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• Undergraduate study:
• Courses
• Order a prospectus
• How to apply
• Information for applicants
• Why choose Kingston University
• Disability and mental health support
• Accommodation
• Undergraduate fees
• Fees, funding and payments
• Access, participation and inclusion

Professional Pharmacy Practice in UK

• Module code: PY7910
• Year: 2018/9
• Level: 7
• Credits: 30
• Pre-requisites: None
• Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module is a core module for the OSPAP diploma.

It starts by introducing the students (who are overseas pharmacists) to UK law and ethics as relevant to the use of medicines and the practice of pharmacy in the United Kingdom. Sessions on communication skills and basic IT skills should ensure that all students have the same level in these important core skills.

Being a core module of the OSPAP programme, it has been designed to prepare students for the practice as a preregistration trainee and a future pharmacist, in all areas of practice. Knowledge on legal, ethical, clinical and recent practices related to pharmacy e.g. Medicine Use Reviews, New Medicines Services, supplementary and independent prescribing has been embedded in the module. Students are able to acquire the skills necessary for their professional practice e.g. decision making, minimising dispensing errors, continual professional development, the role of pharmacist as part of the health-care team and pharmacoeconomics. Nearly 30% of the teaching time is spent in practicals and workshops to emphasise these concepts.

The module also provides support for the students' ongoing study by introducing an Academic and Professional Portfolio comprising activities to support their learning needs such as engagement with the Personal Tutor Scheme (PTS), the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the Inter Professional Education (IPE). As part of the Academic and Professional Portfolio, students are also required to attend a one day placement in a pharmacy.

It is a professional body requirement that students demonstrate a required level of professional competence before they are awarded the OSPAP and progress to the final stage of training as a UK pharmacist. Students must be able to apply the knowledge they have gained throughout the OSPAP course and in particular that from the Professional Practice and Clinical Pharmacy elements, in a safe and effective manner for patient care.

Aims

• To introduce UK pharmacy law and the ethical framework within which pharmacy is practiced in the UK to give students a deep and systematic understanding of the subject that will enable students to practice safely, lawfully and ethically.
• To develop key study skills and the skills and competences that the students will need for professional practice so that students can critically evaluate routine and complex practice situations, and identify and solve problems using current best evidence.
• To introduce the concepts of health, well-being and illness, health promotion, health economics and the role of pharmacist in public health, so that students gain an understanding of current and theoretical approaches to these and can apply their critical thinking creatively in these patient rather than medicine centred concepts.
• To critically evaluate the roles of the pharmacist in the UK as part of the healthcare team and recent developments in pharmacy.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

• Apply knowledge of the law governing the sale and supply of medicines for human and veterinary use, the Misuse of Drugs Act and its Regulations as relevant to Pharmacy Practice, the sale and supply of poisons, chemicals and spirits relevant to pharmacy.
• Know the structures and functions of the GPhC and RPS and be able to understand and apply the GPhC standards for pharmacy professionals and use them in the solving of legal, ethical, and professional dilemmas, reaching a decision that can be ethically justified.
• Critically evaluate the changing role of pharmacists in the UK as part of the healthcare team and demonstrate engagement in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Inter Professional Education (IPE).
• Understand and appraise the principles of health, well-being and illness from the public's perspective so that a range of scientific, social and health studies relevant to pharmacy and role of pharmacist in practice research can be evaluated.
• Use critical appraisal skills to make effective decisions in relation to medication reviews, pharmacoeconomics, prescribing and ability to support decision made by effective use of reference sources and evidence-based guidelines.
• Be able to dispense, check and endorse dispensed items accurately; counsel patients effectively; perform pharmaceutical calculations correctly and provide appropriate advice when responding to symptoms and promoting public health.

