The University of Nottingham has been celebrating 50 years as an independent university this year. As part of the festivities, the school of pharmaceutical sciences held an open day for alumni recently
Nottingham university celebrated 50 years since becoming an independent university this year. Alumni were invited to a jubilee open day on September 19. Presentations were given on the past, present and future of the university's school of pharmacy by current members of staff (the school predates the university). Guests toured the pharmacy buildings and the site of a new institute of pharmaceutical sciences, which is to be opened next year and which will provide 3,115m2 of dedicated research space and laboratories for the school.
Professor MARTYN DAVIES (laboratory of biophysics and surface analysis) explained that pharmacy teaching at Nottingham could be traced back to the early days of the university college, when evening classes were run to prepare students for the chemist and druggist examination. Indeed, before 1925, pharmacy teaching had been provided by the schools of botany and chemistry. Now, there were over 110 undergraduates on the MPharm course each year. The subjects taught had become more clinical than botanical, to the extent that physiology and pharmacology were taught in the medical school.
A five-year refurbishment plan for the school was underway and the new chemistry and microbiology laboratories had already been opened. The new institute of pharmaceutical sciences was nearly complete and the next phase was the development of a laboratory of pharmacy practice. The school's administrative and teaching centre would remain in the existing building.
Mr DAVID PFLEGER, (pharmacy teacher-practitioner) said that the pharmacy degree course aimed to provide students with the "tool box" necessary to develop themselves as health care professionals through continuing professional development. He likened the degree to the driving test, in that it got students to a standard where they could "drive" and probably not kill anybody, but it didn't guarantee that they were good drivers. The existing course was moving away from traditional lectures and towards self-directed learning in small groups. He said that the university intended to use the new fourth year to enhance the current course by including greater emphasis on clinical pharmacy (including evidence-based medicine), on the social skills needed in daily practice and on working with other health care practitioners in both primary and secondary care.
He described the new laboratory of pharmacy practice that would be opening next year to provide teaching and role play for students. Software was being developed that would allow students to dispense and label prescriptions and be linked to patient medication records. Initially, prescriptions would appear as the current paper forms but they would eventually change to an electronic patient record (EPR) format.
Dr CLAIRE ANDERSON (director of pharmacy practice and social pharmacy) said that a "virtual" school of pharmacy practice would be set up on the internet next year. This would allow distance learning courses to be run for pharmacists in the UK and abroad.
She said that the distance learning courses would be modular and would be available at the level of diploma, masters degree and, eventually, as a DPharm. Three modules would be run in the spring - pharmacy and the internet, developing a practice portfolio and evidence-based practice. It was envisaged that after the initial modules had been evaluated, further modules would be run later next year. The course was designed to be problem-based, interactive and would draw on students' personal practice experiences. There would be online tutor support and "real time" tutorials over the internet. The emphasis of the course would be on life-long, self-directed learning that would encourage the maturation of pharmaceutical service skills, particularly cognitive ones. It was hoped that the course would also stimulate practise-based research. Further information could be found on the website address - nottingham.ac.uk/pharmacy/vspp.