Mursyidah was born in Buleleng, December 19, 1962. A Chemistry enthusiast since high school, she started her education at the Faculty of Pharmacy Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) in 1980. At that time, Mursyidah admitted that she was very proud to be accepted as a new student of UNAIR. She even received a scholarship from the Ministry of Higher Education when she entered the second semester of college. Mursyidah studied at UNAIR Pharmacy for seven years. Mursyidah said she did not participate in many extra activities during her time as a student. This is because, besides being busy with a fairly busy schedule and lecture assignments, Mursyidah also served as a teaching assistant at the Pharmaceutics Laboratory.

"Studying in Pharmacy is quite busy every day because from 07.00 to 10.00 in the morning we have theoretical lectures, and from 10.00 to 17.00 we practice in the laboratory. After maghrib, I usually go to the library because at that time books were still minimal. At 03.00 am we have to be ready with the practicum report and test preparation before entering the practicum room," explained Mursyidah.

Nevertheless, Mursyidah still makes time to develop herself through extra-campus activities and organizations. Such as helping to teach tutoring and joining the UNAIR student choir team. Mursyidah said that she had an interesting experience during her time on the choir team. She mentioned that every time her choir team performed to accompany the graduation procession, Mursyidah always shed tears when singing Airlangga Hymn. 

"I really enjoy it because I can see people who have successfully pursued their education. So I aspire to be an Airlangga Knight as written in the hymn. I have to do my best wherever I am. This is what I always instill in myself," said the mother of one, Mursyidah. 

Always Solutive and Innovative 

Mursyidah completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Unair in 1986 and was appointed as a pharmacist in 1987. Mursyidah started her career as a civil servant staff at the Ministry of Health Office in March 1989. At that time, she continued to struggle to show that pharmacists who graduated from UNAIR could compete with other graduates. Mursyidah experienced many challenges at the beginning of her work. One week after becoming a civil servant, Mursyidah had to be able to provide counseling on generic drugs in seven areas of the former Malang Regency. In addition, Mursyidah was also asked to manage drugs in the Malang Regency drug warehouse. Mursyidah revealed that at that time there were many expired medicines and she was challenged to develop a strategy to reduce expired medicines.

"I thought hard because there was no one I could discuss with because my staff who were assistant pharmacists felt competed so they stayed away. Thankfully, I was able to reduce expired medicines in the health center by doing road shows to the health centers and conducting continuous coaching," said Mursyidah.

Three months later, Mursyidah was transferred to Jatirejoyoso Village, Kepanjen. She was troubled to learn that after the transfer of the pharmacy warehouse, there was no longer a budget to pay for caretaker wages and maintenance. Mursyidah, who at that time served as head of the district pharmacy warehouse, then tried to find a solution so that the office could still be managed with a very limited budget. Mursyidah is grateful that her seniors at the Provincial Office helped her manage the new pharmacy warehouse.

"At that time, medicine was not a concern, so many drugs expired because they were stored in a humid place. So I ventured to stop the supply of drugs to the health center if the drug warehouse at the health center was not considered," explained Mursyidah.

Mursyidah also did not hesitate to reduce the supply of drugs to health centers if reports related to these drugs did not comply with regulations. This method apparently succeeded in making the heads of health centers at that time pay more attention to the storage of drug stocks properly. Mursyidah's struggle to enforce drug management practices that are in accordance with the guidelines is quite a long struggle. Moreover, Mursyidah continued, at that time medicine at the health center was still managed by human resources who graduated from elementary to junior high school and did not have a pharmaceutical education background.

"I struggled to change this situation by showing data to the head of the department on how bad the drug management was at that time. It was at this pharmacy warehouse that I was tested on how to make the agency I lead into an important agency," said Mursyidah.

In 2000, Mursyidah was appointed as Head of the Sub-Directorate of Pharmacy and Food in Malang District. Mursyidah began to design a program so that the sub-directorate she led would become a superior and useful field for the community.

"When I became head of Pharmacy, I was trusted to start a pilot project for pharmacists in community health centers," she said.

Received Various Awards 

Since being appointed Head of the Malang District Health Office in 2011, Mursyidah has made various innovations and achievements. Among them are successfully delivering Malang District received an award from the Ministry of Health for Healthy Districts, an award as a Drug Monitoring and Food Development Partner in Villages from BPOM, and an Autonomy Award from Jawa Pos for public service performance.

"In August 2014, I was transferred to the General Administration Assistant to the Regional Secretary of Malang Regency and here I learned how to coordinate agencies. I was given the task to prepare a new district government institution," said the Chairman of the IKA UNAIR Malang Branch.

After the new institution was formed, Mursyidah was transferred to the research and development (R&D) department in 2017. When transferred to the R&D department, Mursyidah felt that there were things that needed to be addressed so that the institution could improve its performance for the better.

"I am learning again. Here I see that all the staff are not enthusiastic, especially since the budget is very small when compared to other agencies. But I kept my spirit and encouraged the staff even though it was really hard. Until finally we won third place nationally for Regional Innovation and received attention from the Ministry of Research and Technology to develop the Regional Innovation System," said the woman who also works as an extraordinary lecturer at several campuses in Malang.

In August 2017, Mursyidah was transferred back to the One-Stop Investment and Licensing Office. There, Mursyidah tried to change the mindset of the licensing office staff to good community service and made changes so that the Licensing Office became a friendly office for the public. Mursyidah's efforts again succeeded in bringing the agency she led to an award, namely the Public Service Award category A from the Ministry of PANRB.

"But when I wanted to receive the award again, I was transferred to Balitbang in August 2018 which turned out that the staff had 'slept' again. The office was a mess even though I had just left. There was also resentment because when I was happy to have made changes, I was transferred again. I started cleaning up again, struggling again, leading and trying to make R & D an elite and proud office," explained Mursyidah.

Mursyidah also returned to brainstorming to improve the performance of Balitbang. Thanks to her enthusiasm and hard work, Mursyidah managed to arouse the enthusiasm of other staff to participate in improving the Balitbang. Then she began preparations to take part in a regional innovation competition involving all offices in the Malang Regency Government. The competition organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2019 finally named Malang as the third most innovative district after Banyuwangi and Kulon Progo. Not only that, but the Balitbang led by Mursyidah also received an award from the Ministry of Research and Technology as the National Top Performing Balitbang. Thanks to these achievements, the Malang Regency Balitbang received visits from various other regional R&D centers in Indonesia.

"And also the visit of 9 professors from Udayana University specifically to look closely at the development of Balitbangda Malang Regency for the formation of Barisda Bali Province. Then I was transferred again in August 2019 back to the Administrative and General Assistant of the Malang Regency Secretariat," added Mursyidah.

Currently, Mursyidah is preparing to reorganize the regional secretariat and simplify the bureaucracy in the district government. Apart from serving as a general administration assistant, Mursyidah also carries out various other mandates, including being an ASN Performance Assessment Team, Institutional Drafting Team, an extraordinary lecturer in the Pharmacy department at several universities in Malang, and many more. In the end, Mursyidah shared the key to her success in leading to various achievements, including always being disciplined, honest, and serious. 

"Complete tasks with full responsibility, be useful people and always be able to color good wherever we are," concluded Mursyidah.

Source : The Footprints of Airlanggas's Knights Edition V