Curriculum content

• Introduction and application to word-processing, the internet, spreadsheets, databases and information retrieval. Hierarchy of evidence, critical appraisal and medicine information.
• Numeracy skills appropriate to pharmacy practice for general and specific groups eg. paediatrics.
• Verbal and non-verbal communication skills and effective counselling.
• Introduction to dispensing, Standard Operating Procedures, prescribers, records, formularies.
• The principal legislation applying in pharmacy practice including the Medicines Act and Misuse of Drugs Act. The Standards for pharmacy professionals and their application in practice including: legal and ethical dimensions of pharmacy, negligence, duty of care, human rights, bioethics, consent to treatment research ethics
• Prescribers and prescriptions, Patient Group Directions, irrational prescribing, choosing a drug. Services currently provided by pharmacists in hospital and community and the decision making skills required to run such services.
• Introduction to the sociological concepts of health, well-being and illness. Health economic and pharmacoeconomic studies including the concepts of opportunity cost, cost benefit, cost effectiveness and cost utility analysis.
• The professional dimensions of pharmacy, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), continuing education, professional audit, clinical governance.
• The application of ethical decision making and professional judgement in practice.
• Responding to symptoms in the community pharmacy with particular regard to recently deregulated medicines and good practice guidance.
• Public health and the application of public health strategies in pharmacies and by pharmacists including health promotion, health education, risk reduction, secondary prevention, diagnostic testing, use of Medicines Use Reviews (MURs) and the concepts of concordance and adherence.
• The structure and functions of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS): professional regulation, the pharmaceutical register, the Disciplinary Committee, professional leadership. Recognising adverse drug reactions, drug interactions and counselling patients appropriately.
• Concept of patient safety and embedding it in day-to-day practice.

Teaching and learning strategy

Lectures will be given to provide information on topics and guide students to directed reading. Workshops and tutorials will be used to discuss and present relevant material, to further develop communication skills and to enhance student-student and student-instructor interaction. Problem-based learning will be used in workshops to facilitate application of knowledge to real-life situations and assess student understanding. Practical experiments will be lab based and will require analysis and decision making.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Assessment strategy

The assessment in this module is underpinned by the GPhC's outcome standards and the necessity for students to demonstrate that they can meet these standards. These standards require to be met at a range of levels defined by Miller's Triangle criteria; 'knows', 'knows how', 'shows how' and 'does'. Many of the outcomes associated with this module are at the 'shows how' level with some 'does' hence the use of a dispensing test as a practical assessment to enable students to demonstrate that they can meet the required level.

To support the students in meeting these standards, a diagnostic and formative assessment is used during the induction period, prior to the commencement of teaching. The diagnostic assessment comprises of elements related to this module, assessing the students' baseline levels of knowledge and their ability in relation to the practice of pharmacy. The tests include topics like pharmaceutical calculations, basic law covering the practice of pharmacy and dispensing, evidence based practice and responding to symptoms in the community. Feedback will be given to students, extra reading material outlined, and signposting to sources of help as appropriate.

To achieve the learning outcomes and GPHC standards a range of assessment methods are used to enable students to demonstrate their acquisition of advanced knowledge and skills such as critical appraisal, problem solving and analysis and apply them in practical situations. There are a series of formative workshops with feedback to support this. The workshops and practicals in this module support the development of a number of practical and professional skills which are assessed summatively in the synoptic Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) style assessment which students have to pass to gain their accredited diploma. Students will also undertake a mock OSCE in advance of the summative assessment and feedback and feed forward advice provided to support them in the summative assessment. The students further benefit from a range of formative sessions including information retrieval from the British National Formulary (BNF) and Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), a debate on human rights and revision for the module examination. These feed forward to the in module assessment and end of module exam as well as the synoptic OSCE and calculations assessments.

To encourage learning and engagement with professional activities, students participate in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) cycles which feed into the Academic and Professional Skills Portfolio. Students attend their placements, engage in the Interprofessional Education (IPE) sessions and participate in the human rights/bioethics debate. Their reflections on these activities are reviewed and discussed with their personal tutor.

During dispensing practicals formative assessment and feedback will be proved in every practical so that the students develop the necessary skills and competences as well as use their knowledge. This will not only feed forward to the dispensing test but should support them to develop as safe and effective future pharmacists. Patient safety is paramount and in the in module assessment and end of module exam as well as the synoptic OSCE key patient safety issues will be assessed. Calculations used in dispensing practicals will feed forward to the synoptic calculations assessment.

Assessments in this module have demanding assessment criteria to reflect the need for students to demonstrate that they can practice safely, effectively and lawfully.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Elements of Assessment

Achieving a pass

It is a requirement that the elements of assessment are passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.

