.

UP Faculty of Dentistry Lecturer Dr Nol Rithy Achieves a Second Master Degree

Dr Nol Rithy graduated top of his class in 2010 with a DDS, and later received a Masters in Prosthodontics from Mahidol University in 2014. He has recently been awarded a Masters in Oral Implantology from the Goethe Institute, Frankfurt University, Germany. The topic of his thesis was “Three different approaches of immediate implant placement in Aesthetic Zone – A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial”. His study found that immediate implant placement with immediate restoration had a similar success rate to conventional delayed implant placement. In addition, he found that immediate implant placement and immediate restoration could maintain the soft and hard tissues around the implant, resulting in good to excellent esthetic results.

Dr Rithy has worked at the Roomchang Dental Hospital for 10 years, and UP is very pleased to him as a lecturer and also a tutor in the UP Dental Clinic this coming semester. Congratulations Dr Rithy!