Society News: Consultation on revised requirements for accreditation of pharmacy degrees

The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7159 p171-175
4 August 2001

Society News summary

Consultation on revised requirements for accreditation of pharmacy degrees

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s working group on degree accreditation has drafted revised requirements for United Kingdom pharmacy undergraduate courses for the purpose of subsequent registration as a pharmacist in Britain. This article, produced in the Society’s education division, summarises the working group’s consultation document, setting out in full a proposed new indicative pharmacy syllabus

The degree accreditation working group (DAWG) is inviting pharmacists, pharmacy students and others to give their views on its proposed revised requirements for United Kingdom pharmacy undergraduate courses. The requirements are in the form of criteria to be met by each school of pharmacy. They are intended to apply for the five-year period from September 2002. A particularly important criterion is that each school addresses the indicative pharmacy syllabus also produced by the working group.

The working group’s remarks on future curriculum development, those criteria dealing with outcomes and processes of the degree course, and the indicative syllabus are reproduced below.

The working group will be pleased to receive comments, which should sent to DAWG, Education Division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (fax 020 7287 3862; e-mail rdewdney@rpsgb.org.uk). A full copy of the working group’s consultation document, with the full set of proposed criteria and a consultation questionnaire, will shortly be posted on education section of the Society’s website. Anyone wishing to make more than a short comment is requested to consult the full document at this web address and to use the questionnaire form there, or its format.

Curriculum development

Over the past two decades and more,schools of pharmacy have radically reformed the subject matter and the delivery methods of their degree courses. A feature of curriculum development has been the integration of subject matter with the goal that the student is provided with a co-ordinated understanding and comprehensive knowledge and expertise in the key aspects of the preparation, distribution, actions and uses of drugs and medicines. The Society expects this vein of development to continue over the next five years, side by side and overlapping with an increasing engagement with clinical and all other main aspects of pharmacy practice — certainly so in schools of pharmacy where this is not strongly the case at present. The Society also expects pharmacy students over the coming years to learn more than their predecessors about the processes of evidence-based diagnosis of disease.

The Society recognises the growing importance of multidisciplinary teaching and learning but wishes to emphasise that such teaching and learning must be relevant to, and integrated with, the pharmacy programme.

Proposed required outcomes

(i) The graduate or sandwich degree course student has considerable knowledge, understanding and expertise in the key aspects of the preparation, distribution, actions and usage of drugs and medicines from successful completion of a programme based on the indicative syllabus appended to this document (see panel).

(ii) The graduate takes personal responsibility for his or her learning and development and thereby has a foundation for subsequent continuing professional development.

(iii) The graduate has a questioning and enquiring attitude and approach to his or her work and the work of teams he or she works within.

(iv) The graduate can undertake structured problem-solving.

(v) The graduate is capable in the use of information technology.

(vi) The graduate can undertake critical appraisal of evidence and apply appropriate research approaches and methods to scientific and practice problems.

(vii) The graduate is able to design, improve, and operate within, standard operating procedures.

(viii) At all stages of the degree course the graduate has proved him/herself capable of performing pharmaceutical calculations correctly and accurately.

(ix) The graduate commands relevant laboratory practical skills.

(x) The graduate has the foundation of knowledge and understanding for diagnosis of disease.

(xi) The graduate has the foundation of knowledge, understanding and skills for prescribing medicines.

(xii) The graduate is prepared to deal with ethical dilemmas in health care.

Proposed required processes

(xiii) The degree course is planned as an integrated programme.

(xiv) The degree course features a variety of approaches to achieving and assessing learning appropriate to its stated objectives, including lectures, practical classes, seminars, workshops, tutorials, computer-based or computer-aided learning, clinical visits, and examinations (multiple choice questions, short-answer, essay), essays, projects, dissertations and other assignments.

(xv) Teaching and learning have the feature of positioning knowledge, understanding and capability in a pharmaceutical context, with frequent reference to examples from current pharmaceutical practice.

(xvi) In the processes of curriculum review and development, the academic staff properly takes account of major advances and developments potentially impacting on pharmacy.

(xvii) The degree course seeks to inculcate or develop students’ skills of self-management, teamworking and peer assessment.

(xviii) The student is inculcated with a concern for the patient, normally above other considerations.

(xix) The student is given the opportunity to communicate with diverse individuals and audiences.

(xx) The continuing professional development opportunities open to practising pharmacists are brought to the attention of the student.

(xxxi) The student gains first-hand structured experience of practice, including contact with patients and practitioners of other health professions.

(xxii) Where possible and appropriate, during stages of the degree course, the student is taught and learns alongside and together with students of other health professions.

(xxiii) Pharmacy undergraduate teaching takes place alongside and with reference to research and other postgraduate activities.

(xxv) The student is made aware of the advantages of, and encouraged to undertake, employment or attachment for vacation experience in pharmacy practice.