Bibliography core texts

• British National Formulary, latest edition. Pharmaceutical Press. ISBN 9780853697367 (will change as new editions are printed). Also available on BNF website.
• British National Formulary for children, latest edition, Pharmaceutical Press. ISBN 9780853697411 (will change as new editions are printed). Both these publications also available at www.bnf.org
• Introduction to Pharmaceutical Calculations (3^rd Ed), Rees, Smith and Smith, Pharmaceutical Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0853699606
• Medicines, Ethics and Practice. The professional guide for pharmacists (37^th Ed), Pharmaceutical Press, (2013). (The current edition will be used) ISBN:9780853697442
• Pharmaceutical Practice (4^th edition), A. J. Winfield, J Rees and I Smith. Churchill Livingstone (2009).
• Health promotion for pharmacists (2^nd Ed), Blenkinsopp, Panton and Anderson. Oxford University press (2000). ISBN 9780192630445
• Foundations for Health Promotion (Public Health and Health Promotion) (3^rd Ed), Naido and Wills. Bailliere Tindall (2009). ISBN 978-0702029653
• Symptoms in the Pharmacy: A Guide to the Management of Common Illness (6^th Ed). Blenkinsopp, Paxton and Blenkinsopp. Blackwell Publishing (2008). ISBN 978-1405180795
• Minor illness or major disease (5th Ed). Edwards and Stillman. Pharmaceutical Press (2012). ISBN 978-0853699613
• Dale and Appelbe's Pharmacy Law and Ethics (9^th Ed), Appelbe and Wingfield. Pharmaceutical Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0853698272
• Pathology and therapeutics for pharmacists: A basis for clinical practice (3^rd Ed), Greene and Harris. Pharmaceutical Press, (2008). ISBN 978 0

Bibliography recommended reading

Besides the links listed below, students will be advised to join the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as membership is free and joining the RPS will allow them to have online access to the current new Medicines, Ethics and Practice (MEP) publication  and many of the required documents listed in the links below.

• NPCI
• NICE
• DH
• PSNC
• RPHARMS
• General Pharmaceutical Council
  
• A guide to clinical Audit, Ashmore, Chanter and Johnson
• Standards of conduct, ethics and performance
• Guidance for Responsible Pharmacists
• Standards for continuing professional development
• Standards for pharmacy owners and superintendent pharmacists of retail pharmacy businesses
• Guidance for owners and superintendent pharmacists who employ responsible pharmacists
• Guidance on the provision of pharmacy services affected by religious and moral beliefs

Recommended Reading including further useful websites and weblinks:

• SIGN
• The Good Study Guide, Andy Northedge. The Open University (2005).
• Communication Skills in Pharmacy Practice: a Practical Guide for Students and Practitioners, (5^th edition) William Tindall, Robert S Beardsley, Carole L Kimberlin. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (2005).
• The Pharmaceutical Journal
• Blackstone's Pharmacy Law and Practice, Kenneth Mullan. Blackstone Press (Jan 2002).
• Sweetman, Sean, Martindale: the complete drug reference, 36^th Ed, 2009 (Book and CD-ROM), Pharmaceutical Press
• The Pharmaceutical Handbook (Nineteenth edition), Ainley Wade. Pharmaceutical Press (1980). ISBN 0 85369 130 4
• The British Pharmacopoeia 2010, British Pharmacopoeia Commission. The Stationary Office.
• The European Pharmacopoeia (6^th edition), Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2007
• ABPI Medicines Compendium (Current edition), Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries (available as electronic Medicines Compendium)
• Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, Consumers' Association.
• MeRec Bulletin, National Prescribing Centre
• Current Problems in Pharmacovigilance, Committee on Safety of Medicines, MHRA
• Handbook of pharmacy health education (2^nd Ed), Mason Harman. Pharmaceutical Press, (2002). ISBN 9780853694717.
• Pharmacy practice, Taylor and Harding. Taylor & Francis (2001). ISBN 04152 1592.
• MCQs in pharmacy practice (2^nd Ed), Azzopardi. Pharmaceutical Press, (2009). ISBN 978-0853698395.
• Non-prescription medicines (4^rd Ed), Nathan. Pharmaceutical Press (2010). ISBN 9780853696445
• Pharmacy preregistration handbook (2^nd Ed), Taylor. Pharmaceutical Press, (2006). ISBN 9780853695134
• Pharmacoeconomics, Walley, Haycox and Boland. Churchill Livingstone (2003). ISBN 978-0443072406.
• Community pharmacy; symptoms, diagnosis and treatment (2^nd Ed), Rutter. Churchill Livingstone (2008). ISBN 978-0702029950.
• Pharmaceutical Practice (3^rd Ed), Winfield and Richards. Churchill Livingstone (2003). ISBN 978-0443072062
• Clinical Pharmacy Pocket Companion (1^st Ed), Wright, Gray and Goodey. Pharmaceutical Press, (2006). ISBN 9780853696490
• Dietary Supplements (3^rd Ed), Mason, Pharmaceutical Press, (2007). ISBN:9780853696537
• Further MCQs in Pharmacy Practice (1^st Ed), Azzopardi. Pharmaceutical Press, (2006). ISBN 9780853696650