PM3C-Delivering Pharmacy Services 2

Module Provider: Pharmacy
Number of credits: 40 [20 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring / Summer module
Pre-requisites: PM1A Fundamentals of Physiology and PM1B Medicines Discovery, Design, Development and Delivery and PM1C Introduction to Professionalism and Practice and PM2A2 Therapeutics and medicines optimisation A2: Molecules and Medicines and PM2B Therapeutics and Medicines Optimisation B: A Journey Through the GI Tract and PM2C2 Therapeutics and medicines optimisation C2: Therapeutics and Patient care and PM2D Delivering Pharmacy Services
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites: PM3A Therapeutics and Medicines Optimisation D and PM3B Therapeutics and Medicines Optimisation E
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Mr Rav Savania
Email: r.savania@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module focuses on the clinical and professional skills required by a pharmacist to be able to deliver pharmacy services safely and effectively to benefit patients. It uses therapeutic examples that link to the other Part 3 modules to provide a patient-centred context for learning. In this module, practice concepts are developed beyond the level provided in Part 2, with themes including pharmacy law, regulation and ethics, clinical governance (including audit) and medicines safety, pharmacy services (including the processes involved in setting up formularies and delivering medicines to the patient) and interprofessional working. The module also considers the psychological and behavioural aspects of health and medicines use, again using examples associated with therapeutic systems encountered thus far in the programme. Professional skills are developed towards OSCE and prescription processing assessments. Students will complete a one-week placement in either community or hospital pharmacy as part of this module, during which they will be required to apply their knowledge and skills to patient care. They will also develop their consultation skills through patient interaction in supervised sessions at Royal Berkshire Hospitals Foundation Trust. The students will also apply and integrate their law, ethics and clinical knowledge to debate pharmacy-relevant cases. Reflective practice is an important aspect of this module, which includes assessment of the Personal & Academic Development Portfolio. As students start to focus on applications for pre-registration training, careers support is provided through this module in taught sessions provided by the University’s Careers, Placement and Experience Centre.

Aims:
This module aims to further students' previous learning and apply it to a range of scenarios, drawing upon their knowledge and skills to develop their ability to provide core pharmacy services in a safe and effective manner.

Assessable learning outcomes:

Students will be able to:

• Discuss laws relevant to pharmacy and medicines, and work in accordance with these when delivering pharmacy services, including assessing and dispensing prescriptions for medicines for human and veterinary use


• Discuss legal and professional requirements in relation to provision of pharmacy services remotely (e.g. through distance selling pharmacies)


• Act appropriately in situations involving professional and ethical dilemmas in accordance with the Standards for Pharmacy Professionals


• Identify professional and ethical dilemmas, including those that may be encountered in the delivery and management of pharmacy services (e.g. colleagues’ or personal health needs affecting performance, organisational targets vs needs of the patient, sales, marketing and advertising)


• Discuss possible actions that could be taken in response to an ethical dilemma, and how these relate to the various ethical schools of thought, the law and the Standards for Pharmacy Professionals


• Select a course of action and explain the rationale for this choice


• Discuss how relationships with others (staff, other healthcare professionals, patients and the public) should be maintained, including aspects relevant to equality and diversity, vulnerable people, maintaining patient dignity and maintaining appropriate boundaries.


• Describe the action that should be taken should inappropriate behaviour be observed in other healthcare professionals


• Discuss NHS and health policies affecting pharmacy and pharmacy services and how they impact on patient outcomes


• Discuss pharmacoeconomics in promoting the effective use of resources, including the use of formularies, prescribing guidelines and PACT data.


• Outline how the procurement of medicines may be managed to optimise use of resources


• Discuss the principles of clinical governance and quality assurance, and how these can be applied in the provision of pharmacy services


• Discuss how risks can be minimised through the appropriate design, management and maintenance of resources, systems and processes used in the delivery of pharmacy services


• Discuss the principles of audit in promoting safe and effective pharmacy services to improve outcomes


• Discuss the action that shouldbe taken should a medication error occur


• Discuss how patient complaints should be handled in accordance with NHS and professional requirements


• Discuss how additional professional guidances (moral beliefs, professional boundaries..) impact upon pharmacy practice through lectures and problem-based learning


