PM3PY1-Professional Practice 3

Module Provider: Pharmacy
Number of credits: 40 [20 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring / Summer module
Pre-requisites: 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: PM3PY2 Clinical Therapeutics 3 and PM3PY3 Clinical Therapeutics 4
Modules excluded:
Placement opportunity: Micro placement
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. Students will learn to apply the principles of therapeutics and pharmacology from other Part 3 modules to develop their clinical reasoning to make safe and logical decisions in medicines optimisation. 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 in relation to prescribing and auditing prescribing practice) 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, including health inequalities, again using examples associated with therapeutic systems encountered thus far in the programme. Professional skills are developed towards OSCE assessments. Students will complete a placement in either GP or hospital or community pharmacy as part of this module, during which they will be required to apply their knowledge and skills to patient care including accurate record keeping. 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 Foundation 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 whilst ensuring shared decisions with patients.

Assessable learning outcomes:

At the end of the module the student will be expected to:

1. Apply relevant ethical decision making to scenarios including prescribing, poor health affecting performance, inappropriate behaviour by other healthcare professionals and management of risk.


2. Explain the laws relevant to pharmacy services and medicines, and work in accordance with these when delivering pharmacy services, including prescribing, assessing and checking prescriptions for medicines for humans.


3. Describe the principles of clinical governance and quality assurance in pharmacy services and how NHS policies and pharmacoeconomics can impact on the quality of care and the cost-effective use of medicines.


4. Outline the processes for ensuring patient safety including prioritisation of tasks, the handling of patient complaints, medication errors, adverse drug reactions, appropriate safety netting and accurate record keeping.


5. Demonstrate effective consultation and diagnostic skills in a range of situations whilst applying the principles of clinical therapeutics, pharmacology and genomics to make effective use of medicines for people including children and the elderly.


6. Interpret, critically evaluate and use national guidelines and clinical evidence to support safe prescribing and recognise and use reliable sources for information retrieval.

Additional outcomes:

Students should be able to:

• proactively maintain a Personal and Academic Development Portfolio (PADP) showing an ability to reflect on experiences, own practice and development needs.


• demonstrate additional insight into experiences obtained in Professionals Skills 1 and 2.


• describe principles and processes within Performance and Human Resource Management and the concept of culture.


• reflect upon, identify and proactively address their learning needs.

Outline content:

This module continues to develop the students in their prescription assessment, patient assessment, diagnosis, clinical decision making and prescribing skills whilst considering quality, safety and risk.  Communication skills will be developed including assertiveness, negotiation and influencing others whilst working in a multi-disciplinary team, and considering equality and diversity, protecting vulnerable people, maintaining patient dignity and maintaining boundaries.  Students will also gain a further understanding of pharmacy services including online services and remote prescribing, NHS/health policy affecting pharmacy and new technologies to improve clinical outcomes and patient safety.

Placement visit: Students put the skills gained from Part 1, Part 2 and other Part 3 modules into practice through two blocks of placement experience in hospital, GP surgery or community pharmacy.

Global context:

This module will develop core knowledge and show how this knowledge is relevant to the role of a pharmacist. The student will need to develop independent learning skills within this module to progress into Part 4 but should then be suitably equipped to tackle the rigour of an MPharm degree. The topics covered here will link into all modules of Parts 2, 3 and 4.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

The course content will be delivered through a range of teaching methods including lectures, directed private study, self-directed learning, placements and workshops. Students will be signposted to additional resources to supplement the lecture material. 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 placements and interprofessional education sessions will not be permitt ed to complete the programme. Appropriate supplementary information and reading lists will be provided.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Lectures	20	30	2
Practicals classes and workshops	20	30
Work-based learning	75	75
Guided independent study:
Wider reading (independent)	20	20
Wider reading (directed)	20	20
Advance preparation for classes	5	10
Completion of formative assessment tasks	5	5
Revision and preparation	14	14	2
Reflection	5	5	3
Total hours by term	184	209	7
Total hours for module	400

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written exam	100

Summative assessment- Examinations:

In the summer exam period:

1. Written examination (law and ethics) (50% of module) - 2 hrs


2. Written examination (50% of module) - 2 hrs

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

1. Personal and Academic Development Portfolio (PADP) folder submission – Pass/Fail (no module weighting)


2. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) exam – Pass/Fail (no module weighting) 

Formative assessment methods:

Formative assessment will be undertaken during workshops and on placement and will reinforce several of the learning outcomes of the module. These will be staff, workplace supervisor or peer assessed and will be related to communication, physical assessment and consultation skills. The workplace-based assessments undertaken whilst on placement will provide students with feedback on their achievement of the learning outcomes and there will be a requirement to submit them in their portfolio. It will also help to prepare them for the summative assessments in other modules.

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:

All summative assessments must be passed at 40% (or a pass for ‘pass/fail’ assessments).

Reassessment arrangements:

Re-examination (written papers) in August.  Failed coursework and OSCE assessments will be reassessed during the August examination period.  Students failing the PADP due to non-attendance on placements or not achieving portfolio requirements will be required to resubmit in August having successfully attended additional learning in the summer with completion of the workplace-based assessments.

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:  Travel, and in some cases, accommodation costs will be incurred

Last updated: 4 September 2023