Course Catalogue

• To inculcate an appreciation of pharmacy as a patient centred discipline and an understanding of the role of the pharmacist in a variety of professional settings.
• To prepare students with the requisite knowledge, understanding and skills to be effective decision makers within their own personal and professional limits.
• To provide knowledge of the chemical, physical and biological sciences appropriate to professional practice in pharmacy or generally in the pharmaceutical industries, research or education.
• To provide knowledge of legal and administrative arrangements, codes of practice and ethics and develop practical skills relevant to the profession of pharmacy, including for independent prescribing.
• To facilitate the development of an ability to apply knowledge of basic scientific principles and/or legal and administrative arrangements to the solution of practical problems in a clinical setting and in industry and the pharmaceutical sciences.
• To provide knowledge of the planning and execution of research and the analysis of results obtained and to encourage a critical approach to published research leading to evidence-based decision-making skills.
• To facilitate the development of problem-seeking and problem-solving skills.
• To facilitate the development of an ability to work both independently and as a team member.
• To facilitate the development of all forms of communication skills.
• To prepare students for life-long learning and continuing professional development.
• To develop the necessary behaviours, attitudes and professionalism for undertaking the role of a pharmacist.
• To prepare students for entry into the next level of Education and Training required for registration with the GPhC.

Learning is facilitated through a variety of methods. These include practicals (clinical and laboratory), clinical and professional practice workshops in the pharmacy clinical suites, tutorials, seminars, lectures and asynchronous online directed-study, with strong expectations that students will undertake further directed and self-directed independent study to enhance their learning. Experiential learning will be provided in the form of simulated and work-based professional placements across the pharmacy sectors, and these placements form a core aspect of the pharmacy curriculum.

A variety of assessment methods are used at every level of study, in the modalities of coursework, examinations and skills competency assessments. Formative assessment and feedback is incorporated into learning activities for all types of assessment. Coursework will consist of reports, posters presentations, oral presentations and viva voce examinations, case-study reviews, laboratory exercises and other assignments that mirror pharmacist activities in practice. Examinations will consist of one assessment comprising multiple choice questions to mirror the GPhC registration assessment, and a second assessment of decision making and rationalisation. Competency assessments will check student are developing relevant pharmacist skills at an acceptable level using various assessment styles to simulate practice including Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), examination of pharmacy law and ethics, and assessment of numeracy skills, and through completion of a professional portfolio. The portfolio requires students to demonstrate the acquisition of a wide range of key skills including professional development planning. In any assessment, where it is deemed that a student’s actions or decisions could put a patient/the public at risk of harm the assessment will receive a fail outcome.

Performance in some formative and summative activities may be subject to peer group assessment.

Key professional skills that will be developed include decision making, prescribing skills, clinical assessment skills, communication skills, dispensing skills, and many others. In addition, a wide range of transferable skills will also be developed throughout the curriculum, including library skills, research skills, presentation skills, team working, computer and IT literacy, data science skills, leadership skills and project management skills. A large element of independent private study is embedded within each level of study and students are supported in developing the skills to become independent learners by the end of Level 7.

Large proportions of the curriculum at every level of the programme are directly relevant to the work of a pharmacist and are delivered in a manner that closely simulates real working conditions and real-life problems/tasks. Placements will be provided in levels 4 to 7 of the programme. Placements commissioned by Health Education England (HEE) are mandatory requirements of the programme curriculum and form a key part of our simulated and workplace placement provision.

Simulation of Practice Placements:
Pharmacy students will have regular opportunities to apply learning to practice scenarios in our on campus patient simulation suite and also remotely through virtual patient software. These opportunities allow students to develop confidence in a safe environment in workforce-relevant pharmacist skills including communication skills, clinical assessment skills, prescribing skills and decision making.

Work-Force Placements:
Pharmacy students will attend placements under the supervision of pharmacists (primarily) and other healthcare professionals in the workplace, where they will further develop their practice-based skills and confidence providing care for real patients. The majority of placements will be in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and in primary care settings, with additional opportunities in other specialist sectors where pharmacists work to provide broader context to professional development. Placements may be observational (to introduce students to the work environment) or integrated into the curriculum and the workforce (i.e. participating in patient care).

Students are also strongly encouraged to find additional self-sourced work experience in pharmacy settings outside of the curriculum, e.g. during the summer break.