• Discuss the role of pharmacovigilance in promoting patient safety


• Discuss the evidence behind the use of herbal and complimentarymedicines


• Conduct effective consultations in a range of situations, including advising patients on the use of their medicines, responding to minor ailments and obtaining a medication history:


• Discuss how consultations with patients and healthcare professionals should be conducted


• Discuss factors (including social and behavioural factors) that may impact upon the consultation


• Communicate with patients in an effective and professional manner


• Agree an agenda and obtain relevant information through effective questioning


• Apply scientific knowledge (e.g. pharmacology and drug interactions) in the identification and communication of appropriate solutions/options, supporting decision-making and responding to further questions/concerns


• Conclude the consultation and provide supplementary information where required, making appropriate records where necessary.


• Reconcile a patient’s medicines following transfer from one care setting to another:


• Collate relevant information from a range of sources, including patient consultation


• Perform a drug calculation and document an accurate entry into patients notes


• Compile and document a complete and accurate drug history


• Work under time pressures and time constraints


• Demonstrate effective use of time management in summative assessment


• Compare the information obtained with the current prescription


• Identify problems and effectively communicate appropriate solutions to these


• Using suitable reference sources, assess human and veterinary prescriptions for clarity, legal validity and clinical appropriateness for individual patients (including prescriptions that may be encountered in the community pharmacy sector


• Perform pharmaceutical calculations where appropriate


• Identify drug interactions, including those affecting alternative and supplementary medicines, using science as the basis for recommendations for management, including relevant counselling points and advice


• Suggest appropriate actions to address any issues identified or adjustments to therapy required to ensure patient safety and maximise health outcomes


• Discuss the optimisation of medicines for individual patients, including aspects relating to the useof medicines in children and the elderly


• Discuss how patients may be supported in their self-care, including facilitating their access to, and understanding of, health-related information. Discuss how the media may impact upon patients health-beliefs


• Discuss the role of pharmacist prescribing in medicines optimisation and explain its legal and professional regulation


• Safely and legally dispense and supply medicines for human and veterinary use, making appropriate records:


• Prescribed medicines


• Emergency supplies made at the request of a prescriber or patient


• Assess dispensed items for accuracy in accordance with a prescriber’s instructions, reporting any errors identified


• Assess Patients’ Own Drugs for appropriateness for use in a care setting


• Proactively maintain a Personal and Academic Development Portfolio:


• Reflect on learning experiences and own practice, identifying developmental needs


• Identify options for addressing learning/development needs and create a personal development plan to achieve these


• Reflect on feedback and other measures of performance, using this to inform the personal development plan


• Undertake an oral assessment of material in their portfolio from the perspective of self-development (CPD focussed), the background of science applicable to a patient case, and the use of a medication from a patient’s perspective


• Prepare a concise briefing document regarding a clinical trial:


• Examine chemical, pharmacological, formulation and therapeutic aspects of a drug that is currently under investigation in a clinical trial


• Place the investigation of the drug in context in these various aspects


• Conduct independent, critical research using the primary literature

Additional outcomes:

In addition to the assessed outcomes, this module develops students’ skills towards additional learning outcomes that are summatively assessed in other Part 3 modules or later in the programme. These are skills relating to time management and working under time pressures, health and safety, quality management of medicines and maintaining records and a comprehensive understanding of the role of other healthcare professionals in the multi-disciplinary teams’ care of patients. Through the preparation of the clinical trials briefing, students will have acquired and/or developed advanced information retrieval skills, including use and analysis of published information, and application of statistics to approach scientific writing with confidence. These skills will include the ability to discern and recognise reliable information, to compile information from multiple sources and to interpret and appraise this information to develop a critical awareness of the topic discussed. Students will gain experience of supporting the development of their peers through the provision of constructive feedback. Students will also develop their careers-management skills in preparation for making applications for pre-registration training.

