A need to ensure future generations of pharmacists for rural and regional Australia has driven third generation pharmacist Peter Gissing to take the helm of the Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation.

Established to support Australia’s first non-metropolitan pharmacy course at Charles Sturt University (CSU), the Foundation aims to be a bridge between CSU, pharmacists and the industry.

The Foundation has found in its new chairman, Peter Gissing, a fierce advocate for the future of the profession in rural and regional Australia and ensuring the profession is able to meet the challenges ahead in education, research and the development of networks.

Peter Gissing can trace his family’s involvement in rural pharmacy back to 1919 when his grand-father arrived in Wagga Wagga in NSW during the Spanish flu influenza epidemic. 

“After the epidemic claimed the life of his boss, my grandfather remained in the rural town to later purchase his own pharmacy,” recalled Mr Gissing. 

“The quality of CSU pharmacy graduates I now work with in my two pharmacies is impressive. The evidence shows that despite being experienced enough to practice anywhere in the world, they overwhelmingly choose to work in regional and rural Australia.

“I urge pharmacists in rural areas to support the Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation and its work in looking to the future of pharmacy,” said Mr Gissing. 

Background notes:

• The Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation is part of the Charles Sturt Foundation, a non profit independent company affiliated with CSU established to provide funding for a range of activities at the University, from capital developments to scholarships.
• Contributions to the Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation will assist the funding of the first Professor of Rural Pharmacy in Australia at CSU, research, and continued development of pharmacy program at CSU as well as undergraduate scholarships for students.
• CSU pharmacy program was established in 1997 as the first non-metropolitan pharmacy degree in Australia.
• Before the first year of CSU graduates in 2001, up to three pharmacy graduates a year were choosing a rural practice. 31 of the 36 inaugural CSU graduates in 2001 chose to work in rural practice. (source: Pharmacy Board of NSW.)