(xxv) The student is encouraged both to be a participating member of the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association and to attend meetings of the Society’s local branch or region.

Proposed indicative syllabus for UK pharmacy degree courses

The patient

1. Principles and methodologies of the social and behavioural sciences relevant to pharmacy.

2. Health and illness: definitions and perceptions.

3. Theory and practice of personal and inter-personal skills, including written and verbal communication skills, and study skills.

4. The ideas and approaches of compliance and concordance in health care provision, particularly as they apply to medicines-taking.

5. Promotion of good health and disease prevention, and the pharmacist’s contribution.

The body and disease

6. Normal and abnormal bodily function: biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, nutrition, immunology, physiology, pathology, pathophysiology and infective processes.

7. Genomics and proteomics.

8. Aetiology and epidemiology of major diseases and the principles of their drug treatment.

9. Medical terminology.

10. Symptoms recognition and management, the principles of differential diagnosis, and important diagnostic methods and tests.

11. Managing chronic conditions.

12. Drug and substance misuse, and physiological and psychological dependence.

Medicines: drug action

13. Molecular basis of drug action and the actions of drugs within living systems; molecular, cellular, biological and physical aspects.

14. Clinical therapeutic uses of drugs and medicines in man, including contraindications for, adverse reactions to, and interactions of drugs, and their relevance to treatment.

15. Drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion and influences thereon, including formulation, route of administration, dosage regimen, ageing and disease.

16. Clinical evaluation of new drugs and medicines, and good clinical practice in post-marketing surveillance .

17. Clinical toxicology associated with drug over-dosage, drug or substance misuse or accidental exposure.

18. Prospects for new approaches in therapeutics.

Medicines: the drug substance

19. Sources and purification of substances used in medicine of biotechnological, chemical, synthetic, immunological, mineral and plant origin.

20. Physicochemical aspects of drugs and biological systems, including thermodynamics and chemical kinetics.

21. Specifications of substances used in medicine, including physical and chemical tests.

22. Analytical methods (including those for biotechnology products): principles, design, development, validation and application.

23. Prediction of drug properties, including chemical compatibilities, from molecular structure.

24. Drug design and discovery; principles, approaches (including combinatorial chemistry) and future prospects.

25. Cell and molecular biology relevant to pharmacy.

26. Biological methods of measuring drug activity and biological standards.

27. Biotechnology and biotechnological main processes.

28. Good laboratory practice.

Medicines: the medicinal product

29. Medicines: licensing of medicines; consumer protection, including product liability and unlicensed medicines; classification of medicines, including Controlled Drugs and their subclasses.

30. Materials used in formulations and devices for the delivery of biologically active molecules (drugs); their biological, chemical and physical properties.

31. Developmental pharmaceutics, pre-formulation and formulation studies: design and standardisation of medicines for administration to the body by different routes and to specific target sites.

32. The influence of processing on product quality with respect to biological safety, bioavailability (including bioequivalence), dosage uniformity and stability.

33. Packaging and labelling; purpose, design and evaluation.

34. Quality assurance of pharmaceutical products and processes; Good pharmaceutical manufacturing practice and its implications.

35. Microbial contamination: sources, determination, consequences and control.

36. Sterilisation processes and aseptic procedures in the preparation of pharmaceutical products and medical devices; monitoring of sterilisation processes.

37. Environmental control in manufacturing facilities and in the supply chain.

38. Degradation of medicines; evaluation and control of biological, chemical and physical degradation.

39. Effect of total supply process (supply chain) on product quality.

40. Immunological, biotechnological and radiopharmaceutical products.

41. Dressings and other wound management products.

42. Medicine delivery devices and physiological function measuring devices, including equipment for oxygen therapy, equipment for continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, peak-flow meters and syringe-drivers.

43. Other medical devices; regulation, types and usage.

44. Drug-product “life-cycle”.

45. Poisons: classes and controls.

Professional roles and considerations

46. The pharmacist’s present and possible roles in patient care, industrial and other settings relevant to health or social care.

47. The pharmacist as a qualified person in the pharmaceutical industry.

48. Codes of practice and acceptable standards of practice, including those relating to continuing professional development.

49. Professional and multiprofessional audit.

50. Complementary therapies.

Health care systems

51. Health care systems — the National Health Service, private health care, the pharmaceutical industry, scientific and medical publishing — including the place of pharmacy.

52. The role of the pharmacist in public health.

53. Infection control policies and procedures.

54. The use of information technology in pharmacy and more widely in health care.

The wider context

55. The political and legal framework, requirements and processes relevant to pharmacy.

56. The duty of care to the patient and the wider public: concept, scope and application of professional ethics, and the Code of Ethics of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

57. Health policy and economics, including particularly pharmacoeconomics.

58. Scientific, clinical, health services and social services research; methods and results relevant to pharmacy.

59. Laboratory, other workplace and environmental safety and protection, including health and safety at work, the control of substances hazardous to health, and waste disposal.