Outline content:

Introduction to module: Put module in context with Part 3 teaching, and explain the key concepts covered in the module, and how material from previous and concomitant modules should be drawn upon in this module. Pharmacy law: Update in changes occurring over previous 12 months; revision of Medicines Act 1968, Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and Misuse of Drugs Act and Regulations, as relevant to Dispensing Simulation Workshops and Examination. Professionalism and Professional Skills: Communicating with other healthcare professionals (including assertiveness, negotiation and influencing others); decision making skills, judgement skills, applying advanced ethical decision making theories (including examples relating to management e.g. needs of the patient vs organisational target); equality and diversity, protecting vulnerable people, maintaining patient dignity and maintaining boundaries Pharmacy services: NHS/ Health policy affecting pharmacy; Sales – law and ethics relatingto marketing, advertising etc.; online pharmacy; responding to minor ailments (specific cases applicable to material covered in this module); role of GPhC inspectors Clinical Governance and Quality Assurance: Medicines safety – managing risk in the delivery of pharmacy services (including managing resources and workflow), root cause analysis, handling errors; Audit – process and application of results; Pharmacovigilance and Yellow Card reporting; Procurement, supply and distributionof medicines; Complaints procedures Assessing Drug Therapy and Medicines Optimisation: Medicines information enquires and use of specialist texts; Pharmacoeconomics – development of formularies, purpose of prescribing guidelines, PACT data analysis, measuring quality of life; Medicines reconciliation and use of Patients’ Own Drugs; Herbal and complementary medicines (evidence-base); Drug use in special patient groups (e.g. children and elderly); supporting patients’ health literacy (including media reporting of health and medicines and impact on patients); pharmacist prescribing; use of compliance aids; Business, management and leadership: Introduction to business and managerial aspects of pharmacy services. Workshops: Workshops will be used to support the application of knowledge gained through the lectures described above and those in PM3A and PM3B. For example, using the therapeutic themes from the other modules in Part 3 for simulated responding to symptoms and patient counselling exercises, putting the student in the role of the pharmacist (supports the development of students’ consultation and communications skills). Simulated dispensing workshops (involving a range of prescriptions for human and veterinary medicines) will develop their skills in assessing prescriptions and safely supplying medicines, while a case-based ethical workshop, will draw upon decision making and judgement skills in the application of ethical theories to scenarios. Within this module, students will also undertake work-place based learning at a local hospital, applying the skills learnt within the classroom to the patient environment

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Teaching and learning methods are through lectures, tutorials and workshops, work-based learning and guided independent study. There are additional small-group seminar style sessions linked to supporting students with their personal and academic development (PAD) portfolio with independent study time allocated to this activity. Tutorial/feedback sessions are also timetabled over two terms to support students in their preparation for assessments and to facilitate reflection in preparation for their placement.

Attendance to all teaching sessions is required and poor attendance will be recorded in the student’s personal file. Students failing to complete and engage in pharmacy visits, placements and interprofessional education sessions will not be permitted to complete the programme.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Lectures	28	26
Seminars	4
Tutorials	8
Practicals classes and workshops	24	24
Work-based learning	4	8	35
Guided independent study:
Wider reading (independent)	38	22	33
Exam revision/preparation	40	60
Other		26
Dissertation writing	20
Total hours by term	166	166	68
Total hours for module	400

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written assignment including essay	10
Portfolio	40
Oral assessment and presentation	30
Practical skills assessment	20

Summative assessment- Examinations:
There will be no end of year written examination paper.

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Number and length of assignments and in-class tests, and if available, the submission date for each assignment (expressed as a week of a specific Term):

• Prescription Assessment and Medication Supply (PAMS) exam – 2 hours


• Critical review dissertation coursework


• Personal and Academic Development Portfolio Folder coursework submission


• Personal and Academic Development Portfolio Viva exam


• Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) exam – 1 hour

Formative assessment methods:

Students are provided individualised formative feedback on numerous in-class assessments. These include the objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) mock, the personal and academic development (PAD) portfolio mock viva, prescription assessment and medication supply (PAMS) mock as well as the Medicines Use Review (MUR) and New Medicines Service (NMS) consultation workshops. 

Penalties for late submission:

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

Students must obtain an overall module mark of 40%. In addition, students must achieve 50% and demonstrate competency in the PAMS assessment in order to pass the module.

Reassessment arrangements:
Re-examination of each of the individual assessment areas will be in August/September and will be in the same style as original assessment areas. Students not passing the PAMS competency re-assessment will not be permitted to progress to Part 4 of the MPharm programme.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):
1) Required text books:
2) Specialist equipment or materials:
3) Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear:
4) Printing and binding:
5) Computers and devices with a particular specification:
6) Travel, accommodation and subsistence:

Last updated: 30 March 2023