Artwork that depicts microstructures of the human body has been
created and donated to the school by Sylvia Hikins, a member of the
Society’s Council |
By the time the first pharmacy students graduate from the University
of Central Lancashire in 2011, head of school Tony D’Emanuele envisages
that they will already have the skills required to be independent prescribers.
“I suspect that by the time we get to our fourth year [prescribing]
will already be part of the indicative syllabus, which is currently being
reviewed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society,” he says.
“We
need to make sure that the indicative syllabus prepares pharmacists for
the Government’s agenda of where pharmacy is going,” he adds.
Professor D’Emanuele explains that as pharmacists’ roles
continue to change, pharmacy practice will become an increasingly important
component of the MPharm course.
The course at UCLan contains a high proportion of pharmacy practice. “I
still believe it is important to have the core science behind a pharmacist
but there will not be space to teach science to the extent it has been
taught historically,” says Professor D’Emanuele.
The school of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at UCLan was established
in response to recruitment and retention problems in Lancashire and Cumbria.
Because of this it is well supported by stakeholders in the region, including
six hospital trusts and more than 50 community pharmacies.
“What
we are trying to do is make this a focal point for pharmacy education
in Lancashire and Cumbria. It is not only the MPharm we are developing.
What we want to do is develop a portfolio of courses which pharmacists
can use at different stages of their careers,” Professor D’Emanuele
explains. The first postgraduate course that the school plans to introduce
will be an advanced MSc in pharmacy practice, in 2009–10.
The school received its first intake of MPharm students in September
2007 and demand for the course was high, with around 360 students applying
for 60 places. Most of the students (82 per cent) are from the north-west
region. The school plans to increase student numbers to a steady state
of 90 per year over the next two years.
Professor D’Emanuele explains that the school exposes students
to the profession of pharmacy from day 1 so that they can see the relevance
of the material they are studying and to inculcate a sense of professionalism
from an early stage.
“We have an extensive programme of placements, including one-day
hospital and community pharmacy visits in semesters 1 and 2 of the first
year,
followed by longer placements of three to five days over the subsequent
three years,” he says.
He explains that the placements are structured and assessed, and that
professional issues, such as clothing, punctuality, attitude and behaviour,
are evaluated as well as clinical learning outcomes.
“Personally, I hope that, in the future, student registration will
be compulsory so that they can be held accountable for fitness to practise
issues that may arise,” said Professor D’Emanuele. “I
would like to see the Society taking more responsibility for that area
and providing more guidance,” he adds.
Professor D’Emanuele admits that one of his biggest concerns when
he took on his current role was attracting staff. But this fear turned
out to be unfounded, with 19 academics applying for a post in pharmaceutics,
which was advertised last year.
“The university has invested heavily
in the facilities within the school and there are opportunities to develop
research here,” he explains.
But Professor D’Emanuele agrees that there is a shortage
of students who aspire to go into academia (PJ, 2 February
2008, p110). He puts this partly down to the growing burden of student
debts: “The
problem with academic pharmacy is that students do not think of doing
a PhD anymore
because when they leave university many will have debts in excess of £20,000.”
Are
they going to embark on a PhD or will they take jobs in the community
where they can earn £35,000 from day 1, he asks. He believes that
this is a problem that needs to be addressed.
The fourth year of the MPharm at UCLan focuses on preparing students
for practice and is designed to ensure genuine master’s level achievement. “We
have moved the project to the third year so that we can concentrate on
master’s level science and practice in the final year,” explains
Professor D’Emanuele.
Science and practice are integrated throughout the course and are grouped
into three main themes: actions and uses of drugs and medicines; chemical
and physical aspects of pharmacy; and pharmacy profession and practice.
Examples
of fourth-year modules include, drug development (from discovery to marketing),
cancer management and therapy, clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical
care, and current topics in pharmacy. The “current topics” module
aims to develop students’ understanding of the role of the pharmacist
within the profession, within the healthcare system and within society.
Gordon Becket, professor of pharmacy practice, explains that the school
has plans to include interprofessional learning not only with student
nurses but with student pharmacy technicians, an area which, he says,
has been largely neglected.
“We are planning a pilot next year with second-year pharmacy students
and trained pharmacy technicians, who have volunteered to come here and
take part in problem-based checking exercises,” he explains. “Ultimately,
we would like to work together with Preston College, which is a hub for
training pharmacy technicians in the north-west, to arrange joint teaching
with the students there,” he adds.
On the question of whether too many pharmacy graduates are being churned
out, with nine new schools approved in the past five years, and old schools
taking on ever increasing numbers of students, Professor D’Emanuele
admits that the schools must be careful not to saturate the market.
Unlike the medical profession, the number of schools and students is
not controlled, he explains. However, he says that there is no evidence
yet that supply is outweighing demand and that, if anything, more community
pharmacists will be needed in the future to provide advanced and enhanced
services while maintaining a dispensing service. He concedes, however,
that this may change with the introduction of the proposed responsible
pharmacist and supervision regulations.
The course is designed to be futureproof and to prepare students for
the new era in pharmacy, says Professor D’Emanuele. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal