First teaching community pharmacy launched
Launching the facility (left to right): Sandy Florence with pharmacy owners Tim O’Donoghue and John Foreman |
A teaching community pharmacy, believed to be the world’s first, was launched this week in London.
The initiative has been developed at Green Light Pharmacy in north London
in collaboration with the School of Pharmacy, University of London. It
aims to help students develop practice skills in a real-life community
pharmacy setting.
Students will attend two-hour training sessions at the pharmacy in groups
of 25–30. Using live video links between the pharmacy and a classroom
in the basement, students can watch and listen to consultations as they
happen. Students will take it in turns to gain experience of a consultation,
under the
supervision of a pharmacist, while their colleagues watch on the screen
downstairs.
Tim O’Donoghue, co-owner of Green Light Pharmacy, commented: “The
idea came from the disparity we noticed between pharmacy and medical
training.” Medical students gain experience on hospital wards long
before they qualify. “But some pharmacists admit that the first
time they go into a community pharmacy is after they graduate.”
Sandy Florence, dean of the School of Pharmacy, said: “While student
experience of secondary care has been firmly established through our
extensive programme of hospital clinical visits, this is the first time
that we have introduced experiential learning within the community care
setting.”
Professor Florence added that interaction between students and patients
is something that education providers find hard to replicate in university
buildings. “I hope that this is a model for other pharmacies to
allow students to have this first-hand experience of real life,” he
said.
Initially, first and fourth year students will attend the teaching pharmacy.
The first group had their initial session on 1 December. After each consultation,
the class discusses what happened and what could have been done to improve
the consultation. Specific clinical topics will be addressed, as well
as issues such as dealing with aggressive patients and how to cope in
a busy, stressful environment. All patients involved in the teaching
sessions will be asked for their consent before the video link is activated.
Funding for the venture was joint: Green Light paid for the teaching
facility and the School of Pharmacy provided the audio-visual equipment.
The university will also fund the pharmacists’ time for the training
sessions. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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