Mrs Leanne May

I have a keen interest in technology in learning. 

I was an early adopter of technology in teaching and I shared my experiences during a School learning and teaching seminar of the use of quiz-style clickers, as part of a wider university project, and using a leaderboard and competition to stimulate engagement.

I enjoy using a flipped lecture approach in some pharmacy practice topics and responding to symptoms teaching.

As a community pharmacist, I have an interest in responding to symptoms teaching and particularly how this relates to health inequalities. I have created a Canvas module that incorporates images from many countries, inspired by "Mind the Gap" to ensure students have exposure to identifying skin conditions on darker skin tones.

As we move to a curriculum designed to create prescriber-ready pharmacy students, I enjoy exploring how we can utilise simulations through role play and videos to support experiential learning, with a particular focus on clinical diagnostics and consultation skills, bringing in experience from pharmacy practice and my CPPE role.

In my time as MPharm course director, I worked with the pharmacy team to move our teaching and assessment content online, while maintaining an element of face-to-face teaching, with safety as a priority, during the COVID-19 pandemic, sharing learning around using Teams, break out rooms, polls, MyDispense for practicals, recording lectures using various online tools and captioning these. 

I was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Authority (SFHEA) in 2020 - Advance HE.

Qualifications and expertise

• Senior Fellow HEA

Undergraduate courses taught

• Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences Foundation Degree (Pre-Pharmacy)
• Pharmacy MPharm (Hons)

Clinical Pharmacy Congress poster presentation 22 April 2016: A survey of the perceptions of community pharmacists of electronic prescription service in the dispensing process 

RPS Winter summit poster presentation 5th December 2017: Evaluation of GP Practice Clinical Pharmacists' Perceptions of their Learning and Development Needs 

Areas of specialism

• Community pharmacy
• Digital technology in pharmacy education and training
• Pharmacy education and training
• Simulations in pharmacy education
• Responding to symptoms

Publications

I have worked as a community pharmacist with a large multiple-chain pharmacy from 2001 until now. A key role I held in this time was as a group pharmacy manager where I led the clinical governance for 8 pharmacies. I am currently still working as a part-time relief pharmacist.

In my role with Boots, alongside working part-time as a community pharmacist, I supported drive-through COVID-19 test centres in April 2020 by testing and training testers to administer swab tests at drive-through centers around London. 

I supported our Kingston university students working on the front line during the height of the pandemic with drop-in calls to ensure they stayed safe in the workplace over the summer of 2020.

I wrote support articles for a pharmacy magazine, C+D about the Moderna vaccine and Janssen vaccine in 2021 and a discussion around the updated NICE guidance. I also shared a support video to reduce vaccine hesitancy on social media.

As part of my CPPE role, I support pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with online courses to return to the register and create a portfolio for GPhC evaluation and for pharmacists currently on the register, who have taken a break from pharmacy, to return to practice. 

I have created support material for pharmacy professionals to undertake various aspects of their revalidation on the C+D website such as a podcast of an example of a peer discussion and written entries of a reflective account.

I have also written various training modules for C+D from 2017-2021 including topics such as:

Multiple sclerosis, Codeine over the counter (OTC), OTC  medicine abuse, Erectile dysfunction, Ticks and Lyme disease, Hyperhydrosis, Concussion, Oral thrush, Leukemia, Non-oral hormonal contraception, Asthma, Lung cancer, First aid, Trichotillomania, Dry skin, Look alike sound alike errors, Lung function tests, Lithium, Hernia, Calculations.

Qualifications and expertise

• Registered pharmacist GPhC
• Postgraduate Clinical Diploma in Pharmacy Practice (community), with Distinction
• CPPE Return to practice and return to register tutor
• CPPE events tutor, London

Professional and scholarly affiliations

• General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) member since 2000