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Letters to the Editor
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Education
Discrepancies between postgraduate clinical pharmacy courses
From Mr G. Nickless, MRPharmS
I read with great interest the article by Soraya Dhillon and Stephen
Curtis (PJ, 21 August,p256) regarding suggestions for a national framework
for postgraduate pharmacy education. The lack of such a framework has
led to individual universities developing their own courses. One of the
problems with this is that there is significant variation in the content,
structure and method of assessment of such courses — a problem which
has led some managers to question the value of such courses.
It is well known that some courses focus on the practical aspects of pharmaceutical
care and require pharmacists to complete pharmaceutical care plans for
“real” patients, for whom they have made a contribution to their
management. Pharmacists may also be required to conduct clinical audits,
perform critical evaluations of papers and maintain continuing professional
development portfolios — exercises that acknowledge that a wide variety
of skills are required to develop the competencies of clinical pharmacists.
Other courses do not adopt this approach and set coursework largely in
the form of essay-based questions or case summaries — whether these
cases are based on real patients or are required to be performed in the
practice base is not known. Assessments may consist solely of coursework
and written examinations, or may also include oral case presentations,
peer review of presentations and objective structured clinical examinations
(OSCEs).
Once “Agenda for change” has been implemented in all hospitals,
the knowledge and skills framework will follow. The competency frameworks
developed by Duncan McRobbie et al aim to fit in with the “Agenda
for change” scales — how will postgraduate diplomas fit in with
these frameworks? It is also recognised that since one learning style
does not fit all, there may be a need for more than one model of delivery
of postgraduate pharmacy education. A nationally recognised framework
could address this by drawing upon the strengths of the existing diplomas
(in terms of content and curriculum) and involving a variety of assessment
and learning styles.
Gareth Nickless
Senior Pharmacist and Clinical Tutor
Royal Liverpool University Hospital
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal